Dinner by Heston Blumenthal (**, London)
Really lovely dinner at Dinner by Heston Blumenthal. The vibes of the place are very swanky, and the service was quite formal. You can ask for more or less information about the food by displaying different cards in the table as you’re eating. We opted for the most informative and I think it was on par with the amount of info servers usually give at 2 and 3 star restaurants (I guess I was expecting more). Each of the servers was pleasant, making sure our drinks were refilled and that we had plenty of sourdough bread. The meal progressed at a quick but not overwhelming pace—probably about 90 minutes or so from beginning to end.
The standouts were the duck (turns out, duck fat doesn’t have to be crispy to still be delicious), the tipsy cake, the cucumber ketchup served with the crab, and the iconic meat fruit, which is simply the best liver pate I’ve ever had and it’s not even close. The orange flavor cut perfectly through the pate. I think i’ll remember it for a while (note, though, that my husband thought it was just okay. He much preferred the smoked trout, which to me was good but not special compared to other similar dishes I’ve had in the past).
Not listed on the menu is the amuse Bouche, which was a curried chicken salad with apricot, and a ganache with a biscuit after dessert. Good start and finish to the meal. The chicken salad shell was so crispy. The biscuit was perfect
All things considered, a lovely night. I would maybe say that 5 courses isn’t really enough for the price, especially since each course was small (the delicious crab loaf shockingly so). This is one of the places where folks who hate fine dining might be promoted to make a remark about stopping at
McDonald’s on the way home. But I don’t know…each dish was so deeply flavorful and rich that I think excess would be counterproductive.
by jshamwow
5 Comments
Chips!
Dinners such a cute little place, I agree that the meat fruit is delicious. There’s an iberico secreto they have sometimes is always very well done as well.
I was curious how you felt about the spit roasted pineapple (without the cake), they were very proud of it but I personally just didn’t like love it or anything
‘which is simply the best liver pate I’ve ever had and it’s not even close’
Fully agree, it’s absolutely delicious (I’m afraid your husband is insane for thinking it was merely ok, he should have passed his to you).
I am surprised you were expecting more information; when I went, I had the ‘medium’ card out and it was still at least a minute or two for each dish, including the bread. Maybe they had toned it down from when I was there.
It’s definitely an a la carte order here. I think the tasting menu has too many weak dishes
The pineapple was very good.