Is Fat Duck still the best restaurant in the world?

I went to the Fat Duck restaurant in Bray (Berkshire, UK) last night, after giving the restaurant a break for just over 6 months. For those who don't know about the restaurant, it was voted the best restaurant in the world in 2005, and it was my favourite restaurant in the UK last year. Its owner and head chef, Heston Blumenthal, is at the forefront in experimenting with food and its chemistry and comes up with innovative dishes such as Bacon & Egg ice-cream.

Now what's my latest verdict of this place? Well, I predict that the Fat Duck will lose its title as the best restaurant in the world this year. Has the standard gone down that much? No. However, if my dinner was the norm, it certainly no longer deserves the grand title. Don't get me wrong, the food is still very good and it'll no doubt impress many people, but when you can draw comparisons to previous experiences at the restaurant, you will notice the difference.

Differences / changes can sometimes be good, but I am not sure if the Fat Duck has tried too hard now. So what's wrong with it? Well, I had the tasting menu last night, and one thing I noticed was that the ingredients, especially the fish, were not always of the best quality. No matter how skillful a chef is, if the ingredients are not up to scratch, then the dish will never be that good. Depending on the day of the week and public holidays etc, I can forgive a slightly inferior quality in the ingredients due to the supply. However, on a Friday night, I expect top quality. The mackerel in the Sardine On Toast Sorbet with Ballotine of Mackerel "Invertebrate" was slightly off, judging by the texture of the fish.

Some of the dishes have lost the magic touch - either because the flavour has changed for the worse, or the kitchen has lost the care and dedication in making the dish. Don't get me wrong, I like food that's tasty with a good balance of flavour, but I hate it when the flavour of the sauce / marinade overpowers the actual ingredients (it's a bit like putting a very strong flavoured sauce on a not-so-fresh piece of raw tuna to hide the fishy taste at Jamie Oliver's Fifteen, which, incidentally, I still think is over-priced, over-hyped and over-rated.). At the Fat Duck, the vinegar taste in the Pommery Grain Mustard Ice-Cream with Red Cabbage Gazpacho
was just too overpowering, leaving a slightly unpleasant taste in the mouth afterwards. And the Salmon Poached With Liquorice has lost its magic touch - the salmon was not evenly-cooked, and in general was verging on the "overcooked" side, which I think was due to the higher temperature the salmon was poached in rather than the time the salmon was cooked.

The new drink at the end, Hot And Cold Tea, was an interesting concept - this dish has only been featured on the menu for about 3-4 months apparently. For every sip of the tea, you get both the hot and cold sensation, which is quite unusual (I tried to see if I could just get the hot tea or the cold tea, and I couldn't - it was very much a mixture of the two in every sip). However, the sweetness of the tea caused a bit of problem - it left the same horrible aftertaste as the lipton ice-tea, and the tongue felt rough afterwards too (or maybe that was the purpose of this Hot And Cold Tea?)

Having said that, some dishes have been improved and the Fat Duck should be congratulated on that. The Oyster and Passion Fruit Jelly with Horseradish Cream and Lavender, and the Jelly of Quail with Langoustine Cream and Parfait of Foie Gras, have both gone from a "slightly bland" taste to a more fuller and intense taste without going overboard. The meat in the Poached Breast of Anjou Pigeon Pancetta with Pastilla of its leg was tender and juicy - more so than any other times I've had this wonderful dish. Even the dessert that I didn't like much before, the Mango and Douglas Fir Puree, has got better to the point that I actually now like this dessert - the shaving of lime zest (well, I didn't ask what it was, but I guessed it was lime zest) on top was a perfect addition to the dish, and really helped to bring out the flavour of the dish.

The service at the Fat Duck was always a bit less formal than other Michelin 3-star restaurants, but I usually don't have a problem with that. However, the staff seemed to be a bit less certain of what's happening and what they were doing last night. One of the wonderful experiences at the Fat Duck was the presentation of the dishes - No matter how careful the chefs put the dishes together, if the waiters and waitresses didn't take enough care on bringing the dishes out, the presentation would be ruined by their rush job, and that's what happened on at least 2 occasions last night.

For the after-dinner coffee and tea, I chose to have tea and was offered a whole choice, including a "white" tea. My first guess when I heard "white" tea was something along the line of "Shou Mei" or "Silver Needle" in the Chinese tea - the sort of tea my cousin would class as "Old People's tea", which I take to mean not a lot of flavour. So when the waitress said that the white tea was like jasmine tea, I thought it's worth a try to see what it's like. Alas, when the tea came, it was weak and not a lot of flavour, just like the kind of white tea I'd expect in the first place (not a lot of taste or fragrance really) rather than the kind of white tea the waitress described. Anyway, the staff obviously noticed my slight discontent and came to ask if there was anything wrong with the tea. In the end, one of the more "knowledgeable" waiters came to explain that it's Silver Needle, and so I just told him that in future, if it's Silver Needle, just say it rather than try to disguise it as something that it's not meant to be, like jasmine.

Would I go back to the Fat Duck again? Yes, of course. The food is still nice, and you will be impressed by the wonderful and creative tastes if you've never been to the place. Is it still the best restaurant in the world? In my opinion, that's more debatable..... It might have just lost that slight edge to Gordon Ramsay's based on my latest experience, and I'm looking forward to trying out Thomas Keller's Per Se in New York City soon - I am placing great hope on this place and so watch this space for a review some time in May or June.