Dinner by Heston Blumenthal

Let me make it clear: I love the Fat Duck, and lived it for weeks after, but Dinner didn’t do it for me. The décor is suburban with the amazing glass walled kitchen, tables nicely spaced, (though would have liked white linen tablecloths), service fine, no, service was very very good. But the food didn’t hit the spot. I wanted to come out raving about it, telling friends and colleagues I’d been to Dinner and discovered this new ‘old English’ food genre, I wanted the food to tantalise my taste buds, but none of it hit the high note I was expecting, nor my 3 guests.
Comment on this reader review

Bill portlock
7 Overall rating
Food 6 | Service 8 | Atmosphere 8 | Value for money 6
Monday, August 22, 2011

Agree with the majority of reviews on this page. Left feeling disappointed and £200 lighter.

The starters were delicious, the meat fruit had a good wow factor and tasted amazing. The smoked calves heart salad was tasty but miniscule.

Main courses were very disappointing, on a par with something you could get in a good gastro pub. The spiced pigeon was, we were told, flavoured with star anise, coriander, cinnamon. The meat was amazingly tender and rich but the aforementioned spices could no be detected. The sauce tasted of nothing more but a red wine reduction.

Cockle ketchup with the sea bass was overpowering, quite vinegary and gelatinous. The fish was well cooked.

Our side dish of potatoes, essential if you don't want to go hungry, was not cooked properly. They were raw in the middle. Unacceptable.

Puddings were excellent. Magical flavours, unlike anything else we have eaten, and they looked beautiful.

More should be said about the setting of the restaurant. It is quite ugly. Dated, in a 90s way, hideous tables, shabby, leather panelled trolleys and walls and the most revolting champagne trolley you will set eyes on.

Also, for nearly £100 a head, why no tablecloths?? it would make huge difference to the feel of the room. The view of the park is great, that is the only redeeming feature.

Staff were very helpful and attentive.

There are so many better places for this kind of money. Surprised and disappointed by Dinner.
Comment on this reader review

tastythings
4 Overall rating
Food 6 | Service 8 | Atmosphere 2 | Value for money 1
Wednesday, August 03, 2011

Fine but nothing to write home about. It certainly did not live up what I had expected based upon the rave press reviews.

Menu is unhelpful with no real description of the items (e.g. I would not have ordered the meat fruit if I had known what it was). Of course, you can ask but who wants to be bothered and who could remember it all anyway.

Started with the meat fruit. Looked pretty but deadly dull to eat. Just a big glob of pate in an orange coating. Good toast.

Main course of sea bass - slightly gelatinous sauce and fairly unexciting.

Tipsy cake was the highlight, very good.

Room is just like many hotel restaurants, rather corporate and impersonal. Not helped by the pointless, vacuous lady wandering round asking how it was for you. We had a good view of the park (and of Yoko Ono on the next table).

Odd service. Freebie mini pudding, tipsy cake and coffee all came at the same time as if they were desparate to get rid of us. Though we had certainly not been slow.

I''ve been a regular at the Fat Duck for some years. I was not expecting the same thing by any means. Indeed the staff were quick to point out that this is much simpler offering. I was, however, expecting something better, both in terms of concept and execution.
Comment on this reader review

5 Overall rating
Food 5 | Service 5 | Atmosphere 4 | Value for money 5
Monday, July 25, 2011

Our first visit at a busy lunchtime today, and we enjoyed the experience. We each had three courses from the a la carte menu . Note that you will probably need a side with the main course. The standard of cooking here is very fine, although I do wonder whether the original dishes ( much is made of the fact that these are "heritage" dishes) would have looked like or tasted anything like we had today. I think that we'd both pick out our starters of Rice and Flesh- a saffron risotto with tiny pieces of slow cooked meat- and meat fruit - a smooth pate made to look like a tangerine- as the standout dishes. That said I also enjoyed my main course Spiced Pigeon and my wife thought her Chocolate Bar dessert was very good too.

