The highly popular Aberdeen Restaurant Week has been hailed a huge success as thousands of diners headed out over the last twelve days to enjoy all that the participating restaurants had to offer.
Returning to the city for the eighth time the bi-annual celebration of food delivered a welcome boost to city centre restaurants and cafes with many reporting that they were fully booked at weekends as well as seeing a notable rise in mid-week covers.
The event, which ends on Friday, March 18, is brought to the city by the city centre Business Improvement District (BID) organisation, Aberdeen Inspired and is now a firm fixture on the city’s events calendar as well as a firm favourite with food lovers from both near and far.
Aberdeen Inspired Chief Executive, Adrian Watson said: “This event continues to go from strength to strength. It’s really pleasing that so many levy paying businesses took part this time and it’s rewarding to receive such positive feedback from both the businesses who took part and diners who got out and about.
“Restaurants and cafes are telling us that they have seen a real rise in number of diners and that traditionally quiet days have been in demand. It is important for people to feel confident about returning to the city centre and the impact that Aberdeen Restaurant Week has on achieving a renewed enthusiasm and energy for coming into the city centre cannot be underestimated.
“We have some of the best restaurants in Scotland in our city centre and it’s important that we do all that we can to showcase our hospitality sector to one and all. The recent news that exciting new concept restaurants Six by Nico and Resident X are heading to the city will further enhance the city’s reputation with foodies and we believe openings such as these will encourage both investment in the city centre and encourage businesses back in, further strengthening the city centre as a strong commercial district attracting people to live, work and spend their leisure time in the heart of the city. “
Mario Gizzi, Owner of both Café Andaluz and Amarone told us: “Restaurant week is hugely popular with diners and we saw a noticeable increase in the number of customers coming through our doors over the course of the twelve days.
“Many of these diners are new to our restaurants and its encouraging to get feedback from them that they enjoyed their experience and will be back to dine with us again.
“There’s a huge variety of restaurants and cafes in Aberdeen city centre and it’s great to get a collective message out through Aberdeen Restaurant Week and showcase all that the city centre hospitality scene has to offer.”
Colin Fraser dined at Café Andaluz and he added: "Aberdeen Restaurant Week is always such an exciting time in the city. Bringing a tremendous buzz on and offline, every year is just as special as the last.
"I've been running a food blog for the past six years and I'm still trying out new places to eat in the city and Restaurant Week plays a big part in that. Serving up a bumper selection of eateries every year, it's the perfect opportunity to explore new places and support local.
"This year I dined at Cafe Andaluz and being a place that I've dined at many times, its special Restaurant Week menu made it seem like my first. Now that we're edging back to normality, I'm sure that this year's event has left many with a taste to continue to dine out and help the local food scene rebuild after the pandemic."
Rob Milne, Owner of local independent Kirkview Café, who recently relocated from their home on Union terrace to a larger premises on Belmont Street added: “Last week was our busiest week to date. Aberdeen Restaurant Week has kept us on our toes, especially lunch service and Friday and Saturday evenings. We have fairly learned what we are capable of in our new location. Really chuffed we took part in another successful event.”
Returning to the city for its eighth edition over 40 of the city centre’s restaurants and cafes took part in the twelve day promotion which ran from Monday, March 7 until Friday, March 18. Diners were able to enjoy a wide range of cuisines for two simple price points of £10 for lunch and £25 for dinner.