The main dining room at Daroco with its fancy mirrored ceiling. They also have some terrace space for warmer months.
What can you tell us about Daroco?
In a case of "it's similar but different" this is an Italian restaurant that proved very popular in Paris that has now made its way to London, opening a space with a very striking design. That may sound familiar, but it's there that the similarities to Big Mamma end. While still very fancy and in a relatively new part of Soho, the menu itself is more classic in approach, albeit one targeted at the Soho crowd.
Where is it?
It's in that newly restructured part of Soho that's come about with the Elizabeth Line works, centred around Illona Rose House. It can be a little tricky to locate but if you're coming from Tottenham Court Road, walk down Manette Street and you'll see it on the left. If you're coming from Soho, either locate the Manette Street alleyway or head through the archway from Greek Street that takes you to new-ish restaurants like Milk Beach and you'll find it just past that.
Downstairs in the Wacky Wombat bar
Where should we go for a drink first?
While there is a Simmons bar almost opposite the restaurant, we think the upcoming (at the time of writing) Three Sheets bar in Soho will be a great choice. But there's also a bar underneath Daroco that's really worth checking out. Called Wacky Wombat (the Wombat in question makes many appearances throughout the illustrated menu), it's producing some truly excellent cocktails in the basement. Even if you're not eating in Daroco, this should be well trying.
We were particularly impressed by the array of centrifuges and other chemistry equipment behind the scenes which they're using to turn out some incredibly impressive and complex cocktails.
Behind the scenes at Wacky Wombat with an array of gadgetry for the cocktails.
From the cocktail list, the Da'Negroni (£14) is an extremely good take on the negroni and also available in the restaurant upstairs. The addition of apricot, miso and tonka really cuts back the sharpness for an exceptionally good negroni.
Back to the restaurant - what kind of food can we expect?
The menu itself has a somewhat traditional format - split into aperitivi, pasta, pizza, secondi and the like. Within those sections, however, there's a sense of a menu that's managing to mix the more classic dishes, like a traditional Napoli pizza, with their own creations. With that in mind, here's a taste of what we had:
Arancini with braised leek, scamorza cheese, spicy peppers & Pecorino (£11) - a good example of Daroco doing its own thing with a platter of quite excellent arancini.
Roasted scallops with white wine and sun dried tomato butter & lardo di colonnata (£21) - from the antipasti section, which also has classics like vitello tonnato.
The Daroco parmigiana - Aubergine layered with smoked scamorza, buffalo mozzarella & parmesan in tomato sauce, with a rocket salad on the side (£16) - Parmigiana can sometimes be overwhelmed by cheese and sauce, but this relatively restrained version works very well.
The Fiamma - tomato sauce, fior di latte, spicy salami, ‘nduja, stracciatella, red onions chilli oil (£18) - the pizzas all come from a huge oven in the middle of the open kitchen based on this example, as good a Neapolitan pizza as you'll find elsewhere in Soho.
Paccheri with lobster bisque, lobster tail, stracciatella and tarragon (£45) - the more extravagant of the pasta dishes, which also features a very tempting ravioli filled with braised pheasant (£21)
Chocolate mousse, savoury crumble, olive oil (£8) - after a fair bit of heavy food - this was all we could manage, a simply done bowl of very good mousse.
Anything else to highlight?
Other than the above, there's plenty on the menu that sounds very promising, particularly given the quality of what we ordered. The Wacky Pumpkin pizza sounds promising (Pumpkin cream, Fior di Latte, spicy Gorgonzola, sauteed black cabbage, confit datterini, black cabbage chips, spicy dry ricotta, £18) as does a secondi dish of Beef cheeks braised in red wine, polenta tarragna, gremolata (£29). The kitchen's turning out some great work here and we'd agree with Grace Dent's recent review in that it's all much better than you might expect.
What about wine?
Wines are predominantly Italian, and are at the high-ish end for Soho with the majority of those at £50 and up, but with the entry-level wine starting at £38 for a Verdicchio.
Overall thoughts
Opening in Soho in the run-up to Christmas, Daroco slightly flew under our radar a little in 2023 and we weren't quite sure what to expect from this Parisian import. Visiting in 2024 reveals it to be a great mid-range Italian restaurant and continues the strong run of openings in this new Soho enclave. Backing up the good cooking are truly exceptional cocktails from a bar that is significantly more inventive than a first glance might suggest.
The other French-Italian brand in town may get a lot of the press, but this newcomer is well worth your attention too.
More about Daroco
Where is it? Manette St, London W1D 4AL
How to book: Book online
Find out more: Follow them on Instagram @daroco_group.
Hot Dinners dined as guests of Daroco. Prices correct at time of publication.
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