The London Restaurant Festival is Back in October – Showcasing the Very Best!
The London Restaurant Festival (LRF) in partnership with American Express®, is back this October, showcasing the very best restaurants and chefs in London with a packed calendar across the whole month.
Uniquely, LRF takes place in restaurants across the capital, celebrating the diversity and wealth of the city’s restaurants.
Over 50,000 people participated in 2016 visiting almost 300 restaurants that served a special festival menu and discovering 100 restaurants that take part of LRF’s 60 different ticketed events.
This year, guests will once again be able to feast on LRF’s now-fabled Gourmet Odysseys, Restaurant-Hopping Tours, Tasting Menus and Chef-Hosted events, as well as exploring an exciting roster of new events.
Exclusive to this year’s festival will be Restaurant Recipes, along with an expansion of LRF’s Ultimate Gastronomic Weekend.
Restaurant Recipes will give people the chance to learn how to cook some of London’s most celebrated restaurant dishes at leading cookery schools – followed by dinner in the restaurant that evening.
Headlined by Michel Roux Jr and Masterchef Professionals winner Steve Groves, this hands-on experience launches with Le Gavroche to coincide with the legendary restaurant’s 50th anniversary. Guests will learn how to cook the dishes at the Michel Roux Jr Cookery School before enjoying dinner at Le Gavroche in his company.
LRF’s Ultimate Gastronomic Weekend returns better than ever, where lucky ticket holders have the opportunity to explore the best of LRF over a weekend including an overnight stay at the 5-Star Andaz London Liverpool Street, a Gourmet Odyssey featuring Noble Rot, Yuatcha and Quality Chop House, and a four course lunch hosted by Atul Kochar.
The American Express chef-hosted lunches and dinners complete the year’s line-up. Available exclusively to American Express Cardmembers, the events will offer guests the chance to get up close and personal with some of London’s greatest chefs.
The line-up features ten of the capital’s award-winning chefs including Rick Stein, Phil Howard, Jose Pizzaro, Mark Hix, Ollie Dabbous and Michelin-starred James Knappett.
LRF’s Champagne Gourmet Odysseys will return, allowing guests to explore the breadth of London’s culinary landscape with North, South East and West tours. In North London, guests will enjoy a three-course lunch with a course in Trullo, Sardine and Newington Green’s Perilla. Meanwhile, especially for 2017, there will be a brand new Thai Gourmet Odyssey, uncovering West London’s Thai restaurant scene.
“LRF has always been about encouraging Londoners, and visitors to the capital, to discover our riveting restaurant scene during October. But there’s a vast, and often overwhelming, choice. Over the years LRF’s range of Restaurant Experiences and Festival Menus means that people get to visit all the most exceptional, innovative and inspiring restaurants in a fun, affordable and memorable way,” said Simon Davis, founder of the London Restaurant Festival.
Restaurant-Hopping tours, a stalwart of the LRF calendar, will spotlight emerging neighbourhoods with diners enjoying a tasting plate at five of the best restaurants in the area. Broadgate, St. James’s, Regent Street and Devonshire Square are all taking part this year. Visitors can also enjoy a Gourmet Tasting Tour at Chelsea’s Pavillion Road, which includes offerings from a selection of the new artisan stores, including the butcher, baker and cheesemonger.
All LRF’s tasting menus this year – there are 14 – include all drinks and will see restaurants such as Rabbit, Providores, Test Kitchen, Barrafina with Estrella Galicia, and Taberna do Mercado each curate a four to eleven course tasting menu.
The 2017 festival will once again be celebrating the marriage between film and food with guests enjoying an exclusive screening with dinner and gourmet popcorn for £39. Taking place in the Masonic Temple, the wonderful hidden and unique space within the five-star luxury lifestyle hotel Andaz London Liverpool Street, Eat Film will be showing the best foodie films to hit the silver screen including Delicatessen and the award-winning Jiro Dreams of Sushi.
