Yes, ‘The Menu’ Is Based on Real (and Way Less Life-Threatening) Restaurants
Want to dine at Hawthorne, the restaurant featured in the new psychological thriller The Menu? If, after seeing the many terrors Chef Slowik (Ralph Fiennes) puts his guests through in the film, you still want to dine on the private island, good news! Although Hawthorne doesn’t exist in our real world, its pretentious finger food was based on a spread of different locations.
Spread out across the world, from the grassy hills of Scandinavia to the slushy streets of Chicago, the restaurants that inspired The Menu prove that writers Will Tracy and Seth Reiss are authentic foodies. They have Resy app notifications on for the biggest, most Michelin-starred spots in the world. If Hawthorne was a real place, they probably would’ve trekked out to the remote location to meet Chef Slowik and his team of top-notch chefs.
Hopefully, though, it wouldn’t have been on the same night as The Menu takes place—aka, the night Chef decides to shut the whole place down by killing everyone inside. That’s not a spoiler, by the way: He tells everyone, including our main characters Tyler (Nicholas Hoult) and his date Margot (Anya Taylor-Joy), this as they’re crunching on appetizers. Dinner and a show!