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Dine at Michelin-starred restaurants across the UK for as little as £20
From London to Yorkshire, you can dine in top-notch establishments on a budget
An Orwell prize-nominated investigative journalist, Kate lives in Portugal and covers news, travel rules, tourist taxes and visas.
Spend less at 11 restaurants nationwide, including a two-starred menu for less than £40.
Michelin-starred restaurants might feel out of reach for many, but our research shows you can enjoy the experience for as little as £20 per person.
You’ll find these cheaper Michelin menus nationwide, from Devon to Cumbria with some in major cities like Bristol and London.
In most cases you’ll need to visit at lunchtime, and choices will be limited to just two or three options per course. But you can dine at weekends in more than 5 of restaurants listed below, so there’s no need to book a day off work. Many also offer cheap early-evening midweek menus.
Read on to find out where you can get 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 sample menu includes Cullen skink, rotisserie pork belly with pickled cabbage and roscoff onion, followed by millionaire shortbread for pudding. It changes weekly and is available on Monday, Wednesday, Thursday and Friday.
More affordable still is The Coach’s breakfast menu, with a full English comprising Cumberland sausage, eggs, hash brown, grilled tomato and mushrooms for £19.50; eggs royale for £16; French toast with berry compote and chantilly cream for £15; or a honey-glazed bacon bap with date-based brown sauce for £10.50. Better yet, kids under 13 eat free from 8-9am.
There's no reservation needed, just turn up and take a seat at the bar.
Amaya, Knightsbridge
Celebrating 20 years as a Michelin-starred restaurant, Amaya is practically an institution and serves lunch and dinner every day of the week. It's located in the upmarket area of West London where Knightsbridge meets Belgravia, but its lunch menu is ‘brilliant value for money’, according to Michelin.
It costs £32 a head, and you can expect a platter rather than a menu. It comprises Amaya's signature dish, a black pepper chicken tikka, along with chargrilled seabass fillet, paneer with dates and sesame and spinach fig tikki – all served with daal and naan. If you’re curious about dinner, the evening sharing menu costs £60 a head.
Luca, Clerkenwell
This modern Italian food with majestic presentation is pricey in the evening – £95-120 per person for the chef’s menu, or mains ranging from £28 for pork rigatoni to £52 for lobster-stuffed cappellacci pasta.
But take a seat at a booth or the bar from Monday to Saturday to try its express lunch menu, which includes what Michelin described as the ‘finest British produce’ at ‘exceptional value’. Two courses cost £34, for imaginative dishes like Cornish turbot with lemon verbena, Scottish girolle mushroom with coco beans and lemon verbena, and crowd pleasers like trottole pasta with taleggio cheese and pumpkin.
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 £37.50.
The Michelin guide praises the restaurant’s knack for pulling off simple but technically difficult dishes. The sample lunch menu offers two choices per course: pumpkin maple soup or trout with pickles and a cheese scone to start, deep-fried haddock with mint peas or beef rump with oyster mushroom for mains, and a blue-cheese flapjack or banana custard with Iranian pistachios and honeycomb for dessert.
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Cheap Michelin-star restaurants, London
The Ninth, Fitzrovia
Chef Jun Tanaka trained at Michel Roux’s two-Michelin-star Le Gavroche, which shuttered in 2024. His restaurant, The Ninth, typically offers sharing dishes in the evening, but the set menu – £38 for two courses – is designed to be enjoyed all to yourself.
The set menu, which is now available for both lunch and dinner, includes dishes such as burrata with beetroot and hazelnut pesto, and duck ragù with rainbow chard to start. This is followed by grilled mackerel with a kohlrabi, fennel and apple salad, or crispy mushroom risotto with cured egg yolk.
Lunch is bookable every day between midday and 2.30pm, and dinner is 5.30-6.15pm, Monday to Saturday.
Ambassadors Clubhouse, Mayfair
If you’re in the West End, try the UK’s first Michelin-starred Punjabi restaurant. Not only does it offer its set menu daily at lunchtime, but it also offers a ‘pre-theatre’ service from 5-6pm. It’s £36 for two courses plus appetisers of papads, chutney and raita.
The restaurant’s signature starter is the patiala prawn pakode – a crispy spiced prawn fritter – served with tamatar chutney. Both vegetarians and vegans are also catered for, with crispy puris filled with potato and sprout, and a comforting Amritsari channa (chickpea curry) paired with a cauliflower-potato flatbread.
Book a table at Ambassadors Clubhouse
Cheap Michelin-star restaurants, Devon
The Elephant, Torquay
The Elephant offers a two-course lunch menu for £37.50, with two choices per course. Its seasonal menu changes frequently, and it has held its Michelin star for 19 years. That might explain why chef Simon Hulstone has opted for confidently minimalist menu entries for his dishes, such as ‘Mackerel’, ‘Duck liver’ and ‘Pork belly’ – leaving the finer details as a surprise.
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Cheap Michelin-star restaurants, Buckinghamshire
Hand and Flowers, Marlow
Nowhere else in the UK have we spotted a two-Michelin-star restaurant offering a set menu for less than £40. This high-quality pub, run by chef Tom Kerridge, prides itself on working with independent butchers, fishmongers and vegetable suppliers.
It offers outstanding value with its set menu, available midweek (Monday to Thursday 6-6.45pm), and lunchtime (Monday to Friday), costing £39.50 for two courses.
The latest sample menu features an artichoke and Morteau sausage tart to begin, a main of curry-roasted plaice with borlotti beans, mussels and crispy potatoes, and a dessert of honey and lavender ice cream with creamy dark chocolate.
Book a table at the Hand and Flowers
Cheap Michelin-star restaurants, Cumbria
Dog and Gun Inn, Skelton
Chef Ben Queen-Fryer’s village pub has, in Michelin’s own words, some of the best triple-cooked chips around. Saturday two-course set menus at £35 are its cheapest offering – you’ll get two courses.
A recent menu featured crab cakes with brown crab mayonnaise, smoked bacon Caesar salad and venison pastilla to start, a choice of confit duck leg, venison steak or herb-roasted cod for the main course, and three dessert options including crème brûlée, roasted peaches and honey parfait.
Book a table at Dog and Gun Inn
Cheap Michelin-star restaurants, Yorkshire
The Star Inn at Harome
If you can grab a pub table at The Star Inn – described by Michelin as ‘hugely characterful and endearing’ – you’ll have plenty of opportunities to sample its top-quality fare, not only for decent prices, but also at your own pace. The most obvious option is the market menu, which costs £28 for two courses or £33 for three. It’s available Monday to Saturday for lunch and dinner, offering satisfying yet creative dishes like cured mackerel to start, a spiced duck leg with peanut, scallion and coriander salad for main course, and to finish, creamy rice pudding with a cherry compôte and cinnamon doughnut.
You can also order lighter bites from the pub menu, including Lindisfarne oysters with relish (£4.50 each), lamb rib with coleslaw, or a chicken shawarma flatbread (both £7).
Cheap Michelin-star restaurants, Bristol
Wilsons, Bristol
The minimalist, farm-to-table menu at Wilsons is heavily influenced by what the restaurant harvests from its market garden, where it grows vegetables, herbs and flowers to be used in the restaurant. It also preserves its own produce, so you might encounter more fermented and pickled elements in its dishes in autumn and winter.
Its three-course lunch menu is £38 a head, available Wednesday to Friday. Recent dishes on the menu have included Cornish mackerel with horseradish, smoked cream, shiso, cucumber and grilled Florence onion dressing, and macerated plums with savoury ice cream.
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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