Review: The Church Restaurant’s Home Alone immersive dining experience in Northampton

I was invited to attend The Church Bar and Restaurant’s Home Alone themed immersive dining experience last week.

Have you ever watched a fictional character eating something delicious on your television screen and wished you could immediately have the food in front of you? That is what this experience is.

I have never been to such an event before but seeing the menu made me excited to be watching one of the most iconic Christmas films whilst tucking into some festive treats.

At 7pm on December 13, I arrived at The Church restaurant with my friend and we ordered elderflower gins at their stunning bar as we waited for the event to begin.

We were soon escorted to the dining area, where there were seven clothed tables facing a projector screen along with the nostalgic sound of the choir music from Home Alone.

On each table was a small bowl of popcorn - we may have got through it all before the film started. Whoops.

Soon enough, the onscreen chaotic McCallister family ordered boxes of pizza as they scrambled around to pack their belongings and a plate of six small pizzas was placed on our table. Flavours included chorizo and red pepper, feta and olive and - my personal favourite - hoisin pork.

On the screen, Kevin’s dad asks, “You got eggnog, or something like that?” we were brought a glass of eggnog and then, later, champagne.

When Kevin helps himself to junk food, we were presented with bowls of basil ice cream with tomato chips and red onion dip.

I was quite bewildered when I saw this on the menu - savoury ice cream? Surely not. But the herbiness of the basil paired with the sweetness of the red onion worked really well.

Kevin then orders himself, “A lovely cheese pizza, just for me.” Yes, you guessed it - we were each provided with a four cheese thin sourdough pizza. It was deliciously cheesy - by the time I got through it, I was well and truly stuffed like a Christmas turkey.

Thankfully, there was a small interval to allow for toilet breaks and let some of the food rest.

The film’s protagonist then prepared himself a microwave macaroni cheese meal. Although Kevin never actually got to eat it, we had a plate of our own truffle and wild mushroom macaroni cheese to tuck into.

The crunchy salty ham crisps on top were my favourite part of this dish. I am personally not a fan of mushrooms and found them rather overpowering so did not enjoy this meal as much - not to mention, the large portion of pasta after the pile of food I already consumed meant I could not finish it.

The immersive dining experience concluded with a Bailey’s hot chocolate, cookies and carrot cakes - a perfect happy ending!

I was fit to burst at the seams by the time we were done - it was a good mix of food and drinks so I had to stay seated for a while to process it.

Overall, it was good value for money and it felt very intimate - the only thing missing was some fluffy blankets to enhance the cosy cinema experience.