dinner by heston blumenthal

you know when you really like something / someone, you can justify their imperfections and have incredibly high tolerance? i find myself doing that so often recently. so i might as well apply the same logic here. there were a couple of things that fell slightly below my expectations at dinner by heston blumenthal, but then again given how high i’d held my hopes, some misses were inevitable; most of the dishes lived up to it. this was a stunning meal, just enough elements of surprise to make it extraordinary, but not an overdrive into a gimmick-led idea.

back when i first started writing about food, i do remember that many a quizzical eyebrow were raised. 
there was perceived to be something rather paradoxical about the notion of a vegetarian epicure. spot on for noticing my use of the past tense. critics might have only marginally softened their patronising or unforgiving stance against my lot, but more importantly, there is now much more than meats the eye at even the restaurants renowned for championing an abundance of flesh.

case in point: dinner by heston blumenthal, the two michelin-starred restaurant synonymous with iconic dishes such as meat fruit and rice and flesh. yet as our party of six recently experienced, it caters more than adequately for veggies too – especially if you let them know of your disposition in advance (as we did)…

i love that they celebrate britishness – both in tradition and ingredients, it’s presented in a sophisticated, modern manner, but with all the warmth and comfort of something much more traditional and closer to home. it fully deserves it’s accolades and if you love food – you owe it to yourself to visit.

the idea of the restaurant is that old british classic dishes are brought right up to date. the menu tells you the date from which the dish originates and the cookery book from which the chefs drew inspiration. it’s difficult to say what british cooking really is, aside from the english breakfast and good old roast beef, but dinner really delivers some truly beautiful british dishes. this is coupled with a beautiful dining room and truly excellent service. it’s not cheap (the place is the 7th best restaurant in the world at the moment, it was never going to be) but it’s so worth it.

when you go in to a two-star michelin restaurant, with the kind of ratings dinner by heston has, you really want to come giving it a 5/5. 

but for a vegetarian, i was really underwhelmed by the options we had. only one main course was available, the rest were starters that could be adapted to vegetarian and then converted to main. 

that said, most of the dishes were really good for what they were (ie. starters). the dessert was exceptional, especially the tipsy cake. and so was the service. 

would definitely recommend to non-veg friends not to veg ones though.

best bit: the meat fruit. quite simply the best tasting foie gras mousse both of us have ever had.

what an experience. started with the famous meat fruit along with the lobster/cucumber soup which lived up to every expectation. next came the celery, chicken in lettuce and turbot. the chicken was succulent and the turbot literally tasted like heaven. we ended the meal with the tipsy cake and liquid nitrogen ice cream. couldn't have asked for a better end. this place isn't just a restaurant it's an experience. on a side note, amazing service the waiters were friendly, polite and so helpful!

tipsy cake, spit roast pineapple. the tipsy cake was ok but the smoky after taste from the pineapple chunks was less successful.


-----13 may, 2011-----

brown bread ice cream, salted butter caramel malted yeast syrup. i went for the brown bread ice-cream, even though i had been warned and perhaps a little put off by it being described as having savoury elements. it was unusual, but for me it really worked with the yeasty ice-cream contrasting well with the caramel sauce and oats. i found it really quite moreish.


-----01 apr, 2011-----

powdered duck. the meat was moist with subtle flavours but did not like the contrasting hard fennel.

nestled within the mandarin oriental is dinner by heston. the dining room is marvelous, greeted by a display of the wine selection and views of hyde park.

i had the 3 course menu, consisting of meat fruit as starter, powdered duck breat for main and brown bread ice cream for dessert. when the meat fruit came, i was delighted as it was so perfectly shaped like a mandarin. the exterior is a mandarin jelly and in the interior is chicken liver parfait. i loved every bit of it as it was light and not too overpowering in taste and elevated by the tinge of mandarin. when it arrived, there was small bits of perspiration on the surface, almost like the mandarin had been plucked out of a tree. incredibly lifelike! my only comment was the accompanying bread was a bit tough.

