Dinner by Heston Blumenthal

An enjoyable venue which is overrated by the food blog industry. The service is also confused and inefficient. Worth trying once for gimmicks like meat fruit and roasted pineapple dessert but hardly earth shattering.
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DoubleDouble - View all reviews by this user
5 Overall rating
Food 7 | Service 3 | Atmosphere 5 | Value for money 3
Thursday, September 06, 2012

No. 9 in the world and the best in the UK according to the latest top 50 list , you only have to see the FHM worlds sexiest woman list to appreciate lists really are exceptionally subjective and you might not always agree , but recently just dined at the chefs table and wasn't at all disappointed .

Personally it suited my tastes much better than the fat duck , it is less theatrical , the meat fruit and short rib were stand out dishes , while the tipsy cake with roasted pineapple was one of my best ever deserts .

service really was exceptional , with the chef regularly visiting the table to explain where/ when the dish originated and how they cooked it ( sous vide seemed popular ) .

My one complaint is the wine list which is nowhere near as good as the fat duck or probably most of the others on the top 50 list . My guess it is to do with the hotel .

Staying seated when the bill comes is also a good idea as over the four hours plus it takes to serve you the wine adds to the £200 per head you start at at an alarming rate .

I would go back though and it is one of London's best restaurants , personally i don't prefer it to the ledbury but there are obviously many who do .
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shane
9 Overall rating
Food 9 | Service 10 | Atmosphere 9 | Value for money 7
Wednesday, June 13, 2012

Had lunch there today. Sat at a great seat overlooking Hyde Park. The service was excellent, attentive, friendly and the waiters explained all the dishes.

For starters I had the famous Meat Fruit which tasted just as good as it looked. I particularly liked the Mandarin gel on the outside. They also gave me extra toast to finish off the pate with :)

For mains I had the Spiced Pigeon which has been sous-vided for 2 hours. I rarely get the chance to eat pigeon so this was a real treat and lived up to my expectations.

For dessert I had the Chocolate Bar. i loved the Passion fruit jam at the center!

I then had the Vanilla custard ice cream. I say ice cream, it's vanilla custard frozen using liquid nitrogen. It was delicious with such a distinctive taste.

The final course was Chocolate infused with Earl Grey tea. I love both separately and I can say they work excellently when combined!

Overall I had a great and memorable lunch. I pay £77 in total which is more then the likes of Petrus or Marcus @ Berkeley but well worth the visit.
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Mr CM - View all reviews by this user
8 Overall rating
Food 9 | Service 9 | Atmosphere 8 | Value for money 6
Thursday, May 10, 2012

I first went just after it opened,. My expectations were high because of all the rave reviews the food critics had given it. I came away a bit disappointed and reviewed it on this site accordingly.

I didn't rush back. But on a recent second visit I was extremely impressed. All of the little things that had irritated me first time around had been fixed. In particular, the service this time was brilliant. All of the staff were highly professional and we felt that they really cared about ensuring that we had a good time. A far cry from the first visit when we could have been in any chain restaurant. They knew of our previous visits to Heston Blumenthal restaurants (mainly The Fat Duck) and made us feel especially welcome.

As to the food, perhaps we just ordered better this time, but I really loved it.

Starters of Savoury Porridge and Broth of Lamb. Both slightly reminiscent of Fat Duck dishes (Snail Porridge and Mock Turtle Soup respectively). They were both interesting and delicious. Unlike the signature Meat Fruit, which I had on the first visit and thought lovely to look at but boring to eat.

Mains of Powdered Duck Breast and Chicken cooked with Lettuces. The duck, in particular, was exceptional. I have never had it so perfectly cooked and succulent. Not a hint of the toughness or rubberiness that sometimes causes disappointment.

We both had Tipsy Cake for dessert. It had been the highlight of our previous visit and was, once again, truly exceptional.

I drank wine by the glass and left the choice to the sommelier. He chose well and inexpensively.

It is not cheap but neither is it outrageously expensive given its excellent location. There are not many other places with views to rival it.

