It’s easy to walk straight past Circus on Endell Street, Covent Garden, if you’re not paying attention. There’s no big top entrance, or street entertainers juggling or hula hooping outside. In fact, there’s nothing to betray the entertainment that awaits within, only a polite doorman who ensures you have the correct destination and bids you a pleasant evening as you enter a short corridor with a cloakroom at the far end, guarding the main doors to the restaurant and cocktail bar.

Since opening in January 2010, I’ve walked through those main doors on two other occasions. My guest for this particular evening had never seen what lies beyond the cloakroom. Her interest was immediately peaked by the Californian-sounding model attendant who took our coats and led us through to the main dining area with its catwalk showpiece table that doubles up as a performance stage.

Aware that the circus-style performances wouldn’t begin until after 8pm, I encouraged a visit to the bar before we settled down to eat. Circus’ bar cocktail list is designed by Henry Besant and the Worldwide Cocktail Club – the team responsible for the bars at Bungalow 8 and Notting Hill’s The Lonsdale. It’s a short but encyclopedic menu of cocktails from which my companion chose a Kumquat  & Almond Caipirinha. Unable to decide, I asked the barman to surprise me with a bourbon-based creation. I already knew my drink would taste amazing however it was created so the requested surprise must have been its brink pink coloration when poured into a martini glass.

For dinner, I had the special of marinated steak in a tiger prawn and chorizo dressing whilst she opted for the cajun sea bass (I would have opted for the highly recommended 24 hour slow roasted beef short ribs if the special hadn’t changed my mind). For starters we shared baby squid and chicken and prawn satay skewers. The Circus menu is Pan-American (just like almost all the staff) and, just as on both my previous visits, the baby squid and steaks are divine perfection.

The first indication that a performer is about to take to the stage is the open kitchen’s shutters going down along with the lights. If you’ve timed your food order correctly this will coincide with the end of each course. If not, then it’s a straight choice between melt-in-the-mouth steak in the dark or an aerialist, performing on a hoop above the catwalk table.

On each of my previous visits the performances have been different so you never know what to expect. On my first mid-week visit, we stayed all night and witnessed the acts grow ever-more burlesque as the evening draws on. This time however was a Friday night and the DJ was playing more to the bar crowd than the diners who wished to talk. So after a hula-hoop girl, a fire-dancer and the aerialist, we settled the bill, saved our vocal chords and made our escape.

Thankfully, with Circus now catering for weekday and weekend brunch menus and quieter mid-week sittings, there are better times to plan a visit to ensure you get the full performance and dining experience in Covent Garden’s unique cabaret restaurant. The popularity of this particular Circus has ensured that it’s not about to leave town any time soon.

(by Mike Fletcher)

I spend far too much money on eating out. It’s one of the inconvenient pleasures of living in a city with 50 Michelin-starred restaurants and hundreds of secret hideaway eateries just waiting to be discovered and then savoured.

Despite a constant urge to try out new places however, I always find myself returning to one of my favourite Soho establishments, Andrew Edmunds on Lexington Street.

Admittedly, Andrew Edmunds receives most of my custom during the winter months. It’s somewhere familiar to escape the drizzle and swap the falling temperatures for the warm dark glow of intimate candle-lit tables, plain white tablecloths, great British food and an extensive red wine list. I wasn’t entirely convinced therefore that I’d made the right choice when, on one of the warmest days of the summer so far, I reached for the phone and booked a table for two downstairs at this charming gourmet bolt-hole.

Maybe I opted for a table downstairs so we could pretend that the balmy summer’s evening unfolding on the street outside was actually a dark winter’s night as we swapped stories over a naked flame and drank a 2006 mid-priced bottle of Argentinian red.

Actually, the real reason I requested downstairs is because that’s where my preferred table is located (the only restaurant where I actually know which table I prefer). Tonight, table 22, side on to all the other diners so that you’re not distracted by their food choices or over-heard snippets of conversation, was available and ours for three straight hours.

