Dinner at Dinner - Heston Blumen-fail.

When you speak about the world's most influential chefs, a name that comes up time and time again is Heston Blumenthal. We have all seen his shows, read his books and heard rave reviews about his amazing restaurants. So for Anthony's birthday we decided to go to Dinner at the Mandarin Oriental and taste Heston's cooking for ourselves. 

We prepared the day carefully; an early lunch, relaxing day and plenty of time to get ready!

We were shown to a lovely table overlooking the park and ordered delicious sounding cocktails. They were disappointing. Don't get me wrong, if I got a cocktail like this at Wetherspoons I would be delighted, but it fell rather short of my expectations for a Michelin Star Meal.

     

The bread course was tasty! Two different breads with a lightly salted butter. Anthony felt the bread was a bit stale but i enjoyed the slightly crusty slices. 

Anthony's Meat Fruit starter was the reason that we were here. He had seen it on Heston's Feasts and couldn't wait to try it. Anthony enjoyed it but I felt that it was no different from a smooth chicken liver pate that had been whisked up to give it a light airy consistency. I had the Broth of Lamb which had a very strong taste which reminded me of some of the flavours we experienced in Japan. As Anthony put it, it was a bit like Katsu in a Japanese soup!

   

The main course was awkward. Anthony's duck dish and mashed potato was delicious! The meat was succulent and the reduction was delicious. The puree tasted like cream and butter and potato and melted in the mouth. Unfortunately my pork dish was not quite in the same league. 

For the first time ever, I sent my dish back to the kitchen, it was dry,tasteless and difficult to cut. The second plate showcased what the dish should be, a delicious, meaty pork chop! As the waiter explained, the first piece had come from the less fatty part of the rib so the second chop came from a different part, fattier, juicier and a lot more tender. 

First pork

Better pork

Dessert should have been the another highlight but unfortunately was just another disappointing moment in our meal. The chocolate bar looked beautiful; a glistening, inviting chocolate delight but the flavour did not deliver. Inside the chocolate bar was a sharp, passionfruit flavour that did not gel with the sweet chocolate mousse casing or the milky ginger ice cream. The other dessert was a personal favourite, brown bread ice cream. Yet again we were disappointed. The ice cream did not taste like bread but instead had a very yeastily flavour which reminded Anthony of Miso paste. The best part of the dessert was definitely the salted caramel and the biscuit base. 

     

At the end of the meal there was a chocolate, earl grey tea and orange infused mousse with a cardamon biscuit which i didn't even finish. Too rich and too flowery.

As we were paying, we were asked what we thought of the meal and for once I decided to voice my thoughts. The maitre d came to find us as we were leaving and asked why we were disappointed. We told him that the service was great but that the food didn't live up to the hype. At over £110 a head it just wasn't as good as we had hoped, or what we expect from a Michelin star restaurant. I also added that I make a lot of ice cream at home and my own recipe for Brown bread ice cream was a lot more tasty!

After the meal this evening, I am not rushing to book a meal at Bray. In fact, I am not even going to by Heston's recipe book on Amazon but I am going to make sure that I secure a reservation at Viajante before we go!