Dinner by Heston
British Empire than Roman circa Nero and the excess he wrought through Rome, stepping into the Mandarin Oriental has me slowing down my usual walking speed so that I can take in every delightful piece of design work. My stay is not a long one though, as it is in this hotel that Dinner by Heston - in all its two michelin star glory - is tucked away.
If Gordon Ramsay is our nation's most iconic chef and restaurateur, Heston may be the most influential. A self-taught wizard, Heston's The Fat Duck restaurant in Bray was named the world's best restaurant at one time, owing to his daring innovations around molecular gastronomy. Using liquid nitrogen and bizarre flavour combinations in his ice cream creations; creating edible soil in the small allotments that would be proffered to the table; expounding on the virtues of sous vide, and the triple-cooked chip. Heston has seen food as a lawless playground, and has looked to create new and interesting ways in which food can be prepared, presented and consumed.
Dinner is a slightly different prospect to the cutting edge molecular gastronomy offered at the Fat Duck, and is one that I find very interesting. At Dinner, Heston focuses on a menu that draws inspiration from old (some really, really old) recipes from the British Isles. This is a historical restaurant, that aims to shine a light on Britain's culinary tradition, while adjusting the chosen recipes for modern expectations and palettes.
The menu is bound by a card slip which, when removed, can be separated to reveal a fact about Britain's culinary tradition. Mine is concerning Afternoon Tea (to my mind Britain's finest culinary tradition).
Each dish on the menu has an indicator as to when the recipe was first invented, spanning from c. 79 AD all the way to c. 1830. The genius of the restaurant is that all of the dishes still feel as though they belong in the present day, owing to the way that they have been updated.
I started with The Truffle, a dish consisting of mushroom parfait and truffle made to look like a newly foraged black truffle, alongside grilled bread. Doubtless that these ingredients would not quite have been presented in such a way in the 1500s. The bread was perfectly grilled, the mushroom parfait rich, the truffle not overbearing. A day later, I can still taste it.
I then had a Roast Halibut and Green Sauce recipe from c. 1440. This came with braised chicory, parsley, pepper, onion and eucalyptus. The braised chicory, while delicious, was a little tough to cut with the rather blunted knife I used, but everything else about the dish was superb, especially the halibut fillet. Soft, delicate, and perfectly seasoned, this cut of fish was exceptional. Alongside the fish, I of course had to have the triple-cooked chips with mushroom ketchup. The chips were of course brilliant, but I'd question the price tag for these. Having made triple-cooked chips before, it really doesn't require a lot of effort, so I don't know where the justification for £9 chips could possibly come from.
For dessert, I had the star of the show: the Brown Bread Ice-cream, with salted butter caramel, pear and malted yeast syrup (c. 1830). This is a dessert that you're unlikely to get anywhere else. The depth of flavour is incredible, with the malt replacing the caramel at the forefront over time, and the pear chiming in with soft, mild notes while the bread provides a textural contrast. I would have liked for the pear to be a little stronger, but the dessert really was very good.
As 'tis the season, my meal was completed with the offering of a miniature mince pie. While a nice gesture at this time of the year, I must say that the Heston-produced mince pies you can pick up from Waitrose are infinitely better than the one offered here.
Hopefully, Dinner by Heston will become a long-stayed British institution, given that it puts the UK's culinary tradition front and centre. If you haven't yet been, I would strongly recommend it. After you've finished, why not walk over to nearby Fortnum and Mason for their delightful afternoon tea?
Value for Money? £140 for three courses, a beverage and service charge. Generally yes, although the sides are just too steep.
Would I return? Technically I already have, as this was my second visit. But would I return for a third? Probably not - the food is very good, but there is something about it that doesn't make me yearn to return. Nothing is particularly wowing, and there doesn't feel like there's a lot of heart here. While an interesting excursion, it's like going to a museum. Clinical.
