Prix Fixe Brasserie Soho Review: The Pre Theatre French Dinner That Keeps Pulling Me Back

Self funded. I paid for this meal in full, as I did the first time I came here. Nobody at Prix Fixe knows I write about restaurants, and the glass of champagne you will read about later was a spontaneous gesture from a waiter who thought I was simply a happy repeat customer. Which, to be fair, I was.

There is a particular kind of pressure that comes with recommending a restaurant to friends. Not a place you have read about, or seen on someone else's feed, but somewhere you have actually eaten, loved, and then spent months telling people about. When the night finally comes, and three people you adore are sitting across from you with menus in hand, you realise you have staked something on this. If the bread is stale or the service is flat, that is on you.

So this is a review of Prix Fixe Brasserie on Dean Street, but it is also a story about whether a restaurant can live up to the version of it I had been carrying around in my head. Spoiler: it did, and then some.

Credit where it is due. Prix Fixe was recommended to me by Tracy Barr, who knows Soho far better than I do and who mentioned it in the casual way people mention places they actually rate rather than places they think you should be impressed by. I went, I loved it, and the restaurant has sat at the top of my "French, Soho, not silly money" list ever since.

This time, the occasion was a weekend in London with friends visiting from out of town. We were staying at Sea Containers on the South Bank and had planned what can only be described as a very foodie couple of days. All four of us are into good food, good places and good experiences, and the itinerary reflected that: Prix Fixe on the first night before a show at Ronnie Scott's, and Lucky Cat at 22 Bishopsgate on the second.

The brief for the first night was specific. Somewhere close enough to Ronnie Scott's that we would not be sprinting up Frith Street, somewhere that would not break the bank before what I knew would be an expensive second night, and somewhere that would still deliver food worth talking about. I remembered what Tracy had said, I remembered my own first visit, and that was that. Prix Fixe it was.

Ronnie Scott's wanted us seated for half past eight, so I booked Prix Fixe for half past six. Two hours felt generous for two courses, a bottle of wine and dessert, and Dean Street to Frith Street is a two minute walk even in heels. What I had not properly checked was when the pre theatre set menu stopped.

Prix Fixe runs its two course dinner set menu from 4pm until half past six for £21.90. I had it in my head that it ran later. It does not. We arrived at around twenty to seven, ten minutes past the cut off, and I only realised as we sat down. Ten minutes is not a couple of minutes. Ten minutes is late.

We asked anyway, because the worst they could say was no. Our waiter, Ozil, listened to our slightly sheepish explanation and said that if we ordered straight away, he would honour the set menu at the set price. No fuss, no sigh, no making us feel like we had asked for a favour. That is the moment this review really starts, because everything that followed was coloured by it.

It was a warm Friday evening in late August, the kind where all of Soho seems to spill onto the pavement, and Prix Fixe had its outside tables out with people already settled into them. The frontage is understated: dark painted woodwork, menus posted in the window, a narrow doorway that gives you a glimpse of the room beyond. It does not shout. You could walk past it, and I suspect a lot of people do, which is a shame for them and rather good for the rest of us.

Before anything else arrives, there is bread. Half a loaf of it, crusty and still warm, with a dish of salted butter. I do not know what they do to that bread, but it is the sort that makes you eat two slices before you have even looked at the menu properly and then quietly wonder whether you have ruined your appetite. You have not, but you will think about it.

Is it even a French restaurant if there is not bread, then more bread, then a little more bread to mop up the sauce? Prix Fixe understands this. More arrived later without us asking, which tells you everything about how the front of house reads a table.

Having been so generously let onto the set menu, we all felt the least we could do was order well. I went for the grilled mussels in garlic, parsley and Pernod butter, and Charlie went for the French onion soup.

The mussels are worth describing properly because they do not arrive the way you expect. There is no black cast iron pot piled with shells. Instead, they come shelled and tucked into a snail dish, that dimpled cast iron plate with a dozen little hollows, each one holding a plump mussel drowning in vivid green garlic and parsley butter. The Pernod is there in the background, a faint aniseed warmth that lifts the butter without taking over. It is one of the most charming plates of food I have eaten this year, and the bread situation described above becomes urgent, because that butter is not to be wasted.

