Lunch at The Fat Duck - Part 1

If you have read any of my previous communications, you will know that I am a fan of the British chef Heston Blumenthal and his restaurant The Fat Duck. This restaurant is a temple of modern cuisine, and I have been wanting to go there for years. So I decided that this year I will. They operate a booking system where booking for a specific day opens two months in advance, at 10 am. My plan was to try for every Saturday until I got a table. So on my first attempt, two months before Saturday March 8th, I was online and ready. And ten minutes after that I had a table for four people for lunch at 12:00. Just like that. I was almost a bit disappointed.

There is no difference between lunch and dinner at The Fat Duck. Same menu, same food, just earlier in the day. My plan was to stay in London and go to Bray where the restaurant is, eat and go back to London, and lunch seemed more practical for this than dinner. Going to The Fat Duck from London is easy. Trains leave for Maidenhead from Paddington frequently, and the trip takes around 40-45 minutes. From Maidenhead it is a short taxi ride or a 2.5 km walk. We decided to go there by taxi and walk back, which is a good choice as you may feel the urge to walk the meal off.

Bray proved to be a very cute little village with small cottages, an old church and all the ingredients you expect to find in a small English village. The only bad-ish thing was the steady traffic through the narrow main street. 

The Fat Duck is in an old and rather small building that used to be a pub. Actually, the restaurant occupies buildings on both sides of the street, but the ones opposite the restaurant are quite anonymous, even though it is there most of the work is done. In the same village, Heston B also runs two pubs. Also in the same village is a restaurant called the Riverside Inn, which also has three stars. How many tiny villages in the world can boast two three star restaurants? The riverside Inn also has rooms, so it is possible to take a couple of days, stay at the Riverside and eat at both. Bliss!

After a short stroll around the village, the clock was 12, and it was time for our lunch. I walked up to the door to this holy place, pulled it open and ... no, wait, I have friends that complain that I write too long blog posts, so to please them, I will try to keep these short. So next time: Inside The Fat Duck. And perhaps even the first course, who knows?