Rita’s - Soho, London (Review)
Our Rating: ★★★ | ££££ (£52pp) - A sexy cosy fun little room in the heart of Soho, where the drinks are every bit as good as the food (How we rate restaurants)
Rita's was a spontaneous one for us. We had heard on the grapevine that it was a lovely little wine bar, the sort of place people in the know keep quietly recommending, so when a sunny summer's day rolled around last week, we decided to chance an impromptu lunch and see for ourselves. It turned out to be a very good decision.
We did a bit of reading afterwards, because it turns out Rita's has a long and colourful history in London. It was founded back in 2012 by Gabriel Pryce and Missy Flynn, starting life as a pop-up in Dalston when American-influenced cooking and frozen margaritas felt genuinely new to the city. From there it took over an old laundrette on Mare Street, ran raucous nights under a Cambridge Heath railway arch, spun off the much-loved Bodega Rita's sandwich shop over at Coal Drops Yard, and even did a turn at Frieze. After all that wandering, it has settled into a small spot in Soho.
These days Gabriel Pryce leads the kitchen as chef-owner and Missy Flynn runs the drinks, and her cocktails deserve a mention up top because they are a genuine reason to visit in their own right (more on that martini shortly). The cooking is billed as modern American dining meeting seasonal British and European produce, and there is real care in the sourcing. They work with meat and fish that has been raised and caught sustainably, lean on organic farms around London and the best European markets for their veg, and pour a short, thoughtful list of low-intervention wines. It is a fun, loose, party-leaning place that quietly takes its ingredients very seriously.
One thing worth knowing before you go. For the hottest stretch of the summer, Rita's turns off the grills and runs a special menu it calls Rita's Raw, a raw bar and cold kitchen concept built around lightly cooked and raw seasonal produce and premium seafood. We went in the middle of a heatwave in August and this was the menu we ate from. The offering shifts with the seasons, so do check what is on before you book.
What we ate
Our order from the summer Raw menu:
Mini Martini, served with a jalapeño popper gilda
Shrimp tostada on a white bean and miso base with a coconut and pumpkin seed chilli oil (so good we ordered a second one)
Grilled Cornish mackerel with salsa roja, pickled onions and lime
Fettuccine with datterini and ricotta salata
A side of French fries
The Gilda Martini - We had come on the strength of Rita's reputation as a wine bar, and we have zero regrets. The martini was crisp, cold and very fresh, exactly what you want to kick off a lazy lunch, and it comes with one of Rita's signature jalapeño popper gildas balanced on top. The gilda itself was brilliant: smooth and moreish, with the jalapeño giving it a proper crunch, a little heat to wake everything up, and an olive stuffed with blue cheese for a salty, savoury finish. It is a clever little one-biter and a lovely way to ease in. (More on the gilda, which has a great story, at the bottom.)
Shrimp tostada, white bean and miso base, coconut and pumpkin seed chilli oil - This tostada was excellent. The white bean and miso base is the clever bit: instead of the usual refried beans, you get a smooth, creamy, savoury paste with a real depth of umami to it, and it gives the whole thing a rich, almost luxurious foundation. On top, the coconut and pumpkin seed chilli oil brought texture, warmth and a little nuttiness, and the flavour combination was genuinely unlike anything we had eaten in a while. A really unique plate, and one we would happily order again.
Cornish mackerel with salsa roja, pickled onions and lime - The mackerel was a standout. Served whole (butterflied) and cooked beautifully, right through and with a lovely texture, none of that dry or overcooked business you sometimes get with mackerel. The salsa roja pooled underneath was the star supporting act, deep and rich and smooth, the kind of sauce you want to mop up every last bit of. The pickled onions cut through it all with a sharp, bright acidity that stopped the richness from ever tipping over. A properly well-balanced plate. (more on salsa roja below.)
Fettuccine with datterini and ricotta salata A simple dish done really well. The pasta was fresh and had a lovely bite; the datterini tomatoes cooked down into something intensely sweet and rich, and the ricotta salata, grated generously over the top, brought a sharp, salty hit that lifted the whole bowl. We added a side of fries too, because we always do, and they did not last long. (More on ricotta salata and datterini at the end.)
