Dinner by Heston - Southbank

The day had come. Dinner by Heston!!!! I went with my sister and 2 cousins for the 6pm sitting. We had heard of lots of hype and since this was Heston, my god, Heston, we were excited for a magical evening with interesting explosions of flavours.

It was a mission to find since we weren't familiar with Crown but ooooh so fancy. The entrance was super dark and we may or may not have not realised there was a sliding door and stood like idiots in front of it for a while instead of stepping forward woops.

Complimentary bread and butter :)

Lemme just say that this was absolutely divine. The house-churned butter was legit the best butter I've ever tried and it's just butter! The night was looking very very good, if this was an indicator of the food to come. Only downside was the crust was a tad hard but yum who cares, butter it up and it's good to go! 

(Non-Alcoholic) DRANKSSSSS

Our drinks for the evening was the Peter Piper's Pickled Lemon Lemonade, Sarsaparilla Soda and Lemon and Bergamot Spider. They were all priced at $12 and came in various sizes. 

My Entree: Rice and Flesh (c.1390)

I ordered the Rice and Flesh ($36) for entree and I loved it. It consisted of saffron, curried kangaroo tail, red wine and amaranth. While the flavours were too strong for the others, it was just so robust and really packed a punch for me. Was my favourite dish of the night. 

Q's Meat Fruit (c.1500)

The Meat Fruit ($38) was a must eat on our list and it did not disappoint (for me at least). The grilled bread was deliciously crispy and was a treat with a smear of the mandarin, chicken liver parfait. I happily finished Q's entree as she found it too creamy for her liking (like dude it's parfait...).

Hay Smoked Ocean Trout (c.1730)

 T got the Hay Smoked Ocean Trout ($32) which was a pickled lemon salad with gentleman's relish, wood sorrel and smoked roe. She found it enjoyable with a lot of subtle flavours.

Frumenty (c.1390)

C.N. got Frumenty ($36) which had grilled octopus, spelt, pickled red moss, chervil emulsion and smoked sea broth. The smoky broth was poured onto the dish and we all loved the theatrics of it. The octopus was super tender and all but one of the components worked well together. Everyone had a taste of the chervil emulsion and agreed it tasted quite funky.

My main: Slow cooked Pork Belly (c.1820)

Not going to lie, my main was a massive step down from the entree. The pork belly was cooked well but there wasn't enough sauce to tie everything together. And don't get my started on that spelt parcel because it was gross and gooey and after one bite I was done. 

Beef Royal

My sister got the special of the night which was the Beef Royal ($70) which was a slow cooked beef short rib with a red wine reduction. The meat was tender and she happily devoured it.  

Powdered Duck Breast (c.1670)

My cousins got the Powdered Duck Breast ($54) which was cooked with ale and artichokes. Their duck was cooked perfectly and yummy. However, they found the other components average hence making their main quite boring to eat.

Our Mains!

 We ordered a side of fries ($12) and they were fab, no ragretz!

Tipsy Cake (c.1810)

YASSSSSS, time for dessert. The Tipsy Cake with spit roast pineapple ($30) was recommended by our waitress at the start as it needs 40 mins notice time. It was easily our favourite dessert of the night. The brioche was nicely soaked in the brandy cream sauce but still light and buttery, yummmm. I can see why it is highly raved by many.

Spring Tart

This dessert was so weird. The Spring Tart ($26) had compressed strawberries with rose, basil yoghurt cream and goat milk's ice cream. Half of the components worked well together and I tried to eat around the other half. I liked the strawberries, chocolate sponge thing and strawberry gel. The basil yoghurt cream that was piped on everything was a pain to scrape off to salvage some strawberries. The goat's cheese ice cream was just a no. Honestly it just didn't make any sense to all 4 of us for this combination of flavours. Probably should've read the menu properly before thinking ooh yum strawberries, let's order this.

Brown Bread Ice Cream (c.1830)

The Brown Bread Ice Cream ($26) was pretty and that was it for me. The salted butter caramel was far too sweet and the ice cream was far too salty for me. When eaten together it balanced out a tiny bit but then again my tongue was just not liking it. Q thought it was palatable though.

Sambocade (c.1390)

OMG, do not get me started on this Sambocade ($24). It was a goats milk cheese cake, elderflower & apple, perry poached pear and smoked candied walnuts. Seriously, why did we think this was a good idea. It just didn't taste good at all, just no.

Dessert setup was rowdy but left more to be desired ya feel

Nitro Ice Cream Cart

 

Seriously, dessert was pretty disappointing so when the nitro cart around, IDMMMM man. We were so full but since we were at Heston, yeah might as well go all out. We got two vanilla cones with all the toppings. It was quite tasty but melted super fast.

At the end of the meal we were given a complimentary Earl Grey-infused chocolate ganache with a caraway biscuit. I only had a few bites because I was so incredibly full but it tasted very rich and decadent.


We reflected at the end of the night that we weren't as satisfied as we expected to be. Perhaps we are picky eaters, perhaps historical British inspired cuisine is not to our palate or perhaps Dinner by Heston, isn't as amazing as it is hyped up to be. I thought the night started really strong with that silky butter and scrumptious risotto and then it went downhill from main to desserts. Seriously biggest disappointment of the night were those desserts with the exception of the Tipsy Cake. On a more positive note, the service was impeccable. Would I go again? Probably not. I'm sure there's other fine dining ventures that will leave me happy that I emptied out my wallet for a delicious feed.

Taste: 6.5/10
Presentation: 10/10
Service: 10/10
Value for Money: 7/10