Eating wonderful food is one of life’s great pleasures. That’s what the MICHELIN Star represents: it directs you to restaurants that serve truly memorable dishes. And while this experience can often prove expensive, there are thankfully a great number of Starred restaurants who go out of their way to offer more affordable ways to enjoy their fabulous cooking. Lunch is often the key to good value dining, but sometimes dinner just feels like more of an event, a proper night out. So, here's our selection of the cheapest dinner menus available at MICHELIN-Star restaurants.
Bridge Arms, Bridge
This smart pub boasts gorgeous fireplaces, a large garden and, crucially, excellent cooking. Superb produce is the bedrock of it all, with dishes executed well to make the most of the ingredients. Sauces are a particular highlight, proving to be balanced, packed with flavour and showing a good degree of depth. There’s a great buzz to both the charming bar and more formal restaurant area.Three-Course À La Carte, Weds-Sat Dinner & Lunch – £42 (average price)
Campagne, Kilkenny
There is something delightfully unpretentious and understated about Campagne. The assured classical cooking delivers bold, complementary flavours with real skill, ensuring technical flourishes are never there for the sake of it. Alongside the appealingly priced early evening/Sunday lunch menu, is a wine list with something to suit every purse. It’s no surprise that they have a loyal following of local diners.Three Courses, Weds-Sat Early Evening – €50
Three Courses, Sunday Lunch – €50
Chestnut, Ballydehob
In the coastal West Cork village of Ballydehob, lies this wonderful restaurant where a shorter version of their tasting menu offers one of the cheapest MICHELIN-Star dinners in Ireland. It’s a very likeable place, with charming service and well-matched wine flights enhancing the overall experience. The cooking itself is full of flavour, with nicely balanced combinations and quality ingredients cooked with supreme skill.Four Courses, Weds-Sat Dinner – €75
Dog and Gun Inn, Skelton
There is a strong correlation between restaurants that offer great value for money and those with a pleasingly unpretentious approach to cooking. It’s certainly true of this rustic pub near Penrith that is one of Cumbria’s many MICHELIN-Starred eateries. The county provides superb produce that is prepared with skill and confidence in wholly satisfying dishes that dispense with fuss in favour of flavour.Three Courses, Wes-Sat Dinner – £69
Fordwich Arms, Fordwich
Situated just a short drive from The Bridge Arms, there is a similar style of cooking on offer at this pub in what is officially England’s smallest town. Seasonal produce guides the menu, where dishes are executed with a modern approach and deliver plenty of flavour. The riverside location is a big selling point too, as is the attractive terrace that always proves popular in the summer months.Three Courses, Weds-Thurs Dinner – £45
Three Courses, Weds-Fri Lunch – £45
Forge, Middleton Tyas
It’s not often that you find a restaurant both as well-priced and as idyllically located as Forge. Situated within the labyrinthine Middleton Lodge Estate, it serves bright, vibrant dishes using plenty of produce from the Estate itself. There’s no lunch service, but that doesn’t mean great value can’t be found here. The shorter of the two tasting menus is very reasonably priced – and comes in vegan and gluten-free versions as an added bonus.Six-Course Tasting Menu, Thurs-Sun Dinner – £70
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Hinds Head, Bray
The Hinds Head may be less attention-grabbing than Heston Blumenthal’s flagship The Fat Duck nearby, but it’s actually an apt reflection of how Heston began his career – preparing classical dishes with scientific precision. Triple-cooked chips were the cornerstone of that and today they play a starring role in the pub’s well-priced ‘Chippy Tea’ menu. It’s telling that the main course is listed as ‘chips and fish’, rather than the other way round.Three-Course ‘Chippy Tea’, Mon-Thurs Early Evening & Fri Dinner – £55
Three-Course ‘Chippy Tea’, Mon-Fri Lunch – £55
Le Champignon Sauvage, Cheltenham
Over three decades have passed since Le Champignon Sauvage opened, and for much of that time it’s been something of an institution in the town of Cheltenham. Within easy reach of those visiting the Cotswolds, the restaurant offers classically based cooking with a French influence but centred around British produce. Dishes on the relatively affordable fixed-price menu could include the likes of roasted pork with lapsang souchong, black pudding cream and bacon jam.Three Courses, Weds-Fri Dinner – £50
Three Courses, Weds-Sat Lunch – £50
Nut Tree Inn, Murcott
Looking every inch the chocolate-box country inn, this thatched-roofed pub comes with cooking that's a cut above the norm. Alongside their tasting menu of more complex dishes, the highly skilled kitchen team also provide a 'Pub Classics' menu which comes at a more wallet-friendly price and offers the likes of onglet steak or beer-battered cod and chips. It's the perfect way to enjoy straightforward, unpretentious food cooked by chefs with real quality.Three-Course 'Pub Classics' À La Carte, Tues-Thurs Dinner – £63 (average price)
Outlaw’s Fish Kitchen, Port Isaac
