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AIBU?

Share your dilemmas and get honest opinions from other Mumsnetters.

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Original poster

To want to go to the Fat Duck for my 40th

77 replies

MrsHelsBels74 · 23/05/2012 20:25

Its not for a couple of years but we'll probably have to start saving now. I'd really like to go but I feel hubby isn't too keen, & it's a lot of money to spend if you're not going to enjoy it.
My husband wants us to have a joint 40th party instead, but my birthday is in July & his isn't until December so I don't really think this is doable.

AIBU to think that it's my birthday, we should do what I want (assuming we can actually afford it) with the proviso that I have to go along with whatever my husband wants to do for his birthday?

OP posts:

PandaWatch · 24/05/2012 10:26

Go! Definitely! I went for a 30th last year and it was amazing. I would also recommend, if you can stretch to it, going for the wine taster menu too (we went for the cheapest one and the wines were amazing and you get a lot).

My DH and I never go to expensive restaurants and my DH was really anti going because of the cost but we had an amazing time. You'd easily pay the same in another of the top restaurants but as cheesy as this may sound, it truly is an experience, not just a meal, and you're recommended to allow four hours. Bray is a lovely village and worth a wonder around before or after the meal too.

As for booking, I think you can only book three months in advance and I recommend calling as soon as the lines open as tables go very quickly. It's quite a small restaurant and because of how long it takes for the meal they don't have many sittings.

Have a great time if you go!

summerintherosegarden · 24/05/2012 10:31

I thought Le Manoir was really disappointing. Rooms, location and service were all wonderful but the food seemed very average for the price. IMO the best Michelin starred lunch deal to be had is at Le Gavroche - 3 courses, coffee, water & wine for £40/50.

I would love, love, love to go to the Fat Duck, so don't think YABU at all. I've also heard that they've changed the booking system so it's not such a mission anymore, but that's not first hand experience so can't guarantee it!

SCOTCHandWRY · 24/05/2012 10:40

My Bro and Sil were well and truly Fat Ducked - spend thousands there (including wine) on a meal for 4 - and all 4 were violently ill afterwards (some food posioning thing that affected hundreds and shut the place down for a while).

Interestingly, that has now been airbrushed out of their story and when name dropping- it's all about the amazing experience they had, the huge cost and the fact that Heston talked to them. No mention of the 2 weeks of hell afterwards!

PandaWatch · 24/05/2012 11:05

Scotch I thought it turned out that no one had food poisoning caused by anything they had eaten in the restaurant and that the environmental health said there was no reason why it should have been temporarily closed?

PrematurelyAirconditioned · 24/05/2012 11:09

As I understand it there were food poisoning cases from a rogue batch of oysters with norovirus. Since the oysters were not cooked and there's no way of testing it wasn't the restaurant's "fault" per se / it could have happened to anyone and there's nothing you can do to prevent it but it was caused by the food they served. Did your relatives get a free meal to say sorry?

skateboarder · 24/05/2012 11:20

We were going to go for dh's birthday but after factoring in travel, accommodation, wine we decided to have a holiday instead!
Will take him one day though.
So yanbu if you can afford it!

FlossieMae · 24/05/2012 13:29

MrJasc, it's not how could they burn a piece of toast that worries me, it's how they could send it out to you burnt!

SCOTCHandWRY · 24/05/2012 13:48

PANDA, yes, it was from raw Oysters (which is just one of those things that could happen in any restaurant) but, I believe they were told that incorrect handling of raw products by some staff had spread it so that some people who did not have Oysters got sick. There is always that risk when eating out I suppose - not picking on FD in particular.

PREMATURELY, I know they subsequently went back to the Fat Duck but no mention was made of it being free (but I imagine it was).

I would love to go myself but probably not going to happen any time soon!

We did manage afternoon tea at Fortnum's a couple of weeks ago = £60 for 3.5 people, was a lovely mini-experience treat for a family from the sticks. Also then spent far too much on their fantastic chocolates downstairs in the food hall!

SarahBumBarer · 24/05/2012 16:42

Unless you are doing the tasting menu which is an experience but not really a great meal it does not have to cost that much. I like it there and the tasting menu is interesting if that is what you want to do.

YANBU. As you say it is your 40th. I'll go with you if your DH does not want to!