The place itself surprised me. Very busy, not as different from when it was "foliage" as I'd expected. It was very noisy - to the point that it was difficult to sustain a conversation with a waiter or even across the table. Certainly the similarly-themed Gilbert Scott restaurant outshines this one in that area . The ambiance is "brasserie" rather than romantic dinners a deux.

Service was decent throughout which almost surprised me given a couple of quirky habits like taking your wine bottle away after they pour and bringing it back to pour again just before you empty your glass. I did fully expect them to mess up here but they didn't. Must be terribly labour intensive to no particular purpose though. Not the smartest uniform I've ever seen either.

Value? Well at £200 for 2 for three courses, a bottle of wine from the cheap end of the list , water and coffee this is not a cheap restaurant. Neither do you get much in the way of "extras " such as amuses bouches We did enjoy the food and the experience but we left thinking that at those prices we could have eaten a little better with Marcus Wareing nearby, or Gordon Ramsay at Royal Hospital Road. Best newcomer of 2011 so far? Well perhaps though I feel that Pollen Street Social pushes it very close indeed.
Comment on this reader review

David Henderson
8 Overall rating
Food 9 | Service 8 | Atmosphere 7 | Value for money 7
Thursday, July 21, 2011

What a let down. I came away with a severe revisit of my expectations - the restaurant lacked character, the table next to us was chipped and dirty, seated next to the serving stations in the middle of the room (why in the middle?) the staffs' footfall made it feel like a dance floor, many of the diners looked like they'd dressed for gardening, and the food was, well, lacklustre. Starting with savoury porridge in which no taste emerged from the ingredients, to the wing rib of black angus (served on a many times dish washered wooden board that meant it lost any residual heat, and not even served, just left to help oneself) which was OK, to the baked lemon suet pudding which disappointed.

There's no real finesse and certainly it's not a fine dining experience.
Comment on this reader review

Stephen
5 Overall rating
Food 5 | Service 7 | Atmosphere 4 | Value for money 2
Thursday, July 14, 2011

Believe the hype!

Dined at Dinner on Saturday night - not cheap but worth every single penny.

We were expecting great food and got it (although the desserts did disappoint a bit), but what really pleased was the atmosphere and the staff. It somehow managed to feel busy, bustling, but special at the same time, and the staff were the best balance I've ever experienced between being friendly but not over-familiar (the only exception was the sommelier, who perhaps felt it was her job to appear grumpy!)

With half decent wine and drinks beforehand it came to just over £500 for four, but like I say, worth every penny.
Comment on this reader review

8 Overall rating
Food 8 | Service 9 | Atmosphere 9 | Value for money 7
Monday, June 20, 2011

The anticipation was exciting, then panic inducing, in equal measure. When you’ve had to book 3 months in advance you don’t want to receive an email 2 days before the big day telling you to confirm it or lose it and the only reply address elicits the response that emails to that box will not be read. Really! Don’t break my heart before you’ve even loved me. Thank you, Rose, for sitting on the phone forever until someone came to my rescue. And, boy it was worth it.

The bar leading into the restaurant is modern and buzzy. Half expecting one of those horrible, hushed temples of gastronomy, we initially thought we were in the wrong place and walked on by. A couple of glasses of champagne later (sorry guys, turns out it’s not the place to go for prosecco) we were taken to the dining room. It is large, modern and, as you’d expect, very busy. But it is spacious and comfortable. You don’t feel hemmed in and you have all the privacy you’d reasonably want in a public space (despite the best efforts of the woman across the way who seemed more interested in my partner than hers – I can see why. Thursday 9 June – yes, you know who you are). Anyway, despite being busy, the hum of conversation around the room wasn’t intrusive.

The service was relaxed (in a good way), helpful and attentive (also in a good way). There was no pressure to choose, eat and go that you get in some high-end places these days, though ours was a late table so there was probably nobody snapping at our heels in hunger. So, as usual, we jabbered away merrily for hours and were just about the last to leave – and on a school night, as well.

