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Dine at Michelin-starred restaurants across the UK for as little as £20
From London to Abergavenny and Belfast to Glasgow, you can dine in top-notch establishments on a budget
Michelin-starred restaurants might feel beyond reach price-wise, but our research shows that you can enjoy this top-quality food for as little as £20 per person.
You’ll find these cheaper Michelin menus nationwide, from Torquay in Devon to High Newton in Cumbria. Some are in major cities like Glasgow and Belfast, and there are even a couple in central London.
In most cases you’ll need to visit at lunchtime and choices will be limited to just two or three options per course. You can dine at weekends in more than 10 options listed below, so there’s no need to book a day off work. Plus, a few offer cheap evening midweek menus.
Read on to find out where you can find a bargain meal at a Michelin-starred restaurant. We haven’t reviewed them – but the Michelin Guide knows best when it comes to food.
We also explain the difference between one, two and three Michelin stars, and why looking out for the Bib Gourmand award can also set you up for a satisfying, high-quality meal out. Plus, we walk you through how Michelin inspectors rate these establishments.
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Cheapest Michelin-star restaurants in the UK
The Coach, Marlow
You’re unlikely to find a set lunch menu from a British Michelin-starred restaurant cheaper than The Coach’s. It’s in this comfortable but polished pub environment – complete with TV screens playing the match of the day – that chef Brad Cacela has designed a traditional yet playful menu of two courses for £20, or three for £25. The latest edition features haggis bonbon with whisky sauce, turkey schnitzel, and a warm mince pie with clotted cream; add sides including hispi cabbage or chips with bearnaise sauce for an extra charge.
More affordable still is The Coach’s breakfast menu, with a full English comprising Cumberland sausage, eggs, hash brown, grilled tomato and mushrooms for just £16.50, French toast with berry compote and clotted cream for £14, and soft-boiled eggs and brioche soldiers for £9. No reservation needed, just turn up and take a seat at the bar.
Starling, Esher
You might recognise head chef Nick Beardshaw from the BBC’s Great British Menu — but that doesn’t mean dining at Starling will bust your budget. In fact, head there for lunch Wednesday to Thursday and you’ll enjoy three courses for just £30. We couldn’t find a sample menu, but the Michelin guide praises the restaurant’s knack for pulling off simple but technically difficult dishes.
Planning a foodie holiday? Read more about the best world cities for food and drink.
Cheap Michelin-star restaurants, London
The Ninth, Fitzrovia
Chef Jun Tanaka trained at recently shuttered two-Michelin star Le Gavroche. The set menu, which is now available for both lunch and dinner includes dishes such as seabream carpaccio, burrata with beetroot and hazelnut pesto, and venison ragù to start; this is followed by roast chicken ballotine, grilled mackerel with confit rainbow chard and pumpkin risotto. It will cost £38 or £43 (two or three courses).
Lunch is bookable every day between midday and 2.30pm, dinner 5.45-6pm Monday to Wednesday and 5.30pm-6pm Thursday to Saturday. We found plenty of tables at lunchtime for six in coming months.
Jamavar, Mayfair
Indian restaurant Jamavar’s lunch menu is £51 for three courses, or £57 for four. It’s available every day, including weekends, and cheap good eats in London are hard to come by. The Michelin Guide recommends the Malai stone bass tikka, which handily features on the set menu. Other house specialities include the Sindhi methi gosht kid (goat, spinach, cinnamon, and fresh fenugreek) and old Delhi butter chicken.
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Cheap Michelin-star restaurants, Devon
The Elephant, Torquay
The Elephant offers a two-course lunch menu for £35.95, with two choices per course. You don’t have to book a day off to enjoy the frequently changing seasonal menu either; it’s available on Saturdays (as well as Wednesday-Friday). It’s held its Michelin star for 19 years, so chef Simon Hulstone is doing something right.
The Masons Arms, Exmoor
The Masons Arms may be a thatched-roof pub in rural Devon, but the Michelin Guide says the French and British classics on the menu are ‘more sophisticated than you might expect to find in a pub’. The a la carte menu costs up to £70 for three courses. However, visit Wednesday-Friday between 12pm and 2pm and you can enjoy chef Mark Dodson’s Michelin-star-worthy cooking from a set menu for £39.50.
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Cheap Michelin-star restaurants, Lancashire
The Barn at Moor Hall, Aughton
Sourcing much of the ingredients from its surrounding five acres of land, dishes at The Barn are ‘well-judged combinations of punchy flavours’, according to The Michelin Guide.
The sample three-course set lunch costs £55 (Thursday-Saturday) and the dinner menu costs £75 Wednesday-Friday. You can save money by dining on the vegetarian menu, which is £48 for a three-course lunch (available Thursday to Saturday) or £56 for dinner (Wednesday to Friday).
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Cheap Michelin-star restaurants, Leicestershire
John’s House, Loughborough
This Michelin-starred restaurant (the only one in Leicestershire) is a family affair. It sits inside a 16th-century farmhouse that was the chef’s (John Duffin) childhood home and uses local ingredients and organic produce, much coming from the surrounding farmland run by his brother. Evening tasting menus here are £100-£120, but come at lunchtime (12pm-1.30pm), Wednesday to Saturday, and you can sample the three-course set menu for less than half the price (£49).
