Quo Vadis.

Quo Vadis

Jeremy Lee has had the same smoked eel sandwich on the menu at Quo Vadis since his first service in 2012, on Poilane sourdough cut thin, buttered and fried.

Why go

Go for the sandwich and stay for the pie. Quo Vadis opened as an Italian restaurant on Dean Street in 1926 and turned a hundred in 2026. Jeremy Lee has cooked it since January 2012 for Sam and Eddie Hart, who also own Barrafina. He told Angela Hartnett over lunch in March 2026 what he is doing with a British menu in an Italian room: the menu was British produce used in a way that would be woven into Italian tradition. And so it has a deep, rich European traditional regional cooking with a very British flavor. (Condé Nast Traveler)

The eel goes in with fresh horseradish cream and a little Dijon. Pickled red onion ribbons come on the side (The London Economic). Lee invented it at the Blueprint Café in the 1990s, hungover, from what was lying about: I put some sourdough on the grill and thought oh, smoked eel adores horseradish, so I grabbed some of that, and then some mustard. I tasted it and thought, 'God, that's good!'. (Palate) If eel puts you off, smoked is the easier way in, filleted so there are no bones to spit out (The London Economic).

The room changed shape twice. Barrafina moved in next door in 2016 and took half the ground floor. The Harts took that half back in a refit that reopened in February 2023 (Resy). The dining room came back roughly twice the size, with the old brown leather banquettes brightened to ruby red and the stained glass windows still in place (SquareMeal). John Broadley draws the menu. Lee changes it once a month because the room is too big to write a new one every day (Palate). A private members' club runs on the floors above, with its own bars and private rooms. You do not need it to eat downstairs.

Nobody agrees about what it costs. Harden's diners say that "for somewhere this clubby-feeling in the centre of town, it doesn't break the bank". The Infatuation, in the same season, calls it "a triple-digit, show-off meal". The sharpest thing anybody says against the place is mild. Harden's 2026 edition puts it this way: "The worst anyone says? 'It all seemed a bit safe'."

Order this / avoid

• Order: the smoked eel sandwich. Emily Bryce-Perkins of Monocle, November 2025: Tangy pink onions. The sharp slap of horseradish. And a buttery crunch, the kind that only exists when bread has been toasted in fat by a chef.2 Then the pie of the day. Harden's reporters call it unmissable in the 2026 edition, with wonderfully thin, crisp, buttery pastry.6 The celeriac remoulade if it is on: Lee dresses it in buttermilk, olive oil and mustard. Angela Hartnett tasted that on camera in March 2026 and said that has been a revelation to me, the buttermilk. Save room for pudding. Through 2026, the centenary year, each menu carries a centenary dish. The centenary pudding is the Monte Vesuvio, a meringue with blood oranges and pistachios from Etna, Yorkshire rhubarb and Sicilian kumquats (Condé Nast Traveler).
• Avoid: booking it around something else. Jon Hatchman put it plainly after a 2019 lunch: "it's easy to lose three hours to a decadent lunch, one too many glasses of wine."
• Drink: a martini with the sandwich. That is how Bryce-Perkins takes it. The house also makes a famous negroni (SquareMeal). Arrive early for the aperitivo list.

What locals & experts say

• Angela Hartnett, chef-patron of Murano, March 2026, eating lunch here on camera: I'm here in Soho in Dean Street at Quo Vadis, one of my all-time favorite chefs ever, Jeremy Lee, cooks here. On British puddings: We've been criticized, British food, for a long time. And, you know, in certain senses, rightly so. But I think one thing we've always done brilliantly is puddings.1
• Jackson Boxer, chef-patron of Brunswick House and Orasay, 2021: Jeremy Lee's cooking is so supremely confident, assured, generous and delicious, overwhelming without ever being too much, and so gloriously full of soul, wit and charm that every visit works to restore me physically, emotionally and spiritually.7
• Emily Bryce-Perkins, Monocle, November 2025, arguing that the kitchen should leave the sandwich alone: The smoked-eel sandwich hasn't changed much since the 1990s and nor should it. Its power lies in its delicious consistency: the joy of knowing exactly what's coming and being transported back to that first bite.2
• Heidi Lauth Beasley, The Infatuation, January 2025, who scored it 8.7: anyone who's spent a long, lingering night on its crimson banquette knows exactly what Quo Vadis is - a modern Great British classic that will serve you a golden good time on a plate. On the drawings: This is a restaurant with - yes, white tablecloths - but also a sense of humour.3
• Jon Hatchman, The London Economic, September 2019, biting into the sandwich: The oily, deeply umami eel is met with the nose-running piquancy of the horseradish then the sweetness of the onions alongside the fattiness of the butter that cloaks the crucially thin bread.4
• Harden's 2026 edition, summing up its diners: A Soho Classic. Jeremy Lee's cooking is worth crossing town for, in an up-market, white-tablecloth English landmark that its reporters keep booking for a romantic occasion.6

Good to know

• Where: 26-29 Dean Street, Soho W1D 3LL. Tottenham Court Road is the nearest station. Karl Marx lived in the building and there is a blue plaque on it.
• Booking: strongly recommended, online through SevenRooms or by phone on 020 7437 9585 (The Infatuation).
• The menu: the two things always on it are the smoked eel sandwich and a pie of the day (SquareMeal).

Verdict

should-visit — Order the smoked eel sandwich, then the pie of the day, and give the afternoon to it. Jeremy Lee put that sandwich on the menu at his first service in 2012 and has never taken it off, on Poilane sourdough cut thin, buttered and fried, and a Monocle writer says it goes best with a martini. The rest is British produce cooked with an Italian hand in a Soho room that opened in 1926 and has the stained glass and the ruby banquettes to prove it. The grumble from Harden's diners is that it can seem safe, which is another way of saying you know what you are getting.