Dressing up is the best thing about Halloween but the food and drink comes a close second. Halloween-themed cupcakes are springing up all over the place and I can’t pass the Krispy Kreme stand on my way to the office without taking a look at the Halloween doughnuts.

Eat your way through the spooky season with these ghoulish treats:

• Day of the Dead De-Light at the Met Bar: Taking inspiration from Mexico’s colourful Day of the Dead festival, the Met Bar is presenting chocolate cupcakes with sugar skulls, coffin-shaped mud pies and savoury snacks. All waist-friendly of course! 25 Oct-2 Nov
• Halloween at Planet Hollywood: Staff in fancy dress will serve you from a special Halloween menu. There’ll be games and face painters for the kids from 3-8pm and dressing up is encouraged. 31 Oct
• Gilgamesh Halloween Party: Music, visual displays and spine tingling Halloween cocktails will keep you entertained all night. 30 Oct
• Gourmet Burger Kitchen: Keep vampires at bay with a Garlic Mayo Burger at GBK. Available until 31 Oct
• Evil Cupcakes: Thought cupcakes were cute? Think again, as this over-18s pop-up shop brings the most gruesome of cupcakes to London. Oozing eyeballs, skulls and even squeezable zit cupcakes are all on the less-than-appetising menu. 29-31 Oct, Maiden, 188 Shoreditch High Street.

Where are you eating and drinking this Halloween? Tell us in the comments below.

The sun was shining on London’s most picturesque riverside tourist spot, and as I was strolling past The Royal Festival Hall with the great London Eye rising up in the background, I noticed a hive of activity going on outside the colourful Giraffe restaurant and wandered over to see what all the hype was about.

I was welcomed with a warming pot of Rude Health porridge and then treated to a live feast for the eyes whilst competitive hopefuls cooked up porridge oats on mini stoves, adding all manner of exotic ingredients.

Crazy concoctions included, sweet maple porridge with sausage and bacon, Boozy Breakfast – white chocolate, macadamia nuts and brandy-soaked cranberries, and my particular favourite Porrichino – a layered attempt to win the porridge crown – made up of espresso and rum-soaked sponge fingers, rum-soaked sultanas, Greek yoghurt, caramelised almonds and chocolate dusting.

The overall winner was a spicy take on the popular winter breckie: Mexican Mole Porridge containing lime, chilli, chilli paste, ginger, cumin, coriander and lime zest.

Anyone still hanging around then got to see PorridgeLady (winner of the world Porridge-Making Championships), cook her award-winning Spotted Dick Porridge Pudding and then sample it with hot custard. Yum!

Finally, I got out of the cold and ventured into Giraffe for a stack of fine blueberry and banana pancakes with maple syrup, before wandering off to hunt down some free lunch…

The red-carpet event’s guests were the great and good from the restaurant industry, plus foodie celebs including Fay Maschler – critic extraordinaire and co-founder of the festival.

With the festival’s main events getting underway today, the organisers have already had a fantastic response from chefs, restaurateurs and the public.

Pre-event targets of signing up 500 restaurants were exceeded with an exciting and diverse range of London establishments getting involved.

Tickets have been selling like hotcakes, with several festival events already sold out. But don’t fear, you can still book a Festival Menu, and get a great ticket deal on the following events by visiting the Festival Hub in Covent Garden:

• Eat Film
• Starter for Ten
• The Big Roast
• Simon Schama’s talk on food  and eating out

From lunchtime today, London Restaurant Festival attendees can also vote for their favourite festival menu. Winners will be announced at the Awards Ceremony on 13 October.

Well, we may not be able to provide the first two but London Restaurant Festival delivers the meal & movie thing on a plate!

Eat Film is one of the coolest events happening during the festival’s week-long celebration of food and restaurants in London.

At Eat Film you get to watch a film then eat food inspired by it.

For example, watch Goodfellas in the comfortable Soho Hotel screening room, then dine afterwards on delicious spaghetti and meatballs and drink funky Goodfellas-themed cocktails, such as “The Godfather” -  a tasty concoction of whisky, Amaretto and orange zest - or “The Wiseguy” - a muddled apple and rasperry drink featuring Ivan the Terrible vodka.  I bet that hits the spot (pun fully intended).

Or why not sample the new Meryl Streep film, Julie & Julia, which follows two very different American women, separated by time and geography, but brought together by a shared love of French cookery. It’s followed by a très bien French meal, naturellement.

Or you could taste cult film Eat Drink Man Woman, then be treated to a Taiwanese banquet at Keelung restaurant, featuring won tons, “drunken” chicken,  sichuan flavours and a pig’s trotter hot pot.

And families will enjoy the lunchtime screening of Ratatouille at The Barbican, followed by a kid-friendly meal in Searcy’s restaurant at the venue.

I’m getting hungry just writing about it. Get your tickets today from the London Restaurant Festival website.

Chef extraordinaire Pierre Koffmann stands on the roof of Selfridges department store, where he will be hosting his pop-up Restaurant on the Roof during London Restaurant Festival and beyond.

What a magnificent view! We think he’ll be pretty happy working here for a few weeks, it almost rivals the vista from VL towers.

For more information and booking, visit the London Restaurant Festival website.

If you didn’t get tickets for the real thing, head over to pan-Asian restaurant Gilgamesh in Camden, where they’ve created a Wimbledon-themed Players’ Lounge.

There’s Astroturf on the floor, waitresses dressed in tennis outfits, tennis ball decor, and screens showing all the Wimbledon action.

On the menu, you’ll find creamy Murray Martinis and strawberry and cream wantons.

Gilgamesh isn’t the only venue getting into tennis this year. Check out Bluebird’s courtyard, decorated with Astroturf and giant tennis balls, or enjoy a Royal Wimbledon cocktail at The Crescent Champagne Bar.

Where will you be watching Wimbledon? Send us your suggestions…