Top Dog Eats

Top Dog is located on a street full of great dining options, most of which have lines longer than most sensible people care to wait for, especially when said sensible people are hungry, and one of those sensible people is pescetarian that day.
And so begins the story of how we ended up in Top Dog.
Top Dog, I understand, is meant to represent the true All-​American hot dog experience. There’s a long list of additional toppings, some of which are complimentary and others which you have to pay for. Great if you love to customise your hot dog, bad if you’re indecisive.
That wasn’t why I popped in there. It’s because I couldn’t eat meat that day and saw that they had a Tofu & Guacamole dog, both things I love eating. It also came with corn and spicy mayo so I was more than willing to give it a go. To make a long story short, I liked my choice. The tofu sausage had a slight smokiness to it that made it taste like meat and the mayo was really spicy.
My husband opted for the Chicago dog. I’m not sure what had other than meat as I was too busy concentrating on my hot dog. He found it okay at best, because there was too little sausage and too much bread. While the quality of the bread was good, it drowned out the taste of the meat. He thought Herman Ze German was better.
The skin-​on fries were good. A decent sized portion, enough for us two to share for £2.95. Other sides such as Mac ‘n’ Cheese and sweet potato fries were on offer as well.
All in all, I’d give it a 3.5 while the other half would give it a 3 so I’ll round this down to 3 stars.

So I needed some food before heading out tonight and it had started raining. I’ve heard about this place before so I thought I’d give it a shot. Walked in and was warmly greeted and told to sit wherever I wanted.
Looking through the menu, I was a little spoiled for choice but plumped for the chilli cheese dog, sweet potato fries (my Achilles heel) and a root beer.
The food was… Okay… Look, let’s start with the good, the fries were brilliant, just the right combo of fluffy sweet potato and crunchy fried bits. The root beer was a brand I didn’t know but was very drinkable, not as good as Sioux City but a good alternative. The sausage had a good snap and was tasty, not too smokey or overpowering. The chilli also had good flavour and was made by someone who knew what they were doing.
But let’s get to the heart of the matter, the hot dog. For one, it didn’t seem that hot, more lukewarm like another reviewer said. The bun was a little harder than I would have expected for a hot dog bun, and was also cold, and I’m not talking untoasted, more actually sitting somewhere cold. The entire thing didn’t have much heat to it, so much so that the grated cheddar on top of the chilli hadn’t melted at all and refused to do so throughout the meal… It’s not a bad tasting dog, but a lot more care could have been put into its preparation…
The server was nice so I tipped with my meal, it’s rare that I don’t. But overall this meal was close to £15… I think they’d have to improve a lot of I’m going to go again… I love a good hot dog so I’ll keep my eye on this place, maybe some more reviews will change my mind.

I was so excited to try this in hopes of having something akin to a true American style hot dog, but was sorely mistaken. To satisfy a pregnancy craving, I went in for a quick solo dinner on a Thursday evening and the place was absolutely dead — no atmosphere. That didn’t really bother me, but the people working behind the counter seemed generally uninterested.
I ordered a Chicago dog and the chili cheese fries. It «looked» nice, but the hot dog was honestly lukewarm — nowhere near hot which would normally gross me out, but freaked me out even more as I am pregnant. I mean seriously, this place needs to get itself in check as it is never acceptable to serve lukewarm meat that is advertised as hot! Someone could easily get food poisoning. On top of that the hot dog was extremely dry and had zero flavour. The chili cheese fries were nothing to write home about. Really disappointing meal and I will honestly never return. A real shame as I love the idea that they are free range, but it’s honestly embarrassing if this is what people think American style hot dogs are like.

