Having pioneered the triple cooked chip, Heston Blumenthal is a god amongst men. He’s also been GQ Chef of the year on numerous occasions, and had his Fat Duck restaurant voted the best in the world.

 So suffice to say, you’re about to read a good review.

          

Stroll through the marbled halls of the Mandarin Oriental Hotel, Hyde Park (where the penthouse suite is an unbelievable £18,000 a night) and you’ll eventually arrive at Dinner by Heston Blumenthal.

Much more affordable than checking in, this restaurant – with its two Michelin stars – offers fine dining at its very finest. The service, the atmosphere, and the food are all exceptional.

We arrived incredibly hungover, after an evening of drinking, dancing, and drag queens. Well, it seemed like a fabulous idea at the time …

 

Fortunately, the waves of nausea soon gave way to excitement. Within moments we were sipping champagne, as we ooh’ed and ahh’ed at the food.

Extremely difficult to choose just one of each course, eventually we narrowed down the rather seductive menu to the following:

 

Meat Fruit (c 1500)

One of the restaurant’s signature dishes, this is chicken liver parfait at its very smoothest. Wrapped in a layer of mandarin jelly, it’s fashioned to look like, well, a mandarin. Dazzling to look at and to eat, every mouthful was sheer bliss.

      

Fillet of Aberdeen Angus (c 1830)

But what better hangover cure than a perfectly cooked steak? Served with bone marrow, and those wonderful triple cooked chips, this was mouth-watering. Mind you, the real and unusual star of the piece was the mushroom ketchup.

Its inspiration comes from the pages of the Cook and Housewife’s Manual by Mistress Meg Dodds. A legendary Scots cook who sold numerous volumes, but had a wee bit of help with the words from Sir Walter Scott.

Roast Iberico Pork Chop (c 1820)

While I self-medicated with steak, Isaac found solace in a pork chop. Which was incredibly tender, wonderfully juicy, and a perfect pink. But again it’s all about the sauces – a dash of mustard, onion, butter, and a white wine reduction. Mwah!

 

All traces of hangover removed, it was time for dessert …

As is true of the entire menu, here we were really spoiled for choice. One option was the Heston’s renowned ice cream made with liquid nitrogen, prepared right at your table. But tempting as the ice cream trolley looked, we went a la carte.

Mind you, you could do both. The slightly roly-poly couple at the next table managed three desserts each, without even stopping to breathe. #totally_judging

      

We, meanwhile, came a close second in “Britain’s Got Greed.” So we can assure you: The Brown bread ice cream (c 1830) with salted butter caramel, pear and yeast syrup was incredible, as was the Rhubarb & Hibiscus (c 1590) and the cheeses with Damson paste.

But the favourite, as voted by the table, was Isaac’s choice: the Chocolate Bar (c 1730) with passion fruit jam and ginger ice cream.

This was just sheer wow! Imagine being taken to the absolute brink of tolerable richness, and then pulled back by its crumbly base and sharp flavours. Amazing.

Every part of our meal, every part of our experience reflected an incredible attention to detail. And making it even more memorable, this stunning, stunning meal was a birthday gift from our friends Peter and Kevin.

We are lucky social bitches indeed!

 

Reviewed March 2017

Dinner by Heston Blumenthal

Mandarin Oriental Hyde Park, London SW1X 7LA

020 7201 3888