If we have one piece of advice before you tuck into The Menu, it's that you really should eat beforehand.
While the courses get increasingly ridiculous (such as a bread course with no bread), you'll still get hungry watching Chef Julian Slowik (Ralph Fiennes) and his team create course after course of culinary art. And if the haute cuisine doesn't get you, a plot-significant cheeseburger absolutely will.
But The Menu is no celebration of foodie culture – it's a skewering. The setting is Hawthorn, an exclusive restaurant on a coastal island where only 12 diners can experience the tasting menu at any one time. Curated especially by Slowik, tonight's particular tasting menu is set to be one to die for.
The audience surrogate is Margot (Anya Taylor-Joy) who has been brought along as a date by foodie Tyler (Nicholas Hoult), and it doesn't take long for you to realise that Margot is the odd one out at this sitting.
Her fellow diners are varying degrees of awful: a trio of tech bros (Rob Yang, Arturo Castro and Mark St Cyr); an older couple (Judith Light and Reed Birney) who have been numerous times to Hawthorn; a washed-up movie star (John Leguizamo) and his assistant (Aimee Carrero); and a critic (Janet McTeer) and her spineless editor (Paul Adelstein).
Slowik is put off by Margot's presence and, initially, it appears to be due to her indifference towards his carefully-crafted food. But it becomes clear that Slowik had an ulterior motive for assembling this particular batch of hateful diners and Margot just doesn't fit into his plan.
The careful reveal of what that plan entails is the main part of The Menu's devious joy. It's rare that you have no idea where a movie is going, but once The Menu offers its first shock twist, it keeps you off-kilter throughout. Hawthorn's tasting menu gets ever more sinister as it goes on, and yet you can't look away.
You could argue that The Menu doesn't really have anything new to say about the themes it explores, namely the class divide. There's a lot of surface-level obvious digs without much substance, but that doesn't take away from how frequently funny Seth Reiss and Will Tracy's script is.
Much like Succession (which The Menu director Mark Mylod has worked on), there's a joy in seeing awful characters shown up for their actions. The Menu relishes their downfall, right down to the outrageous dessert course, and being a witness to their worst night ever is a full meal in itself.
Mylod has assembled an excellent cast for his dinner from hell, led by the always-brilliant Anya Taylor-Joy and Nicholas Hoult. Hoult is building a fine line in obnoxious and hilarious characters, but even he's outshone by Taylor-Joy here, as the cynical and sharp Margot plays Chef at his own game.
There are memorable turns wherever you look in the supporting cast too, especially Hong Chau's intimidating crew leader Elsa, capable of shooting down the worst of their diners with a whisper in their ear. Special mention also goes to Janet McTeer's scathing food critic, giving critics a bad name (but maybe we're just defending ourselves here).
It's a vintage ensemble who, had they been given meatier topics to deal with, could have delivered an all-timer. As it is though, The Menu is a darkly funny, often shocking and unique black comedy that constantly keeps you on edge.
You might not want to ever visit Hawthorn in real life, but you'll relish tucking into the cinematic meal on offer.
The Menu is out now in cinemas.
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