Soho Steakhouse Foxlow Will Close Next Week [Updated]

Updated — 12.04.19: With details of the chef taking over the Soho site.

Foxlow, the sister brand of London’s most successful steak restaurant group, Hawksmoor, has announced that it will close its central London location in Soho next week.

In an email sent to customers this morning, the owners wrote: “With regret we have decided to close Foxlow Soho. The restaurant has been very successful in many ways - it’s a fantastic place and has an amazing team of people.”

The company added that they had received an offer for the property that they were unable to turn down. “Recently [we] got a great unsolicited offer for the site and we decided to accept it.”

Update: Australian chef Shaun Presland will make his London debut with a Japanese restaurant called Pacific.

A statement released this morning by a spokesperson on behalf of Presland following a report by Propel, said:

Shaun and team are currently in final talks on this site and it’s highly likely to go ahead, but it’s not 100 percent confirmed.

Australian chef Shaun Presland has confirmed he will return to the U.K. to open his first solo venture. The restaurant, named Pacific, will open at 8-10 Lower James Street, Soho later this year.

Presland was previously executive chef at Sake restaurant group in Australia.

Further details to follow in due course.

Foxlow, a restaurant portfolio which has shrunk in the past two years, opened just under two years ago on Lower James Street, just south of Soho’s Golden Square. Where Hawksmoor has proven itself as one of the most robust restaurant brands in London — at a particularly precarious time for the industry — Foxlow has struggled. Just over a year ago, the owners closed a branch in Chiswick; in January 2017, the brand closed its site in Stoke Newington in north London.

“​​We’re really proud of the team there who have all worked so hard, shown customers a great time and have made the restaurant a Soho favourite over the last couple of years,” the email today said. “We’re now going to focus on closing the restaurant in the best way possible: by looking after our suppliers and the people who work there, many of whom will be joining some of our other restaurants. Maybe one or two might even cross the pond with us and join our opening team in Hawksmoor New York, which will be opening later this year.”

The Soho restaurant will close on Thursday 18 April after a final lunch service, which will offer 50 percent off all bills.

Foxlow will be left with two sites, the original on St John Street in Clerkenwell, and on Bedford Hill in Balham, south London.

Stay tuned to find out who is moving into the Soho location.