Petrus by Gordon Ramsay (1 Michelin Star)

Gordon Ramsay is probably Britain (and arguably the World's) most "celebrity" chef. So much so that even people with no interest in the culinary world would probably have seen him from one of his many TV ventures (like Hell's Kitchen or Masterchef, for example).

It's not all a bed of roses for the Chef who currently holds 12 Michelin stars, though. Petrus, reviewed here, was originally opened at the Berkeley Hotel and helmed by Gordon's then-protege Marcus Wareing. The two had a very public falling-out, Wareing split from Gordon Ramsay Holdings, but didn't take the restaurant name with him.


So this new restaruant, then, is Gordon Ramsay's attempt to re-invent or re-introduce Petrus to the London dining scene.

The dining hall is bright and airy, and is circularly centered around the round central wine cellar. What I find odd is that the windows facing the street aren't particularly well tinted, so it gets quite glaring when the sun's out.


We're here for the £30 3-course set lunch, which starts off with an amuse bouche of breaded Venison 'nugget' served with apple slices and tartare sauce; tender, crispy and delicious.

The complimentary bread with salted butter ... was rather ordinary and nothing to write home about.


For starters, I go for the Tartar of Casterbridge beef with toasted brioche, foie gras, baby artichoke and quail’s egg. It's the first time I've eaten Beef Tartare (i.e. raw beef), so I'm not so sure how this really stacks up, but against my expectations it was actually very dainty and delicate-tasting.

Like during our meal at Dinner, though, I don't at all care for the pickled vegetables.


Moving on to the Pan fried and marinated Cornish mackerel with sour cream, compressed cucumber and pine nuts; which oddly enough reminds us of japanese-style saba shioyaki. Except much juicier, more tender, and with less seasoning as to let the taste of the fish shine through the salt.


For mains, I go with the Crispy Suffolk pork belly with black pudding and sage jus. The pork is tasty on its' own, but the addition of the black pudding and the mango/pear/prune salsa really elevate the taste.

Shame, then, that the skin of the pork was not at all crispy. Gordon should fly to any random Chinese city and learn how they make their siew yuk, because the skin is tough and mushy and sticks all around the molars after some chewing, which ruins the experience somewhat.


The other main course we chose was the Poached breast of chicken, lasagna of confit leg, shallots and lemon thyme jus, and it really opens our eyes as to how good a chicken dish can be.


Oh, main courses are served with side dishes of brocolli with lemon zest, and seared potatoes, which were pretty good. Complimentary, too, which is icing on the cake.


After the main courses, another complimentary mini-course of coronet with passion fruit cream. Oh, and with popping candy at the bottom for a pleasant surprise ending.


For desserts, we start with Chocolate sphere with milk ice cream and honeycomb. This photo doesn't look as good as it should; I sort of neglected to take a photo of the sphere before the waiter poured the hot chocolate sauce over the sphere, melting the chocolate before it re-solidifies over the milk ice cream.


Orange and vanilla baked Alaska, Grand Marnier sauce is the other dessert we try, and is equally as delicious, if perhaps not as flamboyant.


To cap off the meal, yet another complimentary mini-course of four white chocolate balls served in a bed of dry ice.


Overall, the amount and quality of the food, coupled with the impeccable service, was a steal for the price we paid - £33.75 net per person after the 12.5% discretionary service charge. Which makes it all the more frustrating in comparison with fine dining in Singapore where similar food with worse service would easily cost double.

Petrus is near Knightsbridge Metro; but it's situated a fair bit out of the way and needs a 15-minute-or-so walk.

Dinner by Heston Blumenthal (1 Michelin Star)

In the culinary world, there is no book or guide more prestigious than the one published by Michelin. Its' one, two and three star 'ranking' system makes and breaks a restaurant (and its' chef). Having previously had lunch at Sage and taken the degustation menu at Cilantro, we've always wondered how two of these top KL restaurants compare to actual Michelin-starred places.


Which is why when we travelled to the UK for my brother's wedding, we just had to go try a couple of the UK's top chefs - starting with a lunch at Dinner by Heston Blumenthal. Heston's flagship restaurant is The Fat Duck, but the only option there is a £180 tastings menu, which is a tad bit out of range of our financial muscle.


Dinner's concept is the most unique of any restaurant I've been to. Every item on the menu is inspired by some recipe, ingredient or dish from historic British cuisine (some of which date back hundreds of years).


Dinner does serve up an economical set lunch menu for £36, but seeing as the choices available are limited, we opt to splurge on ala-carte: Starting with the Roast Marrowbone with Snails, parsley, anchovy, mace & pickled vegetables (£15.50). I don't normally eat escargot, but the snails went very well with the roasted marrowbone and toasted breadcrumbs. However, we didn't care much for the pickled vegetables which were very sour.


The Meat Fruit (£15.00) turned out to be my favorite dish of the afternoon. The brioche was good enough to eat on its' own. Buttered and olive-oiled and then charred on the grill, it tasted and smelled remarkably similar to a nice char-grilled steak (!). Spread on the chicken and duck liver parfait/pate with its sweet, mandarin-orange flavored gel, and it was so heavenly we had to ask for additional toast.


The rest of the lunch was somewhat ... of an anti-climax after that. I tried this 'deconstructed' pie for £30 that came fully loaded with a ton of ingredients - including carrots, smoked bone marrow, veal sweetbreads, confit of pigeon, lamb kidney, etc, tied together by a nice thick sauce. I thought, however, that there were too many different "spare parts" such that I found myself wandering between each different meat, not knowing which was the "focus" of the dish.

I don't have the proper name for this dish because it was something new/experimental and wasn't on the menu ... yet.


The Powdered Duck Breast, also £30, comes with Smoked confit fennel & umbles. "Umbles? What are those?" ... is a question we should have asked our waiter before we ordered. Turns out umbles, in the context of this dish, are duck hearts, which tasted remarkably strong and bloody, and I was only able to take one mouthful. The duck, though, was very nice. Sous-vide'ed til pink, moist, juicy and tender.


We also ordered some sides! The Mashed Potato was rich and OH-so-creamy, but the chips, presumably triple-cooked, were simply ordinary despite Heston bandying them about as one of his "signature" dishes.


By this stage we're absolutely stuffed but having pre-ordered a Tipsy Cake for £12, we summon up some additional room in the tummy.

The Tipsy Cake can perhaps be described as a light sponge cake soaked in some sort of alcohol or other (brandy, perhaps), and dusted with powdered sugar. Together with the tart-ness of the spit-roasted pineapple, it was a very enjoyable dessert.


To end the lunch, complimentary chocolate ganache (infused with orange) and a somewhat middle-eastern-flavored cookie.


I think what reduced the experience for us somewhat, was that neither the darling or I are fans of spare parts; and both mains we ordered were chock full of kidneys and hearts - even the "sweetbreads" we had are actually an animal's pancreas and/or thymus gland.

We also feel that Dinner is priced a little on the high side for a one-starred restaurant - there are other two-starred places that you can eat at for less money.

Dinner by Heston Blumenthal is located in the Mandarin Oriental hotel over at Knightsbridge (5 minute walk from the Underground). Non-Halal.