FOOD & DRINK BLOG

It’s not often a swanky awards ceremony only lasts 40 minutes. Then again, it’s not often that the audience has to stand up all the way through it.

Last week’s first ever London Restaurant Festival Awards, held at the curiously named Street at Tea Building in Shoreditch, seemed determined to break new ground. As restaurant critic and Festival chair Fay Maschler explained in her (short) opening speech, the idea was to do something a bit different.

Hence there were awards for ‘bravery’, ‘warmth and welcome’, ‘discovery’ and ‘understanding of ceremony’ (still not completely sure what that one meant). And the whole thing was determinedly lo-fi – the audio-visual technology appeared to have cost about five quid and practically creaked each time a new slide came up.

Awards went to the likes of Thomasina Myers of Wahaca, Mourad Mazouz of Sketch, the people behind Anima and even the Portobello Pizzeria (for ‘fun’). They were all worthy winners and it was a fitting culmination to what had been a very interesting Festival. Maybe next year they should try to publicise it a bit more.

When the final gong had been handed out (to Fay Maschler, as it happened), we all headed next door to Nick Jones’s latest outpost, Pizza East, a cavernous establishment that does far more than serve pizzas. The wine flowed and we all agreed that London’s restaurant scene has got to be the match for any other city in the world.

Pizza East, 56 Shoreditch High Street, E1. Find out even more fanastic reasons to visit London.