Dinner - Heston Blumenthal

I've been begging my mum for ages to take me to Dinner, Heston's latest restaurant which focuses on British dishes that have been inspired by cuisine and food concepts originally dating from the 19th or even the 16th century. Finally, as an end-of-Christmas-holidays-back-to-school-and-exams-treat, we went for lunch today!

It was a wonderful setting in the very grand Mandarin Oriental Hotel, but once I entered the restaurant, it could only be Heston: a floating pineapple inset into the wall above the reception, and jelly-mould-shaped lights were pretty wacky, but it was great to be able to see directly into the kitchen from our table (even if that did mean seeing the pigs' ears being prepared as we awaited our dessert!).

The humorously named "Green Goblin" cocktail that I tried had a great fresh aroma, made with lychee and kiwi juice and a touch of maple syrup for an uplifting sweetness.

To start, I had a lemon salad (supposedly influenced by a recipe from c.1730) with goat's curd, buckler sorrel and raisins. I really liked the pickled lemon segments, which had the distinctive sour taste of lemon (something I love - when people serve lemon slices with fish, I tend to suck the lemon dry while no one's looking!) and a tangy bite from the sliver of rind that contrasted well with the goat's curd in both flavour and texture. The dish looked lovely with different coloured leaves drifting about making it almost resemble a garden floor.

I then tried what seemed like a bizarre concoction to me: a crab 'brioche', made with crab-infused butter and custard, lending it a soft bread-like texture and a subtle flavour of crab. It was actually very tasty, served with a white crab meat mayonnaise and a delicious, clean flavoured cucumber ketchup.

For mains, I had cured salmon (c.1670). The fish was very delicate, and the leaves of flesh peeled away pleasingly. The top of the salmon was caramelised, which added a nice crunch and barbecue-like flavour to the fish. The artichokes were tasty (even though I'm not a big fan of them) although I found the beetroot a little hard. Nonetheless, the kidney-bean-coloured beetroot sauce was very flavoursome, with a great vinegar kick.

For dessert I had an indulgently buttery sweet 'loaf' ( c.1630 ) made from orange, which was covered in crispy caramel that added a lovely sweetness, but had a soft, spongy inside which was very orangey and yummy. The mandarin and thyme sorbet was delicious, with a not-too-strong acidity and clean finish. 

It was a fantastic lunch, with very friendly and talkative staff, who really knew the dishes inside-out and seemed to take a real pleasure in presenting them in all their glory. And trust me, they deserve that glory!