Heston Blumenthal, the name which every food lover recognises and everyone dashed madly around putting their names down in a ballot in order to snag a seat in Fat Duck when they were in Melbourne for 6 months. After that frenzy, Heston opened his first international restaurant – Dinner by Heston at the exact spot which Fat Duck had sat. After harassing Mr D, he finally booked it for our anniversary and I was super duper excited when Saturday rolled around.
Located in Crown Casino, when you step into the venue you’re greeted by the meaning of dinner.
After seeing the sign, you need to walk down a dark and long corridor (if you’re scared of the dark like me, now would be a great excuse to hug your date) and there’s at automatic door at the end (we were greatly confuzzled at this point). We were shown to our table and had flick through the menu. The great thing about it is that it’s English and Australian influenced and it gives you the date which it was made.
Mr D was all for mocktails tonight and got the lemonade and boy was it really lemon-y. Mr D’s face was always scrunched up when he took a sip and I’m taking it that he wasn’t a fan of it.
Lemonade – $16
After ordering, we were presented with home made butter with their bread. That butter was AMAZEBALL! I could literally lather myself in it if I could. It was so creamy, really flavoursome and BAM oh so good.
If I ever see liver parfait, my knees will go weak unless the dish is placed in front of me. The meat fruit is one of Heston’s signature dishes where it was a chicken liver parfait dipped in a mandarin gel and served with grilled bread. Yes, it was very instagrammable since it was very deceiving to ones eyes.
Meat Fruit – $38
When you cut the ‘fruit’, you get a lovely smooth textured parfait. This was absolutely mouthwateringly delish! I devoured the whole thing and did not even think twice about sharing. It was not too salty and the mandarin gel layer gave it a nice freshness and zing.
Mr D ordered the Rice and Flesh entree which consisted of saffron, curried kangaroo tail, red wine and amaranth. This was very creamy and the kangaroo was so on point. We both loved everything about this dish and yes, it looked exactly like rice and flesh (oh goodie!). We didn’t find it quite as heavy which was surprising seeing as it had rice.
Rice and Flesh – $38
Miss Pear recommended the marron and cucumber soup and so with all the trust I had in her, I went for it. This did not disappoint at all. If you despise cucumber, then you might want to skip this dish because it was very fresh and very cucumber-y. The marron was grilled perfectly and all the flavours went so well even thought it sounded oh so weird.
Marron and Cucumber Soup – $40
The mains came out and I was handed the powdered duck breast with smoked beetroot, grilled red cabbage, umbles and pickled cherries. The duck breast was super dense but it was cooked more on the pink side. The skin was crispy and fabulous. However, the taste itself, I wasn’t a fan of the dish. I felt that it needed more flavour and nothing shouted “OH MY GOSH!” which was very disappointing.
Powdered Duck Breast – $58
Mr D got the lamb and cucumber with sweetbreads, peas barilla and mint. There was a chunk of cucumber so if you aren’t into your cucumber, steer clear from that. The lamb was cooked towards medium rare and was perfect. However, we found that this dish was also lacking flavour which was a shame because Mr D absolutely loves lamb.
Lamb and Cucumber – $60
It was dessert time and I was waiting all night for the Tipsy cake with spit roast pineapple. The cake was so soft and fluffy AND it was super sweet (just the way I liked it). I absolutely adored this dish and it was super duper AMAZEBALL! You need to make sure you eat the cake with a piece of pineapple because it definitely balances out the sweetness. Must get dessert!
Tipsy Cake – $32
Mr D got the brown bread ice cream with salted butter caramel, pear and malted yeast syrup.The pear, syrup and brown bread were divine but the ice cream didn’t tickle our fancy. It was more cream like than ice-cream like.
Brown Bread Ice cream – $28
We got a complimentary chocolate ganache and that was really dark chocolate so Mr D went to town on this baby. It was a lovely surprise to end the night.
Chocolate Ganache
There were a lot of hit and misses in regards to the food, I had expected the food to be consistently good but it wasn’t and that was very disappointing. Initially, the service was great. However, as the night progressed, we found the staff didn’t provide the same level as attention as at the beginning, our glasses weren’t taken away when they were empty or offered a top up if we needed it, when our plates were taken away the staff didn’t engage with us, when ordering from the menu the staff taking our order wasn’t friendly at all. I’ve heard great things about Dinner by Heston but unfortunately, I wasn’t able to experience all that which was a shame. Sorry Heston but I don’t think I’ll be coming back.
Crown Casino, Level 3, 8 Whiteman Street, Southbank, VIC
Tel: (03) 9292 5777
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