We now live in a London where no-one expects to be able to eat food in a high-end, let alone Michelin-starred, restaurant for less that £100 a head. And a ton a head is not only just for the food but is also the starting price. Set menus of £200 a head or more are increasingly common. Yet the trick has always been to go for lunch on a set menu. It was true thirty years ago and it is true now – for the price of an indifferent dinner at Cote or some such other rubbish faux brasserie you can (if you are careful on drinks and extras) eat quite amazing food and try places that are otherwise beyond your budget.
Why is this the case? It is a variety of factors, but principally that people tend neither to have the time for a long lunch in a high end restaurant and also the formality – often perceived rather than real – of these places does not fit with lunchtime culture. But they still have staff to pay, rent to meet and so often adopt a pricing approach whereby they are covering marginal costs and making some contribution to overheads rather than pricing as they do in the evening to make the whole thing worthwhile. Or in simpler terms, better some bums on seats than none at all.
So, make an occasion of it. Catch up with a school friend. Go on a lunchtime date. Take a book and enjoy the glory of a long, languorous lunch on your own. But do so while eating some of the best food in London at unbelievable prices. And feel rather smug for doing so.
There are many places that offer great set price lunches, but here are some of my favorite high-end restaurants that do so:
Pavyllon
Price: £49 for two courses, £55 for three courses
Served: Daily during lunch service
Yannick Alléno’s food needs no introduction. He is one of the most celebrated chefs in the world and is head chef at the legendary restaurant Pavillon Ledoyen in Paris and Le 1947 in Courchevel among others. He currently holds seventeen Michelin stars. The lunch here is a perfect opportunity to try his precise and exquisite food, which exemplifies top end French cuisine. Do note that portions are small, but don’t worry about it – perfection fills you up.
The set menu (“Taste of Pavyllon“) includes many of his classic dishes, with starters including soft egg and bluefin tuna tartare with ginger mayonnaise and smoked pike roe as well as Hampshire aged trout tartare with smoked brown butter sauce, bone marrow, almond and pickled girolles. Mains include crispy pork chop with horseradish beurre blanc, smoked pike and trout roe and chives, and an awesome poached turbot Duglere style with elderflower emulsion with fragrant herbs, tomato concassé and crispy potato.
I think this is an incredible offering: top class French food, a famous chef, beautiful setting in the Four Seasons and a set menu that manages the price while still offering expensive, luxury ingredients like bluefin tuna and turbot!
Chisuru
Price: £45 for three courses, increasing to £50 from 1st August onwards
Served: Daily during lunch service
West African cuisine is where the action is at the moment (as we have reported) and one of the places at the forefront of this is Joke Bakare’s groundbreaking West African restaurant Chisuru that moved to the West End two years ago. A suitably up-market evolution from the wonderful canteen environment of its Brixton birthplace, the food offered the £45 set lunch is nothing short of stellar. Along with other stars of this firmament such as Ikoyi, to not try Chisuru would be stupid, and to not try it at these prices simply insane. Starters include sinasir, a fermented rice cake with butternut squash and chilli; main courses include Èbìrìpò – char-grilled guineafowl, celeriac cake, jalapeño & bitter leaf sauce, ̣ègúsí sauce and Wákèn rīdī, smoked eel, coco beans, yellow courgette with ginger dressing with black sesame sauce. Pudding is Rhubarb aklui – lemongrass rice pudding, timur pepper & rhubarb compote, popcorn tuile, smoked vanilla and uda ice-cream. This is epic cooking at an unbelievable price.
3 Great Titchfield Street, W1W 8AX, chishuru.com
Fallow
Price: £42 for three courses
Served: 12 noon to 5pm daily, excluding bank holidays
Who thought you could build a smash hit restaurant around pig’s ears, fish heads and corn ribs? Fallow did and have converted one of those cursed locations on Haymarket – a street that should be bustling into one that rarely is – into a spectacular, destination restaurant that is buzzing every night of the week. The set menu at lunch avoids some of the more out-there dishes, but does include a few real showstoppers including their epic starter of mushroom parfait, smoked shiitake, home grown lion’s mane, grilled bread. You also don’t often find beef tartare on a set menu, but here is it with their UK dairy beef tartare & oyster, oyster mayo, sesame dressing and shiso. Mains currently include flamed mussels, sriracha sauce and pickled lemon, and Dairy cow burger, bacon, cheese and shallot. Puddings are great too, and while I try and stay away from extras a side of hispi cabbage, chorizo and sesame is worth the 7 quid asking price.
52 Haymarket, London SW1Y 4RP, fallowrestaurant.com
The Ninth
Price: £30 for two courses, £35 for three courses
Served: Daily during lunch service and (note this one) for bookings at 6pm as well
Price: £30 for two courses, £35 for three courses
Served: Daily during lunch service
The Ninth is a very fashionable restaurant offering deceptively simple French-Mediterranean food and which uses well sourced and high quality ingredients. There is a choice of two dishes for each course, which is a sensible way for them to offer food of this quality for the unbelievable price of £35 for three courses. Starters include salt cod with radish and sourdough or beetroot salad, served with a coconut yoghurt and fig leaf oil. Mains include a chargrilled Delica pumpkin with hazelnut dukkah, as well as a roast guinea fowl ballotine with Brussels and celeriac. If you hit the jackpot, pudding will be madeleines with lemon curd.
I just want to repeat the price. £35 for three courses. For food of this quality.
The Ninth 22 Charlotte Street, London W1T 2NB theninthlodon.com
The Cocochine
Price: £55 for three courses
Served: Daily during lunch service
I recently reviewed this Mayfair restaurant run by Larry Jayasekara, who was head chef at Petrus and worked at some serious kitchens in his career, such as Michel Bras and Le Manoir au Quat’ Saison, as well as with Marcus Wareing. As I said then “Serious food this is, from a serious chef, and in a beautiful space with absolutely top-drawer and utterly charming staff. It’s what high end Mayfair dining should be: a great space in which you are served careful, precise, delicious food made from great and well-chosen ingredients”.
And the set menu is a belter at £55. Starters include Scottish Lobster & Norwegian King Crab Ravioli in a Shellfish Bisque and Rowler Farm Dry Aged Beef Tartare with Confit Egg Yolk, while mains include Slow Roasted Rowler Farm Lamb Shoulder with Tomato, Curry Leaves and Peas and Roasted Sea Trout with Peas, Cucumber and Wasabi.
This is an amazing place and with the cheapest evening menu costing £145 a head the lunch offering is a serious bargain.
The Cocochine, 27 Bruton Place, Mayfair, London W1J 6NQ – The Cocochine