Welcome to the first of a few posts that will segue from my travel diaries, all devoted to food.

I spent a pretty penny on this trip on some special meals, and this post is the first: the Two Michelin-starred Dinner by Heston Blumenthal. Located inside the Mandarin Oriental Hyde Park, Dinner opened in 2011 as The Fat Duck’s city sibling, with a historical slant. Its approach to food is that every dish has been made in the past – decades, sometimes centuries ago. Given my food history interests, plus the fact that I didn’t have to travel out to Bray (and spend over £200 per person) at The Fat Duck, Dinner was perfect for me!

Reservations at Dinner open 90 days ahead on a rolling basis, and as you can imagine, book up almost instantaneously, so I had my alarm set for exactly 3 months prior to July 31st, and as soon as it became available, I booked us in for that evening. Sure enough, when I checked back the next day to perhaps move the reservation a bit later, it was already booked out! So if you want to go to Dinner — schedule it, stat. Read More »