World of Pop-Up Dining and Ronnie Saunders’s charity dinners

A few weekends ago in London a friend of mine had the idea to go to a pop-up dinner in East London. I hadn’t heard of Ronnie Saunders Diners Union (http://dinersunion.co.uk/) before, but it was a really fun dining experience and really delicious food. Everyone pays £15 and it’s b.y.o.b. The venture is also supporting St. Mungo’s Trust where proceeds go towards helping the homeless and give them actual kitchen training and experience.

The restaurant is open on Rivington Street on Fridays and Saturdays and serves a 5 course menu which changes every week with different thematic cuisines from around the world. I went on the week of Danish cuisine called ‘Denmark: The Union of Kalmar, 1397 A.D.’ and even though I was quite unsure of the food it turned out to be amazing!

 Head chef Rolan Dack has brought this initiative forward under the name of his grandfather who was a ‘champion of equality and a proper London character’ and the ethos of the restaurant is that everyone pays the same and eats the same.

There is also quite a party atmosphere in the heated tent off Rivington Street, with a live band playing and long shared bench style seating. The courses of the night were ‘smørrebrød’, herring with pickles (which I also had on the street in Amsterdam), ox bavette with artichokes and roasted garlic (amazing!) and a side dish of Rødkål, which was pickled grapefruit flavoured cabbage. The dessert was really my favourite dish despite all of the dishes being really unforgettable. It was a simple apple and almond sponge cake, but it was the perfect amount of sweet and light wonderfulness.

Pop-ups restaurants in London are on the rise, such as Anna Barnett’s previous supper club now gone pop-up restaurant Get in My Gob. Get In my Pop-Up is another East London event happening on the weekend of October 24^th, and promises to be a way to bring fun back to dinner while reminding people how to connect over the love of food http://www.getinmygob.co.uk/pop-up.