Heston Blumenthal’s London Restaurant Reopens in Knightsbridge After Fire

Dinner by Heston Blumenthal reopened at The Mandarin Oriental hotel in Knightsbridge today, 4 December. The two-Michelin-starred restaurant run by Ashley Palmer-Watts with Heston Blumenthal’s name on the door had been closed since June, after a serious fire at the hotel.

Palmer-Watts told Hot Dinners that: “We wanted to use this time as an opportunity to do all the things we wanted to do but either couldn’t because we didn’t have the time or because we had a restaurant to run.”

Dinner has held two Michelin stars since 2013; those expectations, and the widely-reported stringency of the guide’s requirements, are not exactly conducive to the time and energy required for extensive menu redevelopment.

Its Hyde Park/Knightsbridge location and open embrace of historical English dining — as well as Heston Blumenthal’s global reputation — have made the restaurant a favourite with tourists as well as Londoners; its meat fruit dish, now revamped to include spiced plum for December, is one of London’s most iconic.

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