I am particularly pleased to announce that Pizza Express are fully behind London Restaurant Festival and are planning on serving a Festival Pizza in around 100 of their London restaurants during the festival.

Fay and I have always maintained that the London Restaurant Festival is not just about the big name chefs and exclusivity but also about celebrating the restaurants that make up the everyday fabric of many Londoners’ lives and there are few better examples of this than Pizza Express. So we are thrilled to have them on board.

I’m also pleased to announce that the London Restaurant Festival is set to have its own “pop-up” space for six weeks or so in the run up to the festival. The space is a fantastic unit in the centre of Covent Garden and it will function as a press office, ticket booth for events, and also as a focal point for information and awareness about the London Restaurant Festival.

We must thank our partner Covent Garden London for agreeing to allow us to set up camp for a few weeks in this brilliant spot. It will really help us establish the festival in year one and also be extremely useful for those who want to find out more about the festival and talk to some of the team.

The plan is to have this up and running at the beginning of September in time for the main press launch of the London Restaurant festival 2009 which will be on September 9.

I’ll be back soon with more news as we move forward. In the meantime any restaurateur who wants to get hold of the registration forms can now do so by downloading them from the links below:

Restaurant Registration Form [PDF 308KB]

Restaurant Registration Prices [PDF 134KB]

Restaurant Registration Guidelines [PDF 129KB]

A Festival Menu should encapsulate, explain and deliver the essence of each participating establishment. The menus will be an opportunity to concentrate even more than usual on creativity, seasonality, surprise, nurturing and good value.

Menus at different fixed price points will give potential customers confidence. Places that they may have been diffident about trying become understandable and accessible.

Festival Menus provide the opportunity for restaurants of any ethnicity to convey precisely what their cuisine contributes and the part it plays in the astonishing range of restaurants that London possesses.

The many events of the festival will culminate in the London Restaurant Festival Awards presented on the evening of 13 October in association with the London Evening Standard.

Among the awards is the category of Best London Festival menu, which will go the restaurant – in each price category – that in the opinion of the judges has most creatively, generously and deliciously presented an edible snapshot of how they feed us

Inspired? Restaurateurs can register now to participate with a Festival Menu at London Restaurant Festival. Download the forms here:

Restaurant Registration Form [PDF 308KB]

Restaurant Registration Prices [PDF 134KB]

Restaurant Registration Guidelines [PDF 129KB]

Last week we sent out a “call to arms” to encourage as many London restaurants as possible to sign up and take part in the inaugural London Restaurant Festival.

Happily the response has been really enthusiastic. Hundreds of restaurants of all sizes, cuisine and budget have been requesting registration forms. These are now filtering back and we are hoping that our first-year target of 1,000 restaurants might be reached by the time the festival kicks off in October.

The restaurants involved will all be running their own Festival Menus. These are a bedrock of the festival. Below is an outline of just what we mean by the Festival Menu “event”:

The London Restaurant Festival is not about coupons and vouchers. Instead, the participating restaurants will offer great value, and inventive cooking, to customers through their Festival Menus.

These will run throughout the festival at all participating restaurants from The Wolseley to family-run independents and from Pizza Express to hidden gems that few have experienced.

The Festival Menu ‘event’ is inclusive and wide-ranging. Lunch menus of two courses will be priced at £10, £15 or £20 (whether drinks are included depends on the restaurant). Dinner menus of two courses will be priced at £15, £25 and £40.

There is no limit to the number of restaurants that can run their own Festival Menu and all will be listed on the London Restaurant Festival website – www.londonrestaurantfestival.com

To register, download the forms here:

Restaurant Registration Form [PDF 308KB]

Restaurant Registration Prices [PDF 134KB]

Restaurant Registration Guidelines [PDF 129KB]