Underground restaurant scene for Abergavenny?

I had to go to London last weekend and I had an amazing opportunity to go to an underground restaurant in London. What an experience, it was help at a home in Hackney and the food was amazing. The quality of the meal was well up to an AA 2 rosette standard, the other diners were a friendly bunch and we had a great time chatting about food. All the ingredients were of top notch quality and the hostess/cook was a joy to chat to.

She’d managed to fit in 30 of us in a communal seating arrangement and the suggested donation was £40.00 a head to cover the ‘food and sundry’ costs. Obviously we had to bring our own wine but that wasn’t a problem. The theme of the night was seafood and fish. It was three courses of pure delight. Because you are eating in a persons home and there’s no commercial kitchen or staff on hand the menu structure reflected this. It was just one choice and both the starter and desert were items that could be made in advance and just needed to be prepared.

The starter of crab bisque was so rich and deep in flavour, it was wonderfully presented and there was just enough brandy in the dish to bring out the flavour of the crab but without overpowering it. It’s been a long time since I last had crab and it was a real treat.  From the starter we moved on to a meaty slice of ling that had been slowly baked in a herb and lemon crust. This was served with a red pepper sauce and roasted peppers and courgettes. It was divine. The secret to a good sauce is it’s stock and it was clear that the pepper sauce had a well produced fish stock as it’s base and fitted in very well with the ling. Ling is a great meaty white fish and is greatly underestimated as a fish in Britain. It doesn’t have a substantial flavour in itself but it does carry the flavour of sauces very well and the combination was excellent. The roasted peppers and courgettes were an ideal accompaniment to the fish. The desert was two dishes, the first was a delicious cinnamon cheesecake and it was served with a cup of traditional Spanish granizados which is a semi-frozen coffee and chocolate drink type of dessert – something similar to a grown up slushie is probably the best explanation. Everyone was more than happy to offers the optional suggested donation of £40.00 a head. It seems that there’s a good range of prices in the underground restaurant market with prices ranging from £10 all the way up to over £100 a head but most tend to be around the £30 – £50 a head mark for 3 or 4 courses.

One of the nicest things about the night was that there was no rush. Guests started turning up at about 7.30 and mingled before sitting down to eat. Because there was no second sitting or other customers you was not rushed and it was great just to sit and chat to the other diners. This is definitely a dining experience for supporters of the slow food movement. 

The underground restaurant movement is definitely something  I want to get more involved with. There are a few underground restaurants in Wales, mainly around Cardiff and the south west coast, but I wonder whether there’s be a call for it in Abergavenny.

I spent over 20 years as a chef, I qualified from the Birmingham School of Arts and Catering. I spent many years working on the cruise ships and in private clubs. I still enjoy cooking classic French cuisine and other styles but I don’t do it professionally anymore. Chef’s pay in Wales is extremely poor and definitely not enough to buy a reasonable house. I did think about buying a restaurant but there’s more to life than working 12 hours a day 6 days a week and in the current climate there’s better and safer things to invest in than a restaurant business.

However the underground  restaurant movement is a great way to carry on with putting some great food in front of people without having to commit full time to a business. Most of these underground restaurants only operate 2 or 3 times a month and have a very close knit following so they normally book out fully well in advance which means there’s no stock to lose or food to waste because you only buy what you  need. I’ve measured up the front room and I can comfortably seat 20 people in a communal fashion which is the ideal number for a small underground restaurant. A well organised and planned menu will enable me to easily cook for 20 people in the kitchen.

I think I’ll go to a couple of these ‘pop up’ restaurants in Wales an get a feel for what the local people want. There’s some great suppliers around and Wales offers some excellent produce. It would be a shame not to look at something like this.

If a few ‘friends’ want to pop round for dinner and help towards the cost with a ‘donation’ then why not go for it. I must ask around Abergavenny and see what local people think.