for mains, the powdered duck breast came with a layer of perfectly seared skin and was cooked to perfection with a pink tinge. loved the pairing with beetroot sauce as there was a slight sweetness to this. i was unable to really taste the umbles and thought this could be done away with.

dessert was brown bread ice-cream. i imagine this is hestons twist on bread and butter pudding. this was a salted caramel ice cream with a biscuit base and pear. salted caramel can never go wrong and pears brilliantly with the warm pear chunks. i think i would have liked this to be more crumbly in texture but no other complaints. i also stole a slice of my friends other desserts, taffety tart and tipsy cake. the taffety tart had a great crunch to it and classic flavours. the tipsy cake appeared to be soaked in rum down the bottom and was warm and comforting.

just before we left, we were given a wafer with chocolate mousse and it was a perfect end to the courses. definitely one of my highlights dining in london and proof of why heston is a brilliant chef.

16th march 2015 · by chris · in eating , england , london i had lunch at dinner.  i can already feel the virtual eye rolling that my readers are engaging in right now. let me explain why i made such an eye catching statement.  dinner generally is the biggest meal of the day.  in antiquity it used to be eaten at lunch.  how fitting that we were to be doing our testing at the traditional time.  dinner comes with an interesting twist.  the dishes are old.  not old like the food your old codger used to eat but old like robin hood and his band of merry men in tights.  all dishes on the menu are marked with their appropriate era of invention as part of their description. see this for an example.  date of origin helpfully located next to source of inspiration. first up, to whet the appetite a bit. some white and brown bread.  nothing too special.  not like the lovely bread i had had at other places, like the ledbury .  i am looking at you with your bacon bread.  not bad.  but just a bit ordinary. roasted scallops with cucumber ketchup.  the scallops were cooked just right and the cucumber ketchup (pureed cucumber) added an interesting dimension.  the sea with a light dusting of the land. next up, the meat fruit.  the item i have heard so much about.  on the left is just normal bread.  on the right, something that looks like sort of a fruit complete with leaf right?  why is it called a meat fruit? cut it open to see.  this fruit has hidden inside it chicken liver parfait.  a very unusual combination.  the sweet skin contrasting with the savory liver.  when eaten with the crispy bread to add a crunchy contrast to the soft texture of the meat fruit, this was an eye opening dish! having devoured the starters, we expected great things

i’ve lived in london all my life and eaten in a vast amount of restaurants, but in the last couple of years one has been picking at my intrigue for a while and i finally took the time to visit – dinner by heston blumenthal at the mandarin oriental hotel. dinner by heston currently holds a whopping two prestigious michelin stars and has been voted no.5 in the worlds 50 best restaurants list.

the restaurant is headed up by the talented ashley palmer-watts, who is the former head chef of heston’s other restaurant, the fat duck. interestingly enough if you search for ashley’s name on google the first result coming up is people enquiring to his salary – weirdly. the idea and ethos behind the menu here is about recreating british culinary history. recipes (according to the website) date back as far as the 1300’s but have been given a thoroughly modern makeover. it’s a very interesting concept which i can see the idea behind, but when we dined here dishes felt too familiar already – either that or everyone else is copying them?

i came to this restaurant with completely no idea of what to expect. i’d ignored reviews and shied away from photos as i didn’t want anyone elses experience to get in the way of mine, but from the moment we arrived everything seemed a little relaxed and a bit clumsy. with two michelin stars and commanding high prices such as here – they need to create an experience. the bar for example, where you enter lacked atmosphere and felt as cold as an airport waiting lounge with garish hotel lobby tables and a bleak 90’s styled bar. when time to dine arrived we also had to prompt someone we were still here. the dining room did have some nice features such as the centre kitchen area with chefs cooking away and some sublime views over hyde park, the rest of the room however was nothing spectacular. we chose to eat from the set-menu, something i’m told was a mistake (not by staff of course). a starter of hay smoked salmon c.1730 with smoked beetroot, pickled lemon salad, parsley and sorrel was a perfectly lovely dish to start, although perhaps a little small in portion size (i should reveal i’m actually quite small). hay smoked salmon seems to be the in trend across london right now – maybe dinner by heston blumenthal kicked it off, who knows? either way it felt too familiar and i was expecting to come here and eat more of history.

