[Closed] Heston's Fat Duck - is it worth a trip?

Well, you just ate in shit places then, really. I rarely have a bad meal "out", and mainly because I like to choose a nice place to eat.

Cycling point to point 50+ miles a day unless it's round London is unlikely to give "choices" luvvy.

If I spend £160 on a meal out, it'll be something I've worked hard for and likely will be the only meal like that I'll buy for a couple of years. If I was rich enough to eat out like that once every month, I'd struggle to think that that's OK, I should probably look to do something better with the excess cash.

What if the folks spending £200 a head on a meal also give similar amounts to charity? Is it allowed that we enjoy ourselves then?

Edit: what ihn said +1

Ignoring some of what's written above, let me give you my view.

Me and Mrs Higs are not massively wealthy by any means but every now and again we like to splash out on a spectacular meal. We get a lot of pleasure from it.

We've eaten at 'Michelin' restaurants in the UK and abroad, the last being Gauthier which was just fabulous.

L'enclume is on our list because we're not far away and we fancy it.

The Fat Duck is on our list because we think it is probably the best food you can eat in this country. There is a lot of invention there and you could call it 'novelty' (as a lot of it is new) but Michelin inspectors don't hand out stars for novelty. They award stunning food.

IHN - that's pretty much what i said.

tomhoward - I'm OK with spending that much on a meal, whether you give similar to charity or not. If you've earned it, you're entitled to spend it as you like.

But it's when that becomes an ordinary thing to do, i'd struggle to justify spending that much on a meal routinely when you could do far better things with the money.

-> IMHO <-

[edit] If you're so rich you can afford to eat out like that routinely, and still be hugely philanthropic as well - I'm not sure on that. Does a few hundred a month make much difference if you're already (for sake of argument) donating 10's or 100's of thousand? On one hand you're giving plenty, on the other, every £160 is valuable. I don't have an answer to everything.

It's when you have enough disposable income that you can afford to spend big chunks on posh meals and bikes but in doing so don't put some of that aside to support charity or the like, i think that isn't right.

The question was have you been not can you justify it to a load of hypocritical, pious IT bores...

I had a weekend down there. Stayed at the Waterside and had dinner there then lunch next day at the Fat Duck.

Both very good in very different ways. Waterside typical French homage to food, Fat Duck bonkers food theatre. Not cheap but you know that when you go and no one forces you through the door.

It's probably one that if you have to ask 'is it worth it?' you probably shouldn't go.

The question was have you been not can you justify it to a load of hypocritical, pious IT bores

If you're going to be pedantic, the thread title is 'is it worth a trip?'

It's a forum, not a straight Q&A site. Since when has answering the question ever been important, we come here to shout opinions out until everyone else gives in.

Get a grip people, suggesting that people who can afford a £200 meal should donate a similar amount to charity is a sanctimonious notion from the mind of cretin. Unless you are removed from the production/consumer/capitalist society that we live in you are talking out of your arse. If you have opted out of society what are you doing on the Internet? Shouldnt you be knitting youghurt or something? And for that matter on a hive of middle management MTB upgrade angst, 'cheap' tablets and bean to cup coffee machines.

Any one know what a pop up is ?????????

[i]"I went to a pop-up restaurant run by one of last year's Masterchef The Professionals' finalists a few months ago. £45/head for the set (only) menu, I don't have much money and it was possibly the best value meal I've ever eaten (and certainly the best)." [/i]

I would also like to know where this place because £45 pp is great value.

Higgo save a place for me on your next posh nosh jolly 😀

Read about this Fat Duck and Waterside Inn Bray about fifteen years ago, had a couple of hours to kill in Bray, went for a wander and couldn't find either. Ended up having dinner in an American diner called Eddie Rockets's. Pretty good it was, but bit disappointed no to have found this gourmet place. Anyway, we got home the next day and it turns out there's a Bray in Berkshire too, not just the one South of Dublin I knew of!

LOL @ midlifecrashes

Now Midlife in Dublin you know you should have been in Shanahan's.... 🙂

pb2 - I think a pop up is a restaurant that exists just for the night

http://claire-hutchings.co.uk/the-kitchen-garden-cafe-pop-up-7th-8th-of-january/

I would also like to know where this place because £45 pp is great value.

[url= http://singletrackworld.com/forum/topic/anyone-in-the-weymouth-vicinity-like-good-food ]My previous thread on this 'pop-up'[/url]

They were using a place that's a cafe during the day and normally shut in the evenings, so they share the kitchen for prep and then take over the whole place for the evenings. Allows you to open a restaurant for a few months with low investment and overheads. If she opens one near you, go!

[i]IHN - that's pretty much what i said.[/i]

Yeah, I think we're agreeing violently 🙂

Anyway, it's my 40th in 18 months and hints have been dropped as to where I'd like to celebrate it...

