January 2024 by Simon T massimini
We had been looking forward to our visit here for some time? and it was well worth the wait. From upon entering, being greeted so warmly and friendly set the scene. Very dedicated staff which make the experience all the more enjoyable. Your senses are alive! And of course, the food is not only cooked amazingly well.. but it?s also dece deceptive and fun. Heston and his team don?t disappoint. Highly recommended a visit.We will be back!
December 2023 by Raquel Pereira
One of the coolest experiences I have ever had. Heston is a genius. I could not fault the place, or the food. Highly highly recommended!
December 2023 by Dean Tuck
A truely magical evening. The creative playfulness of art, science and psychology around food made this a one of a kind experience that we had looked forward to for years. The evening did not disappoint. From the Sound of the Sea bringing a tear to my eyes to the Picnic Summer Strawberry making me feel like a kid again with the wonderment of what the world can unveil. Service was top notch and the evening was just truely amazing.
December 2023 by Jordan Jones
A wonderful and spectacular experience at the fat duck, the service and staff are so professional and friendly I loved it! Thank you to Viktoriya and the team for such a memorable evening! The food was exceptional the taste the smell and the story behind each dish was incredible. They really do know how to make it a special place to dine. Each paring of drinks was chosen to perfection I?ve never had such amazing wine in my life !!! Thanks a lot to Peter (storyteller) and Raku (Sommelier)! Thanks again and I hope to be back soon!
December 2023 by Michiel Vermunicht
Best restaurant I have ever been. Not only because of the food. Also the service was outstanding. I have no more words for it than 'perfection'!!!
December 2023 by Kelsey Wood
Our Christmas dinner was magical, delicious and full of surprises. Staff enthusiastically presented each course. It's easy to question the price tag before you've dined in a three star, but this is not a meal, it's an experience. A presentation of skilled excellence, storytelling and minute details. There wasn't anything we disliked, but the Umbles was my favourite. We were pleasantly surprised how thoughtful the non-alcoholic drink pairings were. The craftsmanship was almost unbelievable, and at the end of dessert, our server informed me that the gold coil I left on my plate was edible. It was a really fun and whimsical Christmas dinner, I wouldn't change a thing. Except maybe a higher ceiling haha.
December 2023 by Emmanuel Peter
This place is one of a kind, it provide a unique experience then I couldn?t recommend more.Firstly I?d like to say thank you to the staffs, amazing people and extremely knowledgeable about the food and Wine!The food, the different textures the combination of flavours and the way the food is presented was wowing. I recommend paring with the wine tasting to uplift the experience! You won?t regret it.My preferred dish was the Lasagne of Langoustine. The taste was just unique I wanted more! I must also say the other courses were amazingly tasty.Thank you to all the staff once again for the hospitality, for sure it would have been amazing to see Mr Heston Parking: Parking was available for free when I visited.Wheelchair accessibility: There?s an entrance for users with accessibility needs
December 2023 by Andrew Liu
Celebrating our wedding anniversary, we went into Fat Duck aware of all the hype and accolades, but somehow came out of it even more impressed and in awe.The Fat Duck is, as many put it, more of an experience than a meal. As the hosts explained, Heston Blumenthal aims to challenge everything we know about food, and implements nature and all of our senses to enhance our culinary experience. From the moment you sit down, the performance entertains, astonishes, and even at times befuddles with its emphasis on sensory-oriented exploration.The food is obviously impressive, but the unique experiences like the Sound of the Sea (headphones with your seafood thay somehow make it taste more...seafood-y?) and the Cheese and Grapes (not exactly cheese, and the grapes have a bit of a surprise!) will stay with us. The quail was fantastic, and the langoustine lasagne was incredible. There is no weak link in the tasting menu, as everything served a purpose.There's so much more that can be said, such as the incredible service (seriously, you are treated like royalty here), the wine "cellar," the perfect wine and non-alcoholic pairings (would obviously recommend them both), and of course the candy house that curated post-meal treats for us based on our preferences. It is absolutely no surprise that the Fat Duck has topped the list of the World's Best Restaurants and boasts 3 Michelin Stars, but it is even more amazing in person. Genuinely an experience of a lifetime!
