Events
05.03.12 - British Pie Week
Happy British Pie Week (5-11 March).
Why not use it as an excuse to try one of the 56* we’ll be baking fresh over the next seven days?
Each of our branches makes its own, fresh, every morning.
And each branch changes its fillings daily, too.
There are two reasons for this:
1. To keep things interesting, but also
2. To make best use of the freshest, most seasonal produce.
Some thing never change, though.
There’ll always be one meat and one vegetarian option.
And we’ll always serve our pies with mash and gravy. The greens are up to you!
People seem to enjoy taking photos of our pies and putting them on Flickr. We must admit: they are rather photogenic.
In fact, we’ve even started a board on Pinterest called ‘Happy British Pie Week‘
To mark British Pie Week, we’re sharing all our branches’ fillings on twitter and facebook.
Why don’t you mark British Pie Week by trying one (or two) of them?
We also take credit for starting the twiiter hashtag #PieMovies on Saturday.
Radio DJ Christian O’Connell picked it up on Monday, so we’ve got a few people playing.
‘British Pie Week‘ was trending on twitter on Monday morning.
Let’s see if we can get #PieMovies trending on twitter, too.
Or maybe you’d prefer playing #PieSongs?
*Four branches, two per branch, for seven days – you do the mash – 56 pies throughout British Pie Week
21.02.12 - Room with a view service
Katherine Hibbert said she had worried the dinner itself might be rather dry but – fuelled by wine and mutton stew from Canteen’s Royal Festival Hall branch – it had been ‘very jolly’.
She won a night in Living Architecture’s Room for London on the roof of Southbank’s Royal Festival Hall with her entry to Artangel and The Evening Standard’s ‘Idea for London’ competition.
Her brainwave? To let people willing to do community service stay in empty properties.
Her reward? Our RFH branch sent up potted crayfish and soda bread, spiced mutton stew, braised red cabbage, carrot and swede, and orange, vanilla and honey sillibub. Read more about it here.
02.02.12 - Fame, glory & a night above the Thames
London’s our home town. If it’s yours too then The Evening Standard and Artangel want to hear your brilliant ideas to make it better.
Winners of their ‘Ideas for London’ competition – and there’s going to be one every month – get a night in a Room for London, a boat-shaped structure on top of Southbank’s Royal Festival Hall. Why are we telling you this? Well quite apart from wanting to share something fun and different, Canteen has been asked to provide the room service. It’s a great way to get a free Canteen meal (our facebook competitions are another).
Plus if you’re a bit of a visionary this’ll be a great story to tell your grandchildren. So put on your thinking caps and if you need any brain food, you know where to come. More details here. Entry form here. Best of British.
17.11.11 - Canteen powers Tweed Run
The Tweed Run is a charity bike ride like no other.
On November 26th, around 500 tweed-wearing cyclists will steer their vintage machines round a London route that begins and ends at Ralph Lauren’s Covent Garden Rugby store.
Fittingly, Canteen Covent Garden has been asked to supplement this pedal power with some fuel of our own – hot sausage rolls and steaming cups of tea. Tally ho!
17.11.11 - Canteen Covent Garden Guest Chef Nights
December is only two weeks away. Bad news if you love wearing shorts and seeing leaves on trees. Fantastic news if you enjoy trying different dishes created for you by great cooks.
Because on December 1st, Angela Hartnett & Emma Duggan kick off our series of three guest chef nights at Canteen Covent Garden, with a hearty, one-off menu that includes rare roast rib of longhorn beef and baked vanilla rice pudding.
Mark Sargeant will be showcasing Canteen’s new ‘feasting and grill’ menu on the 8th.
Then finally Neil Borthwick (sous chef at The Square) takes the kitchen on the 15th, with a menu that begins with lightly curried smoked haddock soup with Cornish crab muffin. Click these links for full mouth-watering details and to book.
21.10.11 - Gone fishing
Well not quite, because we couldn’t get the insurance.
But our eager group of chefs and team leaders did make it down to Brighton and Newhaven Fish Sales in Hove.
They’re the people who deliver our fish to us fresh every day. First they have to catch them, which they do around three miles off the south coast. They use tiny day boats with small nets (but even the larger ones do no damage to the sea bed) to land their quota.
Any extra caught are sold to others, so no dead fish are ever, ever thrown back. Then a magic pinball conveyor sorts the catch according to weight.
We got a fileting masterclass, shivered in cavernous freezers and discovered that male cuttlefish are lured into pots with the promise of a female. Raunchy eh? See the photos of the Canteen fishing trip here.
17.09.10 - Festive parties. Get them wrapped up
We’re taking bookings for Christmas and New Year’s Eve parties.
Dribble over the menu then call or email one of our branches.
Starters: half pint of prawns with mayonnaise, chicken liver pâté, piccalilli and toast, or roast tomato and caramelised onion and sage tart.
Main: roast duck with roast potatoes, greens, gravy and apple sauce, fried fish & chips with tartare sauce, or pie and mash, greens and gravy.
Pudding: treacle tart with clotted cream, bread pudding with caramel ice cream, or Christmas pudding.
Think of the love you’ll get for suggesting Canteen for Xmas. Email specialfood@canteen.co.uk to book.
08.09.10 - Design Guide cycle tour
Over at London Design Guide, our good chum, Max Fraser, has just finished a series of sell out bike tours of London Design Festival.
In association with urban bike brand, Tokyobike, he guided riders to a surprise selection of exhibitions and events.
And when all the excitement and exercise was done, Max brought journalists and aficionados to lunch at Canteen, where they were delighted to discover bits of grub in amongst all the design.
Go to London design guide to buy your copy of the book, you can also visit Tokyobike by clicking here.
06.09.10 - London Restaurant Festival and awards
No doubt, you’ll be all over London Restaurant Festival like thick custard.
It runs from 4-18 October and showcases London’s best food, chefs and restaurants.
And at its heart are the festival menus, which offer both variety and value.
Ours gives you two courses for £10 and is bookable at any branch, via the link below.
It’s a great chance to join in the action and take advantage of a very special deal.
And if you’re lucky enough to be attending the awards, then you’re in for another treat – one of our famous hog roasts.
Book a festival table at Canteen here.
03.09.10 - What makes you smile?
That’s the question we asked our facebook fans and twitter followers on World Smile Day last Friday.
It was a miserable old day in London – really rainy – so we were chuffed when @stuartwitts and @chris_dolan answered with ‘@ClassroomTweets’ and ‘a cuppa and biscuit’, respectively.
Classroom Tweets come from a class of 7-yr olds and are guaranteed to brighten up anyone’s day – and who can argue against a great British cup of tea and a biccie cheering you up?
Thanks to everyone who played and congratulations to Stuart and Chris – you both win a Kilner jar of piccalilli.
Why not follow them to see if they tweet about it (we forgot to plant cameras and mics in the jars)?
And do join us on facebook and twitter – there will be loads more fun competitions and FREEBIES every week.