The Supper Club London – Lush and relaxed

A father and daughter team behind The Supper Club London, may be Balham‘s best-kept secret. John, a university lecturer and hobby chef for the supper club and his daughter, Sophie (the friendliest front of house I have seen in a long time) have been running their supper clubs for just over a year and a half in Balham every 2-3 weeks. The inspiration came when John visited a couple of supper clubs a few years ago and thought, he might be able to do this better (and at better prices).

The setting for the evening is an amazing space that comprises of an unusually spacious kitchen and an equally spacious warm dining – living room area that – when weather is allowing for it – can be opened up to a cosy garden. The supper club is able to cater for 16-18 guests, although today, due to last minute cancellations we were only 11.  All of us were seated around two big tables. The crowd was a nice and balanced mix of local regulars, friends and first-timers – this is a place where young professionals or your parents would equally find great company in no time.

After a short chat and opening of some bottles of wine we started finding our seats for ourselves and start the 3 course menu.
Straight when the first course was served – a citrus-parsnip soup with hazelnut topping – one could tell we had a chef with a very refined palette. The soup was silky-smooth with deep-sweet parsnip flavour and a hint of citrus. This was beautifully contrasted by the crunchy roasted hazelnut topping which delivered an amazing smoky-nutty note to the combination, making it really exciting. A small but more than tasty biscuit was served along the soup: a little crunchy-melting piece of heaven. It was buttery, full of parmesan flavour with just a hint of cumin and paprika and crusted with pink peppercorns. I could have easily eaten a box full of these.

Supper Club London

For most, the second course was roast belly pork with marmalade and verjuice glaze, rhubarb and plum relish, with seasonal vegetables, which was “totally lush“ as the guests at my table said. Us vegetarians, we got a crunchy little tart with sweet butternut squash, nicely complemented by the quince jelly and contrasted-balanced by the creamy-salty Gorgonzola cheese.

Roast belly pork with marmalade and verjuice glaze, rhubarb and plum relish

By this time I have to say, most of us were pretty full. Still, we just had to make more space for some amazing citrus sorbet alongside some fresh Cointreau-soaked clementines and gorgeous lemon-buttermilk pudding. It was absolutely divine (this is where you regret not having brought some nice fruity dessert-wine). It was light, fresh, and fruity – pretty much everything one could expect from a dessert.

citrus sorbet alongside some fresh cointreu-soaked clementines and gorgeus lemon-buttermilk pudding

The service was very attentive, we got offered coffee – tea, which was served with some truly brilliant hot chestnut-meringues. Little pastry cases filled with juicy-fragrant chestnut puree, topped with a meringue hat, baked just enough so that it got a nice golden colour. The meringue was nice and gooey, and was a really exciting combination with the chestnut! A very nice surprise for someone who is keen on chestnuts but not a huge fan of meringues!!

Having been to a few supperclubs recently, I start to think that you can spot a great guestaurant based on the last 30 minutes of the event: if people stay on after having finished their meal for a nice chat (along with a nice glass of wine) that’s a good sign to me. If you add some really great food with some unusual combinations to this, we are talking about something truly exceptional.

Tags: Balham hazelnut London supperclubs The Supper Club London