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The Fat Duck

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High Street
Bray, SL6 2AQ
We decided to treat our selves to a meal at the Fat as it was our anniversary. Lets just say taht the prices ensure its...
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Reviews for The Fat Duck

  • 5
    The Fat Duck
    High Street Bray SL6 2AQ uk
    11th September 2008
    Taster menu and accomanying wine
    Current
    We decided to treat our selves to a meal at the Fat as it was our anniversary. Lets just say taht the prices ensure its not something you could do often unless you loaded!

    We had the taster menu with accompanying wine. Well all I have to say that it was fabulous! The wine was great and the food even better.

    The service was great too, the only downside was that I felt like I was being watched al the time and I was very concious of using the wrong utensils!

    My partner even came home with a sherbet fountain with a tube of vanilla as he wanted to keep it as a souvenier!

    All in all fab!

  • 3
    The Fat Duck
    High Street Bray SL6 2AQ uk
    3rd September 2008
    But is it art?
    Current
    The Fat Duck is an extremely and self-consciously different restaurant - enjoyable more as a tourist experience than culinary. The focus is very distinctly shifted away from the customer's enjoyment of food to a constant attempt at confusion.

    I found the experience interesting, but disconcerting - while I can appreciate the skill and thought that went into the many dishes, I can't really say that I felt satisfied afterwards.

    Perhaps I'm too closed-minded with my food to truly appreciate it, but £125 seems steep for a meal that didn't make me want to ever eat the dishes again. Enjoyment may well be a question of attitude and expectations, but it's a rather too expensive game of hit-and-miss for my liking.
  • 5
    The Fat Duck
    High Street Bray SL6 2AQ uk
    24th August 2007
    Current
    Well you'd expect it to be good for £100 a throw (add another £90 for the wine tasting experience) and it is. I paid myself (no company frolic here). The taste of the food is fantastic - 15 odd courses and you feel fantastic at the end of the meal. They play a few tasting tricks on you and name some dishes provacatively but save up and this is a meals you'll be thinking about for a very long time.
  • 5
    The Fat Duck
    High Street Bray SL6 2AQ uk
    sue
    10th June 2007
    More like an extravaganza than a meal!
    Current
    A visit from my lovely sister Alison was all the incentive we needed to arrange lunch at The Fat Duck, currently rated as the 2nd best restaurant in the world. It is located in a small village called Bray, about 40 minutes by train from Central London - a bit of a hike, but worth it to experience the "molecular gastronomy" created by this unassuming looking restaurant with 3 Michelin stars.

    This is a hard restaurant to get a table at, it took me a couple of days to get through on the reservation phone line. Reservations are taken up to two months in advance, but good luck trying to get a table on a weekend! I booked about 6 weeks in advance for a Friday lunch. The restaurant is quite unimposing from the outside, we walked past it once or twice whilst looking for it. The inside is simple, with well lit modern art. Nothing too flashy.

    Not just a lunch, more like a half day event, our meal took close to 5 hours to complete! We had the Tasting Menu, which consisted of course after course of amazingly created and presented food. We were all very full by the end of the 18 or so courses!! Alex had the matched wines (selected by the sommelier) while Alison and I stuck to just a couple of glasses of wine with our meal.

    Everything was branded with 'The Fat Duck', from the little cereal box that the Parsnip chip 'cereal' came in, to the 'Fat Duck Films' container containing the small piece of truffle infused rice paper.

    I must admit that some of the food wasn't to my taste. But it wasn't really about the food, it was about being immersed in the surreal experience that is a meal at The Fat Duck. It is more like an extravaganza than a meal.

    The waiting staff move about the restaurant as if they have been choreographed. Some courses are prepared at the table, such as the Nitro-Scrambled Egg and Bacon Ice Cream. Others trick your senses, like the Orange Jelly & Beetroot Jelly squares whose flavours are reversed.

    Alex and Alison's favourite course was the Snail Porridge with Joselito ham, shaved fennel. It is one of the signature dishes of the restaurant, and lived up to its reputation. My favourite was something a little bit more simple...or so it sounded. The Hot and Cold Tea looked plain enough, just a small glass of weak tea - but bizarrely, one side of the tea was hot and one side was cold, a very strange sensation when you drank it!

    The Fat Duck Tasting Menu:
    - Nitro-Green Tea and Vodka Lime Mousse
    - Orange Jelly & Beetroot Jelly
    - Oyster, Passion Fruit Jelly, Lavender
    - Pommery Grain Mustard Ice Cream, Red Cabbage Gaspacho
    - Black truffle toast; Truffle film; Truffle and Oak Moss aroma with Jelly of Quail, Langoustine Cream, Parfait of Foie Gras
    - Snail Porridge, Joselito ham, shaved fennel
    - Roast Foie Gras, almond fluid gel, cherry and chamomile
    - Sardine on Toast Sorbet, ballotine of mackerel 'invertebrate', marinated daikon, sea salad
    - Salmon Poached with liquorice, artichokes, pink grapefruit, 'Manni' olive oil
    - Poached Breast of Anjou Pigeon Pancetta, Pastilla of its leg, pistachio, cocoa, and quatre epices
    - Hot and Cold Tea
    - Mrs Marshall's Margaret Cornet
    - Pine Sherbet Fountain
    - Mango and Douglas Fir Puree, bavarois of lychee and mango, blackcurrant sorbet and green peppercorn jelly
    - Carrot and Orange Tuile, Beetroot Jellies
    - Parsnip chip 'cereal' with parsnip milk
    - Nitro-Scrambled Egg and Bacon Ice Cream, Pain perdu and tea jelly
    - Whisky Wine Gum, Violet Tartlet, Pine chocolate & Mint chocolate