When we tighten our belts, we inevitably become more choosy about where to spend our money. Value becomes crucial as we reconsider where our precious pounds go – after all, if we do decide to splash out, it needs to feel worth it. In the last few years, that mindset has spurred on the rise of the experience – studies show we would prefer to splurge on experiences over material items, creating well-known challenges for retail-heavy high streets. Restaurants, too, already vying for footfall, are thinking outside the box. While experiential dining has been around in one way or another for years, it’s now booming, thanks in part to the wave of pop-ups over the last decade. From dining in the dark and table-side opera to multisensory supper clubs and a Fawlty Towers-inspired restaurant, there’s now no shortage of experiences for diners looking for something more than fabulous food and excellent service.

There are a couple of reasons that chef Charlie Hodson has good reason to hope his latest venture will tap into the trend. Firstly, he believes – and is seeking to confirm – that his Hodson and Co. No. 23 is the smallest dining space in the UK. Secondly, it's a chef’s table restaurant. First opened in the pandemic as a cheese room and delicatessen, Charlie tested the waters by launching the restaurant, which initially served a cheese-focused tasting menu, there in the evenings. Now, though, with the cost of living crisis in full force, he has closed the cheese room and is focusing on the dining space, which can seat up to twenty people four nights a week, but only in single bookings. It is, of course, inspired by the age-old chef’s table practice, where chefs entertained family and friends in the kitchen as they worked, squeezing them onto tables tucked in corners or at the pass. Over the years, it has evolved, with diners now able to grab a front row seat at the likes of Simon Rogan’s Aulis and James Knappett’s Kitchen Table.

‘I want it to feel as though your best mate has invited you round for dinner,’ Charlie explains. ‘The most important part of our vision is that it’s by appointment only, and that if you book a table you are the only people in here. It’s about giving people a different experience to what they’ll get anywhere else in a beautiful space – it’s not a private dining space in a restaurant full of hustle and bustle.’

So far, it’s gone down well. He’s fully booked for months, with diners set to travel from as far as Surrey and Berkshire to sample the seven-course menu. And while the focus on cheese has lessened, it will still be weaved through certain dishes, and the cheese course remains. Now, the menus are changeable – Charlie doesn’t take bookings via email or social media, insisting on speaking to all diners on the phone in order to create personalised menus. Recent ones have included ceviche scallops and cucumber pickles, five-cheese risotto and smoked truffle oil, and black pudding and poached quail egg tartlet. ‘It’s important to find out their likes and loves, but more importantly the foods they don’t really like,’ he says. ‘With a lot of restaurants you are served the tasting menu, and while that can sometimes be tweaked it’s often not changed. Here, if people don’t like celeriac, we won’t serve it, and if they aren’t keen on spice we’ll change the dishes. It means people are eating food they are looking forward to, but without knowing exactly what they are having.’