The Royal Albert Hall is one of those show-stopping, no-holds-barred beauties that defines the iconic and truly beautiful architecture of London. The heartbeat of music in central London, simply walking through the round edges into this amazing music hall is an experience in and of itself. And now, even if your little ones are too young for the Proms, you can introduce them to the Royal Albert Hall in all its Grade I listed glory by dining at Verdi.
I recently had a glorious evening there, dining and drinking (Mama had a night off, obviously) in the beautifully-curated and newly-opened Verdi restaurant. What was once Café Consort is now a bevy of stunning Italian eats, buttery brown leather seating, a striking turquoise tiled Mozzarella bar (my personal favourite) and all with the backdrop of the Royal Albert Hall.
Weekend family brunches
This gorgeous eatery offers up fantastic family-style lunches on Saturdays all accompanied by live blues and jazz performances. There is a wonderful Sunday Brunch series on selected weekends, seeing beautiful family-friendly food accompanied by live jazz music. Parents: you’ll do well to kick the weekend off with a Campari Breakfast Martini – a beautiful hangover-healer made from Bombay Sapphire, Earl Grey tea, Campari and a scoop of homemade orange marmalade.
Little ones will adore the stone-baked pizzas, all of which are made from fine Italian Caputo flour. Toppings of porcini, parmesan reggiano, rocket, truffle oil and mozzarella abound, while more adventurous young eaters may try the pizzas with king prawns, asparagus, mushrooms, tomato and mozzarella. Perfect pasta is served too – we’re talking cannelloni al cinghiale, which is filled with wild boar meat or tagliatelle all salsicci, which uses Napoli sausages for its meatballs.
The mozzarella bar menu, which I personally adored, showcases mozzarella di bufala and delicately creamy burratta, which I ordered with fresh vegetables and prosciutto crudo. Dessert-lovers both big and small won’t be dissapointed either: tiramisu, torta ai limoni di Amalfi, gorgeous gelato in a range of flavours and super-strong affogato will delight. Your children will love the offerings of the grown-up menu, but if they are on the small side, there is an excellent children’s menu, too.
And if you do treat yourself to a cocktail and a cab home, the Lake Garda cocktail is fabulous. A perfect blend of gin, elderflower, lemon and tonic, it was the reason I suffered for a night out sans famille. Delightful at the time and enjoyed in such stunning surroundings, Verdi is set to become a firm favourite in our household both for family meals in central London and evenings out with friends.
The Royal Albert Hall’s family days
If you want more than one reason to visit Verdi this summer, there are some wonderful family events happening in the coming months. On August 19th and 20th, The Royal Albert Hall is doing a two day program to introduce children to music from around the world. Children aged between 5 and 11 years of age will meet performers from France to India, and take part in a wonderful and very exciting creative art workshop.
And with the upcoming Proms, this year sees the first ever CBeebies Prom. On Sunday July 27th from 11am, children will get the chance to see perfornances by some of their favourite CBeebies characters with a backdrop of music by the BBC Philharmonic. What better way to introduce the next generation of classical music fans to The Proms before lunch upstairs at Verdi? We’re booked already…..
For other fabulous things to do in and around London this summer, click here.
For other ideas on where to eat, stay and play in and around London, click here.