Hedone

Chiswick isn't somewhere that springs to mind for fine dining but this restaurant really is up there with the best.

It greatly exceeded my expectations, we had their carte blanche tasting menu which is quite a lot of food and a lot to get through but some of their dishes were to a level far above the restaurants price point.

When i went I didn't know that the Swedish chef patron was an ingredient obsessive but once you start eating it is obvious the quality is faultless.

The Louberon asparagus with wild garlic was sublime and the nicest asparagus I had ever eaten, the langoustine tail in consomme was amazing as was both the duck egg with morelles and the cod with potato foam. The amuse bouche and the bread also deserve a mention as up there with any other place in london.

Two dishes weren't really for me but probably says more about my limited palate as technically they were very well executed I am just not a massive duck fan, which was done two ways with the offal sauce or like oysters much.

Service was polite and attentive, the chef works the room which is a nice touch and the wine list is well chosen.

Overall when he gets it right the dishes really do stand comparison to any other chef currently cooking in London or anywhere else i have been.
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shane
9 Overall rating
Food 9 | Service 8 | Atmosphere 8 | Value for money 9
Thursday, May 23, 2013

The atmosphere is as cold as you can make it.

The food is, well tries very hard to be something ... but didn't convince my palate.

The prices are simply ridiculous.

Hedone is pretentious (just the name!) and doesn't do it for me.
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2 Overall rating
Food 3 | Service 2 | Atmosphere 1 | Value for money 0
Thursday, November 15, 2012

From start to finish far and away the best meal I have eaten for ages.

Four of us had dinner at Hedone last Friday. It was heavenly

Service was perfectly pitched and charming. The whole atmosphere of the restaurant was lovely.

The food was uniformly excellent, and at times just out of this world. The red pepper topped smoky custard was one of the the most surprisingly wonderful things I have tasted. The Sika deer was another highlight (it sounds weird: but it almost felt like it was still alive it was so vibrant and perfect).

Particular complements to the sommelier who provided helpful advice according to our budget, and seemed to have an intuitive sense of what we would like.

It was great to be able to take our time too - I hate being rushed out of a place after a stingy 2 hour slot has run out.

Chiswick is lucky to have such a top-drawer place on it's doorstep. Well worth a trip.
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Kwev
9 Overall rating
Food 10 | Service 10 | Atmosphere 9 | Value for money 8
Wednesday, October 17, 2012

I went to Hedone last Tuesday (10th July 2012) we arrived 15 minutes early,but were met by a very nice receptionist who seated us, and left us to chat while the kitchen got ready. We sent for the tasting menu, and we were not disappointed! Every course looked fantastic and tasted equally good! The sommelier (not their regular guy) was brilliant, not at all pushy or hard sell, informative, concise and friendly. Best dish of the night was the pigeon, well cooked and seasoned to perfection.

Do try the cheese and wine pairing if you get a chance (or not too full at this point) you'll be surprised and delighted as we were.

Definitely worth a trek to Chiswick to experience this food. The chef serves as well, so its nice to have a chat to pick their brains on the concept of some of the dishes.

This place is a foodies paradise!
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Fu-Dog
10 Overall rating
Food 10 | Service 10 | Atmosphere 9 | Value for money 9
Sunday, July 22, 2012

I ate here last night and I'll be honest. It was not good.

After we arrived and were seated the waiter explained that their menu worked a bit differently and we could choose to have four, five or seven courses. We thought we'd take the middle option of five. He then asked us to choose two starters and two main courses.

On perusing the menu and wine list I noted that it was an extremely pricey establishment. Chiswick has a Michelin starred restaurant, La Trompette, and Hedone was considerably pricier than its esteemed neighbour.

Presently another waiter appeared and asked us to choose three starters and one main course. As this was different to the instruction of the first waiter we sought a third opinion and it transpired that the second waiter was correct. There was a problem though, as my vegetarian friend noted - there was only one vegetarian dish on the menu.

When he pointed this out and asked if they did a vegetarian menu, utter panic set in. Seemingly they have never had a vegetarian visit them before. After much head scratching from the waiter, the chef arrived at our table and said they could do it so we all ordered our food and waited.

And waited.

Presently an amuse bouche turned up. It appeared to be a little pot of rancid gravy. It couldn't be though so I tried it. No, it really was a pot of rancid gravy. It was (at that stage of the evening), the worst thing I had ever put in my mouth. The vegetarian in our group got a little pot of mashed potato. A slightly odd choice by the chef but it looked a lot more appetising than what I'd been given. The smell of mine alone was reminiscent of the drains in Hong Kong at the height of the summer. I decided that one spoonful was enough.

After about 40 minutes the first course arrived. I had ordered oysters. They were dry and tasteless like they had been shucked that morning and left open all day. Worse still they were smothered in a sort of sauce that seemed to have come out of the next door newsagent's Slush Puppy machine. Truly grim.

The vegetarian was having asparagus, (the one vegetarian option that had been on the menu). This was the only dish of the night that wasn't ridiculously over-engineered and although the sauce that came with it was bland (not sure what it was meant to be, a mousseline perhaps), the asparagus itself was fresh, flavourful and cooked well.

Another guest had a duck egg. To be honest it looked more like a tramp egg and from his reaction when he tried it, it tasted more like one too. The egg was overcooked to the point that the yolk was completely solid and it was covered in a sauce that I would guess was made by mixing ketchup and brown sauce and then reducing it with a couple of spoons of the aforementioned rancid gravy to ensure it could not be ordered by any vegetarian unlucky enough to wander into their restaurant.

The next round of starters arrived a further 30 minutes later and a second plate of asparagus was placed in front of the vegetarian. He pointed out he had just had one of those at which point the chef came out of the kitchen and started shouting across the restaurant at the waiter who had delivered it. The chef then produced a revised vegetarian plate which was a tablespoon of wilted spinach and and a teaspoon of carrot purée.

At this point I lost the ability to be cross and started to actually laugh at the place. The abysmal service, the utter crisis caused by the arrival of a vegetarian, food which would make a dog cry, a chef who shouts at his waiters across the restaurant and who thinks fine dining vegetarian style is a blob of wilted spinach - it was just too funny.

While this was unfolding next to me I received lobster with pomegranate (£5 supplement). The pomegranate sauce was essentially a much sweeter version of jam and it managed to simultaneously clash with and totally overpower the lobster. The latter effect would normally be unwelcome but in this case it was a bit of a godsend because the lobster tasted like it had been defrosted a fortnight earlier and stored in a warm, oxygenated place, it's fishy aftertaste accompanying me all the way home.

And home is where I went next. I didn't bother waiting for my main course or dessert. It had taken well over two hours to get to this point and there was no way I was going to wait another two to get more of the same.

So if you are ever in Chiswick and want a posh meal out, go to Le Vacherin or La Trompette, which are both great.

On the other hand if you are ever in Chiswick and want an excellent comedy night out, go to Hedone, grab a seat and the bar and watch a real life episode of Fawlty Towers acted out right before your eyes.

(Note I would have given the service a zero but the food was in a class of its own so I bumped the service up to a one.)
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RedEaredRabbit
1 Overall rating
Food 0 | Service 1 | Atmosphere 4 | Value for money 0
Saturday, March 31, 2012