Dinner by Heston Blumenthal SW1

I actually went to Dinner, Heston Blumenthal's restaurant at the Mandarin Oriental Hyde Park in Knighstbridge, over a month ago and haven't had a chance to write about it so my memory is a little blurry.  Plus we could only get a 9.30pm sitting and the Other Half and I had both been working hard and sleeping little, so by the end of the meal we were in a total daze - but importantly in a happy, full-of-good-food daze so it was actually kinda nice.  In fact if they had said we could curl up under the table and sleep I would have felt quite comfortable doing just that.  Anyway I digress - basically Dinner is ace.  The service was really fantastic and the food was even better - of course I had to have the Meat Fruit (pictured) to start.  I love chicken liver pate and this creamy parfait version was cleverly disguised as a mandarin.  I don't need to write too much - others much more qualified than me have done so but let me just say that everything they say is true, this is a joy of a starter and had me smiling from the first bite.  All the dishes are a homage to recipes from the past and the Meat Fruit supposedly originates from 1500 - I had always thought the 16th century sounded interesting - the Reformation, Copernicus, Shakespeare but now I know they had Meat Fruit to eat, I am searching for a time machine.  My main course was a little more up to date, from 1860 to be exact - a Black Foot Pork Chop with Spelt & Robert Sauce (which appealed because I am Robert...anyway).  I'm not sure what exactly came from 1860, I'm sure they were eating pork chops long before that, but it was super tasty.  Interestingly they warned me that it was cooked a little pink - immediately I flashed back to my mum teaching me that the two meats you should always make sure are cooked through were chicken and pork but I had faith in Heston that he wouldn't knowingly expose me to salmonella, so I chomped away at my slightly undercooked, very delicious pork chop.  Of course we had to share the Tipsy Cake - having heard so much about it and seeing the wonderful spit roasting pineapples doing their thing in the kitchen.  It was booze soaked briochey wonderfulness with the aforementioned pineapple on the side.  Lovely, all lovely in fact.   Pricey, but oh so lovely.  Treat yourself - and order the Meat Fruit.