“What The Dickens! private catering made our evening celebrations so special with their delicious food, with a vintage twist. All our guests loved the food, and it blended in perfectly with the style of our day.”
What The Dickens! is available to provide private catering for all types of events, giving them a traditional British twist! We can also provide gluten-free and dairy-free options. If you would like to book us for your event or have any general questions about our private catering services please email catering@whatthedickensfood.com
What The Dickens! Catering menu examples
- Sit down meals
- Street food
- Buffets
- Weddings
- Parties
- Corporate events
Here are some examples of the dishes we could user to create a menu for you, but get in touch if you have something specific in mind. We love creating bespoke dishes! Or take a look at our street food menu.
Breakfast
If it’s an all-day affair you need catering for, kickstart proceedings with one of these traditional Victorian breakfasts. Loaded with flavour and great for clearing the head.
Smoked haddock kedgeree – Traditionally a breakfast, and one of our signature dishes, we love to serve this dish in the morning.- Manx kippers – A fine quality wood-smoked herring from the Isle of Man. The best kipper in Britain!
- Bacon and eggs – A traditional and ever popular cooked breakfast. Free range bacon and eggs, of course.
Appetisers, nibbles and canapes
Give your guests something traditional to nibble on as they get warmed up for the main event with our selection of Victorian-style starters and appetisers
- Devilled kidneys – Grilled lambs kidneys served in our homemade mustard and sherry spicy sauce.Another What the Dickens! classic.
- Smoked haddock benedict – Served with a poached egg and fresh Hollandaise sauce.
- Scallop and bacon – A dish from Billingsgate Market using our own sweet cured bacon.
- Spiced beef – A slow-roasted, meltingly delicious beef brisket cured in our house blend of spices, served cold with horseradish cream.
- Potted brown shrimp – A delicate preparation of shrimp in lightly spiced clarified butter.
- Haddock and caper croquettes – Crispy bites of smoked haddock and salty capers, served with a dollop of tartar sauce.
Burgers and sandwiches
It’s rare that we find someone who doesn’t love a good burger. We’ve given modern burgers an old fashioned British twist here to bring you the best of both worlds.
- Devilled pork roll – Our classic devilled pork recipe served with crunchy salad and apple relish, and one of our most popular dishes.
- Braised beef with Welsh rarebit sauce – Slow cooked beef-brisket, coated in a sticky Guinness reduction, served with with a gooey rarebit topping, pickle and crunchy seasonal salad.
- Pulled and devilled chicken – Roast chicken cooked two ways! We put the dark meat in a devil sauce breast in a cream sauce (It’s exquisite.)
- Grilled mushroom – Our veggie burger – an enormous, perfectly grilled portobello mushroom stuffed with a generous helping of our gooey, salty Welsh rarebit cheese sauce
Specialities and show-stoppers
Our centrepieces are recreated as they would have been in the Victorian ages, presented in the traditional manner!
Pork pie – Our jumbo pork pie serves 12, and is hand-raised in the traditional manner. It comes covered in the thickest, golden pastry.- Absolutely fantastic salmagundi – A decorative 17th century-style dish of cold cuts of meats or fish layered, with fruit and salads. A real show-stopper, it has to be seen to be believed!
- Masala dosa – Our love of anything fermented crops up again! Our Masala Dosa dish is a platter of wheat and dairy free Indian style pancake served with Masala potatoes and naturally fermented pickles. Glorious.
Desserts
Bring things to a close with these fantastic traditional British puddings that have stood the test of time.
- Semolina pudding – The classic! You really can’t get more British than this. A milk pudding delicately flavoured with cardamon and nutmeg
- Rhubarb fool – A light, summery dessert of rhubarb cream and yoghurt garnished with fresh spearmint (unavailable in winter as this is a seasonal dish)
- Spiced bread pudding – Another period classic, our take on bread and butter pudding is packed with aromatic spices.
Praise for What the Dickens!
Here’s what some of our customers have had to say about our private catering.
“A professional set up and an excellent performance makes an event a success and working with the cheeky chaps from What the Dickens! They truly delivered, set up in a tricky courtyard of our temporary venue. They entertained and delighted the guests with their charming banter, and of course delicious food! A true pleasure to work with…”- Tim & Mel Sperryn, catering for Cube Space Ltd at BL-NK
“What the Dickens! made our evening celebrations so special with their delicious food, with a vintage twist. All our guests loved the food and it blended in perfectly with the style of our day. I heartily recommend the kedgeree!” – Bekki & Paul, private catering
“Thoroughly helpful during the planning stage, very accommodating on menu options and price, extremely professional on the day. What the Dickens! were entirely self-sufficient and required little to no effort on our part to set up and get going.
A really nice set of people who both entertained our guests and more than satisfied all appetites! Couldn’t recommend these people highly enough as a good party food option; both food-wise and as a good conversation starter!” Emma & James, private catering
“What the Dickens! catered the 2014 Everybody’s Reading Festival launch and the food was perfect. Adam and the lads were fantastic and the whole event was given a huge boost with these slightly bonkers characters dishing up great British street food from their pop up kitchen!” Juliet Martin, Festival Director
“Thank you so much for everything you did for us. We had such a wonderful day and the food was fantastic. So many people have told us how much they enjoyed the meal and how impressed they were with everything from the charcuterie to the masala dosas.” Toby & Lana, private catering
What the Dickens! Catering 