London’s 10 best pop-up restaurants

Do away with your preconceptions: supper clubs in 2011 are an altogether more spruced-up and luxurious experience than their anything-goes, boho ancestors. From slick, one-table affairs to fine-dining tasting menus cooked by superstar chefs, there’s something for everyone in London’s underground dining scene. If you decide to turn your back on Michelin stars for one night, you’ll be riding sky-high with our 10 best pop-ups.

The Breakfast Club (pictured, right)
Keen cook, food blogger and self-styled queen of brunch in Brixton, Rachel Manley serves up to 16 people, either in her warm and inviting open kitchen or on her bunting-strewn suntrap of a terrace. Her style is tasteful but unfussy; the food decadent, crowd-pleasing and good value. Expect homemade breads and cordials, and seasonal ingredients that are often as local as the host’s vegetable patch. The Breakfast Club’s popularity has seen the enterprise expand to cover dinner and private functions.

Disappearing Dining Club (pictured, left and bottom left)
Owner Stuart Langley operates from a beautifully decorated single room just off Old Street. It has only one table, which can be booked as a private room or shared with like-minded diners. The DDC offers something different depending on the day, including six-course tasting menus, Sunday lunch, and the supper club; all dishes are carefully thought-out and lovingly presented. Bigger things are planned, including pop-up dinner dances and a cinema club. 

Fernandez and Leluu
Simon Fernández and Uyen Luu met in London when one gatecrashed the other’s dinner party. They’ve been running their own supper-club parties ever since, with professionally styled dishes that draw on their Spanish and Vietnamese heritage, served on ornate crockery worthy of any lifestyle magazine spread. Waiting times are long, so be sure to book early.

The Friday Food Club
A monthly supper club held in the apartment of ‘He’ and ‘She’ (aka Lee and Fi), a historic building and former film studio in Blackheath Village, just south of Greenwich. Guest chefs are regular fixtures of the club; guests at past pop-ups have included Anna Hansen from The Modern Pantry and actress Lisa Faulkner, winner of Celebrity MasterChef 2010.

The Loft Project (pictured, right)
Nuno Mendes, the head of Michelin-starred Viajante, is the brains behind this pop-up-gone-permanent in an east-London loft. Originally launched as a test environment for Mendes’ menus, it now also acts as a platform for up-and-coming guest chefs from all over the world, who are invited to take up residence for a few nights. However, Mendes still hosts some evenings, and if he’s cooking for you, don’t be surprised to find him serving a few of the many courses from his ever-extraordinary tasting menu.

The Saltoun Supper Club
The attention to detail and aspirational aesthetic at this bijou supper club, also in Brixton, belies its creator’s profession – Arno Maasdorp is a food stylist and photographer by day, and head chef and host of Saltoun for two nights a week. Since The Observer’s Jay Rayner reviewed the outfit back in 2009, getting one of the 16 places available in Maasdorp’s top-floor flat is as difficult as booking into any recently opened Michelin-starred joint. But the food is exceptional and, at £35 per head, it’s a steal.

Savoy Truffle Supperclub
Ex-Acorn House chef Gavin Billenness and his wife have headed this runaway success of an enterprise since 2009. It’s now spawned collaborations such as a shop and a bespoke catering service. The idea is to offer five fine-dining courses using seasonal ingredients from the couple’s allotment, without the formality of a Michelin-starred restaurant. Events are held on an impromptu basis, and regulars are fondly called ‘trufflers’.

The Secret Larder
Food writer James Ramsden and his sister have teamed up to offer up to 20 food lovers three courses for £30 in the comfort of their airy, arty north London flat. Evenings are either cheerily themed (think comfort food night in winter, or New Orleans night at the height of summer), or co-hosted by other food writers, such as Ravinder Bhogal. Plans for food and drink pairing evenings are also under way.

Shacklewell Nights
Shacklewell Nights is a hidden dining venture located in Dalston in a former clothing factory – meaning it can cope with far more covers than your average pop-up. Run by Claire Roberson (aka blogger Green Onions), Jonathan Woolway and Ben Rymer, it takes place on two consecutive nights every month. Expect dishes such as pot-roast Gloucester Old Spot with butter beans, wild garlic and cider, and orange-and-cardamom cream, with Yorkshire rhubarb and hazelnuts.

Young Turks
A cooking collective formed by ex-Loft Project chefs James Lowe, Isaac McHale and Ben Greeno, The Young Turks use other people’s venues – often other supper clubs (including the Loft), and often top-secret – as their base for their fabulous multi-course dinners. Dishes could be anything from beetroot, goats’ milk and pickled elderberries, to pheasant egg, ramson and snails.