Two-Michelin-starred Dinner by Heston Blumenthal to close next year

The two-Michelin-starred Dinner by Heston Blumenthal at the Mandarin Oriental Hyde Park in London is to close in January 2027.

 

According to the Times, the restaurant was originally due to close this summer, coinciding with the end of its tenancy at the hotel, but the contract was extended by mutual agreement for six months to celebrate Dinner by Heston’s 16th anniversary next January.

 

Heston Blumenthal told the Times it was “bittersweet” to close the restaurant, which had “run its natural course” since first opening its doors in 2011.

 

Dinner by Heston launched with then Fat Duck group executive chef Ashley Palmer-Watts at the helm, serving contemporary British food based on historical cookbooks dating back to the 14th century. Early dishes had actually appeared on the menu at the three-Michelin-starred Fat Duck in Bray, Berkshire.

 

At the time, it took over Mandarin Oriental’s Park and Foliage restaurants, which offer expansive views over Hyde Park.

 

The restaurant was awarded a Michelin star in 2012 and was promoted to two Michelin stars in 2013.

 

It became famed for its signature illusory ‘Meat Fruit’, which transforms a mandarin into chicken liver parfait – a nod to a 15th century banqueting trick.

 

The Dinner by Heston brand also launched in Melbourne in 2015 and Dubai in 2019. While its Australian outpost has since closed, the restaurant continues to trade at Atlantis the Royal on Palm Jumeirah.

 

Blumenthal said of the upcoming closure: “Dinner has never been about nostalgia. It has been about demonstrating that Britain’s culinary heritage is a powerful source of innovation. Together with Mandarin Oriental Hyde Park, we have created something that has helped shift how British food is understood globally. By the time we serve our final guests, this will have been a 16-year chapter - something I could never have imagined when we first opened the doors in 2011. I’m incredibly proud of the extraordinary team - past and present - whose creativity, precision and passion have brought these stories to life, and the guests who have been curious enough to take that journey with us. We’re looking forward to welcoming both familiar faces and new ones to experience Dinner here in its London home, and to be celebrating everything this restaurant has become.”

 

Philippe Kronberg, general manager at Mandarin Oriental Hyde Park, London & AVP Operations, added: “Dinner by Heston Blumenthal has been a defining part of Mandarin Oriental Hyde Park for more than fifteen years, and a partnership we are immensely proud of. The restaurant has helped shape our identity as a destination for world-class dining and left a lasting mark on London’s culinary landscape. As we enter this final chapter, our focus is on celebrating what has been created here and welcoming guests to experience Dinner by Heston Blumenthal in its final year.”

 

To mark its final year at the Knightsbridge hotel, Dinner by Heston Blumenthal has launched ’A Journey Through History’, an eight-course tasting menu showcasing more than five centuries of British gastronomy, starting in the late Middle Ages with a reinterpretation of the 1390 recipe for ’Compost’, all the way to the Swinging Sixties with ’Heston’s Dodger with Jam’.