Check out the [url= http://www.tripadvisor.co.uk/ShowUserReviews-g528798-d1571626-r147327298-The_Fat_Duck-Bray_on_Thames_Berkshire_England.html#REVIEWS ]TA reviews[/url] ... the first one was posted by a couple who spent £750/head for Xmas lunch 😯

Some friends went there about 2 years ago (back when they were a bit lush). Said it was the best meal ever and the same cost as their overseas holiday that summer!

We were thinking about trying the Fat Duck for our anniversary next April & saw the 'taster menu' (as he calls it) @ £195 a head. Know a few that have been over the years and each has said it's a real experience, not just food.

The Hand & Flowers is in the same neck of the woods & the food there is fantastic - well worth a visit if you don't want Heston's prices. The venison is mind-blowingly good there 🙂

Watching Masterchef makes you feel that it could well be money well spent for a special treat. I was lucky enough to go to Waterside

I took Mrs Kryton for the (what was then) "Romantic night away" package at the Waterside Inn, which is where I proposed to her, awwwww. We met Michel Rouge Jnr.

FWIW, excellent food, more champagne than I could shake a stick at, tour of the kitchen, and impeccable service, even a lobster which was de-shelled then replaced in a lobster shape on a silver platter in front of us. Fantastic champagne breakfast also.

P.S. If you do the same, don't hide the engagement ring in the car, forgetting the valet service will promptly whip the car away on your arrival... 😳

"Pop Up's" happen all the time in That Larndarn. Some of them are exceptional and others utter garbage, pop over to the top of Brick Lane, or indeed the Old Trumans Brewery building and you’ll find a few just around the corner in the Arches..
Now’t new that.
And we have Vans and Stalls that make/create exceptional food, and no, no they’re not Kebab Stands before you lot shout “we’ve got one of those too, burp”

Thing is, it’s hard to define good/bad ones. Queues around them often denotes a good un’ but we’ve eaten at a couple that have been just above Mutta Panear hell..
Still lots of good quality places to eat without spending £200 a head.. but like most things in life, “You pays yer money, you takes yer choice” Can’t influence the Punter.

Talking of which I spent a very long lazy weekend down at River Cottage early on in the year, now then if you are talking about quality of food, then I can recommend either Hugh’s Cottage or is Canteen in Axe. You don’t have to pay £200.00 for good quality food, but you do have to get there.. We stayed in Lyme which has a fabulous “boutique” hotel called No1 if anyone’s interested.

And a Michelin Star isn’t always a good sign of quality food.

Talking of which I spent a very long lazy weekend down at River Cottage early on in the year, now then if you are talking about quality of food, then I can recommend either Hugh’s Cottage or is Canteen in Axe. You don’t have to pay £200.00 for good quality food, but you do have to get there.. We stayed in Lyme which has a fabulous “boutique” hotel called No1 if anyone’s interested.

Nice idea that bb. Sounds more like my kind of thing tbh.

pb2 - I think a pop up is a restaurant that exists just for the night

http://claire-hutchings.co.uk/the-kitchen-garden-cafe-pop-up-7th-8th-of-january/

That's her! Bloody good chef!

I had dinner at the River Cottage HQ in the summer and it was lovely - very simple food but beautifully cooked and a great atmosphere.

I would still love to go to the Fat Duck though - i'm 40 in a few years so fingers crossed!

Thanks for the links to Claires website, I'm going to give one of her pop ups a go in the new year. Top job !

depending where in the North you are , Nutters in Rochdale does really good fine dining , not as wacky or as dear as fat **** but very innovative nevertheless and a decent amount of scran

1 meal/month at Fat Duck or similar is cheaper than a months worth of "generic high street coffee outlet" Fwappacrappachino and muffin/day - I know which I prefer to spend my cash on...........

It probably is worth it if food's your thing, as that Heston bloke seems pretty unique in what he comes up with.

Although for £160 a head, I'd expect some kind of spiritual or out-of-body experience, or witness some kind of Bibical miracle, rather than just a bit of food.

I'm not even going to try and understand why anyone thinks spending that much money on some food for 1 person is a good idea 😕

(He says, having just had a £3000 insurance claim just for a push bike) 😀

I'm not even going to try and understand why

Taste.

Although for £160 a head, I'd expect some kind of spiritual or out-of-body experience

The Fat Duck isn't the only restaurant with a molecular gastronomy menu so if you're not sure you'll appreciate that style you can start with a cheaper one. If someone wanted to get into biking you wouldn't tell them to start out by buying the best bike in the world

As long as you don't go hungry after the expensive meal then go for it even if it means £1K per head. Money should not be your limit if you call yourself food expert.

