Heston Blumenthal is to shut down his London restaurant Dinner by Heston at the end of next January, on the 16th anniversary of its launch. Describing the closure as “sad and bittersweet“, he said the project had “run its natural course“.
Set in the Mandarin Oriental hotel overlooking Hyde Park, Dinner was Heston’s follow-up to the idiosyncratic Fat Duck, replacing the Duck’s avant-garde gastronomic trickery with an equally theatrical mining of British culinary history – although the trompe-l’oeil effects remained, in dishes such as ‘meat fruit’ (pictured), a chicken-liver parfait disguised as a mandarin.
The agreement with the hotel was due to expire this summer, but the parties agreed to extend it for six months to take in the anniversary; an eight-course tasting menu of greatest hits from the Dinner archive will be served in the run-up to the last night.
While the venue has retained a certain following, in recent years its ratings in the annual poll of Harden’s readers have been weak, while Heston’s company has struggled financially. HIs comments this week appeared to confirm that Dinner was no cash cow.
He said: “In these times most restaurants are suffering in one way or another. It’s exacerbated by the fact that food prices are rising. We chose to partner with the Mandarin because of their level of service. But they’ve got budgets, and budgets don’t always meet up. Sometimes they do. It’s one of the things that you are always going to be getting with a tenancy and a restaurant in the hotel.”
Heston has also struggled with his mental health, having been sectioned in 2023 after being diagnosed as bipolar. Now recovering and on reduced medication, he says he feels his creativity is returning and has dropped hints that a new project in the works.
“There are also quite a few options on the table to do with Dinner. I’d like somewhere with stature. Size-wise, I am not sure if I would reduce it a bit. And somewhere with a view.”
A branch of Dinner by Heston opened in Dubai in 2023. It is now temporarily closed by the war, but is expected to reopen when peace is restored in the region.