Kimchi dog –no longer on menu and the reason it’s not 5 stars
Chicago dog
Cheeseburger w/​pickles, lettuce, tomato, caramelised onion
Onion rings
Fries
Root beer float
I first heard of this spot from the show Ladies of London, yes, I like shit tv, don’t judge me. Being American and loving the idea of organic farm raised hot dogs was super appealing. I scoped out the menu and fell in love with the creativity of the kimchi dog. I arrived the day after they took the kimchi dog off the menu and luckily the amazing manager was able to scrounge up the ingredients for 1 more kimchi dog which I’m grateful for and also now left longing for and can never have again. Bummed.
The kimchi dog was incredible, spicy and flavourful and not too sour from kimchi at all which was a concern of mine as I like kimchi in small doses. I think the word kimchi was actually a bit ill fitting as I don’t think there was any on the dog. But honestly, I wolfed it down so fast that I wanted more and more. I want to start a Facebook page bringing it back. So effing good!
The burger was really good, actually might be my favourite in the city right now. It was flavourful, plenty of topping options, and cooked perfectly and with melty cheese too boot.
The root beer float was good but I really would’ve liked more ice cream to have enough for the rest of the soda but I always want more ice cream.
The onion rings were bomb. Really flavourful, cooked and crispy to perfection.
I thoroughly enjoyed my food here and will definitely be returning.
Just one more thing. BRING BACK THE KIMCHI DOG. It’s so unique, maybe a name change if people are put off by it, but honestly, no one is doing that and it’s so perfect (I could eat 3x in a sitting) and spicy and fresh. Bring it back!

Erica U. practically begged me to meet her here for lunch so we could share some hot dogs. She apparently saw it on some London tv show and was dying for the Kimchi dog so I agreed to meet her here for lunch. Last minute she told me her husband and baby were joining, so it was a foursome for lunch.
It’s a very simple place, and even though I manage to knock an entire cup of cutlery on the floor, they didn’t hate me for it. I blamed the baby. I think she must have really long arms.
Unfortunately, they changed the menu the day before they arrived, and the kimchi dog is no longer on the menu. Luckily, we asked, and they agreed they could make us one. So we got that. And a chicago dog. They’ve just added burgers to the menu as well, so we went for that too and split them all. Her husband just got a burger. He apparently didn’t want to share. I tried to order some onion rings, but they forgot about them. We did order them later with some fries as well.
For me the best part was the dogs. As you would expect. They were warm, delicious and the spicy toppings really did it for me. The kimchi was by far the best, so they really need to bring that back on the menu permanently. The chicago dog was also really good, but apparently it was too smokey for Erica. The burger was decent. Cooked medium. But it wasn’t my favorite burger in London.
Because we ordered so much, I didn’t bother with the milkshakes (salted caramel sounded delicious), root beer floats (OMG yes?!?) or the chili cheese fries. So these are all my list for next time. If they’re good, who knows, maybe I’ll up this review. Bur for now, it’s a solid, delicious four stars in my book.

As an American girl living abroad. …I was so excited for a good American hot dog. They did not disappoint. I had the pulled pork slaw dog and my husband had the sloppy dog. The actual dogs were steamy hot and flavorful and all for the toppings were great (especially the pulled pork!) we split am order of sweet potato fries and they were also great — nice and crispy!
My only reason for 4 stars and not 5 is the price, £7.50/dog is pretty steep!

One of the best hotdogs I’ve had. Service was great and the cheese fries are amazing. Highly recommend to anyone trying to find a quick and good meal.

the best hot dogs I had during my 6 weeks gallivanting through Europe! I got the kimchi dog and my friend got the chili cheese dog. we also got cheese fries and the cheese sauce was white and creamy and delicious (and all our food was hot and fresh. sad to see the other reviews that didn’t get hot food :(because it really was delicious!)
a little overpriced for the fancy hot dogs but London in general is just expensive and it’s definitely worth it to pay the extra pound or two to get an awesome hot dog. stop here during a night of drinking in soho and you will not be disappointed!

