The Lowdown: cost of living crisis menus
Haven’t restaurants been offering deals to get people through the doors for ever?
That’s true to some extent, but there has certainly been a trend for top-end places to quietly drop their more accessibly priced menus over the past few years with set lunch menus in particular becoming something of a dying breed. But now they are back as restaurants of all types scramble to position themselves as an affordable option in the face of an unprecedented cost of living crisis fuelled by high energy costs and rampant inflation.
Who’s doing it?
Too many to list. Tom Kerridge was first to the party - or certainly the first to get traction - attracting an impressive amount of column inches with his “too good to be true offer” which sees all his restaurants bar his The Hand & Flowers flagship offer a two-course set lunch for £15 (a third course can be added for an additional £7.50). Kerridge says the menu is in some ways a throwback to the one-choice set menu that was offered at his The Hand & Flowers following the 2008 financial crash “that made absolutely no money but filled the pub with noise, excitement and laughter”.
Sounds like a steal. What’s on it?
The most recent set lunch for Kerridge’s Bar & Grill at the Corinthia London hotel offers pumpkin and ginger soup with pesto; chicken curry with pilau rice and kachumber salad; and beef suet sticky toffee pudding with vanilla ice cream. £22.50 would barely cover three courses at PizzaExpress so yes, whichever way one looks at it this is a bargain given the level of cooking on offer and the environment in which it is served. Don’t forget that Kerridge’s The Coach holds a Michelin-star, so serving food at that price is undoubtedly good value.
But is he making any money?
Given the location and the quality of ingredients a little over twenty quid for three courses is not a sustainable price point. However, only a small proportion of the restaurant’s diners will go for the menu. The vast majority of people who walk through the door at a hotel like Corinthia London are looking to splash out and won’t go for such a limited menu.
So why do it then?
Kerridge’s menu is a savvy PR move, but it also shows that how chefs and restaurants see their role in helping people in hard times. Just as during the lockdowns, when the industry rallied together to keep serving communities, many in the industry recognise the importance of people not being priced out of their establishments where possible.
What other top chefs are at it?
Andrew Swann at Castle Hotel in Taunton says he was inspired by Kerridge to launch a £15 and £20 two and three-course lunch menu, saying: “I love to see a busy and buzzing dining room full of happy diners, and we hope by offering such great value that more people will be able to enjoy lunch out even with things as difficult as they are.” He’s not the only one. Adam Handling has reduced the prices at his The Loch & The Tyne restaurant in Old Windsor, which was recently awarded three rosettes by the AA. The changes include a new set lunch menu that offers two courses for £27 (£35 for three) and a reduction in prices of the venue’s seven-course tasting menu from £80 a head to £55.
Guessing there’s no caviar or truffles on that...
No caviar, but there is lobster (and truffle for a £5 supplement). Handling, whose Covent Garden flagship holds a Michelin star, says his team has “reduced the emphasis on some of the most expensive ingredients, so we can bring down prices overall”.
What about the high street?
There’s been less activity in the casual dining space. In many cases the big brands simply aren’t able to drop their prices because they’re already as low as they can go due to oversupply in the market and the intense levels of competition it has caused. Marco Pierre White Restaurants has launched a two-courses for £15 deal across its UK estate in what it's billing as a ‘two-fold strategy’ to help venues attract diners while allowing guests to dine out without costing too much. New World Trading Company, meanwhile, has launched a £9.95 lunch menu across its The Botanist estate (pictured below).
Given rising inflation and energy costs, shouldn’t restaurants be putting prices up?
You’d think so. The industry is sending out mixed messages with some restaurants announcing price rises and others introducing cuts. Some venues, such as Hypha in Chester and Pulperia in Birmingham, say they have closed rather than remain open and charge their customers too much.
So, what will happen next?
It’s hard to say. Recent research from Lumina Intelligence shows that group restaurants are yet to put menu prices up for main dishes but are instead increasing the price of sides so that customers have more discretion over how much their meal might cost. Getting bums on seats remains the priority for businesses – and hoping once they are sat down they will spend freely.
