Guides Guide Any time Updated 25 Sep 2026
Inca London: the South American show restaurant, and it is not in Mayfair
Inca is a South American restaurant and bar where the performance runs through dinner. The address is Argyll Street by the Palladium, whatever the listings say.
Inca is a show restaurant, which is a specific thing rather than a restaurant with music: the performance runs through the meal, the room is built for it, and the evening is timed around the show rather than the kitchen.
Where it actually is
8-9 Argyll Street, London W1F 7TF. Checked on the venue’s own site on 9 September 2026.
This matters more than it should. Inca describes itself as being in Mayfair, and so does much of the coverage, but W1F is Soho, and Argyll Street runs beside the London Palladium between Oxford Circus and Great Marlborough Street. If you set off for Mayfair you will be walking away from it. Oxford Circus is the station.
What the evening is
South American food, high-end, with a bar and a private dining room alongside the main restaurant, and a separate lounge called Maya. The shows are the reason to book rather than an accompaniment to it, so the timing of the sitting is the thing to check when you reserve: arriving late to a show restaurant means missing the half you came for.
It is an expensive night by design. That is worth saying plainly rather than discovering at the end, and it puts Inca in the same bracket as the other dinner-and-performance rooms rather than among ordinary restaurants.
The Palladium problem, and the opportunity
Being beside the Palladium cuts both ways. Before a show it is one of the closest sit-down options to the theatre door, which is genuinely useful on a curtain-up deadline. On a night when the Palladium has a full house, the whole street is busy and walking in is optimistic.
Pre-theatre dinner in London covers eating against the clock, and London theatre lists what is on at the Palladium and everywhere else this week.
If it is the format rather than the food
Cabaret in London covers the rooms where the performance is the point and the food follows, and things to do for couples covers the two-person version of the evening. Soho covers what else is within a few streets, which is a great deal.
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Questions people ask
Where is Inca London?
8-9 Argyll Street, London W1F 7TF, beside the London Palladium and a short walk from Oxford Circus. Despite the restaurant describing itself as being in Mayfair, W1F is Soho, so heading for Mayfair takes you away from it.
What is Inca London?
A South American show restaurant and bar, meaning the performance runs through dinner rather than after it. There is a main restaurant, a bar, a private dining room and a separate lounge called Maya.
Do you need to book Inca London?
Yes, and the timing of the sitting matters more than at an ordinary restaurant, because the show runs to a schedule. Arriving late means missing part of what you booked for.
What is near Inca London?
The London Palladium is on the same street, which makes it one of the closest sit-down options to that theatre door, and Oxford Circus is the nearest station. The rest of Soho is a few minutes' walk.
This guide is rewritten rather than refreshed, and everything named in it is checked against the venue's own page. Times and prices change; where a listing links to a venue, that link is the one to trust. How we choose what goes in.