Oh yes, and the food. At the risk of being boringly predictable, it was predictably wonderful. I know that everyone goes on about the meat fruit, but a meat satsuma is what I want in my Christmas stocking please. The hay smoked mackerel was less of a show-off smarty pants dish, but beautiful and understated. Then a perfectly pitched pigeon with ale and artichoke (possibly the best dish of the lot) and a terrific little turbot. Can’t say too much about the puddings. Obviously, they were fab but my mind had gone to goo by that stage.

Needless to say, all of this pleasure doesn’t come cheap. I have a friend who is planning to sell a kidney to fund the trip (or perhaps her husband’s kidney). Maybe she should sell it to Heston and he can put it in a satsuma for her to feed back to her husband.

But however good a restaurant may be (and this one is outstanding), it’s the pleasure of the company that makes a great dinner. Thank you so much for coming. I hope you enjoyed the evening as much as I did.
Comment on this reader review

Richard
10 Overall rating
Food 10 | Service 10 | Atmosphere 10 | Value for money 10
Tuesday, June 14, 2011

We had such high expectations but was sadly very disappointed. We expected the restaurant to be more of a fine dining experience but was happy to discover it was quite informal. The service and attention to detail is very good and the complimentary glass of Champagne a delight however the food fails to deliver. Whilst the starter of 'meat fruit' was superb and the dessert of 'tipsy cake' an absolute joy the rest (especially the mains) were very below the level one expects from Heston. The 'speciality' fillet steak on the bone was poorly cooked to my husband's request, tasteless and tough. The duck was fatty and unimaginable but came with a very strong sauce that helped it a little although I left half the dish. Would we go back?.... No. Would we recommend...... No. And certainly not worth the effort of trying to source a reservation. Sadly, the whole experience was a true let down.
Comment on this reader review

m
7 Overall rating
Food 6 | Service 9 | Atmosphere 7 | Value for money 6
Friday, June 03, 2011

Went for lunch and was very impressed - friendly welcome, young and cheerful staff, beautiful view of Hyde Park. Had a bottle of house red, which is an excellent bordeaux, and broth of lamb & bone marrow as starters. Both are nice, lamb probably slightly better. Main was braised celery which had a fantastic flavour - two cheeses, pickled walnuts, apple cubes, spices - everything worked very well together and delivered far more than I'd expected from boiled veggies. The steak was apparently very good and came with a rosemary/red wine sauce which tasted beautifully. Dessert was cheeseboard from Neal's yard, six different pieces turn out to be just the right amount. The sour dough bread with raisins was unnecessary though. Other desert was some ice cream egg with caramel and very good, or so I was told. Quite excellent little place, not sure why people who "have the fortune to dine at many michelin starred places" compare it with such places it as it doesn't have a michelin star yet. Probably more of a young, classy London place for those who appreciate food that tastes beautifully but is impossible to cook at home. I understand why might miss some of the dated pomp they are greeted with at other places. That's why there is both in London - places where you eat next to ageing German tourists in woollen jumpers, and there's Dinner.
Comment on this reader review

9 Overall rating
Food 10 | Service 10 | Atmosphere 9 | Value for money 8
Tuesday, May 24, 2011

I love Heston Blumenthal, and I really wanted to love this restaurant, but dinner at Dinner was a severe disappointment.

Every dish (except dessert) was good, but it wasn't GREAT, and quite frankly, this ain't cheap a place and with Heston's name tacked onto it, it should be.

Dessert wasn't great, it wasn't even good, in fact it was downright shoddy.

Sorry Heston - I love you dearly, but the sooner you take your name off this restaurant the better. I won't be going back.
Comment on this reader review

5 Overall rating
Food 6 | Service 7 | Atmosphere 5 | Value for money 2
Monday, May 16, 2011