Mystery Dinner in Cuenca!

They’re known variously as supper clubs, secret suppers, closed-door or underground restaurants.  Especially popular in Buenos Aires (where they’re dubbed “puertas cerradas”) these esoteric eateries are often held in obscure and/or roving locations.  Generally they’re operated out of someone’s home or at some secret, out of the way location.  And discovering one is pretty much a matter of word-of-mouth – knowing someone that knows someone that knows someone.

Dining at these elusive eateries can be a set, multi-course dinner (often not revealed in advance), or a hand-crafted tasting menu.  And the variety of chefs that oversee these clandestine food-fests can range from Michelin-starred legends, to young rogue chefs seeking to expand their creative skills – to your average neighborhood foodie that’s eager to serve up authentic local cuisine and encourage the camaraderie of sharing good eats and convo around a communal table.

Generally though, these secret suppers are tucked into hidden corners of large, prominent foodie cities like New York, Mexico City, Barcelona, etc.

Not little ol’ Cuenca, Ecuador.

So imagine my surprise when I first got wind that there was a closed-door, gourmet restaurant, right here amid the cobbled streets of my El Centro neighborhood.  I’d heard rumors of it, but hadn’t a clue where it might be.

And then I got lucky. Turns out, one of my loyal TravelnLass readers (hi Christine!) was visiting Cuenca with her husband on their “grown-up gap-year” travels ’round the globe, and we initially rendezvoused for a steamy bowl of pho at my one of my favorite Cuenca restaurants, Vietnamita.  Later, Christine and Yung were joined by a another couple they’d originally met in Chile, and…

 
 
Turns out, that couple happened to be staying at a place tucked deep inside the bowels of a building in El Centro – directly across from the kitchen of the secret restaurant!
 
 
 

 
 
Long story short? The 5 of us stumbled down a looong, pitch-black corridor (lit only by the glow of our cellphones), and (passing through the kitchen) entered a dark, cavernous, candle-lit dining room with but a trio of tables.

Apparently you can order 3, 5 or 7 course meals – with or without wine pairings.  We opted for the full 7 course dinner (natch!) and enjoyed a most eclectic array of delicious dishes (including two desserts!)

The young, enthusiastic staff carefully described each dish as it was served.  But alas, I now don’t recall the details – only that we all enjoyed the diversity of flavors and textures of our entire mystery dinner!

A most unique and memorable dining experience to be sure – made even better by the chance serendipity of discovering it.  Thus in keeping with the spirit of such “Secret Suppers”, I shan’t divulge the exact location of this hidden culinary gem here on the digital super-highway.  Better that you too, should chance upon it as I did, preserving the mysterious charm of dining à la “hush-hush”.
 
 

 
 
 
 
P.S. Then again… a handful of Reese’s Peanut Butter Cups might persuade me to spill-the-beans privately. 😉