The London Restaurant Festival is back this year! And it couldn’t have come at a more important time for the industry. Our much-loved Square Mile restaurants and bars are on struggle street right now, doing whatever they can to stay afloat until it’s safe enough for most workers to return to the area.
And the London Restaurant Festival is here to remind us diners why we fell in love with these local eating and drinking institutions in the first place. It also shows off all their pandemic innovations – with at home cooking kits and virtual dining experiences being a huge new addition to the festival.
That’s handy for those of us who still aren’t keen to dine out. But plenty of restaurants in the City of London are open for guests to come and dine in. Prepare for all the sanitisation and face masks alongside great service and even ridiculously good food. Check out all these City favourites to see what special festival menus or foodie experiences they’re hosting. Now is the time to support these local businesses which breathe so much life and love into the office-lined streets.
MBER
Bottomless Champagne dinner (nine-courses) for £65 per person (feature image)
This pan-Asian tapas restaurant is not messing about for the London Restaurant Festival this year. They have a huge array of deals, but our favourite has got to be their bottomless Champagne dinner. Get two hours of unlimited bubbles all the while you show down on their nine-course sharing feast.
This includes crispy squid, chicken satay, Yellowfin tuna and salmon sashimi, pork gyoza, duck baos, Korean baby back ribs, a Thai red chicken curry for good measure and then a dessert of your choosing. It’s an epic Asian food safari. You can just go for the dinner spread for £45 pp or add bottomless Champagne for an additional £20. Alternatively, you can pop down for the seven-course lunch deal for £33 pp. They’ve even got a late-night cocktail special.
Later on in the night, you can get five of their signature or classic cocktails for £50. That price for top quality cocktails in the City is almost unheard of. If you’re around here late, don’t miss out on this extra deal!
1a Pudding Lane EC3R 8AB2 7DJ
Cigalon
Five-course tasting menu for £32
Set up by Pascal Aussignac of Club Gascon in 2011, the restaurant is well and truly a food and drink institution in the City of London. Here, you get really decently priced dishes inspired by the South East of France and Corsica (hard to find this in London). And, if you haven’t been to Cigalon yet, now is the perfect time. For the London Restaurant Festival, they’re offering up a special 5 course Provencal tasting menu for £32 per person. Taste your way through the food menu but don’t forget to order some stellar French wines which have been expertly curated. It’s old school dining done so damn well.
115 Chancery Lane WC2A 1PP
1 Lombard Street
Two courses and a Gin & Tonic £30
Director of Food & Drink, Mark Hix, has worked alongside Executive Chef Robin Freeman to develop the all-new menu at 1 Lombard Street, introducing food and drink producers from the British Isles that Mark has been known to champion over the years. The new dishes showcase the best of British ingredients, changing regularly to reflect the seasonal produce available. Classic Hix dishes such as Heaven and Earth, De Beauvoir Smoked salmon ‘Hix cure’ and Peter Hannan’s Glenarm Estate steaks feature on the menu alongside wild and foraged ingredients.
So, even though the Hix Empire of restaurants have now shut, you can still get some of your old favourites. And expect a brilliant deal for running throughout October for the London Restaurant Festival. Get around two-courses of Hix food as well as a cheeky all-British gin and tonic for £30. Either get this for lunch or dinner – it’s all up to you!
1 Lombard Street EC3V 9AA
Brigadiers
At-home Indian banquet for £39
Due to the pandemic, a bunch of restaurants in the City have also gone for at-home experiences. This means you don’t need to navigate public transport to enjoy your favourite Square Mile foodie hot spots. And we are pumped to try Brigadiers very own version. On 21 October, you can get a huge Indian banquet for just £39. Dishes include BBQ Butter Chicken Wings (thought to be the best in London) and Beef Shin Biryani while the price also includes delivery, a cheeky bottle of wine and a ‘welcome cocktail’ for some much-needed mid-week drinking.
1-5 Bloomberg Arcade EC4N 8AR
