Taste of London

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A friend invited a group of us to the Taste of London. For my non-UK based readers this is a food festival held yearly in London at Regent's Park. This is a chance to try food from the most well-known and popular restaurants in London without the price tag.

Save for a short-lived downpour the weather held up for us. We arrived to be asked if we wanted some crowns. They explained to us that for £10 we could buy 20 crowns. Crowns being the accepted currency once inside. Typically they said that a dish cost 8-10 crowns. As my friend pointed out to the gobsmacked crown seller: We May Not Like the Food. We may end up going to McDonald's (as if!). So we set off inside armed with our initial purchase of 20 crowns each.

There were so many restaurants to try and so many bars. It could have been called Drink of London with food on the side, as opposed to the other way round. In spite of the wet weather and the mud we managed to work round and try a fair few of the restaurants.

They all had a menu of 3 courses to choose from and a signature dish. One thing that I found very well thought out, was that all the dishes they offered were very easy to eat on foot. They were specifically designed for the occasion. The service was also very good, what you would expect from this standard of restaurants.

My most memorable dishes were the foie gras starter from Four O Nine in Clapham and the Sea Bass from Le Caprice.



Main course at Le Caprice






The food selection at Four O Nine



Pea and Mint mousse from Petrus, not our favourite





Dessert at the Ritz, presentation was better than the taste





There were also some excellent mojitos to be found here and we consumed a fair amount.



Overall we all agreed that the food wasn't as good as what you would get in the restaurants. Then again, in restaurants of this standard, we pay a great deal of attention to the service, the decor, the ambience. In a way all this together with food presentation in a way makes the actual taste of the food a secondary issue. Take all this away and you are left with food which you consider good but not excellent as is what you would expect from these places. But one must remember, in this case it doesn't come with the surroundings. It's easier to be harsh. Of course again producing food in such volumes is no easy task either.

It was a lovely day out and I would recommend it to any foodie out there, it's a good insight to London's restaurants. I'm not sure however if I would go back next year. I may opt to go to one of the restaurants instead and enjoy the full experience.

You will of course be thinking that after all that we went home. Not us. We continued our food fest with Lebanese on the Edgware Road.