L'Escargot Soho

What L'Escargot Soho does

L'Escargot Soho is a single-location French restaurant operating from a Georgian townhouse at 48 Greek Street in London's Soho district since 1927, with the brand tracing back to 1896 when founder M. Georges Gaudin opened Le Bienvenue at the same street. The restaurant serves traditional Parisian brasserie-style cuisine to a customer base spanning theatre-goers, romantic diners, private event hosts (corporate and personal occasions of 12-80 guests), French cuisine enthusiasts, and dog owners. Core offerings include a main à la carte dining room, a £24-£28 Prix Fixe menu engineered for pre-theatre timing, four private dining rooms across three floors, the top-floor Snail Bar cocktail lounge with live weekend music, and Afternoon Tea featuring Mariage Frères teas. A £150-per-couple Sunday Roast with Champagne and wine pairings is among the higher-ticket items, with à la carte mains reaching £58 and signature snails at £18-£36 per dozen.

The business operates as a direct-to-consumer restaurant with revenue from food and beverage service, gift voucher e-commerce (monetary vouchers in £50 increments and curated experience packages at £75-£250 per couple), and private event hire. Pricing ranges from accessible (£28 Prix Fixe) to premium (£250 Dinner Extravaganza for Two with sommelier wine pairings). The technology stack is minimal and conventional: Squarespace-hosted website with OpenTable reservation widget integration, Typeform-based private dining enquiry forms, and an email newsletter. The company's competitive position rests on its heritage (London's oldest French restaurant), its irreplicable physical assets (1741 Georgian townhouse and curated art collection featuring Matisse, Hockney, Lucian Freud, Francis Bacon, Grayson Perry), and its celebrity and royal patronage legacy.

Ownership is held through The Snail Company (Ltd.), a UK private limited company, with Brian Clivaz as CEO and James Tyrrell as Head Chef (trained at Langan's Brasserie and Claridge's). Operating hours are Tuesday through Saturday for lunch and dinner, Sunday lunch only, with a Late Night Menu Thursday through Saturday, closed Mondays. There is no disclosed institutional investment, M&A activity, or expansion beyond the single Soho venue.

Name

L'Escargot Soho

Legal name

The Snail Company (Ltd.)

Website

https://lescargot.co.uk

Company type

Private

Founded year

1896

Operating status

Operating

Headcount range

11–50 employees

Short description

L'Escargot Soho is London's oldest French restaurant, established 1896, operating a single Soho location offering traditional Parisian brasserie cuisine, private dining for up to 80 guests, afternoon tea, and a rooftop cocktail bar to theatre-goers, tourists, and corporate event clients.

Ownership category

akta.pro rank

Product category

French Fine Dining Restaurant

NAICS

Full-Service Restaurants (722511), Restaurants and Other Eating Places (72251)

SIC

Retail-Eating & Drinking Places (5810), Retail-Eating Places (5812)

akta.pro primary industry

Fine Dining Restaurants (THAFACAA)

akta.pro secondary industries

Special Occasion & Destination Restaurants (THAFACAK), Brasseries, Bistros & Trattorias (THAFACAI)

Keywords

• French fine dining
• Private dining events
• Pre-theatre dining
• Parisian brasserie cuisine
• Gift voucher dining

Headquarters

HQ city

London

HQ country

United Kingdom

HQ region

Europe

Offices1 record

Markets served

GTM type

B2C

Offering type

Services

Revenue model

1. Food and Beverage Sales: Core revenue from serving French cuisine including à la carte menu, Prix Fixe menus, Sunday roasts, cocktails, wine, and afternoon tea. The restaurant generates revenue from lunch, dinner, and late-night service.
2. Gift Vouchers: Sale of monetary gift vouchers in £50 increments and pre-defined dining experience vouchers including 3-course theatre menus, lunch menus, Sunday roasts, and dinner extravaganzas for two.
3. Private Event Hire: Revenue from hiring private dining rooms including the Snail Bar (up to 60 standing), Blue Room (12 seated), Library (30 seated/45 standing), and Salon Vert (40 seated/45 standing), with capacity to hire the whole venue.

