Restaurant Review: Civet Cat Supper Club in Newington Green

For some reason I have spent a couple of weeks deliberately not writing a review of my evening at Civet Cat Supper Club (CCSC). There is a good reason for this. It is because I have been searching for a word and I have finally found it. That word is "local". CCSC is a fantastic "local" (and I say this deliberately) restaurant.

Local restaurants are a rare creature in London. A local restaurant is not simply a branch of a Pizza Express that happens to be situated in your neighbourhood (random link to Pizza Express review here). It is a restaurant where you can go, have good and sometimes great food and feel utterly and totally relaxed. CCSC did this better than any local restaurant I have been to for a while. Obviously, the interesting thing about that is that it is clearly not a restaurant. It is a supper club in someone's house. Really quite a beautiful house but still a house.

I am, despite this being a food review, going to start with the house because it simply rocks. It is a cooler version of the house you want to own with little architectural and design touches throughout. As you will notice this review only has pictures of an ant, a fake leg and a poster as it was a blogger's nightmare to photograph the food due to the low light ambience of the flat.

And again, before the food, the hosts. Charming and unflutterable. The dining takes place in a big open plan kitchen at the top of the house with the chef on complete display. Despite this not one swear word could be heard from the kitchen and they confidently mingled with the guests.

Finally, the food. As with all good local restaurants the quality is high and there were two fantastic courses. One of them was a "Mr Singh's Bangra" which is an Indian spiced pork sausage the couple behind CSSC are seeking to sell. Quite frankly it was a great conmingling of two historically related food cultures (Indian and British) and I can't wait to be able to buy them down at Waitrose. The second was the pudding, a cheesecake. This was OMG good (and I know I sound like a teenager on myspace). As good as Comptoir Gascon's cheesecake.

CSSC is a mere 15 minutes bus ride from my flat so I am fairly sure I will be back.

Price - £30 and BYOB

PS as I know I am slightly recommending not only CSSC but also Mr Singh's Bangra I should also disclaim that I have absolutely no connection with CSSC etc and more than happily paid for my meal.  My "blogger's manifesto" if I can call it that without wincing can be read here.