As with any new celebrity chef offering, especially when the chef in question is one Heston Blumenthal, there has been plenty of hype surrounding the opening of “Dinner”. Opened in January this year in the Mandarin Oriental Hotel at Knightsbridge “Dinner”, potentially confusing when planning a lunch date, pays homage to food from Britain’s historical times and features dishes inspired by recipes reaching as far back as the 14th century. Tonight Sandra, Jenny and James C also came along for the trip back in time.

If you’re taken on the right path, the walk to your table is impressive. The surrounds are well plush, as one would expect I guess from a hotel in Knightsbridge, but the most pleasing aspect and drawcard is that the kitchen is an open one although thankfully, for our clothes, behind giant glass windows! (My brother would be super-excited by the Josper grill.) As you pass by on your way to your table you can see the pineapples happily roasting away in preparation for the numerous Tipsy Pineapple Cake orders which are surely to follow. I also was enjoying the jelly mould light fixtures which gave the serious room a bit of a quirkiness.

Be warned for those expecting to experience a little bit of Fat Duck at “Dinner” – you will be disappointed! Yes these recipes from the 14th century have been innovated and updated but not to the same level of gastronomic magic at Fat Duck. The closest you will get is the ‘Meat Fruit’ and this is a definite must order for the table. Lucky for me I was able to have the best of all worlds when James ordered the Meat Fruit leaving me to be able to sample other delights on the menu.

Service at first was excellent. Heaps of staff (maybe too many) saying hellos and goodbyes, circulating around us, serving us water, bread (a giant loaf of sourdough) but then it seemed to taper off through the meal – water glasses started to remain empty, the wait staff delivering the food seemed nervous or something (one girl nearly tiped my plate of dessert over because rather than move to an easier spot to allow her to put the plate down she opted for trying to reach across the table instead – a bit baffling.) Even though the restaurant has been opened for 8-9 months I’m surprised that front of house felt like it hadn’t quite got things going smoothly yet.

So what about the food?

I can’t really speak much for what the others (except for the sublime Meat Fruit) had but I will attach the photos. It is fair to say that prices are a little on the overpriced side, in particular for starters and sides. For mains they were mnre fair and you could easily do with a main each with shared side (of gorgeous chunky fat chips) if you choose wisely (Black Foot pork chop!)

As I keep harping on, the Meat Fruit is the singular most amazing dish on the menu. The best of the rest were simply good in comparison. A very light chicken liver parfait covered in a very thin shell of mandarin jelly this dish was simply incredible. I was so very happy that James was nice enough to let me taste some – if I had ordered the dish (and knowing how incredible it was) I doubt I would have been quite so generous! Visually appealing to the eye too though if there was one thing the dish needed it was more bread!

My “Rice & Flesh” was more exotic sounding than it actually was – basically a posh risotto with the saffron, the calf tail and the red wine. It looked fabulous all vibrantly yellow and glossy. It was cooked almost to perfection – just slighlty over-salted I felt and could have done with more protein (that’s right I’m looking at you calf tail.)

For mains I would say that my Black Foot pork chop was the winner in the categories that really count: taste and value for money. I was worried that such a big fat piece of pork chop would be tough and dry (and even worse, rare towards the middle) but again the kitchen shined through with its skills and what I bit into was gorgeously juicy tender mouthfuls of lovely pork. Winner: Josper Grill. Great texture and perfectly seasoned. It was also served with the most gorgeous barley “carb”. There was this transparent almost onion skin type thing laying on top of the barley which was strange-looking but tasty. The fat cut chips we ordered for sides were decent and had that perfectly double-cooked-ness you want in such a chip.

Tipsy Cake is no doubt the sexy celebrity of the dessert offerings. Both Sandra and Jenny fell to its charms. I opted for a more sedate but adventurous sounding brown bread concoction (nice without pushing too many dessert boundaries.) For me the tipsy cake was just on the wrong side of too much alcohol which I felt overpowered the whole dish. It also failed my requirement of coming with ice cream which I think would have balanced the dish perfectly and offset the super sweetness of the brioche and pineapple. Without the ice cream or other counter-balance it felt like it was a serve of sugar with a side of sugar.

A meal was nicely finished off with a petit four of white chocolate ganache with taste of Earl Grey and caraway seed biscuit. Gotta love the free stuff.

Overall I found that Dinner was a pleasant experience. You may have to ride a few ups and downs with the service but if you come here mentally prepared that you will not be getting the scientific food trickery that is often associated with Heston and instead look forward to some good quality chow (and choosing the right dishes) you will should be delighted.

UPDATE: Gained a Michelin Star in October 2011 and jumped straight up to Number 9 on The World’s 50 Best restaurant’s list for 2012. Someone must have been impressed.