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Dinner: disappointing; very disappointing

7/6/2012

10 Comments

 
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Today's lunch at Dinner saw okay food paired with indifferent service resulting in a bad overall experience. Whether it's argued on the grounds of the prices they charge, its Michelin star or the fact that it was recently voted the ninth best restaurant in the world, it simply wasn't good enough in our view. On today's showing, Dinner to us would not even rank as the ninth best restaurant in London.

For us, this is a return visit having eaten there back in February 2011 when the excitement over the opening was still fresh. We enjoyed the meal then, praised the restaurant extensively but had some reservations about the historical food thing being a gimmick (and even potentially a liability) and wondered how the concept and menu would feel on repeat visits. 

The food (while it played a part in all this) wasn't our principal issue today, rather it was the service, or lack of it. Our first minor brush with this occurred at the exterior reception desk which wasn't manned so you wait around the lobby before realising that no-one is coming. A 'reception closed' sign was all that was needed. After that, it wasn't until 30 minutes after sitting down at our table that our food order was taken. With another 15-20 minutes until the starter arrives, it means that we've been at the table for an hour and a quarter before main courses arrive, enough time for us to be staring at the walls, noticing that they need a good clean.

But more than all that, it was the indifference of the front of house team that was most irritating. When our dessert was put on the table, the waiter said 'hope you enjoy' but even before he got the words out, his body had rotated round and he was leaving our table. The words are said because he had to, not because he meant it. And with the FOH staff having clearly defined roles, the ethos appears to be "this is what I do, that however is not in my job description" leaving tables ignored by staff who, standing around chatting, clearly didn't believe they should step outside of their mandated role to help a customer who wanted something.   

Dinner is a big restaurant and has been set up on along brasserie rather than fine dining concepts and any awards it gets are clearly granted externally, but even in a small town brasserie we would expect a higher quality of service. The problem here seems to be that Dinner is like an industrial age restaurant, a machine, and rather than see the diners as customers, they're simply part of the machine too. One feels the aim of Dinner is process perfection, not customer orientation. Such an approach can be pulled off if it works well but when it fails, the machine looks broken and there's little to fall back on as no relationship with the customer has been established. 

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empty front reception desk
Foodwise, the menu is similar to our last visit over a year ago, perhaps a few changed options here and there but Broth of Lamb, Salamugundy, Rice & Flesh and Roast Scallops remain in place, the Meat Fruit more understandably so as their signature dish. An order of Rice & Flesh delivered an undercooked saffron risotto which at £16 seems inexcusable while the other starter was Hay Smoked Mackerel, lemon salad, gentleman's relish and olive oil. A nice piece of mackerel for sure but probably no better than Roganic or Charlotte's Bistro or anywhere else really. 
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Rice & Flesh: saffron, calf tail and red wine
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Hay smoked mackerel
As a return visit to Dinner, the historic menu concept now seems more annoying than anything else. In the desserts, seeing Tarte of Strawberries, 1591 (strawberry tart to you and me) seems more like a Las Vegas themed restaurant menu for Ye Olde England than anything serious but we don't think Tarte of Strawberries is an attempt at humour. On the main courses, steak and triple cooked chips is referenced as c1830 though since cows were domesticated around 7000 BC, the reference is a futile but a necessary consistency.

The mains are good enough as dishes, the turbot well cooked even if the cockles have little flavour while the sauce lacks adequate depth. The pork chop is a decent example of the kind but is broadly what you get if you place a good pork chop in a Josper grill. The mains are good then but not exceptional and at the much lauded Dinner, that's an anticlimax.

The tipsy cake was ordered for dessert, no picture here as we forgot, our attention now drifting elsewhere. The cake itself was great, like last time when I was wowed by it, but this time the pineapple fell short, the spit roast doing very little for it and therefore for the dish overall.
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Roast Turbot, leaf chicory & cockle ketchup
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Pork chop: Hispi cabbage, lardo, ham hock & Robert sauce
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chocolate & tea ganache
We didn't get carried away with the hype around Dinner before eating there today but we were excited, it is Heston after all. They've also had a year to make things even better and recent awards suggested they had. Our disappointment however was absolute, not relative. The service was inadequate and we debated whether to ask them to remove the 12.5% discretionary charge from the bill, something we've only ever done before on two occasions. The food was well executed in parts (the risotto an exception) but at £30 for mains with sides an additional £4.50, it should be very good indeed. 