Ragwort · 24/05/2012 16:45

I just can't take it seriously as before it was the Fat Duck it was just a very ordinary boring pub where my mates and I used to hang out and try and chat up men .

BreastmilkDoesAFabLatte · 24/05/2012 16:50

I'd love to go. But I'm not sure I could conscience spending that amount on a meal when so many children out there are dying of malnutrition... I'd rather donate the £500 to Save the Children or Christian Aid.

mollymole · 24/05/2012 16:50

If you live in the North have you considered a night at Cameron House and a meal in the Wishart Restaurant - lovely treat !!

Hulababy · 24/05/2012 16:51

If you fancy lunch there are some still available online. Just checked. They can do 12 o'clock on Wednesday 30th :)

whathaveiforgottentoday · 24/05/2012 16:55

Yes go, I took my DH for his 40th. That was his birthday present. It cost a fortune but that's what he wanted as a present.

Tricky to get booked. I think the reservations come up 2 months before at 10am (ring up and check). Then start ringing constantly from about 9.55.

The first time i tried to book I didn't get through till gone 11 and obviously completely booked up by then, so I couldn't get a table for his actual birthday.

It was well worth it, food was lovely but it was more than just the food.

sieglinde · 24/05/2012 16:58

YANBU. It's not cheap, but it is worth it - though IMHO not as good as L'Astrance in Paris. And the degustation is INCREDIBLY FILLING and you def. shouldn't eat beforehand.

Food like this is art. The great food of this kind I've eaten IS a kind of holiday of the senses - it's like opera or a big art exhibition. You come away and see life differently; it's no more just a meal than a painting is just a wallcovering.

RetroMom · 24/05/2012 17:03

My DP booked the Phat Duck for my last birthday. I made the mistake of only reading the menu the day before the booking. YUCK YUCK YUCK YUCK! That much money for a menu I can't even eat? He had to cancel, only it was last minute so they held us to the booking, kept DPs credit card details in case they did not resell our seats. Thankfully they managed to get someone else in and DP was not responsible for payment for an over priced experience we didn't have!

HawthornLantern · 24/05/2012 17:25

RetroMom - if I'd read the Heston menu before I'd eaten it, I'd probably have cancelled too. But as it was I was astonished by delicious mouthful after mouthful and doubly surprised to find what I'd eaten afterwards. Cancelling may have been the best choice for you but you may have been very pleasantly surprised.

On the other hand I have miserable food poisoned memories of the Waterside (lousy service too, until we complained, when they really really turned it around very nicely).

PrematurelyAirconditioned · 24/05/2012 17:42

IME they're pretty good about swapping out the more problematic food. When we sat down the first thing the waitress said was "are you happy to eat oysters/foie gras/snails?" (of course they don't serve oysters any more)

amicissimma · 24/05/2012 17:43

This reply has been deleted

Message withdrawn at poster's request.

mumtoone123 · 24/05/2012 19:55

amicissima! You are so right! Definitely got the impression that they were ever so slightly taking the piss - and they work to a script. We had to stare into the blood encrusted nostrils of our very animated waiter as he went on about each dish. Plus I have grown to loathe Heston a little bit with his smug ways and pseudo science ...... anywaaaay
But we still talk about it so maybe not bad value after all

sieglinde · 24/05/2012 21:06

I like the Waterside Inn too . Chacun a son gout.

Original poster

MrsHelsBels74 · 24/05/2012 21:08

It doesn't have to be in that area, we're in Brighton so it would mean a night away regardless.
I suppose I'm not really think about it in terms of a meal out, it's the whole experience.

OP posts:

joanofarchitrave · 24/05/2012 21:15

Obviously nobody is mad to want an experience like that. But I must say I would find it stressful. My idea of a wonderful 40th would be a long weekend on Skye with dinner at the Three Chimneys - back in a previous life I did this and it was wonderful. But I guess if you often eat out then it might not be 'special' enough?

complexnumber · 24/05/2012 22:13

Go, go, go!

And while you are there, ask if you can have some ketchup :)

SaggyCeratops · 24/05/2012 22:30

You are BARKING! Heston Blumenthal is a job of the first water. Food should be about passion, not science. Go to River Cottage instead!
I trained as a chef, and I'm obviously nowhere near even standing in any of the top chefs shadows, but this whole 'add some dry ice, and go find the Hoover' bollocks does my head in! Give me HFW any day!

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