My starter choice was the same starter I always go for at this home away from home diner – Dressed Crab (superb). After our very amiable Kiwi waitress Katy had joked about the hand-written menu and then translated the hieroglyphics, my guest went for Lincolnshire asparagus vinaigrette with thin slices of Pecorino cheese.

For main, I went for the Calasparra risotto with squid, mussels, prawns, clams, chorizo and langoustine whilst my guest plumped for the poached wild sea trout, accompanied by Jersey Royals and a watercress mayonnaise. I had definitely plumped for the more flavoursome dish as my seafood arrived infused with chili and was extremely satisfying with just the right amount of heat. The trout looked a tad boring but I was assured that it tasted very nice.

I rarely go for dessert but was quite happy to sip my expresso whilst my guest pondered long and hard over whether to have the peach and almond tart. With no decision reached and a cursory look round to see that most of our fellow diners had departed as it was approaching 11pm, I requested the bill and inspected the damage.

Our meal for two, with wine, coffee and 12.5% service charge came to a very reasonable £79. It was only after the tab was settled that Katy returned to our table with a slice of peach and almond tart and two forks. “There’s only two slices left and I know you were tempted so you have this one and I’m going to save the final slice as a treat for when I finish my shift,” our waitress said with a smile.

It’s service like that which will keep me returning to Andrew Edmunds all year round and sets London’s restaurants apart, in my view, from those anywhere else in the world.

Having been on sale for less than a week, only three capsules are now available for London Restaurant Festival on the London Eye.

4 October – Richard Corrigan, Corrigan’s Mayfair
11 October – Atul Kochhar, Benares
18 October – Joel Antunes, Brasserie Joel

Further details, including booking information, can be found here.

(updated 14/06/10)

Locanda Locatelli, Bar Boulud, Hakkasan, L’Anima and Murano have all been snapped up on the first day of London Restaurant Festival at the London Eye capsules going on sale.

With details of the charity auction for Gordon Ramsay’s capsule on 8th October yet to be released, this leaves just five of the eleven nights left at London’s most exclusive pop-up restaurant.

The full line-up currently stands as follows:

4 Oct: Richard Corrigan, Corrigan’s Mayfair
5 Oct: Georgio Locatelli, Locanda Locatelli – SOLD
6 Oct: Tong Chee Hwee, Hakkasan – SOLD
7 Oct: Francesco Mazzei, L’Anima – SOLD
8 Oct: Gordon Ramsay, Petrus – CHARITY AUCTION
11 Oct: Atul Kochhar, Benares
12 Oct: Mark Hix, HIX Soho – SOLD
13 Oct: Gary Lee, The Ivy – SOLD
14 Oct: Daniel Boulud, Bar Boulud – SOLD
15 Oct: Angela Hartnett, Murano – SOLD
18 Oct: Joel Antunes, Brasserie Joel

All enquires to Katie Mann at London Restaurant Festival: katie.mann@londonrestaurantfestival.com

Champagne G H Mumm Tasting

We gathered some of London’s greatest chefs including Gordon Ramsay, Angela Hartnett, Richard Corrigan, Giorgio Locatelli and Francesco Mazzei at The London Eye to mark tickets going on sale for the London Restaurant Festival 2010. The specially designed table for one of our most celebrated events – dinners on the Eye – was in place and the chefs filed in. “I’m just so pleased that the London Restaurant Festival has taken off,” Gordon said. His enthusiasm was followed by a chorus of approval form all the chefs. I’d like to thank all of them who came along. It’s hugely appreciated.

The Eye then set off and breakfast was served to the many press who came along to find out more about this year’s events.

We then headed off for a compelling tasting hosted by our official Champagne GH Mumm – I cannot recommend their Cramant highly enough – and then we had lunch at Brasserie Joel. This is the new restaurant of the exceptionally talented Joel Atunes – formerly of Les Saveurs and now back in London. A scintillating gazpacho with sorbet, scallops with pea shoots and mushrooms, lamb with artichoke and an immaculate rum baba.

