One of London’s leading Michelin- starred chefs has slashed his menu prices at his Mayfair flagship restaurant because he fears Londoners are being priced out of regular West End dining.
Jason Atherton, 51, told the Standard that customers were feeling increasingly “alienated” by the rocketing cost of eating out at a time when they were having to cut back on spending in other areas because of soaring inflation.
One of the first moves was to reduce the cost of the set lunch menu at his Pollen Street Social flagship from £75 to £49.50, a decision that he said almost immediately led to a flood of bookings.
The tasting menu has been cut from £185 to £145, while cocktails are down from £19 to £14. The wine list has also been shaken up with wines by the glass starting from £7.50 for a 2016 Petali Rose from Tuscany and more than 20 options for under £15.
Previously, no wines were priced at less than £10 a glass and only six for less than £15.
Mr Atherton said: “We, like many operators, have been having to increase our prices slowly since Covid but as that’s happened people are feeling squeezed out of the London restaurant market and being able to dine out on a regular basis.
“So we’ve taken the decision to go the other way and rather than raise prices we’re going to lower them to encourage guests to use our restaurants more often.”
Prices have also been trimmed at his other restaurants with the tasting menu at the counter at the Social Eating House in Soho reduced from £110 to £95.
Another venue in the Atherton stable, the Little Social bistro in Mayfair, is offering steaks in the £20 to £30 range, down from £30 to £40.
Mr Atherton, who also runs restaurants in Shanghai, Dubai and Mykonos, added: ”London is not Paris, it is not Tokyo and it never will be. The British diner is still quite conservative on how much they want to spend. Last month I went out to a Paris two-star restaurant and it cost us 1,500 euros for dinner for two. That’s insane.
“We’ve taken a gamble and decided that even though we are Michelin- starred we are going to take prices back the other way. We are not a charity but we think that British people are resisting these price hikes. There’s some things they have to pay in life but with restaurants they have got a choice.”
