Dinner by Heston Blumenthal

[david goodfellow]

Just had an e-mail from The Mandarin Oriental about an offer of "Dinner" and Stay in one of their suites for the princely sum of £745.

Rich folk can jump the waiting list. Which according to them is into June.

Money talks eh

Details HERE

[Pam Brunning]

You must realise David they are all geared up for our friends across the 'Pond', they have the money and are into the historic angle.

Give it a couple of years when all the hype is over and put it in on 'LateRooms.com' you might find one at £50 + dinner - be patient.

[confiseur]

No doubt if '....ee iz a fameuz chef Francais... ' then Michelin would pile straight in and give him top billing in the 2012 edition,but seeing that he is English with a German name things will probably be not that simple...

[olicollett]

Just had an e-mail from The Mandarin Oriental about an offer of "Dinner" and Stay in one of their suites for the princely sum of £745.

Rich folk can jump the waiting list. Which according to them is into June.

Money talks eh

Details HERE

The email did crack me up:

"From just £745"

A suite at a top london hotel isn't cheap, but taking away the book & restaurant credit of £200, £500 doesn't strike me as cheap!

I can't see Dinner being a 3 star at all - it's just not geared up that way. 2 star could be a possibility though.

[RDB]

I have a table booked here next month and for the first time I cannot get excited at all about the menu. In fact the only thing that is really grabbing me is the dessert menu, which is even more strange. I think Heston's crusade to outdo Jamie in the delusional " food will save mankind and all its woes", is kinda tainting my impression as well.

Now the hype has died down, and the bravado of stating "I have been to Heston's new place"; is it really as good as the critics etc make out??

[Gary Marshall]

no, it's a perfectly good restaurant, but it 'aint the second coming it has been billed as.

i think heston would agree, it's a bistro de luxe turned into a destination restaurant due to its parentage.

[olicollett]

no, it's a perfectly good restaurant, but it 'aint the second coming it has been billed as.

i think heston would agree, it's a bistro de luxe turned into a destination restaurant due to its parentage.

Yup

I think it'll be much better visiting in a year after the initial hype has died down

[ermintrude]

Had lunch at Dinner last Saturday and very enjoyable it was.

First a cocktail in the Mandarin bar where we all meet, the websites a bit confusing as it makes it sound like this is a separate bar but you have to go through it to get to Dinner and the entrance is labelled "Dinner by Heston" but that's minor the major thing was they can make a good martini.

The room was small than expected from photo's I'd seen but was bright and airy.

Started with the lamb broth. I loved this dish, a rich lamb broth poured over a mixture of raw and lightly pickled vegetables with what I believe was a sous vide egg in the middle, not sure as the yolk was runny while but had a set white around it. The egg added an extra richness and the contrast between the broth and the vegetables made this while rich also a light and refreshing dish. My dining companions had:- the "Rice and Flesh" this was liked and the portion was perhaps a bit large as it was very rich; "Savoury Porridge" which was very good and the 4th diner had

the meat fruit which I'd also ordered as second starter (I had them both arrive together) this is another good dish as described in many other posts. And provided you were hungry and had one of the lighter starters is not a problem to have as an additional course.

For the main course the beef royal was not even on the menu, I was going to ask the reason but never got round to it.

I had the "Black Foot Pork Chop" and was warned that it came pink, this was delicious and comparing it to a companion that had "Sirloin Steak with bone marrow" a better dish. I'd had Iberico pork chop before but this was better and perfectly cooked. The others had "Braised Celery" and "Powdered Duck" and all the mains were well liked. To accompany we ordered chips, on asking it turned out the side of chips on offer are not triple cooked however they are happy to upgrade to these which we did and they were extremely crispy and very morish.

For desert I had the "Tafety tart" which was wonderful and the blackcurrant sorbet a great accompaniment.

Two of my collegues had the "Tipsey cake" which we were advised to order with our starters and mains as it takes 40 minutes to prepare, this was an individual baked brioche with a segment of slow roasted pineapple.

The final desert was "Chocolate Bar"

We asked for a closer look at the kitchen

but could not get to close as they were still serving the chefs table, when we were there they had just finished making ice cream with the liquid nitrogen machine I enquired how much the table cost and was told for 6 it would be £1200 for lunch and £1500 for dinner. I also enquired about the private dining room and was informed they normally have a choice of two menus and it's £1500 to hire.

When we got back to our tables a post desert was served which was a which chocolate and earl grey ganache with a caraway seed biscuit. This was very creamy, a bit like condensed milk and the biscuit very crumbly. It would go best with coffee which we had declined.

Total for cocktails before, 5 starters, 4 mains, 4 deserts, 4 sides, 1 bottle of red and a bottle of white £431 which I though was good value.

Well worth a visit and I want to go again, a good and interesting restaurant but not a destination restaurant like the fat duck, french laundry etc. But if your in town well worth a visit and I can easily see it getting 1 star possibly 2.

Edited April 4, 2011 by ermintrude (log)

[olicollett]

Interesting about the beef royale - I went again on thursday and it wasn't on, the time before that I went (think I mentioned above) they were having issues, I wonder if they are still to be resolved? Would be a shame if that's the case?

With regards to the cost of the chef's/private dining tables, is that including food? If so that's not too bad, if it is without food that seems a bit steep!

