These five lucky ducks were among the 14,000 people to score a seat at Heston Blumenthal's hotly anticipated Melbourne restaurant, which opened for a six-month run on Tuesday. So does the 15-course degustation menu live up to the hype? Here's what the first flock of Fat Duck diners had to say.

Pauline Copsey, 68, and Roger Copsey, 70, travelled from Dublin to visit family and dine at the Melbourne restaurant.

"It wasn't just the taste of everything, it really was an experience, and until you've been there, you can't understand quite what it means to say it's an experience. It's just so different," Mr Copsey said.

Sydneysider Ryan Perry, 35, and his table spent a solid six hours in the restaurant during the first lunch service on Tuesday.

"It really blew my mind. It was unreal, unbelievable. Something you wouldn't ever think of it being. You know you're going for 15 courses, and you assume by the end of it you'll be stuffed, but you'd never think of trying some of the flavours," Perry said.

And what about Blumenthal's signature snail porridge?

"He puts it out in a little dish and it's green so you're looking at it like, err ok, but it's like porridge with some oats down the bottom and and some snails mixed in the top. And you just close your eyes and try it and actually you wouldn't pick it as snails," Perry said.

The 15 courses include the curiously named 'Botrytis Cinerea' dessert, which was a favourite of diner Alison Bannister, 33, who travelled from Sydney.

"It was a vine of grapes, so you had each grape, so it was either a frozen or a jelly-like grape or it had a hard shell with a creamy centre with popping candy. And it had leaves that were made out of sugar syrup," Bannister said.

Sandra Ko, 35, of Sydney showed off her takeaway lolly bag and phone snaps. She said the restaurant exceeded her expectations: "I think more so. It was different, very different."

Despite the $525 price tag (excluding drinks), the diners we spoke to say they'd do it all again, with many hinting they'd like to travel to the original restaurant when it reopens in Bray, United Kingdom.