It was B's birthday last week, and I wanted to take him somewhere lovely to celebrate/commiserate this happy/unhappy occasion. He's been a Heston fan since we visited the Fat Duck (back in the day when 1.) we were dating and he was still trying to impress me; 2.) you could get a reservation for a Friday night less than two years in advance), so a trip to his new London restaurant was likely to score highly on the good wife-o-meter.
You can only book by telephone for Dinner, and only a month in advance. I dutifully called on 1st September to reserve our table, and I was glad I did - despite it being a Monday lunchtime, every table in the room was taken.
Dinner is on the ground floor of the Mandarin Oriental hotel, and if you're lucky enough to get a table by the window, you can look out on a great sweep of Hyde Park. The room is all heavy, dark wood and polish - elegant if not spectacular, although with the view it has you hardly need any more.
We went for the set lunch menu, which at £28 for three courses is a more affordable option than a la carte (where main courses go for between £25 - £35, eeks). For my starter, I chose the lemon salad, which came with slivers of fruit, soft goat's curd, golden raisins and crisp salad leaves.
It was a lovely dish - all perky, sour fruit playing against the mild goat's curd and the crunchy sorrel leaves. B went for the other starter option, a ragoo of pig's ears, because he is a carnivore and thinks salad is for rabbits.
My main course was a beautiful piece of cured salmon with beetroot puree (a recipe which dates back to 1670, apparently -how historical!) The fish was moist and pink on the inside, and flaked fatly against my fork. It came with a tangle of leaves and a slick of bright, savoury puree - nothing too complicated, which allowed the flavour of the salmon to really shine through.
I should mention, if you're thinking that the portions look a bit of the delicate side, that we had two complimentary platters of crusty bread and salted butter to start with, and these provided all the carbs we needed. There are side dishes if you're starving, though.
To finish, we split the two desserts on offer - a prune and tamarind tart (above) and a raspberry pain perdu. The tart was a sweet pastry case filled with an egg custard-y filling, which wobbled satisfyingly under our spoons. The pain perdu was crunchy and sweet, with a scoop of coconut and raspberry sorbet on the side.
Complimentary petit fours are a surefire way to win my heart. We were served adorable little teacups of chocolate mousse, with a biscotti dipper - much more chocolate than mousse, although you'll hear no complaints from me about that.
A completely non-food-related observation: the bathroom was magnificent. All marble floors and dinky little handsoap dispensers and individual towels. I do love a good bathroom, and this was epic.
After lunch, we walked off our huge meal through Hyde Park, where the leaves were a-whirling and the ducks were a-quacking. I think it was a pretty good birthday, all in all.
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