Reservation at Dinner by Heston Blumenthal must be the hardest to get in London or maybe even Europe at the moment. When I called there I was told there were no availabilities until June. So I asked my hotel concierge to put me on their waiting list for the three days I was in London. The next day I got a table.
Dinner is located at the Mandarin Oriental hotel and I must say the restaurant’s design is very successful. You can see all that is going on in the kitchen from the spacious, high ceiling dining room. The concept of the restaurant is also new and quite interesting. Dinner serves historic British cuisine. They even write the date and the cookbook from where the recipe has been taken.
Unfortunately the concept, the fame of the chef and the difficulty to get into the restaurant were the only things that were exciting. Hay smoked mackerel just confirmed how bland and boring was the food in the 18th century. The pork chop with stewed cabbage was very simple, but nice because of the high quality of the meat and perfect cooking. I don’t say that the food was bad at Dinner, but it’s kind of food you can get at any decent gastropub or brasserie in London. Just 5 minutes walk from the Mandarin Oriental hotel there is The Pantechnicon where you will eat as well (or even maybe better) and where you don’t have to wait for 3 months to get a table.
I have never been to The Fat Duck and I am sure that Heston Blumenthal is very talented, but Dinner by Heston Blumenthal reminds me of the story about the emperor and his new clothes …
In the images…
Meat fruit (c. 1500); Mandarin, Chicken Liver Parfait and Grilled Bread. This was my friend’s dish. The mandarin was in fact simple liver parfait which was served with toasts. Despite of the impressive presentation, it was very basic after all…
