We’d walked past Poppie’s in Soho several times during our recent trips to London. The Soho branch is on Old Compton Street and Poppie’s in Soho has taken over what used to be Bobby Chin’s House of Ho. Whilst the signage is mostly black and white, the bunting strung across the signage makes it very cheerful, and, dare I say it, very British!
My friend Ally was visiting from Singapore and this was the only opportunity we had to meet with her. I’d asked previously if she’d already had a fish and chippy meal since she arrived in London, fish and chips being quintessentially British, to me anyway. She said no so I thought it would be good to have fish and chips because it would be a substantial enough meal if we were hungry but light enough because, well, it was fish. While I am partial to the fish and chip shop where I live, there was no way I was going to haul my friend up to Harwich to have just a fish and chip meal and push her back onto the train back to London Town. It was our first trip to Poppie’s but we’d heard a lot of good things about it online. It was convenient because it was close to where we wanted to go to in London.
When you turn into Old Compton Street , Poppie’s will be easy to find because it will be hard to miss the bright red Mini parked in front emblazoned with Poppie’s logo. We popped our head in the door and asked for a table for 3 and we were greeted pleasantly and promptly showed to a booth. The dining area was bigger than I thought. Since the shop had a food prep and cooking area and a take away counter separate from the main space, I didn’t expect the space to be comfortable. I thought that they would’ve tried to stuff as many tables as was possible. But I was very wrong. We had enough space to wriggle around very comfortably. There was a certain charm to the diner/shabby chic decor of the space.
The staff is friendly and cheerful. My friend thought we were regulars because of how the serving staff interacted with us. I daresay you won’t find a friendlier group of people in the food service industry! They were really nice and happy. Some people might think they might be overly familiar, but it was nice to have friendly service that felt really genuine and welcoming. The Poppettes, as the servers are known, know their food as well and can answer your questions about food really well.
Our food came out fairly quickly and piping hot. You knew that the fish was fried to order. The portion of chips was a great ratio to the regular portion of fish. The fish was fresh, sweet and cooked to perfection. The service was great and they looked after us without us feeling like they were forever hovering. When we finished, they cleared our plates away efficiently but we didn’t feel like they were hurrying us up to free up the table. We were allowed to sit and chat and finish our drinks. The bill was also a surprise because it was very reasonable for what we ordered. Great value for money as well!
I chose to order the cod because cod is always a safe option when eating at an unfamiliar chippy. But I am definitely going back and ordering rock for my next fish and chip meal at Poppie’s. It is definitely worth it! When you’re in Soho, pop into Poppie’s for the best fish and chip meal! You won’t be disappointed!
Yellywelly 