I look forward to going again.
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9 Overall rating
Food 9 | Service 10 | Atmosphere 9 | Value for money 9
Friday, April 13, 2012

Good food, nice place, but the service is very unprofessional !
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6 Overall rating
Food 8 | Service 3 | Atmosphere 7 | Value for money 7
Monday, February 27, 2012

We went for dinner on Saturday night and were disappointed.

Service was alright although a bit inconsistent and below par for this type of establishment. Some of the waiters/waitresses seemed a bit nervous/depressed whereas others were great attentive, chatty and friendly.

We had a couple of drinks in the bar beforehand. I have no idea why anyone would recommend the bar, it reminded me of cheapish after work places around Oxford Circus, nothing special. The signature cocktail was fabulous, although for £18 (plus service) you'd expect it to be!

The restaurant is fairly big, again nothing special and didn't seem to have much of an atmoshphere. Perhaps it would have been nicer to visit during the day when we could have had a view of the park? Who knows.

Food was good but mostly severely over priced - we had the meat fruit, a tasty pate, shaped to look like a tangerine (completely overrated considering how people go on about it tho!). The chicken oysters and salsify were alright, a little too bitter for me personally, not great.

We had the pork belly cooked for 30 hours and the pigeon and artichoke for main. Both dishes were cooked perfectly and we had chips and carrots to accompany the dishes. Problem is we've had similar food, cooked just as well, in great gastro pubs for a third of the price.

For dessert, yes the tipsy cake was superb, for us it was the highlight of the evening, and at £10, a complete bargain compared to the rest of the menu. The lemon suet pudding was also very good.

We had a couple of glasses to wine picked by the sommellier. The matches were fantastic but extremely expensive.

We were done after 90 minutes and paid the bill. Perhaps with Heston's reputation, we were expecting the dishes to be a bit more interesting. Dinner is expensive and in my opinion, there are far tastier and more interesting and exciting places to eat in London for less than what we paid here. If you really want to go to one of Heston's restaurants, you can get similar food from his gastro pub in Bray for a lot less, or if you want something special, save up and visit the Fat Duck instead.
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Annie - View all reviews by this user
7 Overall rating
Food 9 | Service 8 | Atmosphere 7 | Value for money 5
Monday, January 16, 2012

11.01.2012- I have just come back from dinner at Heston B's, quite simply - average food, good service but seriously over-priced.

They sat us right in front of the kitchen and it appeared to be overrun by amateurs not quite sure what they are meant to be cooking.

I asked for my steak medium, it came out rare. It took them 10 minutes to fix. The dish had as much imagination as a white wall!!

£100 a head for the Mandarin Oriental is expected, but not when you are served basic bar food.

wont be back.
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gareth dougherty
2 Overall rating
Food 1 | Service 3 | Atmosphere 3 | Value for money 1
Wednesday, January 11, 2012

We went to Dinner on the 31st of December to celebrate my very good friend and sister-in-laws birthday, we were a party of 6

She had read so many reviews and downloaded the menu and checked out everything she wanted to eat (crazy I know, but I love a girl who knows what she wants) as she is a very big Heston and Ashley fan.

The service as we entered the restaurant was impeccable we were made to feel very welcome though the service was a bit slow to start off with.

The sommelier arrived and did not make us feel at all uncomfortable when we all ordered tap water, though my sister after deciding we were all cheapskates decided to order a nice bottle of white wine (£55)

The food was explained in detail to us even though the menus did give a background which was quite good.

I had the meatfruit as starter (I think we all did), it was smooth, velvety and creamy, the only issue was that there as not enough bread and the crusts on the bread that came with the dish was too hard and scrapped the roof of my mouth, but I will definitely have it again.

My main was the pigeon and artichokes, I found it a bit bland and no quite filling so I will not be having that again.

