More than 47,000 people headed to Regent’s Park last week for the 2012 Taste of London festival – and Square Meal was there, sharing the experience.
From 21-24 June, Square Meal was in the thick of the gastronomic action, chatting with chefs, sampling goodies, and running competitions for other visitors from its official stand in the festival ground.
London’s top restaurants were out in force as usual – big names included Jason Atherton’s Pollen Street Social, Michel Roux Jr’s Le Gavroche, Gordon Ramsay’s Pétrus and Atul Kochhar’s Benares, while newcomers such as Cinnamon Soho and Iberica Canary Wharf made their first foray into the action. In total, more than 40 restaurants and chefs participated in the event.
Of course, with a gastronomic event of this calibre, the bite-sized food samples were all top notch. Square Meal’s team of tasters highly rated Pollen Street Social’s ‘vibrant’, ‘perfectly balanced’ crab salad with avocado purée and sweetcorn mousse, as well as Corner Room’s ‘beautifully light’ cod porridge, and Club Gascon’s ‘wonderful’ marmite Royale with foie gras and soldiers.
During the festival, visiting foodies passing by – both Square Meal ‘virgins’ and avid readers who had saved money on their entry tickets via Square Meal – were asked to match six restaurateurs to the correct restaurant. After the festival, four correct answers were picked at random in a prize draw; the winners will receive a voucher for £200 to spend in a top London restaurant of their choice, courtesy of Square Meal.
Our warmest congratulations go to Simon Mitchell (Thursday’s winner), Charlotte Ellery (Friday’s winner), Emma Burgaz (Saturday’s winner) and Sarah Harrington (Sunday’s winner), who will all enjoy a £200 meal on us.
We also spread the word about the newly launched Square Meal Loyalty scheme. Visitors to squaremeal.co.uk can collect points when they book a restaurant online. Once diners have visited the restaurant, their points become available in their Square Meal account. Just 500 points will entitle users to rewards from free cocktails to days at the races.
Roll on next year, we say, when Taste of London will no doubt be even bigger.
This article was published on 27 June 2012.