Join the club! London's best clean-eating supper hangouts

As an IBS sufferer, Huelya Akyuez always struggled with eating out. Restaurant menus were restrictive and having dinner with friends was virtually impossible. “I would have loved to have gone out for a nice meal but it just wasn’t possible.

I knew there were hundreds of people like me,” she explains. So she teamed up with a number of low-FODMAP producers to launch a pop-up, sezamee, which will host a series of supper clubs for Londoners keen to look after their gut this autumn.

“We hope it will be very powerful,” says Akyuez. “IBS is a very specific condition that you have to manage wisely: people get frustrated if they don’t know what to do.” She hopes her dinners will provide an “experience” that allows guests to chat openly and informally about maintaining a healthy diet.

After dinner there will be speakers and dieticians on hand to give one-to-one talks and advice. “But we don’t want to make it scientific,” she explains. The main focus of the night will be eating together with new people.

And it’s intimate: there will be just 10 guests at the dinner, and people of all ages, genders, diets and allergies are welcome. Dishes will include tomato and walnut salads, marinated chicken and rice and panna cotta.

Akyuez is part of a movement. London has seen a growing number of diet-themed dinners for people who want to eat healthily. Next week, Karen Collins from The Happy Tummy Company will host an “immersive” supper club focused around fermentation and maintaining a healthy gut, and Toral Shah, founder of healthy food brand The Urban Kitchen, hosted a gut-health dinner for Londoners in June.

Her supper club series, called Let Food Be Thy Medicine, was designed to raise awareness of “real” diets that were accessible, exciting and unrestrictive, says Shah. The next one, on November 15, is based on the Mediterranean diet and is a backlash against what Shah calls “fad diets”. Mediterranean eating remains one of the healthiest diets for long-term well-being.

There will be space for 30 people, and in between courses there’ll be “bite-sized” talks on the science behind her cooking. Guests will be invited to watch her cook, too. “It’s not like a three-hour lecture,” Shah continues. “It’s very social. People who come to my events are very interested in eating well and eating delicious food, not just eating healthily for the sake of it. They’re really interested in the taste.”

There’s plenty for gluten and sugar avoiders. Blogger Madeleine Shaw hosts regular gluten-free and sugar-free supper clubs, and Farm Girl on Carnaby Street is hosting gluten- and sugar-free breakfasts with baker Fred & Butter.

LowSteria is London’s only low-GI, gluten-free and sugar-free supper club. Most of the dishes are vegan and dairy-free, and there are dishes for guests with lactose and nut allergies.

“There was a gap in the market that needed to be filled,” explains founder Francesca Allegra, who is insulin-resistant. As an Italian she is “obsessed” with food, but she can’t eat sugar and has to minimise her carb intake — which can make eating out a joyless (and often hungry) affair. Hence her collaboration with gluten-free restaurant Leggero in Soho, which was intended to bring those with dietary requirements together to enjoy the social aspect of eating out.

“Alimentary issues are increasing,” Allegra explains. “People nowadays are more self-conscious about their diet, so supper clubs are a good way to meet like-minded people and have a good night out.” The next event will take place at Mercato Metropolitano in Elephant and Castle on December 7.

Sakhs Supper Club is a gluten-free gathering: past main courses have included braised ox cheek with saffron risotto, topped with gremolata garnish, and sea bass in coconut milk and ginger sauce, served with curry leaf potatoes. Cocktails are served alongside the meal, and guests can bring their own drinks.

Unsurprisingly, vegans are well served too. At V-Curious, a new monthly vegan supper club in north London (obviously), chef Rowena Humphreys serves up a decadent four-course meal for eight. Guests are encouraged to bring their own booze — non-vegans also welcome.

Some start small and become banquets: the Little Cooking Pot’s vegan supper club started out as 10 people around an MDF table in a front room, and now it sells out the entire café at Bodega50 in Hackney. Dishes are all vegan and vegetarian, often with a Mexican, Sri Lankan or Indian twist. It’s been such a hit that chef Sarah

Cotterell is now regularly asked to cook at weddings and office lunches.

On a regime? Join the club.