Lidl surprise: Supermarket group opens pop-up restaurant in Shoreditch

The restaurant is fitted out like many in Shoreditch – bare bulbs, neon lights and simple wooden furniture. The menu could be found at any gastropub, with tagliatelle with lobster and truffle oil, smoked reindeer and pickled blackberry, and a panettone bread pudding all featured. The key difference is that all of the meals are made with food from Lidl, particularly from its higher-end Deluxe range; hence, the restaurant’s name.

For the first two weeks, it was a well-guarded secret and guests would only find out at the end of the meal that they were being fed discount produce, when they saw the receipt and received recipe cards showing how to replicate the gourmet meals at home.

The pop-up is part of Lidl’s continuing marketing effort to be seen as the source of upscale offers, but at the discount prices it is known for. The restaurant is an example of dabbling in Faction Marketing, using the fiction of being a typical hipster joint, only to reveal the truth later.