Disappearing Dining Club - Too Much is Never Enough

Disappearing Dining Club - Too Much is Never Enough

23 November, 2011
by: Lauren Romano

Dinner and shopping - what's not to like? Pretty much nothing, writes Lauren Romano.

I realise I’m a bit slow to jump aboard the supper club bandwagon, but as my first pop-up dining experience proved, it's better late than never. To Much is Never Enough, the most recent collaboration between the renowned Disappearing Dining Club and the wonderful fashion concept store, 123 Bethnal Green Road, combines sit-down meals and shopping. In a stroke of genius the series of indulgent evenings are four-course explorations of the store’s Grade II listed Victorian corner terrace premises.
 
Each floor is a course: downstairs in the first room, cocktails greet us as we peruse glass cabinets and an antique dressing table teeming with unique jewellery and trinkets. A short clamber up to the second floor for starters in menswear follows. Here, flickering candle light illuminates an odd assortment of paraphernalia, reminiscent of the store’s altogether more colourful history. With its dim lighting, heavy wooden chests and plush Chesterfield armchairs, the room resembles a slightly shady East End boys' club and pays homage to the previous occupiers, Moderne Buckles, who used the shop as a front for a network of illegal gun suppliers.
 
More cocktails are served. This time deliciously sweet sloe gin concoctions packed with plump berries are ladled into mismatched china tea cups, as the canapés arrive. Morsels of slightly coarse, faintly spiced pork paté and tuna fish tartar served in crunchy lettuce leaves are crammed with flavour and texture, whilst the accompanying small glasses of creamy butternut squash soup are wholesome and warming. While staff are on hand, the atmosphere is much more relaxed than I had been expecting and the food reflects this: so that while undoubtedly delicious, dishes are simple and flavoursome rather than fussy.
 
This simplicity continues downstairs in the elegant boudoir setting of the ladieswear department, where mains are served amid the rails of sumptuous silk lingerie at a long, communal wooden table. By now, thanks to the help of two pretty potent cocktails, conversations rise from hushed whispers to a convivial babble as we all help ourselves to delicious plates of beef bourguignon from hefty cast iron hot pots. The beef is beautifully cooked and melts in the mouth, while the rich, red wine infused sauce is mopped up nicely by sweet slithers of squash and giant couscous grains, jewelled with crunchy pomegranate. It's an unusual mix of flavours and textures, but one that works really well.
 
The evening draws to a close downstairs in the Bunker café, where dessert consists of canapés of crisp mini-doughnuts, homemade Bounty bars, wonderfully rich, bitter truffles, mince pies and warm rum. While it's nice to sample several different options here – undoubtedly a light follow up to a hearty bowl full of stew – I think the greedy guts within me would have perhaps preferred more substantial portions. The doughnuts in particular were so popular they went like hot cakes so I only managed to nab one and practically had to elbow someone out of the way for it.
 
Revised pudding portions aside, Too Much is Never Enough makes for a rather excellent evening. Though the food, I must admit, wasn’t quite as inventive as I’d thought it would be, the simple menu was tasty, brilliantly executed comfort food through and through, washed down with a darn drinkable selection of wines and excellent cocktails. Plus, the brilliant in-between course browsing is a novel idea and one that provides the perfect opportunity to make a start on the Christmas shopping. A lovely way to spend a winter’s eve: catch it while you can.

Open Tues-Thurs until December 22nd. For bookings call 07432 833 039 or email info@disappearingdiningclub.co.uk

www.disappearingdiningclub.co.uk
 
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Lauren Romano