The Fat Duck

Heston Blumenthal opened The Fat Duck in a 16th-century former pub on Bray's High Street in August 1995, and it went on to hold three Michelin stars from 2004. It still does. After a refurbishment and a season in Melbourne, the Bray restaurant reopened on 29 September 2015 with a new kitchen, after structural repairs to the 16th-century building.

The room is small and deliberately so. Dark timber beams and white-painted walls frame a handful of clothed tables, and there is no bar: the house sends guests who want a drink beforehand to The Hinds Head next door. The menu is a staged sequence of dishes built on memory and the senses, and a sitting runs three to four hours.

The restaurant takes private hire for up to 40 guests, which puts the whole dining room behind one reservation. It suits a dinner where the cooking is the evening. Enquire for dates.