A Michelin star, for £50
Starred cooking at neighbourhood prices, five ways
A Michelin star used to mean a set of small plates and a very large bill. The lunch set menu quietly changed that. Same kitchens, same suppliers, same star above the door, at a fraction of the dinner bill.
We've pulled together five London rooms with a star to their name where lunch, and sometimes early evening, comes in at £50 or less. From a Mayfair dim sum basement to Mauro Colagreco cooking on Whitehall, here's where to eat starred food without the starred bill.
01 · Hakkasan Mayfair
Mayfair
Smoke, gold leaf and dim sum in a Bruton Street basement, £29.
Down a black-lacquer staircase off Bruton Street, Hakkasan Mayfair still holds its Michelin star more than two decades after it opened. The set lunch is £29 for small eats and mains, running weekdays from 12pm to 4.30pm, in a basement of smoke, red lanterns and gold leaf. The star lunch that costs less than a mid-week bottle of wine.
02 · Trishna
Marylebone
Coastal Indian, £25 for two courses at lunch.
On Blandford Street, this coastal Indian dining room has held its star every year since it opened. The Taste of Trishna lunch and early-evening set starts at £25 for two courses and stretches to a four-course tasting for £50, every day of the week (12pm to 2.15pm, then 5pm to 6.15pm). Gongura lamb, cashew and pepper chicken, one of the most confident lunch bargains on the list.
03 · Luca
Clerkenwell
The Clove Club's Italian sibling, £34 for two courses on St John Street.
The Clove Club team's Clerkenwell trattoria sits on St John Street with a star above the door and an open pasta kitchen at the back. The lunch set is £34 for two courses or £42 for three, seven days a week from 12pm to 2pm. Hand-rolled pasta, a starter list that regularly beats the à la carte for interest, and a room that fills up fast.
04 · Chez Bruce
Wandsworth
Bruce Poole on Wandsworth Common, three courses £48.50.
Overlooking Wandsworth Common, Bruce Poole has been holding a Michelin star at Chez Bruce since 1995. The Brucie Bonus weekday set lunch is £40.50 for two courses or £48.50 for three, Monday to Friday, running to slow-cooked shoulder of lamb, whole roast lemon sole and a cheese trolley that regulars come for on its own. A grown-up local restaurant of the sort central London stopped building.
05 · Mauro Colagreco at Raffles London
Whitehall
Mirazur pedigree inside The OWO, £50 for two courses at lunch.
Inside Raffles at The OWO on Whitehall, Mauro Colagreco (of three-starred Mirazur, once the World's Best Restaurant) cooks a set lunch that gets you inside one of the most decorated kitchens in the world. Two courses £50, three £65, Thursday to Saturday, in a grand room of marble and honey-coloured light. The splurge on this list, and still a fraction of what a Colagreco dinner elsewhere would cost.
Five London kitchens, five stars above the door, five lunches you can still get change from a fifty for. Book the earliest sitting and thank us later.