You can never know quite what you’re in for when visiting a new supper club, which is perhaps part of the fun. There must be a reason why these intimate meals shared between a table of perfect strangers are fast becoming the new way to eat out and make new friends (or not – it can go either way) in our fast-paced cosmopolitan, urban lives.
This is why it’s especially exciting to see more talented hosts like Dragan join the supper club community. What a fun and memorable night this was!
Kouzina is an eclectic mix of flavours from across the Mediterranean, inspired by the Croatian heritage and Greek upbringing of Chef Dragan Susa (a corporate chef by day). Dragan is a constant presence in your dining experience as he amplifies the conservation with his humour between courses from his open plan kitchen.
To kick things off, Dragan places a scrumptious freshly baked cheese and rosemary pull apart bread by each guest next to a small plate of homemade Ajvar (if you know, you know) which is a popular Balkan condiment, primarily made with roasted red peppers and a great love of ours. It’s a staple in our household, especially at breakfast with eggs.
This is swiftly followed by 2 salad courses at each end of the table for everyone to dig into. The Truffled Beetroot Hummus with balsamic caramelised figs, bell pepper drops (a completely new ingredient introduced to us) and mint is truly gorgeous to look at, and equally as beautiful to taste with its array of captivating flavours. Dragan is accommodating to make this with or without truffle with advance notice. Succulent figs should make more appearances in savoury dishes – they work so well with so many ingredients.
The Dakos Salad with Cretan rustic bread, feta cheese, cherry tomatoes and Kalamata olives really does resonate all the goodness of Greece on a plate. We received the added bonus of a delicate and delicious Sea Bream Ceviche which was not originally included on the menu, with jewels of pomegranate, guacamole cream, mandarins and a citrus vinaigrette if I recall all the magical ingredients correctly.
The fish course was a Dalmatian Brodetto with mackerel, tomato stew and polenta, but the winning course of the evening was Dragan’s Coffee Cured Flank Steak with pumpkin purée, parsley dressing and confit onions, which really was the night’s sensation. Flank not being the most popular cut of beef for being a lot of muscle, low-fat and thick-grained, really was shown up here. Not only did marinating it in coffee elevate the flavour of beef, but the texture was incredibly tender, and the sweetness of the pumpkin purée worked so well with the arôme of coffee.
For the grand finale, the Sweet Gnocchi (breaded for crumble) are served on 2 types of well ripened sweet and sour plums with one for texture, and the other made into a delicious compote. As much as we love an ending to a great dessert (as this one was), it only amplifies the end has arrived and we’re not getting anything else to discover. Who are we kidding? This 7-course menu was superb. We wouldn’t have managed another bite, but still managed to walk away comfortably. We highly recommend the evening to dine at Dragan Susa’s table. Thank you, Chef!
The best part? Dragan will be working on changing his menu every now and then, so there will be plenty more of new discoveries to be made at his table. Keep your eyes peeled on his page.
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