I’ve never been to a supper club before, it’s really become the next ‘it’ event in London. Hosted by talented cooks who love food and passionately blogs new creations. My first supper club was the grazing asia hosted by the London Foodie. If all supper clubs are this good, I’ve definitely been missing out. All the dishes were amazing and most importantly, I met some really amazing people. There were 15 of us and everyone was super friendly, passionate about food and we all had a great time together. I’d definitely recommend London Foodie’s supper club to everyone, though the next one in January is now fully booked..

It’s such an experience with supper clubs, almost identical to a house warming party with all your close friends and one of them just happens to be an excellent cook. We arrived at the early hours of 7.30pm at Luiz’s lovely home. Rather than awkwardly meeting new people, we all quickly remembered each other’s names, well, mostly through reinforcing repeatedly that your name is Josh, you name is Micheal etc etc. We talked in the living room like we were close friends and nibbled through some sushi canapés and yakitori chicken. 

Canapés

The sushi (technically maki) were delicious with well balanced rice and generous portions of salmon filling. They went down quickly, then came and went the delicious chicken yakitori. Our wine specialist for the evening, Denise, had matched each course with an excellent French wine as well as providing us with wine information that I had never heard of before. 

Spicy pork and seafood nabe

We sat down closeby to the lovely kitchen and each table had a ‘nabe’ pot filled with vegetables, seafoods and pork belly. ‘Nabe’ is similar to shabu shabu and chinese hot pot but is typically boiled in a claypot with a much stronger broth. I loved this as our first course as it really encouraged us to share and chat. Luiz’s family recipe for this broth had a great balance of flavours, a touch of spiciness with a variety of rich flavours yet so refreshing with the selection of vegetables. Most people had more than two bowls and we hadn’t even got to starter yet!

Tuna tataki with yuzu dressing

When our starter came, I was really stuffed from the generous portions of ‘nabe’ and sushi canapés. This tuna tataki was perfectly seasoned and seared that I had to expend my stomach to finish the plate. It was seared about 2mm on each side and with that lovely fresh pink in the middle. I’d say it was more than restaurant quality and again very generous portions.

Steamed chicken & somen salad with gornadare sauce

I love shabu shabu mostly because of the sesame dipping sauce, which was present in large amounts in this chicken dish. The extra thin noodles sitting underneath the chicken soaked up all the sauce and was really amazing. 

Buta kakuni (slow cooked Japanese pork belly)

When I was truly stuffed and thought I couldn’t possibly have anymore food, this amazing pork belly came up. The skin was cooked so perfectly, tender and full of juice from the sauce and the meat itself. The only improvement to this dish would be the meat part, which was a little tougher. It would’ve been perfect if it just fell off like the skin part did. 

Takikomi gohan

I loved this rice! The typical Japanese rice features of sticky rice with a hint of sweetness were executed really well. The light seasoning with some fresh vegetables made it a great complement to offset the stronger flavours from the pork belly. Actually I can probably eat two bowls of this rice alone!

Green beans & broccoli with miso and black sesame sauce

These broccoli were dressed in a sesame sauce with a twist of citrusy flavours. It felt fresh and extremely healthy!

Ice cream trio (green tea, red bean and black sesame) with home made fresh madeleines

Luiz mentioned that he had been making these ice cream since 6am! They definitely paid off as the black sesame ice cream was intensely creamy, full of sesame flavours and there were even black sesame dotted in the ice cream to give a nice little crunch. Although the green ice cream didn’t look as green as those in restaurants, it certainly retained all the refreshing green tea flavours.

The madeleine was one of the best I’ve ever tried because of three things. First, the fluffy texture was executed really well, freshly baked ones definitely made all the difference. Second, the sugar content was well balanced, even with the stronger black sesame ice cream, it was still tasty and not too sweet. Last was the shape, it was so beautiful to see the seashell shape with a lovely golden shine.

Overall, I love love loved my first supper club experience. Luiz’s two day preparation for this meal had definitely paid off. All the dishes were amazing, nothing short of restaurant quality. We each paid £50 but considering how many courses we ate, the generous portions and all the wine and champagne, it was definitely worth more than that. Denise did a great job at matching French wine to each of these dishes. My favourite one was matching champagne to the tuna tartar, genius! A great balance between the dry champagne with the sweetness from the tuna without destroying the tuna’s freshness. I’ve never had champagne at dinner apart from as a aperitif, now I’ll definitely explore more with it! Most importantly about this experience was the people. Everyone was so friendly and chatty, I didn’t feel awkward or weird. It was almost like going to a friend’s house for a casual dinner, easy going and very relaxed. I learned so many things from talking to everyone. Such a wonderful experience I’d try over and over again.