At This Moody Basque Eatery in Soho, Dramatic Cracked Walls "Tell a Story" — While Smoky Plates and Vermouth Keep on Coming

A brutalist restaurant's dining room with cracked cement walls, mid-century modern leather and wood furniture, softly glowing lighting, and wine glasses.

With over a dozen buzzy restaurants and bars all tucked into the same three-story location, Soho's Kingly Court isn't necessarily the first address you'll think of when striving to avoid London's crowds, or so I guess when I reach its tunnel-like entrance on an expectedly busy Tuesday night. Luckily, though, that won't be something to worry about when you secure a reservation at the recently opened ALTA. All it takes for you to forget where you are in the city is to move beyond the Northern Spanish eatery's heavy wooden door, which you'll find at the very back of the location's ground floor.

The latest opening by the team behind the deeply atmospheric Japanese-infused foodie hotspot and listening bar, MOI, MAD Restaurants' ALTA keeps the bar high for London restaurants where great taste in food and design intertwine. Still, it does so while ensuring the atmosphere feels, simultaneously, approachable, cocooning, and quietly refined.