I have finally managed to go to a Supper Club. Yes I have completely missed the trend and must be the last person in the world who has never been to one of the secret restaurants that are popping up all over London (well, if I don't count the paladares in Cuba where I ate some of the dullest food ever in the most depressing atmosphere). But now I have finally caught up with the latest trend in eating out and went to the NOMAD CHEF in Holland Park.
For people who are as yesterday as me: Private Supper Clubs or Underground Restaurants as they are also called are a new concept of eating out where you dine at someone's private house. With other people you haven't met. It's more like a dinner party actually. Really fun (but not the right thing for sociopaths).
So back to the Nomad Chef Secret Restaurant: the American hobby cook Shelley aka the Nomad Chef served us a mixture of oriental inspired food in her lovely house with big garden at Holland Park. We were nine people, apparently she usually hosts around 20, but it was the day of the football semi-finals which might have kept the guests away.
We were greeted with a glass of champagne while we were waiting for the other guests to arrive. We were already starving, unfortunately all we got for the first hour or so were some sad nachos with not very exciting sour cream dips.
One after the other the guests arrived - a mixture of people of all in their twenties and thirties, different nationalities and backgrounds, a very pleasant crowd.
We started the the dinner with Gazpacho which was quite nice if slightly under-seasoned, accompanied by a couple of paneer pieces coated with coriander pesto. They were probably the part of the food I liked best even though in my opinion they did not fit together with the gazpacho at all.
For the main we had the choice between tuna and lamb which Shelley prepared on the outside grill. We tried one of each and I have to say neither was good. Shelley is vegetarian, so maybe she doesn't know how awful overcooked tuna and tough, overcooked meat is. On the upside - the portions were so small that there was not much suffering involved... It was served on couscous (uninspired) and pea artichoke puree (didn't taste of very much).
I have to say I was absolutely starving still after the main course, that's probably why I dived into the dessert like there was no tomorrow. Rice pudding cooked with coconut and cardamon was actually quite nice.
So even though it was an enjoyable evening and the food was - if not delicious - certainly edible and very nicely presented, it left some bitter taste in my mouth. We paid 30 pounds which is a lot of money for food. The dinner we got served was cheap, the portions were stingy and it was certainly not worth 30 pounds, even if you consider the work time etc.
If Shelley had charged less I would happily recommend the Nomad Chef as she was a good hostess, the atmosphere was pleasant and all in all it was an enjoyable evening. But so I felt ever so slightly ripped off.
By the way, avoid the so called 'wine tasting': it costs 10 pounds more and you get cheap Tesco wine. I was not impressed by this actually. read more