My dessert was the tipsy cake, I had heard my SIL rave about it and decided to copy her, oh my wooooord, it was amazing, the sweetness, the booze and wonderful fluffyness of the cake, fantastic. I had a bit of my sister's brown bead pudding, my goodness I adored it the saltiness and sweetness of the caramel and the way all the flavours on the plate worked in harmony was phenomenal. We also tried the chocolate block, which I found a bit meh, so not for next time.

I have decied I must return, if only for the starter and dessert, which means next time I go to Dinner I will be skipping the main.

The service was nice and unobtrusive and the atmosphere was easy and light.

The cost excluding the wine was £65 a head (though if you stick to starters and desserts which are Dinner's selling points) I think the cost would be about £27, though not if you have two like I am planning.

I can't wait to go again I am having 2 desserts and 2 starters, notice the desserts came first, I am drooling at the thought (no disgust intended)
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Honey
9 Overall rating
Food 8 | Service 8 | Atmosphere 9 | Value for money 9
Wednesday, January 11, 2012

The short version: Gastropub food at Michelin-starred prices.

The long version: had planned on going for a while, but was put off a bit by the reviews here. A few days ago the occasion arose, as a friend had made a booking and invited me to join.

The booked table wasn’t ready by the time we go there, so drinks at the bar (the usual trick to make you spend more money). Bar service was shambolic, took ages to get served. Didn’t matter too much, as we hadn’t met in a while and had plenty to chat about. After a while we thought the table should be ready, so approached one of the servers to enquire. It was, indeed, ready, but nobody had bothered to let us know.

Once seated, service was slow, but not too bad. As an aside – am I the only one who gets totally fed up with servers in London restaurants who don’t speak English? Fine in a ‘greasy spoon’ where you eat the ‘Full English’ for a fiver, but in a one-star Michelin?

Our server was reasonably knowledgeable, though. We ordered a mix of meat and fish and settled for some (excellent) French white from the long, but hopelessly overpriced wine list.

Now the food – nothing special. For starters, had the smoked veal heart. Totally over smoked, devoid of any food taste, the others liked theirs (one was the bone marrow – interestingly cut down the middle). Mains were ok, though nothing special. A fish dish was properly cooked (about the least you can expect for 30something quid), but nothing more, the pork chop was great, full of flavours, but over salted (this coming from someone who tends to use too much salt).

Not being a dessert eater I only tasted one (can’t remember what it was), which was, again, OK, but nothing out of the ordinary.

Atmosphere buzzy, but reminded me a bit of now-defunct Mezzo in the days just before it became chav heaven.

Would I go back – no. Avoid, you can spend your money much, much better in London.
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3 Overall rating
Food 3 | Service 4 | Atmosphere 5 | Value for money 1
Tuesday, October 25, 2011

Took the wife for her birthday, having managed to secure a mid-week table at a not ridiculous time where I'd failed before, maybe a sign its popularity is beginning to plateau though was still full on a Tuesday.

Bar Boulud downstairs is good for a drink, much buzzier than the restaurant bar and has interesting draft beers (at £5 a half-pint). The barman took us through the back exit to the restuarant which was nice touch, though strange you can't carry your tab over from one to the other.

Restaurant is a bit cavernous, it's a hike to the toilets and there's a corporate feel to it, especially mid-week with lots of tables of suits. The food is standard fare really, despite the Heston branding and olde English labelling, essentially I had pate, steak and chips and ice-cream, all of which were good but not remarkable. Experimentation is at a minimum and there's little in the way of amuse bouche other than a token effort at the end. Service was very good, though the business of taking the wine out of eyesight is unnecessary. Pricewise it's actually OK given it's a Mandarin Oriental in Knightsbridge, they do offer some affordable wines and there's no sense that they're trying to rinse you financially, though you're still looking at £100 a head with a mid price bottle of wine and 3 courses.

Wanted to go and have done so, certainly enjoyed the evening but no great need to go back given amount of choice in london at this price point.
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LondonGlen
7 Overall rating
Food 7 | Service 8 | Atmosphere 6 | Value for money 6
Wednesday, October 05, 2011