Overall thoughts
We had a lovely time at Rita's. The cooking is confident and full of flavour, the sourcing is clearly taken seriously, and there is a looseness and warmth to the place that makes it very easy to settle in for the afternoon. Missy's drinks are a real highlight, and the fact that the food more than keeps up with them tells you plenty.
If we are being honest, this is not a hushed, occasion-only sort of restaurant, and it is not trying to be. It is a fun, buzzy, slightly sexy little room where the point is to eat well, drink well and enjoy yourself. The plates are on the smaller side and Soho prices being what they are, the bill does add up once you have factored in a cocktail and service (ours came to a shade over £50 a head at lunch), so go in ready to order a good spread and lean into it. Do that and you will have a brilliant time.
The decor is gorgeous, the vibe is chilled and fun, and it is honestly close to a perfect spot for a nice day out or a relaxed date in central London. We will absolutely be back.
Details
Website: www.ritasdining.com
Instagram: @RitasDining
Email: hello@ritasdining.com
Phone: 07502 292453
Address: 49 Lexington Street, Soho, London W1F 9AP
Opening Hours: Dinner: Monday to Saturday, 17:30 to 00:00 (last kitchen orders 22:45) | Lunch: Tuesday to Saturday, 12:00 to 15:30 (last kitchen orders 14:45)
Booking: Reserve through the link on their website (bookings run through OpenTable). It is a small room in a busy part of town, so book ahead, especially for dinner at the weekend.
Seasonal menus: The menu is guided by the seasons and can change often, with daily specials on the chalkboard. In the peak of summer they run the Rita's Raw raw bar menu, so check before you travel if there is a particular dish you are after.
Good to know: A small cover charge (£1.50pp) applies, a 15% discretionary service charge is added to the bill, and they are a cashless, card-only business.
Every Tuesday to Saturday, they run a lunch set menu. 2 courses for £27 or 3 courses for £32
Map
49 Lexington Street, Soho, London W1F 9AP
Menu
The Nerdy Bits
If you have never met a gilda before, you are in for a treat, and it comes with one of our favourite bits of food trivia. The gilda is a pintxo (the Basque version of a tapa) that hails from San Sebastián, where it is said to have been created at a bar in the 1940s. It is a fixture of the city's pintxo bars, which we have written all about in our guide to the best pintxos in San Sebastián. In its classic form, it is a little skewer of anchovy, pickled guindilla pepper and olive, and legend has it that it was named after the 1946 Rita Hayworth film Gilda, because the snack was considered green, salty and just a little bit spicy, much like the film itself. A lovely coincidence, then, that it should turn up at a restaurant called Rita's. Their version swaps in a jalapeño popper for a bit more crunch and heat, but the spirit is the same: one sharp, salty, punchy mouthful designed to go hand in hand with a cold drink.
Next, ricotta salata, which does a lot of the heavy lifting on that fettuccine dish. Where fresh ricotta is soft, milky and mild, ricotta salata is the same cheese that has been salted, pressed and aged until it is firm enough to grate or shave. The result is dry, crumbly and properly savoury, with a salty tang somewhere in the neighbourhood of a mild feta but with its own distinct character. It is a Sicilian classic, most famously grated over pasta alla Norma, which happens to be one of our favourite things to cook at home on a weeknight, and it is exactly the sort of ingredient that turns a simple tomato pasta into something with real backbone.
And finally, the tomatoes. Datterini (sometimes datterino) are small, elongated cherry-type tomatoes whose name comes from the Italian for date, which is roughly the shape they take. They are prized for being intensely sweet with low acidity, which is why they cook down so beautifully into a rich, jammy sauce without needing much help. We are not the only ones who love them: Chef Moreno works datterini into his cooking over at Baccalà on Bermondsey Street, which we filmed for our YouTube channel.
While we are on the subject, the deep red salsa roja under the mackerel is a Mexican staple, a smooth, cooked sauce typically built from tomatoes and dried or roasted red chillies, gently blitzed down until it is rich and pourable. It is the kind of sauce that adds warmth and depth rather than raw heat, and it was a perfect match for the oily richness of the fish.
Gilda’s displayed in San Sebastian
