Searching for burgers in Soho usually turns up the same handful of names. Fair enough, there’s plenty of good competition tucked behind Carnaby Street. Our cheeseburger goes like this: smoked cheddar, house burger sauce, baby gem, pickles, and a hand-formed patty on a toasted bun.
What’s in it
Here’s exactly what you’re getting, because we’d rather tell you than have you guess:
- The patty – hand-formed, not pressed from a machine, cooked to order rather than sitting under a heat lamp
- Smoked cheddar – melted into the beef, not just laid on top as an afterthought
- House burger sauce – made in our kitchen (more on that below)
- Baby gem lettuce – for the crunch that keeps every bite from going soft
- Pickles – cut for bite, not just decoration
- Toasted brioche bun – sturdy enough to hold its shape through to the last mouthful
That’s the whole thing. No fifteen-item build sheet, no gimmick ingredient trying to earn a headline. Just a burger that does the classic version properly, which is harder to pull off than it sounds when everyone around you in Soho is competing on novelty.
The house sauce
Ask anyone on the pass what actually makes this burger work, and they’ll point to the sauce before the beef. As we say on our own menu: a proper cheeseburger with no gimmicks. We make the house burger sauce in our kitchen, and it ties it all together.
It’s made here, in the Kingly Court kitchen, and it’s built to do a specific job: bind the smoked cheddar, the beef, and the pickle acidity into one bite instead of four separate flavours fighting for attention. You’ll taste it most clearly on the second and third bite, once the initial hit of the toasted bun and the smoked cheese settles and the sauce underneath starts doing its work.
Why it’s the one to start with
First-timers to Paradiso, and first-timers to Kingly Court generally, tend to ask the same question: what should I actually order? Our answer is almost always the cheeseburger, for three reasons.
It shows you the kitchen’s baseline. Once you’ve tasted how the smoked cheddar and house sauce work together here, you’ll understand what to expect from the rest of the menu.
It’s built for a Soho lunch or a proper sit-down dinner. Solo at the bar on a weekday afternoon, or at a table with a group on a night.
Pairing it with a drink
The cheeseburger doesn’t need much help, but a decent drink alongside it makes the whole sitting better. Our team recommends something with enough acidity to cut through the smoked cheddar and the sauce’s richness, rather than something too sweet that competes with it.
A classic Margarita is the obvious match, and with five variations on our list, including Momma’s Margarita and the Salty Caramel, there’s room to find your own preference. Regulars tend to order a Negroni if they want something more bitter and less citrus-forward, and it works just as well.
Visiting Monday to Thursday between 4 pm and 8 pm? That’s our happy hour: two cocktails for £18, no mix and match, full food menu running throughout, no booking required.
Order yours
The Paradiso Cheeseburger isn’t trying to be the most talked-about thing on the menu. It’s trying to be the one that’s right every time, which is a different job entirely.
You’ll find it alongside the rest of the burgers in Soho that make up our menu, all halal, all cooked to order, all served three minutes from Oxford Circus. Walk-ins are always welcome Monday to Thursday, 12 pm–11 pm; Friday and Saturday until midnight; and Sunday until 9 pm. If you’d rather guarantee a table, especially for dinner or the weekend, you can book with us.