From Heston Blumenthal’s Dinner to the top Indian restaurant in London, we find the best-value Michelin-star restaurants including a three-course lunch for £24
The Michelin guide has announced its new restaurants with London’s Araki restaurant, an establishment that has just nine covers and charges £300 a head charge for its chef’s set menu, awarded two coveted stars. The only other UK restaurant to be awarded two stars is also Japanese; Umu in Mayfair has a set menu for £115.
No doubt spectacular, but should you wish to dine on Michelin-standard cuisine and not break the bank there is a host of Michelin restaurants with special offers.
Here’s how to try a Michelin menus in London for less
MICHELIN RESTAURANTS UNDER £30
Murano
Angela Hartnett’s modern Italian dining room opened in 2008 and within four months achieved its first Michelin star. The set menu offers two courses for £28 and has a great selection of dishes including paremesan gnocchi, sea bream and rabbit leg lasagna.
Angela is one of Britain’s Best female chefs in Britain, and her dedication to seasonal produce and authentic regional cuisine is a must for any food lover.
Wild Honey
The modern European restaurant with a timeless traditional interior, located just around the corner from bustling Oxford Street, offers Working Lunch and Early Supper set menus from Monday to Friday at £29.50 for a delicious three-course meal.
Fresh gnocchi, slow-cooked lamb and Cornish mackerel are just a few dishes that feature on Wild Honey’s fresh and vibrant menu.
Quilon
Quilon is one of the few Indian restaurants to be awarded a Michelin star. Its menu, inspired by the cuisine of India’s south-west coast, has had critics raving and is one of the most varied set lunch menus available.
It has great offerings for vegetarians and the contemporary dining room is perfect for refined yet informal lunches and dinners. The two-course menu is £24, or customers can opt for three courses for £27. There is also a tasting menu charged at a very reasonable £32 per person.
Dinner by Heston Blumenthal
A meal at a Heston Blumenthal restaurant, celebrated as he is for his culinary innovation, is on many diner’s bucket lists. Dinner, located in the Mandarin Oriental Hotel Hyde Park, has a fixed-price lunch menu for £38 and is the famous chef’s first establishment in the capital.
The Harwood Arms
If Michelin-starred food in a relaxed environment sounds your sort of thing, head to The Harwood Arms. It’s the only Michelin-starred pub in London, hidden away in the back streets of Fulham, and has a lunchtime set menu from the blackboard at £20 for two courses or £25 for three.
The set menu is one of the best ways to sample the local produce, seasonal menus and relaxed atmosphere at the Harwood.
You probably will have heard of this famous French restaurant and bar located on the top floor of the Hilton Park Lane, but with a £28 two-course set menu (£33 for three courses) we had to include it.
If you’re looking for views, this is the place. The dining room and bar boast panoramic 360° views across Hyde Park and out over London’s most famous landmarks.
The set lunch menu offers a variety of dishes with beef steak tartare, mackerel teriyaki and pancetta cod on the list and is available Monday- Friday 12-2:30pm.
Brasserie Chavot
This summer, the one Michelin star French delight Brasserie Chavot launched a new set menu, priced at £28.50. It rivals many lesser venues for value and with your dishes crafted by the excellent team, headed up by the endlessly charismatic Eric Chavot, you’ll be kicking yourself you haven’t discovered it sooner.
The set menu is served at lunch and changes every two weeks.
The smoldering French brasserie, located in Mayfair at The Westbury Hotel, delivers deliciously rich and authentic dishes including duck confit (crackingly crisp) and delicate sea bream, both currently on the set menu.
For those moving off-piste, it’s hard to ignore the meat on offer. This is, after all, a French restaurant run by a passionate French man so it’s little surprise the ribeye with bernaise and the huge côte de porc were triumphs. The oozing cheese trolley completed the French fanfare.
The dining room feels special, with burgundy banquettes, a tiled mosiac floor and mirrors running the length of the room. And the staff are, well, Michelin refined and effortless.
Eric Chavot has worked under Pierre Koffmann, Raymond Blanc and Marco Pierre White (to name a few) before winning two Michelin stars for his intricate, nouveau-French offerings at Knightsbridge’s The Capital.
For those looking for pre or post-dinner drinks head to the Polo Bar next door, which has recently added 18 cocktails to its renowned menu. The understated cocktail lounge is a hidden gem and ideal for impressing out-of-towners.
This lounge bar – winner of numerous accolades – has a new infused-G&T experience created by some of London’s finest mixologists. Allow your waiter to tailor your cocktail to your likes and dislikes, and prepare for a unique cocktail experience.
Yauatcha
Yauatcha is cool, sleek and contemporary. It specialises in expertly crafted dim-sum and handmade sweets, and has two restaurants in London: Soho and The City.
The Taste of Yauatcha set menu will cost you £28.88 for two people sharing and includes eight of the restaurant’s popular dishes and a selection of Chinese teas (the extensive cocktail menu is definitely worth a look as well).
The Taste of Yauatcha is available from 2pm-6pm Monday to Thursday.
