Forget Somerset House, celebrating London Fashion Week 2012 in true supperclub style, they present us with ‘Anti-Fashion.’ An in-house team of fashionistas host guests from their beds, whilst nonsensically calamitous fashion disasters strut the catwalk to appease the eclectic, if not unsuspecting tastes of evening diners.
For those in-the-know, I am sure that supperclub needs no introduction, but for the rest of the you, let we just be brutally honest, if you are looking for a casual ‘by-the-book’ date, or a pleasant dining experience with the family then this is NOT the place to take them. If on the other hand you are up for anything, including unhooking your food from the metal frame of a naked trans-gender waiter/waitress, then this is definitely ‘the’ (and possibly only) place for you to make your reservation.
“Freedom is the keyword at supperclub. It’s a mix of food, music, performances, art, our staff and you. An evening at supperclub has been successful when all your five senses have been tickled.” – Owner Bert van der Leden
Ok, well now we have successfully weeded out the frail from the ‘will try anything’ types amongst us, this truly is a place to experience something different, with the only thing that you can really bank on being the unexpected.
Far from the constraints of boxed-in little ‘table–for-two’ romantic offerings in your local restaurant, supperclub proactively encourages social interaction. Even from the onset, guests are delayed from entering the main dining/entertainment space to ensure sufficient time to mingle at the bar with other curiously open-minded couples and groups. I would point out that this is not necessarily the easiest place to find, so a Taxi is certainly recommended, but having walked there myself I am partly convinced that finding it is part of the experience, and befriended a handful of other people on the way, via collectively joining forces to locate the venue.
Whilst the entire venue is later opened up to the general public as a nightclub, an integral part of its uniqueness lies within the dining experience, which is an unusual ‘one-dish-fits-all’ affair. They do however cater for specific requirements if notified in advance (ie/ for vegetarians), which can be discussed when reserving your table.
On the night, food consisted of a playfully experimental assortment of small contemporary dishes, all with starkly different flavour and no definable continuity whatsoever. To be fair, it was as if the chef had been firmly instructed that he had to describe what anti-fashion was using only food, with which he summarised over four individual courses.
I think the point is, this venue is all about entertainment, and if you are happy to run with the given theme of the night, and open-minded enough to grasp the fact that there is more to an evening than Michelin star dining and Sommelier-like musings, then you will surely have a truly memorable evening out. Like all worldwide supperclubs, no one night is the same, with the décor completely transformed on a regular basis to match the theme of the moment.
supperclub’s ethos: “Nothing is obligatory, Everything’s possible. Be yourself and anything can happen to you, at supperclub!”
Reviewed by Sam Bryan-Merrett
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supperclub London
12 Acklam Road,
Notting Hill,
London,
W10 5QZ
Tel: 020 8964 6600
www.supperclub.com
www.twitter.com/supperclub_lndn
www.facebook.com/supperclublondon