But what I don't get is that when you pay that amount to get hungry ... if that's the case they "see you coming" ...

It's basically up there with the very best in the world, and it's a few hundred quid. That doesn't seem unreasonable to me.

Best hotels in the world = £1000s per night
Hire the best car in the world for a day? Circa £20k to hire a Veyron.
Even the best tickets for the biggest sporting events, thousands of pounds.

By contrast, eat at one of the very best restaurants in the world... £200 plus service. Bit of a bargain in comparison.

It's become [b]the[/b] aspirational brand in Britain's second great hobby, eating. And used clever (free) marketing on Britain's other great hobby to get there.
And the £200-per-head cost is part of that marketing plan to keep it aspirational. The food may be good, probably excellent to be fair, but that's not the reason for the price.
I'd be interested to know if anyone goes regularly. A good test of whether a restaurant really is worth it is if you go back. If the food really is that good, you go again.
If it's not so much about the food, but boasting to Tarquin and Felicity at the golf club about the latest trip out in the Audi, then that box only needs one tick.

Taking a different tack on this after watching masterchef last night - do the processes take more 'goodness' out of the food than 'normal' cooking or does it make little difference? e.g. cooking onions for 96 hours in a plastic bag and vacum 'cooking' fruit. Just a question for those with more knowledge than me.

[i]A good test of whether a restaurant really is worth it is if you go back.[/i]

There were some folks on Masterchef last night who seemed to be regulars.

[i]And the £200-per-head cost is part of that marketing plan to keep it aspirational. The food may be good, probably excellent to be fair, but that's not the reason for the price.[/i]

I think the near 1-1 chef to customer ratio may be a strong factor in the price.

I found the Masterchef bit made the Fat Duck a bit too ****y for ****y's sake.

Of the series, I've found Tom Kerridge of the Hand and Flowers the most appealing of the Top Chefs. He comes across as a down to earth chap who makes good food to Michelin standard without all the pretension.

Next time I'm near Marlow I'm going

I have it..

I have the answer...

No, No I really do...

Listen up you lot..

Waitrose, Waitrose are doing a range of Heston's stuff at the moment.

You'd get a lot, I mean an awful lot or Pine Covered Mince Pies for £200.00

Off you go..

And don't thank me.

No, don't.

"I'd be interested to know if anyone goes regularly. A good test of whether a restaurant really is worth it is if you go back. If the food really is that good, you go again."

The food is very good but given that it is a set menu which changes infrequently and it's quite a long duration meal it's not the sort of place you go back to week after week. We only go back to one expensive restaurant because there's enough other good places to choose from given my limited dining out to so I try new ones

friends parents go every couple of months.

I would go in a shot. In fact it's my 40th in 18mish, so I might start dropping hints now.

£160 was cheaper than I expected tbh.

Would love to have eaten at El Bulli, having seen it on the telly - but not sure I'm quite sold on the Fat Duck.

Anyway, wife would rather go to Michel's place.

🙂

Of the series, I've found Tom Kerridge of the Hand and Flowers the most appealing of the Top Chefs. He comes across as a down to earth chap who makes good food to Michelin standard without all the pretension.

Next time I'm near Marlow I'm going

You won't be disappointed.

And the £200-per-head cost is part of that marketing plan to keep it aspirational.

I'm sure I read somewhere that due to the ridiculously complex preparation methods, he doesn't turn a profit at the fat duck, or at least isn't making much out of it. But it means he can get all the other work off the back of it (tv and promotional stuff), so he does well in the end. Dunno if it's true, but it is plausible if you look at the stuff they do.

I haven't been to the Fat Duck but I have been to some decent restaurants including Dinner by Heston at the Mandarin Oriental and the meal was mind blowingly good - every course was better than everything else I have tried, as was every part of the experience.

So yes I would say if food is your thing the Fat Duck would be quite an experience.

I'm sure I read somewhere that due to the ridiculously complex preparation methods , he doesn't turn a profit at the fat duck, or at least isn't making much out of it.

The whole masterchef-heston-michelin-stars-celebrity-restaurant-telly thing is just one massive self promoting reach-around (Tom Kerridge excepted, for good reason*).
And anyone who can pay £500 for a meal for two there has to convince themselves it was great. The brain won't let them do otherwise, well not twice anyway - unless they're particularly partial to cookery telly.
Never trust a skinny chef.

[i]And anyone who can pay £500 for a meal for two there has to convince themselves it was great.[/i]

Like people who claim they can feel the difference between a difference in stiffness/responsiveness/whatever between a £30 and £100 pair of handlebars, or that their £350 XTR cranks are definately stiffer than some £75 Deore ones, or that their £500 853 frame feels more 'alive' or 'zingy' than a £100 Inbred...