Bootleg Banquet Tarantino Tease Supperclub – Review

If I said the words ‘Tarantino Tease’ to you, what image does your mind conjure up?? My initial thought was a rather strange and slightly disturbing burlesque troupe all with faces of different characters from Tarantino movies…… In reality however it is a supperclub night designed by the team at Bootleg Banquet.

Bootleg Banquet is a supperclub set up by the team from Pestleandmortarevents.com with the aim of creating a personal and relaxed dining experience based around a variety of themes. Previously they have run supperclubs based around Cabaret and Halloween, but last Friday the master of the Pulp Fiction, Django Unchained etc, Quentin Tarantino took center stage.

The evening took place in Bootleg Banquets catering homestead in the heart of Shoreditch. The outside of the building is not a pretty site and whilst heading up the concrete stairs I did start to wonder what an earth we had gotten ourselves into… However, once the door to unit 6 opened we were greeted with a warm welcome, cold beer and a projection of the man himself against the wall. In our group there are a total of 15 people, with a completely open and visible kitchen. The two key chefs running the show, Peter and Linda came over to introduce themselves and the team, as well as the format for the evening, which was a nice touch as too often you never get the chance to chat to the kitchen team.

Onto the food…. The evening itself was set out into four courses all based around food found in Tarantino movies, but we will leave you to try and work out the connections. The first course was a sharing platter of nachos with a selection of homemade dips, one of which was a salsa and described by one of the table as garlic disguised as tomatoes (and in a very good way). We then moved onto what in my opinion was the star of the show, firecracker king prawns served with feta, croutons and salad.

The combination of flavours was delicious and the prawns themselves could only be described as voluptuous. The main course was of course a Royale with Cheese, which was a venison burger with a blue cheese center.  The burger itself was a touch on the rare side and therefore got cold very quickly but the flavours surpassed those of a big mac 10 fold. The dish was accompanied by an 11 spice fried buttermilk chicken (delicious) and the traditional chip, slaw and onion rings.

At this point with our bellies full to bursting we were given a break and Tarantino group quiz which was great fun and perfect for the group size. A couple (who will remain nameless) even got up and reenacted a scene from Pulp Fiction in Northern accents, admittedly it was a ‘you had to be there’ moment, but raised the roof with hysterics.  Finally it was dessert time which was a rich and gooey chocolate brownie served with a bourbon vanilla milkshake, all of which went down very well with the group. When it was time to leave, there was a flurry of phone number exchanging and promises to meet up for drink with people who a couple of hours ago had been complete strangers, a sign of how well the evening had gone

In terms of scoring, Tarantino Tease and the team at Bootleg Banquet deserve a very well earned 4.5 our of 5. The variety and quantity of food was great and the surroundings created a very informal and personal experience. My only small quibble was with the Royale with Cheese but that may have been down to more personal preference. All in all if you like supperclubs and don’t mind a bit of fancy dress I would wholly recommend a night out with the Bootlet Banquet crew!