Review: Fat Duc...

by Trish Deseine

Review: Fat Duck. November 2011

I’ve been dreading writing about this almost as much as I was fearful about hating the meal. In the end I didn’t hate the meal, but, man, how many people have written reviews of the Fat Duck? And how many people have already commented on how many other people have already commented on that fact? This ‘review’ is, like the meal itself (a set menu, rarely changed), doomed to groundhoggery and if it weren’t for a plaintive call from a Twitter follower, ticking me off at 6am for not tweeting from the restaurant I probably wouldn’t bother. But here goes.

The service was awesome, the food awesomer. It did that rare thing of imprinting itself on my palate and I could recite most of the menu from memory. Don’t worry, I won’t, you’ll have read it all (or seen it on TV) before, along with the earphone/seashell, dissolving golden Madhatter’s watch gimmickery the poor staff have to get enthusiastic about twice a day.

Oh dear, I’ve been trying not to be cynical, but I simply cannot love a place like The Fat Duck – a destination restaurant at over £300 per person, with one set tasting menu that hardly ever changes, billed as magical, but with no room for surprises, a restaurant you are only really SUPPOSED to ‘experience’ once. It was all so measured, so calculated and ungenerous, so surgically, predictably perfect.