December 2023 by Adina Kuse
It physically pains me to write this after years of looking forward to dining at the fat duck but I have to say it: DO NOT GO. Save your money.Let's get a few things out of the way - the service is exceptional. More than exceptional. Everyone from the waiters to the sommeliers to generally everyone that had something to do with our experience was professional, had a smile on their face, seemed super enthusiastic and knowledgeable.Let's also give a shout out to the fanciest toilet I have ever had the pleasure to use with pre heated seat, self cleaning and all of the bells and whistles.The atmosphere itself is a bit dingy. The room is tiny and has no decorations at all which is supposed to add to your imagination but just feels a bit cold and grey.All of this is nice, and let's face it if you're paying £1300 for two people you expect the service to be exceptional and the toilets to be instagram worthy, however, the food just did not live up to expectations.Worse, apart from not living up to expectations most of it was outright bad. It's a shame because some of the gimmicks really got me and I enjoyed them. For example the take on a smoked salmon and cream cheese sandwich in the morning - Heston takes this and transforms it into cereal. Yes, you receive your own little cereal box with a game and a little trinket and it is absolutely adorable and made me smile. However, eating the actual dish was absolutely underwhelming and needed salt, pepper, and allll the seasonings. There were dishes that were not just in need of a heavier hand at the seasoning but that were inedible. The worst one was a take on prawn cocktails which ended up being more like a langustine lasagne which we had to send back after one bite.It is unfortunate that the best things we ate were the two bread courses, one with bought in butter which was delicious, the other one with a magically made little apple that turns into a flavourful pate. The only other outstanding things to mention were a perfectly cooked venison, which, you know, you can get in a lot of places for a lot less money, and a spelt risotto which, again, is one of the cheapest ingredients but was at least warming and delicious.The rest of the courses were simply not good. Not just not good enough for the price but not good, you would not eat them if you'd got them served in a Wetherspoons. I also felt that the story of "a day at christmas" got quite lost after the first 3 courses. Yes, the cocktail that reminds you of a cold winter morning going for a walk worked (the accompanying jerusalem artichoke dish was not terrible as a pallet cleanser) and then the salmon turned cereal course made sense as that's how christmas mornings go. Then we loose ourselves in two fish courses, the inedible prawn cocktail and a decent enough scallop dish, which don't really fit in the description of a christmas day. The venison sort of ties it back with christmas dinner but then the desserts are in the wrong order with the mince pies coming before the sweet things.Let me talk about the sweet things for a minute. There is a dish that takes 30 people to make which is a shame because I'm sure these people are very skilled but the dish itself tastes of almost nothing, just a random bit of sweet and sour and some popping candy. It is not worth the effort it takes to make.The fat duck also falls into some traps of fine dining that I just hate. Why are you charging me £14 for a hawkstone beer? Or £24 for a negroni? I already spend so much money on the food, just have normal prices for these things. No one wants to pay £8 for a can of red bull. Another fine dining staple was the gold leaf. It came in the shape of a golden carrot which was shaken up in water and turned into bovril with gold flakes in it. It was annoying and probably quite expensive and labour intense and tasted awful.The whole thing was just not for me. And I feel terrible about that. But the food just is not good.
December 2023 by Hugo van Schaik
For almost 20 years I was dreaming do dine at the Fat Duck and experience it?s magic. This year my wife took me on my birthday and our anniversary. When entering the tiny restaurant and sitting down at our table, it felt really small, grey and quite dull in some way. However, all this contributed to an intimate table setting with a strong focus on the dishes and food. Even the lighting above our table is adjusted per stage of the dinner. The staff is very friendly, forthcoming, knowledgable and proactive. They do seem to be a bit weary as they must ponder: what expectations do these guests have and can we live up to those? But when the ice broke per dish they were more open and warmer and relaxed a bit. Then about the dinner: we were lucky to experience the Christmas menu at this time of the year. If you still go and experience it, don?t read on as it might spoil the many surprises. Because this is not only an exceptionally well executed dinner, it?s a full on experience. The amount of creativity that has been put in to incorporate the memories we all have around Christmas, is astonishing! The menu in the shape of an advent calendar. The tiny Christmas tree you get to decorate at the table. The fireplace with meat pies. The firecracker gifts. The pine cocktail that smells like a Christmas tree. There were so many delicious dishes and flavours and smells to enjoy, it?s impossible to describe them here. What stood out for me, was the subtleness of the flavours, how they add up to one another to create a wow-effect that almost brought theirs to my eyes, for example the venison dish and how it matched up with the umbels risotto and the wine it was paired with. Or the 130 steps dessert that takes lots of pastry chefs to create, created around a crazy theme of Botrytis Cinerea - the stage where grapes start to be affected by a parasite mould, which dries them out hence adding extra flavour. Rotting grapes actually! But then the dish appears and it really looks like a pile of grapes in all colours and stages, frozen, healthy, overgrown by the mould. What a genius dish that just blew us away? highly recommended to add one of the wine pairing options, this lifts the flavour experience to another level and the sommelier is very keen on telling you all the details of the wine and how it matches the dishes. The Fat Duck is a unique experience, bucket list material. I was very lucky to be there and enjoy all its splendour.
