Going underground

As underground restaurants become the edible experience du jour, a sceptical Hannah Williams made a reservation at foodie blogger MsMarmitelover’s to see whether a meal in a stranger’s home could ever rival eating out

I don’t go crazy for food crazes and am not that good at being in the know. I accidently live in a fashionable part of London where even the mini Tesco’s thinks it’s subversive and the local kebab shop doubles as a headquarters for the fashionably pained. ‘I’m not wearing an ironic hat but I still want some griddled meat – deal with it’.

Anyway, it was therefore with some trepidation that I headed out to dinner at MsMarmitelover’s underground restaurant. Would this be a taster of a worthwhile dining revolution or painful fashionistas serving sardonic snacks whilst musing on the concept of food as performance? I took a deep breath and rang the bell.

The door was opened with a smile and we were ushered into a bustling living room beautifully decked out with eclectic crockery and linen table cloths. It felt and looked like a restaurant, if a little intimate and the waiting staff were much friendlier than your average stressed out servers. But as we awaited the first course of our Japanese banquet I was still to be convinced.

The idea of a home restaurant straddles the concepts of home cooking for friends and paid for professional cuisine, without fully adhering to the rules of either. I was sceptical as to whether this could work. I’ll forgive my friends a plate of burnt lasagne because, well, they’re my friends. But when I pay for food I want to be wowed with dishes I couldn’t cook at home. MsMarmitelover had a fine line to walk and, with a complex Japanese-themed menu, that line was looking thin.

First out was kushi katsu – an assortment of skewered veg served with Japanese mayonnaise between soft white bread. Like some ultimate Japanese hangover sandwich it was absolutely delicious. Vegetable tempura, cucumber and wakame salad, salmon sashimi, maki sushi; the food kept coming thicker and faster than my word count will allow, all ending on a high with wasabi meringues.

I was impressed. MsMarmiteLover delivered above and beyond my restaurant level requirements and turned out top notch Japanese cuisine with a subtly eccentric twist. But what really made the evening enjoyable was the camaraderie of the diners, all assembled for their love of food. When the lady herself was released from the kitchen, the room hummed with desperate requests for recipes and jolly banter fuelled by plum wine. You don’t get this from your average night ordering a la carte.

For me the proof of ‘underground restaurants’ was definitely in the eating and I’ll happily admit my preconceptions were wrong.

I’m sure there’s a swathe of pretentious eating opportunities out there where you’ll pay above the odds for substandard fare. And perhaps these will increase as the concept of underground restaurants continues to soar. But what is also out there is a refreshing dining experience where, amid all the doom and gloom of a global recession, you can eat affordable and creative cuisine cooked by accomplished chefs whose pleasure it still is to cook you dinner.

Read 4Food’s Q&A with MsMarmitelover

Images appear courtesy of gastrogeek

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