a ragu of pigs ear on toast with anchovy, onions and parsley was finally something which got me excited – it sounded unusual. not unusual in its flavours, but more its textures, the mixture of them and cooking techniques. pigs ears were i’m sure cooked slowly as they had a very soft, glutinous jelly like texture which melted in the mouth upon entry (that sounds wrong). the flavours were very rich, deep and concentrated and seasoning could not be faulted, the balance was simply perfect. however – the bread was a little soggy. intentional or not – i didn’t enjoy it this way. the temperature of the food was tepid at best, something no food should be. hot or cold – no excuses.

now you may think i’m going in to too much detail or you love this restaurant more than i do – so hate me already but this was my experience from my personal meal and no one else’s. we moved on to the mains and dishes such as this roast quail c.1590 was yet another tasty dish which failed to get us excited. again the temperature was lukewarm (i hate that word) at best and the portion size was abysmally small – they could have at least told me i’d be needing a side.

the most accomplished and definitely the best dish we ate here at dinner was this c.1954 roast pollock with a buttery parsnip puree. again it was by no means breaking any boundaries or providing a different dish experience which i’d struggle to find elsewhere but i will say this – the cooking of the pristine white fleshed fish, the seasoning and the puree were faultless. i think my main concern was simply expecting too much. with two michelin stars behind its name – i thought there’d have been more originality to the dishes here. were these rather ordinary dishes because i ate from the set-menu? personally it shouldn’t be the reason and one restaurant can not rely simply on its two signature dishes – meat fruit and tipsy cake – both of which i did not try.

a silky smooth chocolate pre-dessert later our second best dish of our meal ended up being this millionaire shortbread c.1730 – finished off with crystalized chocolate and vanilla ice cream. stunning ice cream too. the dish had just about everything going for it from its picture perfect presentation, right through to its rich and glossy well-tempered chocolate, all the way thorough to its crumbly biscuit base. this is how you do dessert and make every bite a joy to the palate. the tamarind prune tart was also a faultless beauty in terms of its cooking but for me the prune element too discreet – i really wanted to taste it.

it was almost time to finish up here, but not without sampling the theatrics of liquid nitrogen instant made ice cream right before your eyes. again a little eye watering with its pricing you can’t forget the time and effort which goes into creating this small experience, which actually still sticks in your mind days after. dinner by heston blumenthal was certainly an experience i’m glad i had, but for now i’ve not been left with any longing to return anytime soon. if dinner by heston blumenthal want to serve a set-menu that’s fine – but if you’ve got two michelin stars and ranked the 5th best restaurant in the world then perhaps a sub standard menu like this one, shouldn’t be served.

whilst easily the one of the most expensive lunches you can have in london, i would put dinner up there with other favourite treats like river café, ledbury and roganic. book, save, go.

there are 2 key things i want to say about this place: 1) i think this place is jinxed and has bad aura; 2) this is not the 7th best restaurant in the world and the best in uk as it is currently ranked (note the michelin guide only gives it 1 star, which is more like it).   i first went to heston blumenthal’s dinner last year after it had just been opened with my ex (then current) boyfriend. this time i went there with my current boyfriend, and out of 40 tables where they could put me, they put me at the same exact one i was sitting at a year ago. last year when i was there i had a massive fight with my ex, which led him to walk out on me and leave me on my own to pay the bill. note this time i only paid half the bill and did not have any arguments in the restaurant but we managed to have a small fight after the dinner in the taxi! so overall the trend is

i really wanted to like this, it was a special occasion and it was such a beautiful venue, but it was just so underwhelming. positive first, the service is truly high class, staff are well trained and diligent.. but the food from entree, main to dessert wasn't something i'd pay $10 for let alone that price.

it smells nice, well presented but it was bland, and unmemorable. every dish was like that, even their more famous ones, i can't help but feel it's being able to say you were there more than the food that accounts for the high rating. plenty of other fine dining places deliver all this plus food taste. this is a place of presentation and no substance.

superb food. i am from india and i liked the food very much