Dinner by Heston. We ( My cousin Malcolm and his son Henry) and I went to Dinner by Heston Blumenthal for lunch. The restaurant is in a very luxurious setting, if I had the money and the desire , I could have bought a McLaren racing car from the store two doors down.The restaurant is in the Mandarin Oriental hotel,they haven’t tried to cram in as many people as possible and the tables were set far enough apart that you could not hear what was getting said at the next table. I really liked that as I don’t like feeling cramped. There were an abundance of wait staff , gotta love that. We had the set lunch which was 38 GBP with the wines to match for 29.50 GBP,well Henry didn’t have the wines as he is only 16.
We got an add on to the set lunch of two serves of their famous Meat Fruit. Which is chicken liver pate with foie gras encased in a Mandarin type of gel.
Picture pinched from smh.com.au website as mine was blurry.
It was really good eating and I am glad my nephew suggested that I add it on. Offal can taste so good. (apologies to my lovely vegetarian friends)
Then I had the sardines on toast
Smoked Sardines on Toast (c.1892)Anchovy butter, tomato, capers & lemon
and the guys had Lemon salad (c.1730)Smoked artichoke, goats curd and candy beetroot.
For mains we all had Slow cooked Pork Belly (c.1710)Smoked cabbage, apple & mead. The crackling was so good.Smoked cabbage just so so.
Gooseberry tart. very nice but a little rich. I am quite the fan of a gooseberry.
The matched wines were great, we both appreciate a good matched wine. They can really make a dish and the dish can really make the wine. Their “house” champagne was a vintage Moet and Chandon (2004) quite reasonably priced too. ( it you don’t convert it) . I have been trying not to convert the money in my head when I pay for things. If I did I wouldn’t be eating.
Unfortunately they made a mistake on the bill and didn’t fix it properly. I didn’t notice that it hadn’t been fixed properly ( due to 5 wines) until I was on the tube so I had to ring them when I got back to Sarah’s. They have now refunded me the mistake and the service fee. ( we also left them some GBP ) They got their 2nd Michelin star the night before we went so it was all about making me happy. I am sure they are like that on any other day as well though. I felt a bit disappointed with the “experimental” aspect of my dishes . ( other than the meat fruit). I wanted experimental fun food.
They had an ice cream cart that makes the ice cream on the spot, it wasn’t on the set menu though 😦 .
If I was to go back I would order a la carte (and check the bill 😉 ) They were very welcoming and accommodating. Heston should be proud of how comfortable his staff make his guests feel.
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I am a little ” all museumed out” so I haven’t been doing an overload of them. I have been back to the V and A museum
I saw this bus on the way -yes, get over it.
A really cool “mobile” of flattened horn instruments.
a lot of camp things are pretty good.
I like doll houses.
a door made from little wind mills
the obligatory photo of a telephone booth.
Patrick and Lucy had recommended Churchill’s war rooms. It was interesting seeing how they had to live during the second world war. The things that surprised me were- his clothes were SO big! He was a pretty damn good painter! He kept stuffed animals ( given to him by his grandchildren on his bookshelf).
I was more interested in his life and the rooms than the war side of it all. My brain shuts down when I read war stuff. ( so eloquently said 😉 )
This is one of his paintings. He got professionally trained. It was one of his major loves
A telegram from the abdicated Edward thanking for his support Wallis drama.
a bad photo of one of his paintings
He liked keeping stuffed animals on his bookshelves. He thought if humans were more like animals the world would be a better place. hmmm” lion’s tigers and bears”
a bedroom . you could tell how important the occupant was by whether there was carpet on the floor or not.
sometimes 11 secretaries worked in this space. he was not an easy person to listen to dictation from due to his cigars etc and apparently he was a hard task master and a bit of a p^%$k. hmmm
When Churchill died my dad was making the back room on our Hawthorn home and he put a copy of the newspaper of the day of his passing (wrapped in plastic) in the steps. They would have found it when they did a big renovation a few years ago
I am glad I went, it was thought provoking and showed a side to Churchill that I would not have imagined existed.
Bron Voyage 