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Heston Blumenthal's Melbourne Fat Duck reservation ballot opens

Lucille Keen

Heston Blumenthal will transfer his flagship restaurant to Melbourne in 2015.
Heston Blumenthal will transfer his flagship restaurant to Melbourne in 2015.Penny Stephens

The online ballot to get a table at celebrity chef Heston Blumenthal's Fat Duck restaurant in Melbourne opened Wednesday, jamming the site within 20 minutes.

Thousands of people trying to log on at 9am were greeted by a clock that was an hour behind, not taking into account daylight savings.

This was rectified quickly after a number of tweets and by 9.40am many were struggling to get through to the ballot section due to the high usage on the site.

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Blumenthal will transfer his flagship restaurant in Bray, a small town near London, to Melbourne. The Melbourne restaurant will be open for six months from February 2015, offering places for up to 16,000 people during that time.

People wait months or even years for a table at the Michelin-starred Fat Duck and up to 30,000 call the restaurant daily, the chef claims.

If successful in achieving a seat at the Melbourne venue, diners will have to fork out $525 a person before drinks. A seat at the four-person chef's table in the kitchen costs $675 per person. Drink pairings will start at $200 per person.

In August, Crown said they had received more than 40,000 inquiries about the restaurant since it was announced in March.

The ballot closes at midnight on October 26.

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