London's Underground Restaurants

Sue is having a dinner party at her London home, but she's never met any of the guests.

She runs an underground restaurant from her front room - charging each guest around fifty dollars a head.

They're called supper clubs in the U.S. and strictly speaking this new trend is illegal.

[David, Dinner Party Guest]:
"I didn't know, is it really, in what way in that they should have all the various health and safety things, right? No I didn't know that, so that's interesting."

[Kate, Dinner Party Guest]:
"Is it illegal. I didn't know that."

To protect her identity, Sue is known to her guests as Madame Dinner-Party.

An architect during the day, she set-up her surrealist dinner parties as a fun way to make a few extra pounds.

[Sue, Madame Dinner-Party]:
"It's really, really hard work. When I was doing it three nights a week it was just crazy, it was like three sixteen-hour days in a row with a 12-hour day before that. And the next day you're just working 7 days a week and because it's just me and I have a volunteer helper, it's a huge amount of
work."

When the guests arrive they're each given a number and a task, to break the ice.

[Janet, Diner Party Guest]:
"To be honest I can't really remember where I read about it. There's a bit of a zeitgeist at the moment, lot's of pop-up restaurants, loads of things like that going on and I was reading something interesting about all
the things that are happening, and read about this as well, and thought it sounded interesting."

Underground restaurants started as places where foodies could try out new dishes.

Sue and her able assistant Madame Olga have taken it a stage further.

With tapioca masquerading as frog spawn - her guests don't come for the food.

[Sue, Madame Dinner-Party]:
"Mostly it's been really, really positive. People love it because it's a night that they can come and mingle with other people. There's not that many places in London where you can actually go and meet strangers."

Party games make up for any culinary short-comings.

And after a few glasses of wine there's plenty of enthusiasm for a game of consequences, read out with the help of a few helium balloons.

How long it'll be before Madame Dinner Party's bubble bursts isn't clear.

But for now the sky's the limit.

Category:

News & Politics

Tags:

• NTD
• News
• London
• Uk
• Underground restaurant
• Food
• Illegal