Latest opening: Daroco Soho
What: Parisian chic meets sunny Italian generosity is how this French-Italian restaurant, located on Manette Street in Soho, is described. The new venue, one of three in the group, comprises a 120-cover dining room and 50-cover downstairs cocktail bar Wacky Wombat. Outside is a 60-seat terrace will open at a later date when the weather picks up.
Who: Founders, Alexandre Giesbert, Julien Ross, and Nico de Soto opened their first restaurant in Paris in 2016 in the city’s’ 2nd arrondissement. The trio are joined by executive chef Daniele De Luca while downstairs the bar is overseen by bartender Nico de Soto.
The food: Daroco plays Italian food with a reassuringly straight bat with a tight range of aperitivi - tomato and olives focaccia, arancini, and 24 months aged parma ham an pickle seasonal vegetables - and a similarly concise antipasti selection hat includes burrata, vitello tonnato, sardines with sour white onion and pine kernels, and seared squid with olives and taralli. There follows a range of pizzas, standouts being the Fiamma made with fior di latte, spicy salami, ‘nduja, stracciatella, red onions, and chilli oil, and the Mortadelight that features the Italian sausage along with stracciatella, pistachio cream, and crushed pistachio. Pasta dishes include raviolio filled with braised pheasant and spaghetti with salted cod while under the secondi section you’ll find pork neck rolled with herbs, and a dish of monkfish, fish broth, mussels, clams, braised fennel and herb croutons. A number of dishes have been created specifically for the Soho restaurant, including lobster and stracciatella paccheri, and veal cheeks prepared osso buco style.
The vibe: Architect Olivier Delannoy has drawn inspiration from the historical Renaissance movement with a flourish of vibrant colours and textiles such as marble tabletops, a striking reflective white and black mosaic tiled floor, burnished brass fixtures, curving blue velvet banquettes and quirky yellow velvet seats. The large room also has a central element of the Paris interior in a grand mirrored ceiling.
And another thing: The original Daroco opened at a site that was the former workshop of Jean-Paul Gaultier’s fashion house.
Manette Street, London, W1D 4AL
https://www.daroco.com/restaurant/daroco-soho
