Chef's Table meets Supper Club in unique foodie experience

Eleven98's chef table with Aidan Brooks is like nothing I've ever experienced. When describing my Friday night to friends and colleagues, I used the words "unique", "amazing", "quirky", "supper club", "delicious" "strangers", "friends", "locally sourced" and "chef's table"! Picture this - it's 7 pm on a Friday night (or 7:15 pm in this case, oops!) and you rock up to a yellow door in a residential street in Hackney. We ring the doorbell and are greeted by the chef, Aidan, who welcomes us into his home. Yes, you read that right - this experience takes place in Aidan's dining room with 8 other guests. Aidan takes our coats and hands us a homemade cocktail he has coined 'Respect your elders', made with all Hackney sourced products like 58 % Co Gin, foraged elderflower and Stoke Newington apple juice. You can choose to mingle with the other guests while sipping on your all-Hackney-sourced drink or admire Aidan's playful living room decor. At around 7:30 pm, Aidan invites us to take a seat around his large dining table and it's time to go around the table for some intros. Our group includes an American lady, 4 Frenchies (5 if you include me!), a Welsh man and 3 Brits. It's amazing meeting new people around this big table and it's brilliant how quickly we all click and how easily the conversation flows. Then Aidan introduces his 9-course tasting journey through Hackney and tells us more about his concept - an all-Hackney experience with locally sourced products only. He describes this as his golden rule and it's beautiful to see how passionate he is about the neighbourhood he grew up in and still lives in now. It's time to crack open the bottle of red we brought along with us. Aidan emails you the day before with the tasting menu so that you can pick your wine (or other drink) pairing to go alongside dinner. Our tasting menu starts with some delicate and tasty snacks, followed by a goat's cheese croquette with a sharp damson plum concentrate to balance the richness. We then share 2 loaves of Challah bread with rosemary and salt, served with Aidan's homemade raw butter. It's insanely good and no one turns down Aidan's offer of a second serving! It's then time for a refreshing cucumber in many guises course. As someone who doesn't love cucumber, I was really impressed with the textures and flavours Aidan managed to bring through. There is a granita, a cold soup, a cucumber crisp, a cucumber shaving, and more! We then move on to charred green beans with a breadcrumb topping and an aioli dip. Again, it's brilliant again. Who'd have thought that a whole dish could be built around green beans? Our next dish is an ode to tomatoes, with several forms of some of the season's last tomatoes, including a consommé, and served with mascarpone and basil. We then move on to a butter-roasted cod with caramelised onion, pickled courgettes and Hasselback potato. It's a truly complete dish and you can really taste the freshness of the fish. Our penultimate dish is a refreshing palate cleanser of some of Aidan's garden's raspberries and lemon verbena granita. It's fresh, it's subtle and exactly what we need before the main dessert dish. The last course on our journey through Hackney is a french toast with rhubarb and brownie crumbs. It has everything you might want from a dessert. It has sweet, sharp, crunchy elements, and even a parfait, which all create something special when put together. Before wrapping up, Aidan brings out some little after-dinner treats, one of which is a truffle-flavoured chocolate truffle - my mind was blown! We finish our wine over a chat with Aidan who is happy to answer some more of our questions about his story, Hackney and the Eleven98 experience. Before we wrap up at around 10:30 pm, Aidan recommends a pub where a few of us head off for some drinks. We are all over the moon with our evening and a few of us even swap numbers and have made plans to see each other again! Thanks again Aidan and Hype - this was an evening to remember and I'll be rushing back as soon as I can! 𝐄𝐱𝐜𝐢𝐭𝐢𝐧𝐠 𝐍𝐞𝐰𝐬: The festive season is fast approaching, which means the rush to book Christmas work parties is well and truly on! In the spirit of the season of goodwill, for a limited time only, super-sustainable dining concept Eleven98 will be offering a 20% DISCOUNT on bookings for both their Social Dining (a weekly Friday night supper club) and also their Private Dining. The regular ticket price for their 9 course tasting menu experience is £72 per person, but with this exclusive 20% discount the price is reduced to £60. For more info about Eleven98 and what makes their concept so unique, you can check them out over at www.eleven98hackney.com. So whether you're organising your work Christmas do, or would simply like to get together with your nearest and dearest for a special treat, Eleven98 has got you covered. Just send an email to aidan@eleven98hackney.com quoting code "HACKNEY20" to organise a reservation for the weekly Friday night supper club or to enquire about a private dining booking. Aidan will be happy to discuss any dietary requirements that you or other members of your party may have, and can create bespoke tasting menus for those with specific requirements.