My wife and I are taking trip over the pond to London and Paris this summer. It'll basically be one where we just eat incredible food and drink incredible wine the entire time lol.

Anyway, we love Gordon Ramsay. Is his flagship 3 star Michelin spot worth it?

We've eaten at 3 star, 2 star, and 1 star places before. The ones with celebrity chef's have almost always burned us. The ones without, have almost always absolutely blown us away.

Thoughts?

My wife and I had dinner this past weekend at both of the above restaurants for the first time and came away quite surprised by the experiences.

Restaurant Gordon Ramsay

Our reservation at RGR was on Saturday night and, as you can imagine, it was busy. We were seated at a two-top on the outer perimeter of the dining room and we selected the Carte Blanche tasting menu ($350 - their 7-course surprise tasting menu) and the associated wine pairing ($320).

I won't go into the gory specifics of each dish, but suffice it to say, the food and wine were a letdown particularly for a 3-star establishment and the price paid.

Course #1 was a small serving of pea custard/mousse that - while containing a number of interesting ingredients - simply tasted like your basic peas and mint.

Course #2 of raw scallop was the highlight with great texture and flavors.

Course #3 was a taste of lobster that was completely overwhelmed with a blood orange hollandaise sauce.

Course #4 was crispy skin fish with herbs and a dashi - fine but not great.

Course #5 was duck breast and a duck leg stuffed Chinese bun. The duck breast was cold.

Course #6 was a cheese course. Fine.

Pre-dessert was a sorrel sorbet that tasted like grass - not good and didn't eat more than the first taste.

Dessert was something forgettable. And they brought an extra dessert to make up for the cold duck.

The wine pairings were - for me - meh. I was disappointed that for $320 I received only 1 red wine (obviously due to the menu) and its was an Oregon Pinot Noir. The other wines were various whites that didn't have - in my opinion - a lot of range to them. There were also two dessert wines - both of which were extremely sweet. The second one I left largely untouched as it was like drinking honey.

From a service perspective, this restaurant induces stress. The room is a small box with seating at all the perimeter tables (mostly two-tops) facing toward the tables at the center of the room. There is CONSTANT running around by the waiters, sommeliers, manager, host, and service staff. The atmosphere is hectic and not relaxing. In fact, the faint music that is played is completely drowned out by the din of service. Oddly enough, with all this running around, no one could bother to check on our meal as it progressed which was a shame given the cold duck entree.

Would not return.

Dinner by Heston

This surprised me.

Walking in the service seemed more informal and the room much brighter giving a more corporate/hotel service vibe. We were seated next to the window overlooking the park (which was nice); however, an odd restaurant design choice placed most of these tables next to the main server's station that detracts from the ambience. My suggestion is to request a table with view of the open kitchen.

We elected the three course menu for $166. For wines, I note that the wine prices here are breathtakingly expensive. I chose to go by the glass and both the reds and the whites progressed rapidly in price beyond the entry level choices. My 125 ml white (Sancerre) was $50 and my red (Barolo) was almost $80. And these were mid-level offerings.

The food was simply outstanding. The signature meat fruit was one of the best chicken liver parfaits I've ever had.

The ribeye was cooked perfectly and the triple fried chips were memorable. Even the simple side salad made with endive, chicory, and gem was excellent - perfectly dressed with a delicious vinaigrette. Desserts were similarly excellent.

Service actually turned out to be warm and fun. They place three tarot-looking cards on the table and ask you to place one of them into a stand to correspond to how much information you would like about each dish (the food menu is created from historical recipes). You can select either the basics (what it is and its main ingredients), an abbreviated context of the dish, or a more in-depth description of the dish's history. You can also change the cards during the meal progression if you want more or less information on next courses. All the servers were quite knowledgeable and engaging concerning the food. And the sommelier was gracious and prompt with her service.

I enjoyed this meal much more than RGR and would definitely return.