The Fat DuckThe one that arrives under a lid of fog

Where to begin

Bray, Berkshire, England — Tasting menu, chosen when you book.

The menu opens with an aperitif made in liquid nitrogen. After that the course names explain nothing: Sound of the Sea, Counting Sheep, Like a Kid in a Sweet Shop. You read them and still cannot guess what will arrive on the table.

Heston Blumenthal runs the kitchen. The official site calls what happens here Hestonland: a place holding unusual craft, strange flavours and dishes of every different kind, built to work on taste and imagination at once and to take people somewhere they did not expect.

Dishes come out one at a time, some in small iron pans, some still smoking when they reach the table. There is a main menu and four others beside it, each chosen at the time of booking rather than on the night.

The white house on the village street

The building gives itself away slowly. White walls, black-framed windows, a black door with a brass knocker under a white pediment, a black lamp on either side, a few stone steps up from the pavement and a low iron railing along the front. Step inside and the tone changes: a bar with a black top, stools in dark brown leather, and a stainless steel work counter behind it where the kitchen is already moving.

The menu is printed on the page

The official site sets the whole menu out in public, from the nitrogen aperitif to the last course, with a note at the end that it may change. Reading it before booking tells you the shape of the evening and roughly how many courses are coming, and it is also a reminder that the names alone will not get you very far.

Which menu you eat is decided at booking rather than on the night. The Journey is the long one, Topsy-Turvy runs backwards, and The Top Seat is set for one guest, so three of the five will not suit every party. The page lists every course and then says the menu may change, which leaves a description rather than a promise.