05 Jul The Mayor presents winners with I Love Lunch 2019 Awards
The Mayor of Hammersmith and Fulham, Councillor Daryl Brown, joined Hammersmith BID to congratulate this year’s I Love Lunch winners and award them their trophies.
Now in its eighth year, I Love Lunch 2019 was the most successful competition to date, with 44 businesses competing, almost 10,000 votes submitted, and new winners crowned in every category.
Between 11-25 May, the public voted online for their favourite local lunch venues across four categories: Best Restaurant, Best Café, Best On-the-Go and Best Pub.
Despite fierce competition from Japanese-fusion restaurant Wagamama, Spanish Tapas venue Toro Gordo were victorious in the Restaurant category. General Manager Miguel Caffarena said “We are a small independent restaurant and we have been working very hard to make Toro Gordo a place for everyone. It could not have happened without the help of our new chef Elisabeth from Malaga and the effort that all our staff have put into making Toro Gordo the winner this year. We are deeply grateful for this award and we hope to see you having tapas and sangria with us soon!”
Taiwanese bubble tea experts, Dragon Cat Café triumphed in the Café group, with Manager Yohannes Miller and the Dragon Cat Café team stating: “We all agree that we’ve never seen customer loyalty like this before. We have customers who happily walk 2 miles in the sun, rain or snow to visit us. We have customers whose social media pages are almost dedicated to our drinks, cakes and sharing moments with friends and family in store, and we have customers who have gone through more loyalty cards than they can remember. Without our loyal customers, we wouldn’t have won this award, and for that, they have our eternal gratitude. We started Dragon Cat for us and will continue to keep it going for them.”
It was a tremendous win for Baba G Lebanese Grill who took home the ‘Best On-the-Go’ trophy, with the largest number of votes ever received by one business in the competition’s history. Founder Zack Barakat said “We are pleased, honoured and humbled to win the Best On-The-Go title in the I Love Lunch 2019 competition. It is my privilege to extend a heartfelt and warm thank you to all the organisers for an awesome competition, and an enormous salute to all the customers who have made incredible contributions by voting for us. And, of course, thanks to my team for a job well done. Without our amazing team this award would have never been achievable. Congratulations to all other winners as well on their well-deserved success.”
Finally, King Street favourite The Plough and Harrow were awarded ‘Best Pub’. The team were thrilled with the accolade. After presenting all the winners with their trophies and certificates, Mayor, Cllr Daryl Brown commented “I was very honoured to present the awards to the winners of I Love Lunch. The fact that so many customers have voted is a great testimony that the winners have exceeded customer expectation. Well done to everyone.”