I’ll begin with the theater. The fish at Sushi Kanesaka is truly exceptional, and twenty courses arrive at a nine-seat hinoki counter in almost complete silence. However, you can purchase scarcity as well as skill for £420 per person, and it seems like the hush is doing part of the work. The Ritz’s seven-course Epicurean Journey, complete with tableside ceremony, chandeliers, and a prestigious wine pairing that costs £750 on its own, is gloriously retro. It’s a lovely evening. The £235 meal isn’t that great. Even though its founder moved back to Japan years ago, The Araki, which was once the first Japanese restaurant in Europe to have three Michelin stars, continues to trade on that legacy. He was left with something intangible.
I’ve spent the last few months working my way through ten of the priciest restaurants in London, from the opulent dining room of The Ritz to a £420 omakase counter at 45 Park Lane. Before wine, the total cost exceeded £2,900. It was more akin to conducting an audit than dining out. And the unsettling conclusion of the audit was that only three of the ten were worth the price.
| Rank | Restaurant | Location | Tasting Menu Price | Cuisine / Style | Distinction |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Sushi Kanesaka | 45 Park Lane, Mayfair | £420 | Edomae sushi omakase | Nine-seat hinoki counter, London’s priciest menu |
| 2 | Ikoyi | 180 Strand, Temple | £380 | West African-influenced tasting menu | Two Michelin stars |
| 3 | Sushi Amamoto | Albemarle Street, Mayfair | £380 | Omakase sushi | Twenty-two courses; top pairing exceeds £800 |
| 4 | The Araki | New Burlington Street, Mayfair | £310 | Traditional edomae sushi | First Japanese restaurant in Europe with three Michelin stars |
| 5 | The Ledbury | Notting Hill | £295 | Modern British fine dining | Three Michelin stars, Brett Graham |
| 6 | Core by Clare Smyth | Kensington Park Road, Notting Hill | £275 | British produce-led tasting menu | Three Michelin stars; famed potato course |
| 7 | Restaurant Gordon Ramsay | Royal Hospital Road, Chelsea | £260 | Classic French technique | Three stars held for over two decades |
| 8 | UMU | Bruton Place, Mayfair | £260 | Kyoto-style kaiseki | Seasonal multi-course Japanese tradition |
| 9 | Row on 5 | Savile Row, Mayfair | £250 | Fifteen-course multi-room experience | Two Michelin stars, Spencer Metzger |
| 10 | The Ritz Restaurant | 150 Piccadilly | £235 | Classic British grandeur | Seven-course Epicurean Journey; £750 wine pairing |
| 11 | A. Wong | Wilton Road, Pimlico | £235 | Regional Chinese tasting menu | Two Michelin stars, Taste of China menu |
The Kyoto-style kaiseki at UMU is sophisticated but so subdued that it sometimes becomes unmemorable. Row on 5 takes you through three rooms over the course of fifteen courses, which is enjoyable at first but a little taxing by course eleven. Sushi Amamoto is exquisite and accurate, but at £380 (going over £800 with the best pairing), it is in a category where these qualities are merely prerequisites for entry. The three-star restaurant Gordon Ramsay has been serving flawless French cuisine since the late 1990s, but thrilling and flawless are no longer the same.
The three who earned their bills now. The meal that keeps coming to mind is Core by Clare Smyth, which costs £275. Smyth gives you the impression that you are tasting British produce for the first time, most notably a simple potato. It sounds ridiculous until you’ve had the potato course, but diners discuss it online with something akin to emotion. Unusually for a three-star establishment, the dining room is cozy rather than intimidating.
The second was the Ledbury in Notting Hill. Iberian nduja with green strawberry is one of the elaborate dishes on Brett Graham’s £295 menu, but everything on the plate tastes concentrated and almost silent. After one dinner, I realized why chefs talk about this place the way musicians talk about specific records. Here, nothing is being done for the camera.
The third meal caught me off guard: A. Wong in Pimlico, which was the least expensive of the ten at £235. The only pricey tasting menu in London where I felt like I had truly learned something is Andrew Wong’s Taste of China, which features a variety of regional Chinese cuisine, from Imperial Beijing to Sichuan street food. Although that type of value is peculiar, it is genuine.
Ikoyi deserves special recognition for coming dangerously close with their West African-inspired cuisine at £380. The food at Jeremy Chan’s is unlike anything else in the city, but not every dish is worth the price, which demands complete surrender.
The entire experiment showed that rather than food, London’s luxury dining boom is increasingly promoting atmosphere, scarcity, and narrative. Small counters, few seats, wine lists with a minimum price of £100—these are business models just as much as culinary philosophies. It’s difficult to ignore the fact that the three eateries that were worth their price were the ones that showed the least interest in spectacle. Simply put, they were cooking incredibly well and letting the plate speak for itself. It’s unclear if the rest of the market will ever adopt that concept again. As of right now, the reservation books indicate that it’s not necessary.
