Top five Soho restaurants

Fay Maschler heads down to W1 to sample the best restaurants Soho has to offer. She finds the best dim sum in London and a restaurant which provides such value for money that even prudent Chancellor Gordon Brown is a regular.

YAUATCHA
15-17 Broadwick Street, W1 (020-7494 8888). Mon-Sun £75
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The best dim sum in London is the USP at this satellite restaurant of Alan Yau's fabulous Hakkasan. So popular has it become that dining tables have encroached on the ground-floor space originally designed for just cakes and tea. Many massmanufactured clod-hopping dumplings are sold in the name of dim sum, so the delicate, couture treatment here can come as a wonderful revelation. Go in a group to try as many varieties of dumpling --steamed, simmered or fried - as possible.

ANDREW EDMUNDS
46 Lexington Street, W1 (020-7437 5708). Mon-Sun £70
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Here is The Old Curiosity Shop side of Soho perfectly rendered as a restaurant. So loyal are its customers that a clubby atmosphere has evolved, but that should not deter newcomers from making a booking - essential, and aim for the ground floor. A tiny kitchen manages to turn out estimable modern British food, relying in part on the market and the few remaining Soho grocery shops for supplies. An additional lure is the wine list, once described as 'picked up at auction following the death of a rich crank'.

RICHARD CORRIGAN
Lindsay House, 21 Romilly Street, W1 (020-7439 0450). Mon-Sat (Sat dinner only) £140
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Maybe you have seen the broth of a lad on the TV programme Full On Food. It is a good description of the cooking approach of this Irishman, who can charm the peak of potential and the last soupçon of flavour out of the strictly seasonal ingredients he espouses. Dining rooms on two floors of a slightly ramshackle Georgian terrace house have a romantic air. Sometimes you need the interest of romance to weather the vagaries of service. In late autumn, Corrigan will re-launch Bentley's in Swallow Street.

VASCO & PIERO'S PAVILION
15 Poland Street, W1 (020-7437 8774). Mon-Sat (Sat dinner only) £85
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Soho was once synonymous with Italian restaurants. This family-run establishment, which originally opened above the late, lamented Academy cinema 34 years ago, strikes me as more Italian than most in its understanding of salubrious simplicity. The menu, which changes twice daily, always features tortelloni made in-house - it might be stuffed with sea bass, duck or aubergines - and straightforward grills enhanced by herbs. The dessert menu features a notable panna cotta. In the evenings, set prices - £21 for two courses or £25 for three --make budgeting easy. Unsurprisingly, Gordon Brown is a regular.

REFUEL
Soho Hotel, 4 Richmond Mews, W1 (020-7559 3007). Mon-Sun (Sat dinner only) £120
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Clubs such as Soho House and Groucho cream off some of the natural customers for eating and drinking in Soho, but the seamlessly integrated restaurant and bar in this chic hotel has glamour and good food accessible to all. Chef Robin Read has devised a menu capable of galvanising the jaded urban palate. Consider grilled pork belly with chick peas, red chard and sweetcorn salsa, or seared sugar-cured beef with green harissa couscous. Prices are high, but there are ways around that, such as bar snacks and the set-price Sunday lunch.

Prices estimate the average cost of a meal for two with wine