November 2023 by Claudio Todaro
An amazing experience in Heston's kingdom. From when you first step in to the last course, about 3 hours journey, the staff is attentive, knowledgeable and follow your needs in a fast paced environment. Very
November 2023 by Phil Meyers
I don't have the vocabulary to properly explain how good the service, food, and drinks pairings were, and in fact I feel utterly privileged to have been able to spend a few hours here. If you have the opportunity, do it. (Those with negative reviews are being very unfair in my opinion, boosting their own ego).I should also add that Josh looked after us really well, specially with his coffee facts about SL-28
October 2023 by Sam S.
I've always been intrigued by molecular gastronomy and I have been wanting to try more fine dining, so I knew when I visited the UK I needed to try The Fat Duck. From the moment you enter the small airlock before going into the restaurant, you feel swept away to a whimsical place, like a trip into Willy Wonka's chocolate factory. We came for their Sensorium tasting menu which seeks to enthrall all 5 senses, and it surely does. Dining here can change your entire perception of food. My favorite dish is their Sound of the Sea which they claim will transport you to the seaside which I didn't really believe at first, but after trying it I realized it was true. When you close your eyes and wear the headphones and start eating the dish, your brain really feels like you're at the beach, seeing the sunlight hit your eyelid, feeling the foam of the ocean on your lip. Overall, they are masters of their craft here and really know how to create an immersive experience. I could go on-and-on about each course of their menu, but I don't want to spoil too many surprises. I definitely would come back one day once they have a new menu. I really enjoyed the non-alcoholic drink pairing which had a wide variety of unique drinks, so I would probably do that again as well.
October 2023 by Nanci
One of a kind! If you are looking to have a unique experience then I couldn?t recommend more.Let me start with how amazing the staff are and extremely knowledgeable about the food and customers! Accidentally swapped my pocket cash money with my partner to spend at the sweet shop and they new those sweets weren?t mine!The food, the different textures the combination of flavours and the way the food is presented was unreal. I recommend paring with the wine tasting to elevate the experience! It?s worth every penny.My favourites dish was the sounds of the sea. It brought me wonderful memories of where I grew up as a child. But every single course was unique and delicious.Thank you to all the staff, would have been amazing to see Heston!
October 2023 by Angela Wong
Dining at The Fat Duck was an extraordinary and memorable experience that fulfilled a long-held dream. Heston Blumenthal, whose culinary innovations have always inspired me, brought his imaginative genius to life in this remarkable establishment. As someone living on the other side of the world in Australia, the journey to Maidenhead, England, where The Fat Duck is located, was an adventure in itself.The restaurant's three Michelin stars and its place on the list of the world's best restaurants certainly raised my expectations, but The Fat Duck exceeded them in every way. The effort we put into traveling 24 hours to London and then hiking for half an hour from Maidenhead station was more than worth it.What struck me most about The Fat Duck was the meticulous thought and creativity behind each dish. It was evident that every element of the dining experience had been carefully curated. From the outset, they engaged us with card games that encouraged interaction among the guests, setting a playful and convivial tone. The presentations of each dish were like mini theatrical performances, leaving us in awe and anticipation.One aspect that truly set The Fat Duck apart was its emphasis on sensory exploration. They challenged the notion that what you eat is always what you see, encouraging diners to engage with their food on a deeper level, using every tastebud to savor the intricate flavors and textures. This made the dining experience not just a meal but a true culinary adventure.Towards the end of the meal, we were presented with chocolates and candies that were uniquely designed, a reflection of the card games we had played at the beginning of the dinner. These sweet treats were delightful, showcasing Heston's trademark unpredictability and whimsy.In conclusion, dining at The Fat Duck was a dream come true, thanks to my husband's thoughtful birthday gift and Heston Blumenthal's culinary mastery. It was a gastronomic journey filled with surprises, sensory delights, and unforgettable moments, making it an experience that will forever hold a special place in my heart.