Now, the soup. French onion soup is Charlie's favourite starter of all time, anywhere, full stop. So the pressure of getting that right was, if anything, higher than the pressure on me for recommending the restaurant. It arrived in a deep white bowl, dark and glossy, with a thick gruyère crouton sitting on top and a scattering of parsley. Charlie's verdict was "absolutely fantastic", which, for a man who has eaten a great many French onion soups, is high praise indeed.

Gemma's warm crispy duck salad also deserves a mention. Shredded confit duck, crisped at the edges, sat on a tangle of mixed leaves with carrot ribbons, spring onion, sesame seeds and an Asian dressing that cut through the richness. It is on the menu as a starter or a main, and looking at the size of it, I can see why.

When someone has just honoured a discounted menu for you, there is a certain etiquette to ordering. You do not then choose the cheapest thing on it. All four of us went for the Aberdeen Angus ribeye, which carries a £9 supplement on the set menu and comes with creamy mash, a green peppercorn cream sauce and roasted pimento.

A confession. I am not a great lover of peppercorn sauce and I nearly always ask for it on the side. I completely forgot to this time, and I am glad I did, because what arrived was not the heavy, cream laden peppercorn sauce I was braced for. It ate more like a jus: deep, glossy, reduced, full of the flavour of the pan and the wine. Whether that is how the kitchen intends it or simply how it came out that night, it was delicious, and I would not ask for it on the side again.

The steak itself was decent. I choose that word deliberately. It was well cooked, properly seasoned, with a good char, and for a ribeye on a set menu at that price it was more than I expected. It was not the best steak I have eaten in London, and it would be dishonest to pretend otherwise, but it was exactly the steak the evening called for. The mash was smooth and generous.

I added a side of sautéed French beans, which I always do when I know I am about to overindulge. A plate of greens beside a ribeye does not undo anything, but it makes me feel better, and they were properly cooked with a bit of bite rather than boiled into submission. All four of us agreed, without prompting, that the main course was excellent.

We shared a bottle of La Crochette Chardonnay from Mâcon Villages, the 2022 vintage. It is a sensible, crowd pleasing choice for a table where two people are eating mussels and soup and everyone is heading for steak: enough body to stand up to the butter, enough freshness to not feel heavy in the heat, and priced in a way that did not make me wince. Prix Fixe's wine list is not long, but it is chosen by someone who understands what people actually want to drink with this food.

At some point between mains and dessert, Gemma turned to Ozil and told him that the restaurant had been highly recommended, then pointed at me. I explained that it was not really my recommendation, that it had come from someone else, that I had come and loved it and was now bringing my friends. He listened, smiled, and said he would bring me a glass of champagne. Not prosecco. Not cava. Champagne.

I told him he really did not have to. My table told me to be quiet and drink the champagne. He came back with a proper glass of it, and I sat there slightly stunned by the thoughtfulness of it. Nobody was fishing for it. Nobody had mentioned a blog. It was simply a waiter with warmth and charisma who had decided that a returning guest bringing friends deserved a small celebration.

I write a lot about service, and I am always trying to pin down the difference between staff who are trained to be nice and staff who simply love making people happy. Ozil was the latter. He brought a bit of joy to every table in his section that night, not just ours, and the set menu gesture and the champagne were not one offs. They were just what he does.

We were, by this stage, completely full. We also had half an hour before we needed to walk up to Ronnie Scott's, and a half hour with no dessert in it felt like a wasted half hour. So we did what sensible people do when there is no room for pudding: we ordered affogato.

Kieran and I had ours with Baileys, Charlie had his with Amaretto and added his customary double espresso for good measure. The affogato arrived as a scoop of vanilla ice cream in a little bowl, a cup of hot espresso and a shot of the liqueur on the side, so you build it yourself. A bit of ice cream and coffee will always hit the spot when you have no room left, and it did.

Gemma broke ranks and went for the fruit crumble with vanilla ice cream, golden and buttery on top with a deep red jammy layer underneath. She had more room than the rest of us, and judging by the speed it disappeared, she chose well.

