The Pale Blue Door is a theatrical eatery

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Sssh! Don’t tell ­anyone, but secret ­restaurants are taking over London. Finding their customers through blogs, Twitter and Facebook, these tucked-away joints invite curious foodies to hush-hush ­locations across the capital (usually private homes).

Once you’re there, the meals straddle the line ­between restaurant and ­dinner party – like a Come Dine With Me where you actually pay to eat.

The Rambling restaurant, NW1

You have to work a bit to find London’s newest underground restaurant – rather than an address, your booking email gives you clues to help you track it down (a little literary knowledge comes in handy). Once there, you get seasonal Brit food at shared tables in the airy attic of a Victorian townhouse. Keep an eye out for special events this summer, when the Rambling Restaurant will be, well, rambling around London, dropping more clues to help diners find different secret venues.

Sun, email ramblingrestaurant@googlemail.com, £15 for four-course meal

The Pale Blue Door, E8

With tranny waitresses, tarot readings and lip-synching performers, The Pale Blue Door must be London’s wackiest secret restaurant. Taking place in set designer and ex-chef Tony Hornecker’s Hackney warehouse, it serves fresh, homey food (always crumble for pudding) in rooms decked like backdrops from a Tim Burton movie.

Runs irregularly, see www.tonyhornecker.wordpress.com, £30 for three courses with ½ bottle wine

The Underground Restaurant, NW2

Inspired by the paladars of Cuba, longtime food blogger Ms Marmitelover runs this well-established secret diner in Kilburn, with fresh vegetarian dishes and live music for a buzzing crowd of up to 30.

Sat, www.marmitelover.blogspot.com, £25 for three courses, wine £10 or BYO (£5 corkage)

Saltoun Supper Club, SW2

The easy atmosphere and fancy tucker at food stylist Arno Maasdorp’s underground restaurant near Brixton Tube have proved so popular that all his Thursday-night dinners are booked until August.

Wed & Thur, www.eatwithyoureyes.net, £25 for four courses, coffee and petit fours

The Secret Ingredient, N16

London’s first underground restaurant and one of its cheapest, musician Horton Jupiter’s Secret Ingredient serves veggie Japanese food to a motley crew of diners.

Wed, see The Secret Ingredient’s Facebook page, £15-£20 for six courses and two drinks

Salad Club, SW2

There’s more than salad to this non-vegetarian secret gaff in Brixton. With seasonal food from Brixton’s markets and Portuguese delis, Rosie French and Ellie Grace’s healthy restaurant grew out of a shared love of entertaining and dislike of boring supermarket food.

First Sat every month, www.saladclub.wordpress.com, £20 for four courses, BYO

The Loft, E8

Pricey but superb, this secret Hoxton restaurant run by ex El Bulli chef Nuno Mendes (yes, that’s the best restaurant in the world, El Bulli) pulls out all the stops, with serious haute cuisine global fusion food in sleek modernist surroundings.

Fri & Sat, www.nunomendes.co.uk, £100 for 12 courses plus 8 glasses wine

The Moveable Restaurant – various locations

Thameside boathouses and Shoreditch shops have provided venues for this wandering restaurant’s themed dinners, which have included a Roman feast and a meal celebrating cookery writer Elizabeth David.

Venues, dates, prices (from £25 to £55) vary, www.themoveablerestaurant.squarespace.com

Savoy Truffle Supperclub, SE3

Modern European food in leafy Blackheath. Run by a professional chef and his partner out of their friends’ kitchen and sitting room, they say most diners beating a path to their door are “social adventurers”.

Meets irregularly, www.savoytrufflesupperclub.com, £20 for three courses

Green Onions

Green Onions organises dinners and “food raves” across London. Its events are more fun than “bumping into Christopher Biggins at The Ivy”, but you’ll need to contact them through its Facebook site for clear information. Or ring us on 07986 541894

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