40 Dean Street Restaurant Review: Italian Classic in the heart of Soho, London

What’s everyone’s favourite cuisine? Italian of course! We all love it, we all crave it, there is so much choice for even the fussiest of eaters and value for money wise – you always leave feeling incredibly full without breaking the bank.

One place which has all of those things going for it is the much-loved 40 Dean Street in Soho which has been serving affordable Italian cuisine for more than 17 years. The restaurant is still family run and having walked past it for many years myself, it wasn’t until recently that I decided to pop and see what all of the fuss was about.

With a set menu (which is very well priced) that is built around fresh, seasonal produce and à la carte menu filled with all of the Italian classics we all love, we opted for the latter to choose from for our evening. Though not before tucking into a generously sized (and equally as boozy) Negroni and 40 Dean Street Old Fashioned – both of which were fab and inside the restaurant it was absolutely packed.

To start, we tucked into a plate of bresaola with wild rocket, shaved parmesan and truffle oil which was very tasty and very fresh. Better still was the pan-fried tiger prawns with a shellfish and brandy sauce. The prawns were huge, perfectly cooked and the sauce smothering them was rich, glossy and had lovely depth of flavour to it. If you order this dish, save room for lots of bread because you’ll be wanting it to mop up all of those juices.

For main courses, I ordered the ricotta ravioli with truffle. It was a little dark inside the restaurant (the cosy kind of dark) so do excuse my photos, but this dish was easily my favourite from the entire meal. The pasta was perfectly cooked, the buttery, truffle scented sauce was decadent and the ricotta filling in the pasta was generous and creamy. If you come here, order this.

Just as good was the chicken Milanese with spaghetti pomodoro. The crumb on the chicken was nice and golden, the meat moist and the sauce on the spaghetti was full of flavour. If you have room, order a side of the courgette fries and rocket and parmesan salad. Both go very well with just about any dish here.

For dessert, we went for yet another classic and favourite of mine – tiramisu. A nice chunky portion, well-constructed, good layers, boozy and delicious. As was the salted caramel cheesecake with pistachio ice cream. The caramel sauce I must say was really very good and helped turn this creamy cheesecake in to an even better one. My only negative was the pistachio ice cream, it tasted a little artificial in flavour.

I really enjoyed 40 Dean Street in Soho and when comes to value for money, especially in this part of London – you’d be hard pushed to find this kind of quality in the area and at this price.  The tables inside the restaurant was for me perhaps a little too close together, but I guess they’ve got to pay their rent somehow in an area which has become a real foodie hub. With outside seating and a good value wine list for drinking, I’ll certainly be popping back next time I’m in the area.

NB: My meal was complimentary. All views are as always, my own. My views are not influenced by anyone other than my own palate and slightly poor eyesight.