Taste of London

So here it is, my verdict of the taste festival

Unfortunately we went on the most rainy night this year I believe so it took a bit of the excitement away.

Most people were cuddled up in the tents rather than sitting out on all the tablas and chairs in the sunshine.

We started off with a glass of prosecco to get us going. I'd only had half a bottle earlier with Jason and the Italian hadn't had any at all.

There were lots of stands for whatever you fancied, drinks, food - savoury and sweet,

ice cream (brrrr)

Fransesco Mazzei in action, here we didn't need to choose, he gave us all his dishes to try.

Most stands had three different dishes that you could buy, and each dish was priced between 8-12 crowns.

You can buy the crowns throughout the festival, but it is probably easier to start off and buy some at the entrance.

We bought two booklets, which is 40 crowns and that cost me £20.

So that means that the food is between £4-6, which, to me, is quite expensive.

Especially since they are only small tasting portions, and the ticket to get in to taste is £26 and you get nothing for that apart from the entry.

Because the weather was so bad it was hard to eat the food with so many people inside the tent at the same time, let alone to take photos of it, but I managed to get a photo of this Scallop and Prawn burger from Scott's. Very yummy.

There were a couple of tables in each tent, that could sit about six people each. Every tent we went into had every seat taken which meant that you were forced to stand up and eat.

I don't mind this too much, because it's on paper plates anyway and it gives it the festival feel which is after all what it is.

Now this is a stand that I got excited about, I thought everything had spelt in it, but it turned out that it was only a couple of their breads and a twirly thing with nuts in it.

Somehow I ended up with a brownie (no spelt in sight) and the twirly thing that was so filled with sugar that I was afraid my body would go into shock after my no sugar week.

There were also some interior design things for the house, and these things were right up my street

Organic Therapeutic Chocolate - Yum!

100% organic energy drink - very good.

And lastly a picture of the only Swedish thing I could find in there.

So apart from there not being enough Swedish things;)

What else did I think?

I thought that it is a very good way for London restaurants to show themselves and remind people that they exist. I think that today when there are new restaurants opening all the time, you forget a bit about the old ones.

I did however think that it was extremely over priced, both the ticket price and the dishes, and I wouldn't have gone if we also had to pay the entry fee (we got tickets for free through the Italians restaurant)

Although saying that, if it's a nice day and you've eaten something before you go in and treat it as a normal day in the pub, and just concentrate on the drink stands, wonder around and look for the free stuff, it could make a change to the normal weekend day you have. 

They were giving out biscuits to try, and some ice cream, toffee shots, you could try all the wines in all the stands before buying.

And it is a bit of a social even off course and even with the rain people were in good spirits and seemed to enjoy themselves.

I do think that it, off course, would have been a different experience had the weather been better.

So would I go back?

I think if it was a nice sunny day and it was a big group of us that would go in the afternoon it would be a different thing and I probably would go back.

If you have tickets already go and check it out, just don't expect to get lots for your money.

Have a look at the website before you go, see what restaurants you would prefer to go to, and make sure you get a map when you get in (they are free).