But at the end of the day what food did we really have? Saffron risotto, mackerel, turbot and a pork chop. In a week's time, we will have almost certainly forgotten these plates. The food was in our opinion as described, not elevated to something special, it's not food with a twist and the historical references already seem like a tired gimmick. Elsewhere on the menu, there are three varieties of steak with chips cooked on a Josper, sounds like Goodman. 

We revisited Pollen Street Social a year after it opened and loved how Jason Atherton incorporated feedback from that year to improve the offering while changing up the menu, relaxing into the cooking and really offering customers holistically a great time. A year on at Dinner and things are very much the same. The excitement of the launch has gone however but the machine rolls on playing to a full house every day. We wonder if being voted the best restaurant in the UK has blunted their edge to try. It certainly felt that way to us today.


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Dinner Feb 2011 CC post


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10 Comments
Matthew link
7/6/2012 02:56:28 pm

These observations definitely support the thought that Dinner is aimed squarely at food tourists. People who are going to come half way across the world to eat - once - at Heston's famous (London) restaurant and will never have to consider eating there again.

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crinket
7/6/2012 03:05:10 pm

I've been, and it's amazing food, and mediocre service. How can you not adore that pork chop and stuff it comes with

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Mike C.
8/6/2012 01:42:03 am

Interesting, I thought they really had everything spot on when I visited in the early days of opening. Maybe the "Boss" being in attendance had something to do with it. I was thinking about a return visit within the next couple of weeks. You have helped me make up my mind. I think I'll go back to The Ledbury instead.

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Gareth
8/6/2012 01:59:47 am

My experience at dinner was very similar. Only the meat fruit was worth the price charged. Delicious, exciting, visually beautiful. Everything else was entirely underwhelming. But the service, utterly terrible. We sat with empty wine glasses for most of the meal, as FoH stood around the station nattering. As a restaurat owner you'd be livid, margins there are to be exploited!

Tip about The Ledbury (or The Library perhaps), have a few drinks before you go as thn you'll feel less inclined to sit in silent reverence to the food. I went to Roganic a week later, would recommend it as an alternative. Food at least as good, but much more fun.

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Ozzy link
8/6/2012 04:08:14 am

Sounds like they're a bit inconsistent, too. Bebejax loved it earlier this week.
However, lazy service is inexcusable at this level of restaurant. I don't like constantly being intruded upon, either, but service needs to be there when needed.

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Dai
8/6/2012 04:47:46 am

Can you clarify why you did pay the service if it was that bad? It is not obligatory!

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Kev Geri
8/6/2012 06:02:17 am

If Heston ever did anything creative, and this is debatable, it was pre 2001. He's been dining off his early reputation ever since. Indeed, Heston would never have been able to get away with his pre-internet ripping off of continental chefs had he been operating five years later in a web 2.0 context.

And I doubt you even needed to eat at Dinner to arrive at your conclusions, a quick look at the clients told me all I needded to know about where it was coming from and where it was going.

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TJ
8/6/2012 01:35:58 pm

A few years ago I was presented with a pair of jellies -- beetroot orange tasted back to front. Yes, and? When I step on a stopped escalator it always feels odd -- and?

Molecular Gastronomy, cuisine of the non sequitur. Dinner by Heston Blumenthal, and?

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john tully
8/6/2012 11:29:20 pm

Your issue with service is indicitive of London - except for a handful of places like River Cafe, Cafe Anglais. The big brigades of suited and booted robots really don't give a shit. And this will also extend to the food when the boss is'nt in - a bunch of Michelin wanabees clocking up kitchens for their CVs without really understanding hospitality, warmth and the customer.

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Amy
9/6/2012 08:55:38 am

I ate at Dinner last June and thoroughly enjoyed it however reading your review made me wonder if it will follow the same trend as The Fat Duck - a menu that doesn't really change albeit with a couple of small tweaks here and there but still has customers flocking on the strength of the name and reputation. That's not to be negative on the quality of the food because friends that have been to The Fat Duck raved about it (I've not been) and as I said I loved my meal at Dinner but there is perhaps a danger of complacency when to be honest, you don't really have to try that hard to get people through the door.

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