Dinner by Heston Blumenthal

My husband and I recently went to London a couple weeks ago.  I went for work and he had the time to come and join me for the trip.  Since we had recently gone to Europe, we didn't want to eat too expensively but decided to splurge on one meal.  We had heard of the Fat Duck by Heston Blumenthal but sadly, it was booked (good for our wallets though).  I had only known that I was going on the business trip two weeks before we were to leave so the Fat Duck being booked was expected.  While doing some more research on restaurants, I saw that Blumenthal recently opened a new restaurant in 2011 called Dinner and it was #9 on the San Pellegrino List.

We were able to secure reservations for lunch at "Dinner" (sounds weird to say that) and really had a wonderful time there.  Their food, while rich and heavy, was super tasty.  Blumenthal's concept for this restaurant was to take old world British recipes and transform them into more modern dishes.

I started off by ordering the Salamugundy, which was explained to me as a hodgepodge or salad of various things.  Lucky for me, it contained chicken oysters, bone marrow, and horseradish.  Nice hodgepodge.

Salamugundy (c. 1720)
Chicken oysters, salsify, marrow bone & horseradish cream

My husband started off with the infamous Meat Fruit, definitely one of the best dishes of the night.   It looks like a real mandarin orange, dimples and all (cute since the restaurant was in the Mandarin Hotel).

When you cut it open, it is filled with the most delicious foie gras and liver pate encased in a mandarin jelly.  If you go, you have to get this dish.

Meat Fruit (c. 1500)
Mandarin, chicken liver parfait & grilled bread

My entree was called "A Made Dish of Parmesan".  All of the items on the plate had a Parmesan element to it.  It was interesting and delicious.  I didn't care for the quails egg too much.  It was coated in Parmesan and caraway but was a bit dry.

A Made Dish of Parmesan (c. 1661)
Quails egg, smoked cauliflower, horseradish & caraway

Wil got the powdered duck entree. I think his beat my entree with perfectly tender duck, tasty fennel and a nice sauce.

Powdered Duck Breast (c. 1670)
Smoked confit fennel & umbles

Now for their signature dessert, the tipsy cake.  It is served with spit roasted pineapple that you can see rotating in their kitchen.  The tipsy cake is brioche soaked in custard and alcohol and baked in the oven.  I believe the waiter said the process was done 3 or 4 times, soak, bake, soak again, bake and so forth until a nice crust on top is achieved.  It was rich and sweet but delicious.  It kind of tasted like monkey bread to me, to which Wil replied, "What's monkey bread?"

Tipsy Cake (c. 1810)
Spit roast pineapple

It was a rainy day in London and having lunch at Dinner made me feel warm inside with its comfort food.  I would highly suggest it if you are in London!

Dinner by Heston Blumenthal
Mandarin Oriental Hyde Park
66 Knightsbridge, London SW1X7LA
http://www.dinnerbyheston.com/