Tasty Bites

Maz July 15th, 2011

It’s hard not to be impressed with Heston Blumenthal’s new London restaurant Dinner … an $8million fitout will do that.  Housed in the venerable Mandarin Hotel this is definitely ‘Restaurant as Theatre’.  We were visiting Bruno Loubet and wife Catherine, and despite Dinner being booked out 3 months in advance, Catherine pulled some strings and suddenly there we were on a Saturday night.  It was very glam and we were made to feel quite special, with complimentary Champagne and extra dishes — Bruno’s name on the booking worked wonders — poor guy could not be with us as he was beavering away at his own restaurant, Bistrot Bruno Loubet .

The premis for Dinner is Blumenthal’s interest in modernising medieval English recipes, so the mandarin entree here is actually chicken liver parfait encased in mandarin jelly, and called Meat Fruit.

Hard to see where the 8 mill went as the decor is tasteful but not over the top. However, the giant clock “pasted” onto the glass kitchen walls,whichd drives an open-fired rotisserie … was pretty amazing.  The Loubet’s 13yr old daughter Chloe dined with us.  Heston asked if she would like to visit his Laboratory.  That’s a definite YES!

To see the full menu go to: www.dinnerbyheston.com

• Restaurant Talk
• Comments(2)