Heston Blumenthal's restaurant-Dinner: Knightsbridge 3-4th April

Wow, wow, wow... What a trip that was! For my 21st birthday my best friend, Jayne (yes she's mentioned a fair few times haha!) took me to London for the night shopping and exploring Oxford Street but the best part of the present was when she told me we were going to Heston Blumenthal's restaurant in Knightsbridge; Dinner ... Finally my first Michelin star restaurant and who's better than Heston's?! Who I've loved and admired for years.

It was unfortunate the night before the trip I became really ill and had the horrible flu, but nothing was going to stop me going on this trip away, so I packed loads of medicines and off we went to Birmingham international train station ready for our train journey to the capital!

London when we arrived was, as ever extremely busy but we firstly got the tube from Euston to Shepard's Bush where our hotel was. Was a freezing cold day and I stupidly forgot my coat (of all days & I had a terrible cold!)

As you can the hotel was so nice and we happened to meet Dean Gaffney sat in reception haha! We quickly put our stuff down and left the hotel to go to Oxford Street ... Busy as ever and we did a bit of shopping then went back to the hotel to get ready & dressed up for Heston's.

We got ready and took a few pictures before heading to the tube for Knightsbridge. As you can see, I kind of dressed up but not too much.

We eventually got to Knightsbridge & arrived at the Mandarin Oriental Hotel... Woah! So posh, like £500 + a night posh!! We then walked up the stairs where we were greeted by a woman who escorted us to our table, our table was in such a cool place, right by the kitchen so we could look in.

We sat down and quickly looked at the menu, I was eager with excitement! The staff are incredibly tentative and check on you the whole time you are there. We ordered a bottle of water and Jayne had a glass of white wine whereas I just had a soft drink, a non alcoholic cocktail which was so yummy! I can't really remember what was included in it but it was something like, pineapple, grenadine, raspberry and lime but for £8 it best be good!

Right, now onto the food. For starter I had he's famous meat fruit as I've wanted to try it for years and it looks so cool and incredibly clever.

Meat Fruit (c.1500): Mandarin, chicken liver & foie gras parfait, grilled bread. £15.00

Oh my god ... How amazing! This starter was unreal. It's so clever because it does actually look like an orange peel up close and the waitress told us that is a 3 day process making just one of these meat fruits! I'm not usually a big fan of pâté either but this was SO smooth-it had absolutely no lumps or brittle parts, it was so creamy. It was very rich tasting so you definitely need the bread with it but a 10/10 starter and I wouldn't change a thing!

For main course (sorry the picture is rubbish-they wouldn't let us put flash on our cameras) I chose my favourite ever meat, pork. I was tempted by the fish dishes but as I wasn't feeling very well I thought meat would be the better option.

Black Foot Pork Chop (c.1860)Hispi cabbage, lardo, ham hock & Robert sauce. £30.00

Ah this main was amazing! I wasn't overly keen on the popcorn that came on top but I don't really like popcorn texture! The cabbage, lardo and ham hock was yummy! It was very unusual tasting but so yummy! The sauce, Robert sauce (something I've never heard of before!) was very, very rich and you definitely couldn't have a lot of it as it was very overpowering! The pork chop was very thick, a bit too thick for my taste as it wasn't tender enough for me but overall this main was yummy, a 9/10 main and I would love to try all of he's main courses!

Wow ... now onto the dessert! Probably the best part of the whole meal. He is famous for this dessert so we had to have it, we decided to share it as it's quite big and so sweet as a lot of the reviews online stated.

Tipsy Cake (c.1810)Spit roast pineapple
£12.00

OH MY GOD! This dessert was amazing, amazing is the only word I have to describe this pudding. The description of it (not mentioned in menu) didn't make it sound too appealing as I don't like brioche but I take back all my doubts, what am amazing dessert. So sweet, alcoholic and delicious! The brioche was perfectly cooked, warm and not dry at all and the spit roast pineapple that came next to the cake was also so yummy, sweet yet tangy! This was probably one of the best desserts I've ever ever had, the perfect dessert to curl up next to a fire with! 11/10!!

Lastly, we thought we should try he's nitrogen ice cream as he is famous for it and its shown on all of he's TV programmes. This wasn't mentioned on the menu but the waitress asked us if we wanted it after our main course and we had to say yes, I've always been so intrigued to try it especially as I love ice cream! It wasn't cheap at all at £9 each for a cone (you could buy a lot of tubs of Ben & Jerrys for that!!) but the whole experience was so good, the waitress bought out this old fashioned looking sewing machine to our table, it's a Victorian inspired idea originating from 'Mrs Marshall was a remarkable woman, with a cooking school just up the road from here in 1900. She had patents for ice-cream machines, fridges, the lot. And until three years back she was credited with the invention of the edible cone...liquid air will do remarkable things and you'll be able to make ice cream with it.'

The woman starts turning the wheel, adding cream and custard and finally adding the -130 degrees nitrogen that freezes so quickly it makes ice cream in 45 seconds! And yes it was very cold!

This ice cream was so good, you have a choice of different toppings and we both went for the popping candy and raspberry bits. It melted incredibly quickly, we were warned about this but it tasted so smooth and creamy compared to normal ice cream, it was very expensive but worth the money for not only the taste but the whole historical experience!

So .. Wow I finally went to a Michelin star restaurant and I will continue to go. Heston Blumenthal exceeded my expectations and I would love to go back again! I would like to thank my best friend, Jayne Whitehouse for doing this for me :)! Best present ever and something I will never forget!

Posted with Blogsy