REVIEW: We tried out Dundee’s award-winning Howff Secret Supper Club
There are meals you go out for, enjoy and head home from. Then there are dining experiences where the food is only one part of the story.
On a crisp Saturday evening, Dundee Culture was invited along to The Howff Secret Supper Club following its recent success at the Restaurant of the Year Awards, where it was crowned Fine Dining Restaurant of the Year.
And the timing couldn’t have been better.
I visited alongside Kacey Thomson, who had been a huge part of Dundee Culture over 2025 and played an important role in the recent success at the Chamber Champion Awards.
The influence of bringing someone younger into Dundee Culture to mentor and give meaningful experience to particularly resonated with the judges, so an eight-course dinner felt like a pretty good way to celebrate!
The Howff Secret Supper Club
Hidden beneath the Dundee Cooking Academy at 5B Bank Street, The Howff Secret Supper Club has become one of Dundee’s more unusual dining experiences - but its story goes back to 2020.
The supper club was originally due to welcome diners to its secret underground dining room in October 2020, only for the Covid pandemic to disrupt its launch.
By 2022, the Howff and Dundee Cooking Academy were established at their Bank Street premises, which fittingly backs onto the historic Howff burial ground that gives the supper club its name.
At the heart of the business is Dundee-born chef Lewis Donegan, who also heads up the Dundee Cooking Academy. Lewis began his career with Hilton Hotels and went on to work at venues across Scotland, including Auchrannie Resort and Martin Wishart at Loch Lomond. He later moved into teaching, lecturing in Professional Cookery at Dundee & Angus College, and has also appeared on MasterChef: The Professionals.
Today, Lewis leads the Howff team, with the supper club centred around an interactive approach to fine dining. Guests descend below street level for an eight-course seasonal tasting menu, with the chefs and team talking diners through the ingredients, techniques and stories behind the food. The menu changes every two months, alongside an optional paired wine flight.
The concept has picked up significant recognition along the way. The Howff was named overall Restaurant of the Year at The Food Awards Scotland 2025, before securing Fine Dining Restaurant of the Year in 2026 - giving the Dundee venue back-to-back national recognition.
We arrived at 6.45pm and from the moment we stepped inside, the atmosphere was incredible. The setting was intimate and cosy, but what immediately became apparent was that this wasn’t fine dining that took itself too seriously.
That, I think, is one of The Howff Secret Supper Club’s biggest strengths.
There is all the quality and attention to detail you would expect from fine dining, but wrapped inside something much more relaxed, interactive and genuinely fun. The team even hosts themed evenings from time to time where guests have to dress up to enter.
Our visit wasn’t one of those themed nights - instead, we were there for the full eight-course tasting experience.
Eight courses, eight stories
The menu itself changes every two months, meaning returning at different points throughout the year can offer an entirely new experience.
Our evening began with Cherry Tom, combining Ashlynn, truffle, honey, heritage tomato and basil. It was a lovely start to the night, with beautifully smooth and creamy tomato flavours setting us up for what was ahead.
Next came Pegasus, featuring Red Rooster, smoked pancetta, Isle of Mull and beef ear, before one of my personal highlights of the entire evening - Mercury.
Its oxtail was absolutely delicious.
As an autistic person, certain textures can be difficult for me, and chewy foods in particular are something I can struggle with. But this was something else entirely. The oxtail was beautifully prepared and a course I genuinely couldn’t fault.
The menu continued with Crossed the Road, featuring cornfed chicken, brioche, parfait and butter, followed by Remembering Favourites, which brought together monkfish, mussel mouclade, cauliflower, apple and dill.
Then came another course with a distinctly local connection.
Rockets, named after one of Dundee’s ice hockey teams, paired Balmoral venison with juniper, coffee, celeriac, beetroot and blackberry. The venison was delicious, but I particularly loved seeing that little piece of Dundee woven into the identity of the menu.
Then things got really interesting.
“Interesting…”
When Martini Anyone? arrived at the table, my immediate reaction to Kacey was simply: “Interesting.”
And I meant that in the best possible way.
Made with pear, lemon verbena, cider and orange, it was difficult to put into one conventional category.
Part drink, part foam, part dessert - almost ice cream-like - it was one of those courses that made you stop and work out exactly what you were experiencing.
The pear came through particularly strongly and digging into it was great fun.
Finally came Green Granny Smith Apple, combining Calvados, tonka, caramelia, hazelnut and apple.
What a finale.
It was incredibly rich in flavour and finished the eight courses brilliantly. Wine pairings accompanied the menu throughout the evening, with the Riesling Spätlese served alongside the final course being my personal favourite of the night.
The stories are as important as the food
But focusing entirely on what arrived on the plates would miss a huge part of what made the night special.
Before every course, Amelia introduced what we were about to eat.
She brought insight, humour and personality to every introduction. She was warm, confident and effortlessly funny, and whenever she addressed the room, she seemed to light it up.
Kacey perhaps summed it up best afterwards when she described the team as “effortless storytellers”, adding that she would return for Amelia’s stories alone.
And the storytelling wasn’t confined to one person.
One of the things that struck Kacey most was how highly the waiting staff spoke about their work. There appeared to be a genuine closeness between the team and an enthusiasm for what they were creating together. It didn’t feel like lines being recited because they had to be - they seemed genuinely proud of the experience they were delivering.
The interaction between diners was equally memorable.
In a tradition at the restaurant, if you head to the bathroom and return when Lewis or Amelia were talking, you are met with applause, while tables took turns cheering and raising their glasses. By then, a room of people who had largely arrived separately felt like they were participating in the same experience.
There was also a 15-minute interval which gave diners the opportunity to speak with the chef and learn more about the work behind the menu. For Kacey, getting that chance to ask questions and learn directly from the person creating the food was invaluable.
More than an eight-course meal
That’s ultimately what stayed with both of us.
The Howff Secret Supper Club certainly delivered on the food - there were courses I’d happily eat all over again - but what elevated the evening was everything happening around it.
The stories. The humour. The interaction. The atmosphere. The evident bond between the team. Even the names of the courses had something to say.
Fine dining can sometimes have a reputation for being formal or intimidating. The Howff manages to retain the craftsmanship and theatre of it while stripping away much of that stiffness.
We arrived at 6.45pm ready for an eight-course meal. We left feeling as though we’d been part of a show.
Following its Fine Dining Restaurant of the Year win, it was easy to understand why The Howff Secret Supper Club has been receiving recognition.
And for Kacey and me, celebrating Dundee Culture’s own recent success together, it was a pretty special way to mark the occasion.
Dundee Culture was invited to experience The Howff Secret Supper Club.