Buy tickets for all events, including Joel’s night on the London Eye, through our website – and hurry, they’re being snapped up.

Back soon with more news.

Simon

With just over four months to go, it is also very exciting to see some of the additional in-house event suggestions from several of the restaurants now committed to being involved this year.  Feasting Festival Menus, private-dining room dinner parties, cookery demonstrations and butchery classes are all set to feature in the 2010 Restaurant Events schedule, offering Festival-goers across London the chance to experience some really special and unique ideas in their local restaurants this year.

Further update to follow next week in advance of our consumer press launch at the London Eye on the 8th June, where we will reveal our full line-up of Festival Events for 2010 and tickets go onsale to the public.

2010 London Restaurant Festival Registered Restaurants currently include:  Sam’s Brasserie, Tate Modern, The Clerkenwell Kitchen, Whitechapel Gallery Dining Room,  Quilon Restaurant, Mews of Mayfair, Moti Mahal, Mestizo, The Rib Room, The Cinnamon Club, Mango Tree, Bonds, HIX, The Landau, Village East, The Draper’s Arms, Electric Brasserie and Hawksmoor.

I then joined Fay, and her husband Reg, and Wahaca‘s Tommi Miers and her husband Mark at Il Barreto on Blandford St. Such a great place and choc full on a Monday night. We look forward to seeing what they produce for their Festival Menu in October.

On the subject of which, the sign-up is now fully up and running on the website. Please do sign up as soon as you can to make the most of your involvement. It’s quite clear from last year’s LRF that the restaurants who signed up early and got engaged in the festival from the outset saw the greatest benefits from their involvement. It’s just £100 to sign up your restaurant. A very small price to pay for being involved in London’s only genuine restaurant festival designed to embrace all that is great and London’s restaurant industry.

All the very best,
Simon.

Please contact Chloe Couchman if you wish to use official photos from the LRF 2010 launch party.

Obviously we will keep you fully updated with our plans as we approach March when we aim to officially announce LRF 2010 and reveal some new events and some of the improvements we are instigating.

The team has spent a considerable amount of time listening to the feedback from year one and are working on creating an even more engaging and spirited London Restaurant Festival in its second year.

Many thanks once again to all the chefs who took part in year one, all those who bought tickets to events and also the 10,000 people who sat down to enjoy a festival menu at one of the 500-odd participating restaurants.

For LRF 2010 we hope to bring you an experience that will take London one step closer to hosting the most internationally renowned restaurant festival in the world.

Happy Christmas once again and we’ll be back soon.

London so clearly merits celebration of its restaurants. Hardly a day goes by without hearing news of a new venture in catering  – straight- up or subversive. During the credit crunch, the emphasis happily  has been on crunch in the sense of celery stick,  wood-fired pizza base, falafel, veal Holstein, Peking Duck, an apple, a biscuit, a brandy snap….you get my drift. The London Restaurant Festival lives on  to support and encourage the pleasures of eating out and the importance of sitting down with family, friends and colleagues to share a meal and have a conversation.

Some Festival events such as Eat Film will continue.  A movie followed by  the meal of the plot proved the ideal diverting evening. Gourmet Odysseys which this year took place in the West End will next year see Routemasters heading for Shoreditch, Notting Hill, Chiswick, Islington, Wandsworth and so forth proving that fascinating food has no geographical boundaries.

Chefs are coming to us with ideas for events and gatherings for 2010. 

It was wonderful and gratifying to have the enthusiasm and practical contribution of so many chefs and restaurateurs this year and next year we hope to be able to reward them with more than a smile and a kiss.

Special good-value menus remain at the heart of the Festival and in 2010 we hope even more restaurants will sign up, create irresistible menus and benefit from the extra custom that can be directed their way.

Please stay in touch. All ideas are welcome and all criticism will be carefully considered.