Pricing tiers

Go-to-market motion1 record

Distribution channels5 records

Marketing channels7 records

Core offering

L'Escargot Soho operates a single-location French fine dining restaurant at 48 Greek Street in London's Soho, established in 1896. The restaurant serves traditional Parisian brasserie-style cuisine including signature garlic-butter snails, à la carte dishes such as lobster bisque and Tournedos Rossini, a Prix Fixe pre-theatre menu, afternoon tea, Sunday roasts, and late-night menus. The venue also offers four private dining rooms for events, a top-floor Snail Bar cocktail lounge, and gift vouchers for dining experiences.

Product overview

L'Escargot is a single-location French restaurant offering a unified dining experience centered on traditional Parisian brasserie-style cuisine. The core offering is the main restaurant dining room with à la carte and prix fixe menus. Additional offerings include four private dining rooms across multiple floors for events, a rooftop Snail Bar cocktail lounge, afternoon tea service, and gift vouchers. The venue operates as a single business with no modular products or separate platforms.

Differentiator

Problem solved

Functional benefit

Named customers11 records

Segments5 records

Technology focussed No

API detail

Has API

No

API docs

API detail

Core technology

AI maturity

App detail

Integration1 record

Feature3 records

Scale indicators4 records

Recent moves5 records

Expansion highlights6 records

Direct peers

• The Ritz Restaurant: Iconic French fine dining restaurant inside The Ritz London hotel on Piccadilly. Comparable as a Paris-trained haute cuisine destination with strong celebrity/royal association, formal French service, and similar heritage-driven premium positioning.
• Bibendum: Classic French fine dining institution in Chelsea, housed in the former Michelin House. Highly comparable as a heritage French culinary institution in London with similar icon-level brand recognition among diners seeking classical French cuisine.
• Balthazar London: French brasserie in Covent Garden from the NYC Balthazar group. Directly comparable as a grand Parisian-style brasserie with all-day service, similar menu structure (snails, French classics), private dining capability, and similar high-cover Soho-adjacent positioning.
• Brasserie Zédel: French brasserie located on Sherwood Street, Soho, offering affordable French dining in a grand Parisian brasserie setting. Most direct comparable for L'Escargot — same cuisine heritage, same Soho geography, and same brasserie-style positioning.
• Galvin Bistrot de Luxe: French bistro from the Galvin brothers at St Pancras. Comparable French fine-dining positioning with prix fixe and à la carte menus, private event hosting, and similar high-end accessible-luxury price point targeting.
• The Delaunay: Sister concept to The Wolseley, located on the Strand. Comparable as a grand European brasserie with similar all-day trading, fixed-price and à la carte menus, and event hosting — and shares the same institutional positioning in London's dining landscape.
• J Sheekey: Iconic London seafood restaurant in Covent Garden, sister concept to The Delaunay and The Wolseley (Corbin & King group). Comparable as a heritage London dining institution with celebrity history, all-day service, and private event hosting.
• Le Pont de la Tour: Classic French restaurant near Tower Bridge operated by the D&D London group. Comparable French fine-dining positioning with private event spaces and same London premium-dining competitive set, despite different neighbourhood.
• Clos Maggiore: Romantic French restaurant in Covent Garden often cited as London's most romantic restaurant. Comparable heritage positioning, romantic-dining positioning (overlapping OpenTable list), and central London theatreland customer base.
• The Wolseley: Iconic European all-day brasserie on Piccadilly. Closely comparable as a London grand-institution restaurant with heritage positioning, à la carte and fixed-price menus, breakfast through late-service trading, and private dining/event capability.

Market position

Strengths5 records

Weaknesses5 records

Competitive moat5 records

Key risks6 records

Key highlights7 records

Customer concentration

• Facebookfacebook.com/lescargotlondon
• Pinterestpinterest.com/lescargotlondon
• LinkedInlinkedin.com/company/l-escargot-soho

Revenue estimate

Valuation estimate

Number of profiles

Funding overview

Funding rounds

Investors

Funding detail is available on the Subscription and Enterprise plan.Contact sales →

M&A

Investments

M&A and investment is available on the Subscription and Enterprise plan.Contact sales →

Frequently asked questions about L'Escargot Soho