Just Open: Dinner by Heston, Southbank

Good news, fans of UK mega-chef Heston Blumenthal. Dinner by Heston, a permanent outpost of Blumenthal's two-Michelin star London restaurant filling the space of the departed Fat Duck at Crown Casino, is about to open for business. The bad news? It's already booked out until January.

The many thousands of diners who missed out on dining at the Duck during its six month residency at Crown were given first dibs on booking a table, and that's an offer they took up, en masse.

But back to the good news: Dinner, which opens on Tuesday October 20, is a cheaper and more informal proposition that Blumenthal's three Michelin star Fat Duck. It's also open for dinner daily, lunch on Fridays and Saturdays and there's a bar with cocktails designed by legendary London bartender Tony Conigliaro.

Unlike the Fat Duck, whose menu came over to Australia almost unchanged, the dishes at Dinner will have some Australian accents. Kangaroo tail and a lamington cake will feature. Which is interesting given all the dishes at Dinner by Heston are based on historical British foods, working from recipes that haven't been popular for centuries, like rice and flesh, the meat fruit and salmagundi.

How will it come together? Stay tuned for a first-look review on Wednesday, and be ready to jump on bookings when the lines open Tuesday 20th.

Level 3, Crown Casino, Southbank. Bookings for Dinner by Heston open Tuesday October 20, www.dinnerbyheston.com.au