One of two neighbouring MICHELIN-Starred restaurants from seafood master Nathan Outlaw, this is the cheaper of the two options, featuring slightly less luxury produce than Outlaw’s New Road – but the same commitment to quality ingredients and pure, pared-back cooking. Come for dinner midweek for the best value, where your three-course menu also includes bread and snacks.Three Courses, Mon-Fri Dinner – £65
Pea Porridge, Bury St Edmunds
There’s a homely, slightly bohemian vibe to Pea Porridge, with its wooden furnishings and interesting artwork hung on exposed brick walls. The restaurant sits inside two cottages that date back to 1820 and formerly served as a bakery, with the original cast iron bread oven still in situ. The ‘Grizzly’ charcoal oven gets plenty of use across dishes that blend warming spices with a herby freshness.Three-Course À La Carte, Weds-Sat Dinner – £57.50 (average price)
Four Courses, Thurs-Sat Lunch – £50
Pipe and Glass, South Dalton
This East Yorkshire pub’s passionate owners have nurtured it into a destination dining inn, where you’ll be greeted by a lovely terrace full of colourful planters. Inside, it’s cosy and characterful, with a large bar and a dining room in the country house style with garden views. The refined pub dishes come packed with flavour and are served by a great team, ensuring you leave with a smile on your face.Three-Course À La Carte, Tues-Sat Dinner – £66 (average price)
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Star Inn at Harome, Harome
The best cooking is so often dependent on using the freshest, most local produce available. They know this at Andrew Pern’s flagship operation, which is why they aim to offer a market menu alongside their extensive à la carte and tasting menus. It’s brilliant value too, letting you try the flavoursome, ingredient-led cooking at a lower price point. The place itself is hugely characterful and endearing too.Three-Course Market Menu, Monday Dinner – £30
Starling, Esher
It’s perhaps no surprise that one of the cheapest MICHELIN Stars around is also one that feels every inch a neighbourhood restaurant. There’s no unwanted bells and whistles here, just top-notch produce cooked with skill and respect, in satisfyingly straightforward dishes that you really want to eat. Making it even more appealing is the exceptional value available on the lunch menu – and the dinner à la carte won't break the bank either.Three-Course À La Carte, Weds-Sun Dinner - £63.25 (average price)
Three Courses, Weds-Fri Lunch – £30
The Barn, Aughton
Part of the historic Moor Hall estate, The Barn is positioned as a more relaxed, accessible restaurant than the Three-MICHELIN-Star flagship situated in the main house. In that it succeeds, while offering delightful cooking of its own. Dishes showcase bold, punchy flavours and top-notch ingredients, while the hand-crafted cocktails are enhanced with their own fermented produce. Attentive, professional service is the icing on a rather delicious cake.Three Courses, Weds-Fri Dinner – £56
Three Courses, Thurs-Sat Lunch – £48
The Coach, Marlow
With its charming staff, tasty cooking and reasonable prices, this relaxed younger sibling to The Hand and Flowers is a pub that appeals to everyone. Whether you’re tucking into a rotisserie poussin or a crème caramel, dishes are well-executed and full of flavour. Alongside the well-priced à la carte, there’s also a phenomenally good value set lunch menu at just £20 for 2 courses or £25 for 3 courses. Three-Course À La Carte, Weds-Mon Dinner – £55.50
Three Courses, Mon & Weds-Fri Lunch – £25
The Masons Arms, Knowstone
There’s a reason this thatched pub has held its Star for the best part of two decades. The menu is founded on quality local produce, which is used in more elaborate dishes than you might expect from the pubby surroundings. It’s a 13th-century property that was built by the masons who constructed the nearby church and exudes plenty of rural charm. Have a drink in the cosy beamed bar or lounge, before being seated beneath a Grecian ceiling mural in the dining room.Three-Course À La Carte, Tues-Sat Dinner – £61 (average price)
Three Courses, Tues-Sat Lunch – £39.50
The Sportsman, Seasalter
A long-standing inn on the north Kent coastline, with a reputation for its fine cooking, The Sportsman is offering a midweek menu that presents wonderful value for money. It’s a great way to sample the considerable talents of the kitchen team, who present dishes that are free from unnecessary adornments but full of satisfying flavours. The relaxed, welcoming atmosphere and friendly service make the place all the more inviting.Three Courses, Thurs-Fri Lunch & Dinner – £55
The White Swan, Fence
The team at this delightful Lancashire inn have pulled off the trick of upgrading its food to MICHELIN-Star level whilst retaining the feel of a proper pub. Seasonal and local are the guiding principles of the cooking, which pushes its produce to the fore across its sensibly priced menus. For the best value, go for the fixed-price option that’s available for dinner midweek, or early evening on Fridays and Saturdays.
Three Courses, Tues-Thurs Dinner & Fri-Sat Early Evening – £65
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Hero Image: A dessert from The Star Inn at Harome, one of the cheapest MICHELIN-Star restaurants in the UK & Ireland. © John Carey
