London Restaurant Festival: our top 3 picks.

The London Restaurant Festival 2011 hits the capital in a few days, running from October 3-17 as a citywide celebration of eating out.

The festival consists of several elements – fringe ‘side orders’, such as chocolate tours and medieval banqueting, restaurants providing special festival menus, as well as more extravagant main events.  To save you time choosing, these are my top picks of the festival events:

1. Tapas Tour

Bringing Spain to London with a tour of the city’s finest tapas restaurants, you’ll flit between them using the festival’s “Tapas Passport”.  Confirmed restaurants include Fernandez & Wells, Brindisa Soho, Iberica, PIX and Copita.  I recommend finishing your tour at Brindisa and then checking in to nearby Soho Hotel to sleep off the overindulgence induced coma!  The Soho Hotel also happens to be handy for this blog’s favourite tapas joint – Barrafina - as well as housing one of the best London hotel bars.

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2. Gourmet Odyssey

The festival’s version of a Safari dinner, enjoy your first course in one top London restaurant, your main in another and dessert in a third, on this gastronomic road trip.  My favourite is the Clerkenwell 1 route, which takes in Smiths of Smithfield and Club Gascon before ending in The Zetter Hotel’s outstanding restaurant, Bistro Bruno Loubet – perfect if you don’t want to travel home after all that travelling between restaurants!

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3. Pop-up in the Sky

A pop-up restaurant inside a capsule on the EDF Energy London Eye will provide stunning views of the city whilst you dine.  But this is more than just a gimmick – the food served will be cooked by some of the greatest chefs in London– Angela Hartnett, Jason Atherton and Richard Corrigan.  And if you’re staying in London afterwards, the nearby Corinthia Hotel will provide similarly stunning surroundings for your overnight stay.

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Photo credits: The London Restaurant Festival, Bistrot Bruno Loubet.

Tagged as: Corinthia London, The Soho Hotel, Zetter Hotel