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Cheap Michelin-star restaurants, Cumbria
Heft, High Newton
To the rear of its more casual pub entrance, Heft serves a four-course set daytime menu and a 10-course set menu at dinner. It’s the lunch, served from Thursday to Saturday, that is a more palatable price (£49). The Michelin Guide says the food is ‘inspired by the surroundings’, with chef Kevin Tickle ‘using his imagination and his local foraging knowledge’ to produce original dishes. Apart from Sundays (when an even cheaper two-course £45 menu is available), you’ll need to arrive promptly at midday, as food is served 40 minutes later to all diners.
Rogan & Co, Cartmel
Michelin-starred Rogan & Co. is part of the Simon Rogan restaurant group, which has various fine-dining establishments worldwide, including one, L’Enclume, in the same village of Cartmel. Both restaurants use produce from a shared farm just a mile away; chefs get a say in what’s grown. But L’Enclume’s three-Michelin-star tasting menu is £250. Meanwhile, Rogan & Co’s winter midweek set lunch menu is just £49 for three courses.
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Cheap Michelin-star restaurants, Gloucestershire
Le Champignon Sauvage, Cheltenham
At this longstanding Cheltenham bistro (open 35 years), you’ll find a two-course set lunch menu (Wednesday-Saturday) and dinner menu (Wednesday-Friday). The French cuisine is £43 for two courses and £50 for three; truffle arancini and braised beef with spiced split pea purée are on the sample menu. However, the Michelin Guide suggests that the desserts here are the real strength, and to watch out for the chocolate delice or cheesecake.
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Cheap Michelin-star restaurants, Kent
Fordwich Arms, Fordwich
This red-brick ivy-clad pub with a wood-panelled 1930s bar and roaring log fire looks like a charming spot to enjoy a Michelin-starred £45 three-course (plus bread) set menu, available Wednesday-Friday (lunchtimes only on Fridays). In summer, the wisteria-covered terrace overlooking the River Stour outside looks equally inviting. The Michelin Guide says that the quality of the locally sourced ingredients is excellent, adding: ‘The cooking is modern, creative and sometimes playful, but this is never at the expense of flavour.’
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Cheap Michelin-star restaurants, Rutland
Hambleton Hall, Oakham
Hambleton Hall has retained its single Michelin star for over three decades – one of the longest held in the UK. The Michelin Guide says the cooking here is dependable; you’ll find classic dishes with ‘distinct flavours’ and ‘modern touches’ and bread from its artisan bakery. To sample for less than £60, you’ll need to book lunch at this quintessentially English hotel restaurant between March and November, when its ‘lunch for even less’ offer (£58 for two courses) takes place.
Book a table at Hambleton Hall
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Cheap Michelin-star restaurants, Wales
The Walnut Tree, Llanddewi Skirrid (near Abergavenny)
The Walnut Tree has come a long way since its appearance on Ramsay’s Kitchen Nightmares in 2004. When chef Shaun Hill took to the stove four years later, he turned things around, landing it a Michelin star in 2010 and retaining it since. According to the Michelin Guide, you can expect a ‘delicious’ but ‘no-frills’ approach. The sample set menu, including braised shin of beef Bordelaise and skate with brown shrimp and dill sauce reflects the unpretentiousness, priced at £42 for two courses.
Book a table at The Walnut Tree
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Are there any cheap Michelin menus in Northern Ireland?
Ox, Belfast
We couldn’t find any Michelin menus in Northern Ireland for less than £50. However, we found a three-course lunch menu, plus a snack and Petit Fours, for £60 at Ox. The set menu begins with canapes and sourdough, and it includes a choice between two starters, two mains, and two desserts.
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Are there any cheap Michelin menus in Scotland?
Unalome, Glasgow
Though we didn’t find any restaurants offering set menus for under £50 in Scotland, Glasgow’s Unalome offers a three-course lunch for £55. Inspired by French and Japanese cuisine, chef Graeme Cheevers offers elevated and thoughtful options – and was awarded his Michelin star less than a year after opening Unalome.
The seasonal menu changes every fortnight, but the latest sample menu includes poached fillet of North Sea sole with Jerusalem artichoke and roast Ayrshire lamb with celeriac purée and hazelnut pesto. With a focus on sustainability, Unalome uses 100% green electricity. The set lunch menu is available from Thursday to Sunday 12pm-2.30pm.
Get a year of super-useful advice
Who to book with, how to get the best deals plus inspiring destination ideas from the experts, for only £36.75 for the year – that’s 25% off.
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What is a Michelin star?
The Michelin Guide awards Michelin stars to restaurants for outstanding cooking. When deciding whether to award a star, inspectors consider ingredient quality, the harmony of flavours, the mastery of techniques, the chef’s personality as expressed through their cuisine, and consistency. Restaurants can earn up to three stars, the highest accolade.
Who is awarded a Michelin star, the restaurant or the chef?
Restaurants gain Michelin stars and don’t necessarily lose them if the chef leaves.
Do all restaurants in the Michelin Guide have Michelin stars?
No. The guide selects good restaurants to feature, but not all have a prestigious Michelin star, so check the key. The Michelin Guide also awards other accolades, such as a Bib Gourmand, which means an establishment serves good food at moderate prices.
What is the difference between Michelin star and Bib Gourmand?
The Michelin Guide also awards other accolades, such as a Bib Gourmand, which means an establishment serves excellent-quality food for the price you pay – in other words, value for money. As the Michelin guide itself explains, you’re unlikely to find molecular gastronomy at these restaurants, but you’ll certainly enjoy a satisfying and delicious meal at a good price.
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