Restaurant soft launches in London: Where to get a half price meal this August

Staying on top of the London restaurant scene can be an expensive business. But there is a way to game the system so you can be the first to try the hottest openings for a fraction of the normal price. You have to go soft — as in soft launch — and there’s a crop of them this summer.

A soft launch can last from a day to a month and during this time food (although rarely alcohol) is half the usual price — cheap as chips, even if it’s actually a prime bit of steak.

Catherine Hanly, editor of London restaurant website Hot Dinners, says soft launches provide “opportunities for enthusiastic but cash-strapped foodies to dine out at some of the city’s hottest new restaurants”. She knows what she’s talking about — Hot Dinners was the first British food website to promote them, after she noticed that “hardly anyone in London ran soft launches even though it is common practice in New York”.

The customer saves a wad of cash but there are also benefits for the restaurant. “The discount means customers are much more willing to be relaxed about hiccups and any slip-ups in service,” says Hanly, “and it’s a way of getting social promotion in the early days of an opening without any negative coverage — after all, everyone loves a good deal.”

Hanly fondly namechecks the soft launches of each new branch of Hawksmoor as being “the stuff of legend” and “always insanely popular” — so if you ever get a chargrilled sniff of a new steak restaurant opening in London, get your reservation fingers at the ready.

Until that joyous, meat-filled day, here are the soft launches you should be scrambling to try. Because if it’s half the price, you can order twice as much, right?

@franklymccoy

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