One of the country’s most expensive restaurants has dropped its food prices by a third in an apparent bid to make dining more accessible.
The two Michelin-star Kitchen Table previously charged £300 per head for its tasting menu, with, as per its website at the time, a compulsory “minimum £150 contribution to spend on the evening”.
A tasting menu there, which includes up to 20 courses, now costs £200.
The restaurant’s wine flight has been changed to £160 but is optional, with people being told they can “choose their drinks on the evening”.
The restaurant is led by the acclaimed chef James Knappett, who worked in some of the world’s most famous kitchens before opening in Fitzrovia, including Gordon Ramsay’s flagship at Royal Hospital Road in Chelsea, Per Se in New York, and Noma, Copenhagen.
Kitchen Table, which opened in 2012 and was awarded its first star just two years later, is owned by JKS, the group behind the likes of Brigadiers, BAO, Gymkhana, and Arcade Food Hall. The group declined to comment when approached by the Evening Standard.
At this year’s Michelin awards, Kitchen Table retained its second star for the fifth year in a row and the Standard understands it is always fully booked.
The drop in price marks a broader trend in the UK’s restaurant industry, with chefs adapting to a nation in the throes of a cost-of-living crisis. Jason Atherton was one of the first to reduce prices and did so at his one Michelin-star Mayfair restaurant Pollen Street Social in April.
The tasting menu was cut from £185 to £145, while a set lunch now costs £49.50. Wines by the glass now start at £7.50, where none were below £10 before.
“We’ve been hit by what’s going on in the UK and we wanted to adapt to serve middle earners — regular customers who you have to think about if you want to be successful,” Atherton told the Standard.
“Bills are up for everyone and people are going out less. Everyone is looking at prices. The situation today is a bump in the road and if we want to survive, we must act.
“We want to be fully booked, offering value for money.”
Another top chef to react to such a challenging market is Tom Kerridge, one of the country’s best-known and the man behind celebrated two-star pub The Hand & Flowers in Marlow, Buckinghamshire.
Where Kerridge previously offered a la carte, with dishes at varying price points, he has now brought in a blanket cost of £155 for three courses, or £49.50 for a set course lunch.
He told the Standard: “The hospitality industry is adept at changing with the times and you can see restaurants and pubs being creative with their menus, using more affordable cuts of meat and fish to keep costs low.
“At The Coach (Kerridge’s one-star pub in Marlow), we are still running an incredible £15 two-course lunch menu from Wednesday to Friday, and locals love it.”
