IT’S the ultimate festive film – but have you ever actually tried Buddy the Elf’s sugary spaghetti in real life?
Well now you can, thanks to a new immersive cinema-cum-dining experience that brings the Christmas classic film – Elf – to life.
First gracing our screens 23 years ago, the film’s storyline follows Buddy, a human raised in the North Pole as an Elf on an adventure to New York to find his birth father.
Expect festive cheer and chuckles throughout.
With Taste Film‘s new experience you can ditch the stale cinema popcorn and instead get a multi-course meal with drinks, all while enjoying the film.
The dishes are all themed around famous moments from the film and served when those scenes play out on the screen.
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Ready to watch the Christmas classic, I settled down into my seat staring at the giant screen in front of me while sipping on a Side Walk Sour with strawberry gin, banana liqueur and cherry.
I could have also opted for ‘A Balanced Elf Diet’ – a spiced rum hot chocolate, with whipped cream and toppings and non-alcoholic versions were also available.
On the table, each guest gets a hand-designed booklet including the menu, additional drinks available to purchase and a couple of games to keep you occupied before the film starts.
And when it does, within the opening 15 minutes the first ‘course’ was served – a twist on milk and cookies.
Instead of regular milk, ‘Milk and Cookies for Santa’ featured a vintage glass bottle filled with boozy Amaretto, oat milk, orange and cinnamon cocktail, served with a small gingerbread man on the side.
Even the bottle itself is themed, with child-like drawings and a label stating that it belongs to the St Nicholas Children’s Home, where every child deserves a home – playing on the opening scenes of Buddy in the orphanage.
I continued sipping the cocktail, which was the perfect adult reinvention of a childhood ritual, as Buddy chimes: “What about Santa’s cookies? I suppose parents eat them, too?”
A further 20 minutes into the film, our first dish of food came out – essentially a starter.
‘Journey to New York’ was a hot dog complete with Christmas toppings.
It was a good size and was as scrummy as the hot dogs I’ve had from street vendors in Central Park.
The dish also comes with a passionfruit spray, nodding to Buddy’s scene spritzing the perfumes in the department store.
Then for the main, ‘Cola Christmas Dinner’ was slow-cooked beef in a rich gravy with cheesy mash, green beans and small glass bottle of coke on the side.
The dish was also presented with a small rice- paper wanted poster of the ‘fake Santa’ who smells of ‘beef and cheese’.
I tuck into the delicious dish just as Buddy shouts: “You smell like beef and cheese, you don’t smell like Santa.”
This meal felt like traditional pub grub, warm and comforting – though the green beans weren’t particularly well cooked.
Even the small bottle of coke had a rebrand to ‘Share a Koke with Fake Santa’.
Shortly after finishing our mains, the main event of the menu arrived – Buddy’s famous spaghetti, complete with maple syrup, marshmallows and
chocolate coated peanuts.
And yes… it was interesting but I committed to standing by Buddy’s statement: “We elves stick to the four main food groups: candy, candy canes, candy corns, and syrup.”
However, let’s just say it won’t be replacing the Sunday roast anytime soon.
For the real dessert though, ‘Christmas is Saved’ was a Christmas cookie cheesecake for being on the ‘Nice’ list but also mini charcoal meringues for being on the ‘Naughty’ list, served in a small Santa’s sleigh.
It was the ideal festive end to an evening of pure culinary cinema.
The Elf Taste Film experience in London costs £91 per person including a £3.50 booking fee and is running throughout November and December.