According to Harden’s restaurant guide, the average price of a meal out in London for one last year came in at a shade under £60. Anecdotally, having been asking around lately, that figure seems closer to £70 and looking back over Jimi Famurewa’s reviews for this paper, it’s striking how often a meal for two seems to cost somewhere in the region of £125—£150.
There are reasons for what has been a recent climb in prices — many restaurateurs are frantically clawing back at pandemic losses that threaten their very existence. Others are trying to manage the staffing crisis by paying their teams more, while Brexit is making sourcing ingredients that much harder for everyone. And “that much harder” means, well, “that much more expensive.” That money has to come from somewhere.
