Salt, pepper, and reckless abandon? Sounds just like my kind of evening.

The adorable setting above, complete with handmade British napkin, comes courtesy of Lex of LexEat, the kitchen mistress of a brand new London underground restaurant. I love underground restaurants/ secret suppers because you never know what you’re going to get. It’s a bit of the surprising and unexpected from the culinary and creative mind of someone who cares enough to prepare a whole meal, or rather, a whole dining experience for you and your new friends for the evening.  This secret supper from a few weeks ago was a secret supper done right, an excellent meal with great company and all sorts of additional little touches to make a fantastic evening.

A perfect example is this lovely little plate below. Not only is it pretty, but it’s accompanied by an charmingly handwritten menu and even more importantly, topped with homemade orange pepper tortelli.

Casual yet well-designed, carefully thought out yet seemingly effortless – that’s pretty much how the whole night went.  We sat next to some great people and chatted food, games, and travel over multiple bottles of wine.

What else did we eat? I’ll let the tablecloth (tablepaper?) tell you.

Yum. I can certainly take on an organic roast loin of lamb with reckless abandon. Here’s what it looked like, in some romantic (i.e. overly dark) lighting.

Classic, well-executed, and mighty tasty. But the real excitement came after even more wine and discussion, when the desserts came out. Yes, that’s dessertS as in plural: first, a Chinese soup spoon of lemongrass coconut sorbet which you can see below alongside my individually patterned cloth napkin (I’ll be honest, I was sad I didn’t get the pirate one, but I was quite impressed by the effort all the same).

You can tell by the state of the tablepaper that I did some splopping during the evening. And then, an assiette of desserts:  a bite of fudgy chocolate brownie, a square of luscious lemon tart, and best of all, a fantastic rosewater Turkish Delight cheesecake topped with pomegranate candy floss.

I felt like some poor fuzzy Jim Henson creation or Sesame Street character was shaved from head to toe for this tray of pale pink explosions.

But fret not, my dear muppet friend.  The loss of your fluffy pastel pelt was not in vain. The pomegranate threads dissolved in a sugary sweetness on a cushion of rosewater creaminess in an unusual and highly addictive combination.

The beautiful apartment, an open multi-level loft with criss-crossing M.C. Escher staircases in an old brick school building, was an ideal setting for a long, wine-soaked dinner. From the upstairs loft, a photo of our table complete with a well-timed embrace.

Fantastic decor – colorful posters from the London Transport Museum that I now plan to purchase, an old-fashioned record player spinning in the corner, shelves of well-designed and highly covetable objects, windowsills filled with interior flower boxes, vintage ladders stacked with cookbooks and plants  – it was so lovely I hated to leave.  But alas, the night finally ended and we all poured out the door.

Thanks to Lex and our fabulous, funny, warm and welcoming waitress and co-hostess Yohanna for a wonderful night. If you have any muppet fur left over, send it my way…