For Pliedes, my first review.
It's been a while (the better half of a year) since I went, but the experience was profound enough to leave some memories. In fact I would say it was the single finest dining experience I've ever had: The Fat Duck.
The Fat Duck was once known to be the best restaurant in the world, and is still damn near the top and retains 3 Michelin stars. It's in a tiny little village called Bray maybe an hour outside of London.
It doesn't look like anything special it all. And for being as exclusive as it is, it's really just a cozy house.
Now the Fat Duck is a very poor example of a restaurant for restaurant's sake. What it is is an exceptional dining experience. The food is highly experimental and hardly food in the way we think about what we eat every day. Instead it's an event of entertainment. You couldn't eat this food every day. But you can experience it to realize what is possible with food.
Here's a selection of dishes we enjoyed:
A Green Tea Mousse palate cleanser. Unbelieveably light and fluffy. Like eating a cloud. The only purpose of this dish was to give us something light and airy to prepare us for what was to follow. It was served chilled. Incredibly refreshing.
This dish tasted like bark and trees and moss. It was intended that way. It composed of little cracker things and some stuff on them. Sorry that's all I have for you, I don't remember the delivery mechanism. What I do remember is the flavour. It was delicious and tasted so earthy. They brought it out w/ some gaseous mixture which spread out all over the table to create some mystic forrest/elvish feel. Pretty cool.
Jelly of Quail, Crayfish Cream, Chicken Liver Parfait, and Truffle toast. Everything here tasted awesome.
Roast Foie Gras, Rhubarb, Braised Konbu and Crab Biscuit. Of all the dishes this was the most common and cliche. It was also the one you'd probably like to eat on a more common basis - it was fucking delicious.
What's this?
They handed us these kick ass book marks with a passage from Alice in Wonderland. Something is certainly not normal with this dinner, we are going on a trip.
Next they handed us gold "pocket watches" which were actually gold leaf covering a soup base. To this the poured hot water on our "watch" which was in a "cup of tea" and turned it into this:
Mock Turtle Soup.
Next they handed us these:
What the hell? Ipods inside conch shells? We put the ear buds on and heard relaxing sounds of waves and birds. As we were presented with another course: "The Sound of the Sea."
It's basically primo sushi on a bed of edible sand. So fresh and tasty. You eat it while listening to the ipod.
Time for some main courses:
Salmon Poached in Liquorice, Artichokes, Vanilla Mayonnaise, Golden Trout Roe and Manni Olive Oil
Powdered Anjou Pigeon, Blood Pudding and Confit of Umbles
Taffety Tart, Caramelized Apple, Fennel, Rose and Candied Lemon
At this point the staff informed us that the night was over. And we were now ready for breakfast. We were probably 3 hours into dinner at this point. They then brought out a 2 course "English Breakfast" with "Tea".
Parsnip cereal which came in in't own little box. We ate it with milk in a bowl.
Egg and Bacon "Ice Cream" which is made by subjecting eggs to liquid nitrogen. They do it right in front of you. Such an awesome dish.
Hot and Cold tea. It was
hot and cold. The two liquids didn't mix so you got to experience them simultaneously in your mouth. So fucking cool. This was the course that surprised me the most. I had no idea this was possible.
Gummy candies made out of whiskeys from different parts of Scotland. Sounds cool but I'd rather just drink the Scotch.
Cheeses. While being awesome cheeses, they are merely cheeses. At any other restaurant it would be saying a lot to have such an impressive cheese plate. Not here.
At the end they gave us some candies to take home. The coolest of which was this playing card. It's actually white chocolate with a raspberry jelly inside. So freaking cool!
In summary: The Fat Duck isn't the best food I've ever had. But it was BY FAR the best dining experience. The courses I've described may sound corny, but the staff are pros and make everything seem so appropriate. If you EVER have the chance to go to The Fat Duck I would recommend it - you only need to go once and any other restaurant will not give you the same lasting experience.