[ermintrude]

It includes food and they said you get loads of extras

[ajnicholls]

Ashley said it was 6-8 courses; stuff from the ALC and a few other things they're working on. As well as the liquid nitrogen ice cream machine

[Andrew]

What main course? I went there for lunch last week and was really impressed by the starters (meat fruit and scallops) and the deserts (brown bread ice cream and tart) but thought both mains (duck and turbot) were ok, well executed but nothing special. I'm going back in a few weeks - any suggestions for the main?

Thanks.

[ermintrude]

Out off the four of us that went the "Black Foot Pork Chop" was thought to be the best the others tried were "Sirloin Steak with bone marrow", "Braised Celery" and "Powdered Duck" also get the triple cooked chips. I've also heard the "beef royal" well rated but it seems to be off the menu at the moment.

Also I did see the liquid nitrogen ice cream machine being used at the chefs table when I was there.

[ajnicholls]

The pork chop was excellent. I had the pigeon, which I thoroughly enjoyed, although is very pricy for what you get.

[Sacha Novak]

I was here about two weeks after it opened. We had a 1:30pm booking on a saturday so by the time we sat lunch was starting to tail off.

To be honest, I found the whole experience a bit....Meh. The food was good, but not spectacular. I mean, the cooking was perfection, the presentation was very good but it just seemed to be missing a bit of....love?

I had a sirloin steak which I think must of had his 24 hour slow cook process (I wanted the beef royal but they ran out). I have been very keen to try this for a while (I love my steak) but there is just something not familiar with the texture. I do 24 roast sirloin at home for my sunday roasts and its sublime, but for steak...I just dont get it.

Just while writing this, I think I have hit the nail on the head. Fillet steak, I love it well rested and tender so it melts in the mouth. I like its smooth texture and its flavor. But any other cut be it sirloin or t-bone, I like it fresh off the grill and sizzling on the plate. I dont care about blood on my plate from lack of resting, I want the juices to explode in my mouth as I bite into it! This 24 hour Heston Sirloin was trying to be fillet with flavor, but it just has the wrong texture.

Anyway, service was terrible. We sat for at least 15 min trying to catch someones eye to get the bill. It was end of Lunch and they were getting ready for dinner service but no excuse. My girlfriend was quite pregnant at the time and was very uncomfortable.

They also made no effort to understand that she was pregnant and explain what dishes had offal or uncooked egg.

The pineapple desert was good though. That and the steak was about all I remember eating!

We continue to try and get a booking for the fat duck though. I am a huge fan of Hestons books and TV shows so I hope it restores my faith in him.

His cooking at home book is amazing btw, Anyone read it? Best cook book I have, and I have a LOT.

[Matutu]

Hi,

I have a booking at Heston next saturday evening at 19:00, I was wondering with this booking if we were to arrive at 19:00, would they allow us 20-30minutes in the bar first? as I understand they have quite a nice martini bar.

Or I didn't know if they were quite strict on the time to be seated at the table?

Many thanks.

[Matthew Grant]

The bar is located next to Dinner but it isn't part of the restaurant, I am only guessing but I would imagine that a 19:00 table a Dinner is going to get turned so they may allow you to sit a little later but will probably still want the table back around 21:00.

The drinks are good (if a little expensive), be prepared to wait a while service can be a little slow especially if its busy. One thing I don't like about the bar is that the drinks are made out of sight of drinkers.

[Matutu]

Thanks Matthew.

Just called them and after a lot of begging managed to move my booking to 20:00 hours :D. So now have a hour to chill with some drinks. Do you know if there is drinks menu at all somewhere online?

Thanks again.

[Matthew Grant]

I've not seen an drinks list online but from memory be prepared to pay £12 - £13 per cocktail which is at the high end of the cocktail scale especially compared to places like the Experimental Cocktail Club, London cocktail club or the Player, all places that are serving good drinks at close to half the price. I'm not sure why the bar is so cool, its not particularly big, its always crowded, its likely to be hard to get a seat, the barman are hidden out back, the drinks are expensive, but for some reason it works.

[Matthew Grant]

The other half thinks I'm being generous to the prices, she thinks a lot of the cocktails are in the £15 - £16 range!

[olicollett]

To be honest I didn't have a great time in the bar beforehand, it was basically full of tossers!

[Andrew]

I quite like the bar however it is expensive, around £16 for a cocktail and not much less for a decent G&T. The cocktails are good but not £4 beter than places like the LCC. You are paying for being in a 5 star London hotel.

[YSL]

After being stung by the £16 cocktails last year, we made a point of not ordering any cocktails beforehand when we went back last month. As has been mentioned elsewhere, they're nice, but not £16 nice. That said, the nibbles they offer in the bar are quite tasty so go for those if you can.

[Matthew Grant]

I've never noticed the tossers, too busy looking at the lovely waiting staff

[olicollett]

I've never noticed the tossers, too busy looking at the lovely waiting staff

Oh that's a good point!

I thought I had mentioned what happened in the bar in an earlier post about one of my visits but it appears I didn't.

In brief, whilst in one of the booth areas 3 of us were having a few drinks next to a table of 5-6 people. As a waitress was serving our table, one of the men from the next table got up, almost knocked our waitress onto the floor, just looked at her and didn't say a thing and carried on as if nothing had happened, none of his group seeemed to care or even try to apologise either. It was just vile.