The Makan club is owned by Ping Coombes. She won Masterchef in 2014. She is based in Bath and her supper club that I went to in April was also based in Bath.
I’ve never been to a supper club before, let alone go to one by myself! Everyone was either in couples or a group but I did sit with 3 nice couples and even one couple was local to me (Winchester).
I’ve always wanted to meet Ping and go to her restaurant in London but when I knew she has a supper club in Bath, I had to go!
When you first book you don’t know what the menu is as it is a surprise and you only know on the night what you eat. If you have any dietary requirements then Ping will be able to accommodate.
So I arrived at the supper club and sat down. As you already paid for the supper club, you only need to pay for drinks on the night. The dinner was in a little cafe; which is very intimate but everyone was very friendly.
When everyone arrived and sat down, Ping came out and introduced herself and told us what was on the menu!
So we had:
– Spicy salad
– Chicken satay skewers
– Curry minced lamb on flat bread
– Poached pear
The food was amazing! The salad had a good crunch to it and it wasn’t that spicy. It had dried shrimp (that was bought all the way from Malaysia) which mixed very well with the salad.
I don’t really eat satay as it has peanuts in, but this satay was different and it smelt so fragrant. The chicken was succulent and with the compressed rice it mixed well with the soft chicken and the little chewiness of the rice.
The curry mince lamb smelt amazing. It wasn’t very spicy and it had enough spice. It was on a piece of flatbread and then it had the sour element of the pickled red onions, they brought the whole dish together.
The dessert was really up my street. I don’t like sweet dessert and when Ping said it was poached pear I really thought was going to be sweet but it wasn’t. The pear was poached in milk with cardamom and vanilla. Then it was on top of cream and had granola on top. The granola gave it a good crunch and texture as the pear and cream were both soft, so texture was needed.
After the meal I got speaking to Ping for about 10-15 minutes and she was lovely. I couldn’t leave without a getting a photo with her.
If you haven’t been to a supper club I totally recommend it! It was a bit awkward going by myself but I relaxed during the night.
The Oriental Foodie 