Scottish-Spanish Seafood Should Serve Soho Superbly on Berwick Street

Langoustines, crabs, and lobsters with Galician ambitions will soon scuttle into Soho, with Maresco opening on Berwick Street. It’s a third restaurant in the capital for Stephen Lironi, who runs reliable Stoke Newington gem Escocesa and its tapas sibling in Crouch End, Bar Esteban.

Maresco will replace Yumchaa at 45 Berwick Street, with hoardings promising to continue the alliterative winning formula from N16: Scottish seafood served in Spanish stylings. It’s another “s” — the specials board — that most often has the goods on Church Street, but the gambas al ajillo or pulpo, together with a Basque txakolina, is the kind of simple dinner that a neighbourhood Iberian restaurant dines out on so well. Escocesa is no exception, and Soho diners will hope Maresco proves to be the same.

In the works since June 2021, when the company was incorporated, it is currently advertising for staff, so expect at least a few more weeks or months before opening.