Name: Lorelei
Address: 21 Bateman Street, London, Soho, W1D 3AL, UK
Telephone: +44 (0) 20 7734 0954

In the heart of a Soho that’s rapidly adding more and more Ping Pongs and Starbucks to its streets this is one of the area’s true blue originals. If you read this then be careful to think twice about the type you tell about Lorelei, which somehow manages to remain one of Soho’s best-kept secrets.

Dressed in the red, white and green of Italia, the immediacy of its look is in the colour and once you’re on the inside the sights keep coming. There’s the weathered mural of Lorelei herself, the mythical femme fatale who lured men with her scaly charms and around her is a scene that says little more than family kitchen- bags of flour piled against the walls, simple Formica tables and a shoddy looking bar in the corner.

This couldn’t be further from the shiny surfaces of Pizza Express and if that’s your kind of place then you might be put off by the awkwardness here but if you like the thought of a place that sends you into the yard out back for the toilets then embrace this oddity.

A menu stuck in the past, and without the irony, it resists change because once in a while you want that prawn cocktail starter that comes with white bread sliced into mini triangles (with perfect Marie-Rose sauce). Most of the starters follow this line but moving onto the mains it’s Italian all the way. There are good sauces with the pastas and a few steak dishes but the pizza’s the thing to have. The bases come out crispy and the rich tomato sauce is always excellent and the range of flavours has remained the same for years. This isn’t fine-dining in terms of the cuisine but the history here says there’s no need to change a good thing and with a bring your own booze policy there’s change to be had from twenty pounds for two of you.

Lorelei

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