I have to confess, I waited an awful long time to go to Dinner by Heston Blumenthal. A chef, creating some of the most innovative dishes/dining experience revisiting some historic dishes dating back to the 16th Century…It felt awkward…I couldn’t help thinking about liquefied black pudding and stuffed colibri ice cream….no thanks… Also, the stratospheric rise of Dinner all the way to the 5th place in the 2014 San Pellegrino Ranking of the world’s best restaurants made me suspicious…
All changed when my friend Mark Hastings made a move from general manager at Hakassan’s HKK to Dinner. On one of my trips in late 2014, I decided to drop by and say hi as a welcome pause from shopping at Harrods with the Mrs. I was immediately won over… Mark gave me a tour of the beautiful dinning room, overlooking Hyde Park and of the huge kitchen with the number one eye catcher…the wood fire over which the pineapples for the epic Tipsy Cake were being roasted. On top of this, a few of my Belgian Foodie Friends and Chefs had been to Dinner during this period and they were all enthusiastic about their visit…
So, after a few long weeks of waiting, it was my turn to step into the kitchen of Dinner to take my place at the Chef’s table, next to the pass, for a dinner I would not soon forget! Indeed, only here can you have the tasting menu. Subject to seasonal changes, it is composed of eight delightful dishes. The rest of the restaurant is à la Carte…quite impressive at a 2* level…especially if you know that they serve several hundreds of customers a day here…Madness!!!
As the Executive Head Chef of Dinner, Ashley Palmer-Watts was working very hard with Heston on the other side of the globe for the opening of the Fat Duck Melbourne; one of the excellent sous-chefs was at the pass tonight, Allan Herrick. Allan took all the time we needed to explain every single dish and to answer all our questions. At the same time he mastered evening service in the most perfect way. A Buddhist temple could not have been quieter and calmer than this kitchen, except for Allan’s occasional announcements to his staff and their swift ‘Yes Chef’ replies. Service tonight was in the very competent hands of Andrew Lewis; he did a brilliant job at making us feel at home in this very special place in London.
Back to the food…here’s what we had tonight:
Hay Smoked Mackerel (c.1730)
Lemon salad, gentleman’s relish, wood sorrel & smoked roe
An assortment of tasty raw vegetables (mainly salads), cold smoked (on hay) mackerel, gentleman’s relish (a delicious garlic and anchovy based sauce historically used as a preservation method)…the freshness and acidity of the veg worked really well with the fatty smoky fish and the relish lifted this dish to the next level… 18/20
Roast Scallops (c.1830)
Cucumber ketchup, roasted cucumber, bergamot & borage
Scottish hand dived scallop, roasted, with a zingy cucumber ketchup made of chardonnay vinegar, cucumber juice and pickled sjallots, roasted cucumber (vacpacked and finished on the plancha) and herbs. Again an outstanding dish bringing together very balanced flavours and textures. Pure delight. 19/20
Meat Fruit (c. 1500)
Mandarin, chicken liver & foie gras parfait, grilled bread
Truly legendary dish in itself makes a visit to Dinner worth your while… The most amazingly smooth, creamy chicken liver and foie gras parfait, covered in a triple dip layer of mandarin jelly, using freezing techniques to obtain an identical texture as the actual skin of a mandarin. Presented with a generous slice of toast, grilled in the Josper oven. It takes no less than three days to make a meat fruit…and in one week, Dinner serves out over a staggering one thousand meatfruits! Perfect. 20/20
Frumenty (c.1390)
Grilled octopus, smoked sea broth, pickled dulse & lovage
Next up was grilled octopus, cooked tender at 85°C for four hours, garlic butter coating and seared on the plancha. Served with loveage emulsion, a deep smokey sea broth, seaweeds and pickeled Buddha’s Hand. Great dish. 18/20
Chicken cooked with Lettuces (c. 1670)
Grilled onion emulsion, spiced celeriac sauce & oyster leaves
Succulent perfectly prepared juicy chicken, crisp wedges of chicken skin, lettuce, mayonnaise, oysterleave…aka Chicken Oyster….amazing flavours and textures, once again… 19/20
Beef Royal (c. 1720)
Slow-cooked short rib of beef, roast onion, calf’s tongue, red wine, anchovy &truffle
After all the very original, but high level dishes, we felt that this dish brought us back to reality… Of course, the 66 hours slow-cooked beef short rib, truffle, smoked carrots, mushroom ketchup and triple cooked fries were technically perfect and yes, if I had just this dish, I would have been very happy about it, but somehow, the magic, which was so well built up, seemed a bit lost here… 16/20
Gingerbread Ice Cream (c.1600)
Salted caramel, mulled wine poached pear & smoked walnut
Very nicely presented winter dessert with the full flavours of lush ginger bread and mulled wine…and pear, but hey…I am to extatic about the next one that I will just keep it at this… 16/20
Tipsy Cake (c. 1810)
Spit roast pineapple
Simply EPIC dessert…you HAVE to eat this one at least once in your life!!!!!! Spit roast, syrup coated pineapple….gently roasted over a wood fire in a corner of the kitchen…served with a cocotte filled with the lightest, airiest brioche I ever had, sugar coated and with the most divine caramel at the bottom of the cocotte….wow, just wow…..THIS IS AMAZING….. 20/20
Nitro Ice Cream Trolley
A reference to the almost scientific approach of food at the Fat Duck in Bray with this last dessert…A Crème Anglaise is turned into ice cream using a specially designed tableside icemaker and liquid nitrogen… More of an attraction than a real culinary treat if you ask me…but then again, I was still floating on a wave of pure delight following the Tipsy Cake 😉 15/20
CONCLUSION: OVERALL RATING
18,50/20
At 200 GBP a head, the tasting menu may seem to come at a steep price, but to me, this experience was worth every penny. Having the chance of tasting all these divine dishes, seeing them being prepared just feet away from where you are sitting, having access to the chef, getting all the explanations and the excellent spotless service made this to me one of the very best restaurant experiences I ever had. Of course, I would return any day in the main dining room because I am sure that the meatfruit, the tipsy cake and all the other dishes are equally delicious sitting here 😉
Where to Eat and Sleep 