About Quo Vadis
Quo Vadis occupies a grade II-listed Soho building on Dean Street that has housed a restaurant since 1926 — Karl Marx previously lived in the same building — and the current operation, run by the Hart brothers (Sam and Eddie Hart, also of Barrafina) under chef Jeremy Lee, opened in 2012 on the site's ground floor. A private members club runs on the floors above.
Lee's cooking is a chef's-chef menu: smoked eel sandwich, smoked haddock, suckling pig, a grilled fish programme, and a signature duck pie with cabbage that has been on the menu in one form or another since the restaurant reopened. The menu rewrites itself daily in response to produce but the core dishes remain fixed. Pricing is restrained for Soho — three courses average around £70.
The ground-floor dining room is one of the prettiest in the West End: arched windows, banquettes, a long central bar, and Lucian Freud drawings on the walls (Freud ate here regularly; his grandson Jake co-owns the members club upstairs). Service is one of the most genuinely friendly professional floors in Soho.
Best Occasion Fit
Quo Vadis closes deals that benefit from a more human-scale restaurant than the Mayfair standards. Lee's menu signals that you follow the chefs rather than the reservations lists; the Dean Street setting is walking distance from almost anywhere in the West End; and the private members club upstairs gives the evening somewhere to extend to if the relationship requires it.
Explore More in London
Discover more exceptional restaurants in London ranked by occasion — from first dates to deal-closing dinners and once-in-a-lifetime proposals. Browse our full occasion guide for every type of table.