Props to Leroy for serving award-winning cooking at surprisingly affordable prices.
Blessed with a whopping 70 Michelin star restaurants, London is unquestionably spoiled for choice with excellent foodie options. But with the pervasive narrative around these restaurants being that of fussy hotel restaurants with ludicrous price points – and to be fair, you will find them amongst the 70 – it’s very refreshing to know that you can find a three-course Michelin star meal in London for just £23.
This thrifty investigation is the work of cookware aficionados Kitchen Knives, who clearly have a vested interest in peeking inside London’s fanciest kitchens – and to be fair, they’ve done some heavy lifting here. Three courses, full plates, evening meals, and no catch; the place in question is Leroy in Shoreditch, which was formerly known as Ellory.
A one-star joint, Leroy offered a starter of chorizo for £7, smoked mackerel for £9.50, and a chocolate pot for £6.50, bringing it up to a grand total of £23. The only slight flaw in the plan is that Leroy have clearly changed the menu since the research was conducted, meaning that precisely none of these things currently appear on the evening menu. Still, it’s all very reasonable – take the olives, lamb sweetbreads, and chocolate ganache that’s currently featured, and you’ll eventually settle up for just £26.
Somewhat shockingly, the top five cheapest Michelin star meals are all at London restaurants: Mediterranean inspired The Ninth (£24.80), new phenom Brat (£26), venerable St John (£29.10), and Kensington favourite Kitchen W8 (£29.50) round out the rest. Further surprises await the higher up the list you go; despite his near-deified status, Heston Blumenthal provides the cheapest two-star meal in London, as Dinner by Heston Blumenthal can be done for £81.50 if you’re thrifty.
Competition is a little less fierce in the three-star bracket (there are, after all, only three such restaurants in London), but its Alain Ducasse who takes the crown – his eponymous Mayfair restaurant offers a three-course menu for £105. It’s all excellent news, but a reminder before you go out booking left, right, and centre: this doesn’t factor in the drinks. And you just know that cheap Michelin eating is going to go perfectly with a nice bottle of red…
You can see the full UK list, along with the research, here.
Featured image: @leroyshoreditch