Wow. Just wow.
I have to completely disagree with the previous reviewers. This place was disappointing on every level.
It wasn’t just the price (which was kind of expensive for London, even if it was marketing itself as a hip hot dog joint!)…it was the terrible quality of the food.
I got the pulled pork dog, which featured a stale hot dog bun, a tasteless pork dog, cold pulled pork and a «house sauce» (some kind of vaguely spiced Mayo) that completely drowned the whole dog.
My girlfriend had the «plain Jane» which was equally as stale and cold, and we both attempted to enjoy the «cheese fries» (after getting a hard sell from the waitress about how delicious they were), but we couldn’t make it further than a few bites — the fries were not only cold, but their idea of cheese fries meant some sort of questionable, cold, mystery grey sauce with no flavour and some unmelted cheese.
So disgusting and inedible. (And even we asked the staff for hotter fries, they brought back out equally cold fries.)
I would never eat here again and I would never recommend that anyone else does.

I can’t say «terrible» enough to describe this place. I rarely give anyone one star, but tonight, they deserved it. And frankly, the one star is for the nice girl at the counter when we walked in. (And I rarely, rarely give one star reviews.)
To start, the place was stone cold empty around 7pm on a busy Sunday night in Soho — so that should’ve tipped us off. But we decided to go for it anyway.
My girlfriend ordered a pulled pork dog, which was £7.50 for cold pork, overdone slaw and a cold dog on a stale, tough bun, topped with a thick mayo-​like «house sauce». I got what I thought was a safe bet in the «plain jane» and ended up with another tough, dry bun and a boring lifeless, lukewarm dog.
But the pièce de résistance was the «cheesy fries» oversold by the staff. She said «It’s crispy fries covered in melted cheese — definitely try them!». Apparently they’ve never had cheese fries because this was cold fries covered in cold, semen-​like gray, thin, flavourless gravy (I’m sorry for that accurate albeit colorful description) topped with a sprinkle of unmelted shredded cheese. For £3.50, we brought it back to the counter and asked if we could have hot melted cheese fries and he brought it back exactly the same. We couldn’t even.
We left with most of our food uneaten and £23 less in our bank account. Would not recommend. Just say no. NOPE, even.

Needed to find somewhere for a light lunch pre-​matinée performance of Book of Mormon. Had contemplated Garlic and Shots but that’s a bit anti-​social when you’re going to be sitting in close confines for a couple of hours straight after. Purely by chance we found Top Dog Eats and was curious to see what they had on the menu, expecting there to be nothing for me to eat as I don’t eat meat out.
Seeing there was a Corn N’ Guacamole Tofu Hotdog on the menu, that was me sorted and daughter was happy just to have a portion of sweet potato fries. You order at the desk at the back and they give you an «electronic disk» which you put on whichever table you choose to sit at and apparently they use that to locate you within the restaurant. There’s both upstairs and downstairs seating too. Downstairs has a full size motorbike just inside the door (this level is where the toilets are). Inside the toilets there was the sound of a motorbike re vving. Apparently this «sound effect» is part of the ambience of the American style restaurant.
I’d not had a tofu hotdog before so it was quite a novel experience. Looks just like a hotdog but actually has the «silky» texture of tofu which wasn’t too bad.
My hot dog was apparently an organic tofu dog that comes with corn salsa, guacamole, shallots, radish & spicy mayo. At the desk we were advised that all «dogs» are £1 before 1pm and I’d ordered a second tofu dog so the cost of my hotdog, instead of being £7.50 + £1.50 for the extra dog came to just £2.50 — absolute bargain!!!
I would definitely recommend this venue although I can’t vouch for the other items on the menu however the staff were very friendly and we also managed to avoid the rainshower!

Read a few mixed reviews but still wanted to try myself. No complaints. Showed the menu to few colleagues, and went round for a smallish order. Service was real good, staff exceeded expectations. All agreed food was great, authentic yank dogs, buns fresh, toppings as good as they look — will be back. Thanks guys. Nice touch on the service.

I have had the Chicago dog… which was ace! The BBQ version was good but I still preferred the Chicago style one. Good selection of beer too inside and service was really great. All smiles.