Lady’s Taste of London Festival Guide

Today I want to bring you my guide to the Taste of London festival. This annual foodie extravaganza takes over Regent’s Park every June with restaurant stalls, cooking demonstrations, samples, and more.

Taste of London Festival

One of my favorite things about England in summer is that all the best annual events take place. There’s Royal Ascot, Wimbledon, the Henley Royal Regatta, and—not least among these—the Taste of London festival.

Every June a corner of Regent’s Park is taken over by London’s top restaurants, all of which offer miniature portions of their signature dishes.

In addition, sponsors like British Airways host tents for their Gold and Silver card holders. Vintage champagne flows all day, and hors d’oeuvres and sweets float through the room on the hands of flight attendants.

It’s just like traveling, only without the annoying security process and pressurized cabin. Love.

Taste of London

I was lucky enough to visit the Taste of London festival twice this year. After a great experience last year, my boyfriend and I bought tickets in advance for Sunday afternoon. Then he won free tickets for the Friday afternoon session.

Rather than give up an additional chance to drink quality champagne and eat amazing food, we decided to make a Taste of London weekend sandwich with a Royal Ascot filling.

Friday Session

The Friday session was relatively low-key. My boyfriend succeeded in drinking four glasses of champagne in our fist fifteen minutes in the BA tent, setting a relaxed tone for the day.

We got out a few times to try dishes from the restaurants, though, including a delicious jumbo sea scallop with sweet-and-sour plantains and habanero corn crema.

That was followed by handmade egg maccheroni with braised shoulder of Scottish lamb served with pecorino cheese and summer truffle (good, but could have been thicker).

For dessert we enjoyed a complimentary pistachio macaron from the manager of Yauatcha, who was pleased to hear us rave about the restaurant’s crispy duck.

Sunday Session

Sunday was a much more productive day at the Taste of London festival. Well, from a food perspective anyway.

We enjoyed tastes of the excellent chili garlic black cod from Dinings…

…the perfect Eton mess from Tom’s Kitchen…

…and the Alphonso mango rice pudding with pistachios and sweet chili from Trishna (great, but could have used less chili).

We also tried a lobster bique from Le Pont de la Tour (a bit too salty for my taste) and some non-restaurant food from the likes of Waitrose, an oyster bar, and of course the BA tent.

By the time the Taste of London festival shut down for the day we were stuffed with good food and vintage champagne.

Taste of London Festival in Regent’s Park

As a final bonus, we collected a bunch of free tastes and giveaways from restaurants and vendors that wanted to hand out the last of their stock before the Taste of London festival closed for the year.

Now, instead of being sad the event is over, I’ve been enjoying the likes of mango lassis, couscous, and haggis all week. If only there were enough treats to hold me over until next year.

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