Prix Fixe Brasserie is at 39 Dean Street, London W1D 4PU, in the middle of Soho. Ronnie Scott's on Frith Street is a two minute walk. Tottenham Court Road and Leicester Square stations are both a few minutes on foot, and you are within easy reach of Shaftesbury Avenue, Chinatown and Covent Garden. For pre theatre dining it is about as well placed as it gets.

At the time of writing, the two course set lunch is £18.90 and runs from noon until 4pm. The two course pre theatre dinner is £21.90 and runs from 4pm until 6:30pm. Steak specials carry a supplement of £5 or £9 depending on the cut, and the halibut en papillote carries £5. Sides are £5.50. A discretionary 12.5% service charge is added. Check the website for current prices, as menus change with the seasons.

The set menu I ate from had a vegan starter (grilled oyster mushrooms with almond purée) and a vegan main (smoked aubergine with summer ratatouille), plus a vegetarian goat's cheese and beetroot salad. Gluten free options are available; ask the staff, as the menu notes that nuts are used in the kitchen.

You can book online through the website or by phone. That said, Prix Fixe is one of those places where you can walk in off the street and, if you are lucky, get a table. On a weekend evening in summer I would still book.

Lively without being loud. You can hold a conversation across the table, which matters when you are catching up with friends you do not see often. There is a good mix of couples, groups and solo diners at the bar. The staff do not seem to change much; the people who served me the first time were still there, and they seemed happy, which says a lot about how a restaurant is run.

Anyone with a show to get to. That is the obvious one, and the restaurant knows it. But I would send people here for other reasons too.

• Groups of friends who want proper food without a proper bill. Four of us ate two courses each with a steak supplement, a side, a bottle of wine, four affogatos and a coffee and it felt like remarkably good value for Soho.
• Couples who want a low key French dinner rather than a scene. The candlelit tables and the quiet corners suit a date night.
• Anyone who loves classic French cooking done properly: onion soup, mussels in butter, steak with a sauce, bread with everything.
• Visitors staying nearby who want somewhere to eat on a whim. The walk in policy is real.

If you want theatre with your dinner, the kind Carlotta in Marylebone does so well, this is not that. Prix Fixe is quieter and more classical. That is its charm.

The tables. I have said it once and I will not labour it. If you are four people with a bottle of wine, ask for one of the larger tables when you book. And double check the set menu times before you book, because you may not get a waiter as forgiving as ours.

I have now eaten at Prix Fixe twice and I would go back tomorrow. The food is honest, well cooked French brasserie fare at a price that feels like a secret in the West End. The bread alone is worth the walk. But what elevates it, what turns it from a good pre theatre option into somewhere I actively recommend, is the way it is run. A waiter who honours a menu you have technically missed, who brings a stranger a glass of champagne because her friend said something kind, who makes every table in his section feel looked after. That is not something you can put on a menu.

If you love French food and you find yourself in Soho, give Prix Fixe a go. Book the early slot, order the mussels, save room for the bread, and tell them Cheryl sent you. They will not know who that is, and that is exactly the point.

Yes. It is one of the best value pre theatre restaurants in Soho. The two course set dinner is £21.90 and runs from 4pm until 6:30pm, and the restaurant is a short walk from Ronnie Scott's, Shaftesbury Avenue and the Leicester Square theatres. Book the early slot and you will have plenty of time.

At the time of writing, the two course set lunch is £18.90 and the two course pre theatre dinner is £21.90. Steak specials carry a £5 or £9 supplement and sides are £5.50. A discretionary 12.5% service charge is added.

Prix Fixe Brasserie is at 39 Dean Street, London W1D 4PU. Ronnie Scott's on Frith Street is around two minutes on foot. Tottenham Court Road and Leicester Square stations are both within a few minutes' walk.

You can walk in and often get a table, but on a weekend evening or before a big show I would book, either online through the website or by phone.

The grilled mussels in garlic, parsley and Pernod butter, the French onion soup, and any of the steak specials. Leave room for the bread, and finish with an affogato if you are short on time and stomach space.

Yes. The set menu includes vegan starter and main options and a vegetarian salad, and gluten free dishes are available on request. Nuts are used in the kitchen, so speak to the staff about allergies.