Want in on a secret? What if I told you London’s most exciting dining experience takes place not in a Michelin-starred restaurant or a buzzing Shoreditch hotspot but a family kitchen in North London? I’m talking the real thing here: holiday snaps on the wall, relatives upstairs and on the table a feast like you’ve never experienced before.
Welcome to Otaku: an 18-course tasting menu prepared and served in the family home of chef Max Posner. You travel to Finchley with a bottle of something. Knock on the door, slightly concerned you have the wrong address. Get welcomed inside, enjoy an aperitif while meeting your fellow diners. And then, my friend, you sit down and salivate while course after course is magicked up by a small team of chefs working a couple of metres away
This is a serious operation and Posner is a serious culinary player
Look, I appreciate you might have questions. God knows I had questions on seeing the invite. Wait, I’m just rocking up at this guy’s house? Who else will be there? Isn’t 18 courses a bit much? And what the hell does Otaku mean, anyway?
Let me supply some answers, starting with the last one. Otaku is a Japanese word meaning a young person intensely dedicated to the minutia of a hobby or craft, often to the detriment of their social skills. Use it to justify your model railway or the hours spent playing video games. (“Guys, I’m an otaku! Chill out.”) In this case, the otaku is Posner and his obsession with cooking, an obsession you will be extremely grateful for by the evening’s end.
Forget the setting: this is a serious operation and Posner is a serious culinary player. He’s worked at one-Michelin-starred Cycene and two-Michelin-starred Ynyshir. Otaku happened while he was waiting for a restaurant to take over, only to prove a massive success in its own right. He’s assembled a proper team, too: our servers are fantastic and while you can BYOB, there are also wine options supplied by Otaku’s co-founder Oliver Baggot, head sommelier at Straker’s in Notting Hill.
And it all happens in a family kitchen? Yes indeed. The Posner family kitchen, a beautiful space opening onto a sizable garden – I’ve dined in plenty less comfortable restaurants. Some of the ingredients are literally picked from the garden earlier in the day. Various members of the Posner family drift in and out, adding to the sense of intimacy.
The table seats ten, most people come in pairs but otherwise you’re all total strangers at the start of the evening. That will not be the case at the evening’s end. Conversation flows freely as the wine, and while I can’t vouch for every experience, there wasn’t a person around the table I didn’t want to get to know better. (I suspect this will always be the case: dull people tend not to attend these kinds of things.)
OK, the food. I can’t give an individual breakdown of every course, especially as I think Posner changes up the menu a fair bit. But my word, the quality is exceptional – fine dining with a sense of fun. The whole thing is basically a continuous highlight reel, a remarkable achievement considering the number of courses. (Like, on an 18-song album, you’d expect some filler; and rare is the golfer who doesn’t hit a bogey or on the links.)
What can you expect? Orkney scallop dipped in beef fat, served on a fried bun – moreish as crack. A miniature corn dog that’s actually a langoustine, complete with ketchup and mustard. A crumpet covered in caviar. Beef fillet with foie gras and shiitake. The best pad thai I’ve ever tasted, period. A dairy milk mousse infused with pork scratchings (!) that has no business working as well as it does.
I loved every second, I really did. The food, the company, the service, the vibe. The sense of experiencing something genuinely unique, an evening that will stay with me for years to come. It ain’t cheap – tickets cost £175 – but I guarantee you will spend more on far less memorable meals during the course of your life.
At one point Posner’s parents popped into the kitchen and chatted to their son by the breakfast bar. I can’t imagine how proud they are of him.
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