There’s nothing that divides a crowd like a tasting menu
For some, the idea of being served a parade of tiny morsels over many hours and having to part with hundreds of pounds for the pleasure is hell. For others, it’s the ultimate way to dine. Tasting menus are a great way for chefs and restaurants to really show you what they’re about and they offer you the chance to try ingredients and flavour combinations you may have never seen before, let alone pluck off an a la carte menu. As all you indecisive people out there will appreciate, any decision-making responsibility is taken away from you – there is no bad order, there can be no food envy.
Now about the price. Yes, there are plenty of tasting menus that’ll give your credit card a serious workout but the format is not just the preserve of expensive or Michelin-starred restaurants. There are several joints in London that are delivering them at serious value and in a relaxed style, meaning you don’t have to wait for a special occasion to roll around or a tidy work bonus to come in to enjoy one. These are the best value-tasting menus in London, that all come in at £85 or under.
Paradise
Opened in 2019, with a distinctive design identity, Paradise quickly established itself as a place to get standout Sri Lankan food (and somewhere that never held back on the spice), earning a Michelin Bib Gourmand to boot. Dom recently got the four-and-a-half year itch and decided to close the restaurant in May to overhaul both the interiors and the menu. With the help of Dan Preston, who designed the restaurant the first time round, the space has been refined into something more sophisticated whilst still retaining that signature brutalist aesthetic. There are two six-course set menus at £59 a head on offer in the evenings – Land + Sea and Veg + Plant – which showcase a more progressive style of Sri Lankan food, mixing in the use of seasonal British produce and heritage techniques and flavours.
61 Rupert Street, London W1D 7PW
paradisesoho.com
Perilla
This Newington Green restaurant has been a fave since it opened in 2016, not least because its modern European tasting menu has always offered great value. Priced at £66, the five-course menu (which changes often) includes dishes like Perilla sourdough with brown butter; chard, mushroom, parsley & garlic crepe; Cumbrian pork chop with smoked bone marrow & roasted peppers; and lemon verbena custard with grilled strawberries. You can add on a wine pairing for £54 and service is built into all the prices so you don’t have to worry about totting that up at the end of your meal.
1-3 Green Lanes, Newington Green, London N16 9BS
perilladining.co.uk
Angelina
The menu at Angelina is a mash-up of Japanese and Italian food, which sounds more random than it is – don’t worry you won’t find sushi rice substituted for pasta. The thirteen-course kaiseki menu is £64 a head and presents an innovative yet cohesive take on both cuisines through dishes like katsuobushi & taleggio, chawanmushi with lobster & lime caviar, peach with burrata & anchovy, Sicilian prawns with smoked soy & orange, and koji potato raviolo & girolles.
56 Dalston Ln, London E8 3AH
angelina.london
Akoko
West African restaurant Akoko, founded by Aji Akokomi with Ado Adeyemi in the kitchen, takes influence from across West Africa but also makes the most of British ingredients to deliver food that showcases fire, umami and spice. The dinner tasting menu clocks in at £120 but if you don’t want to splash that much cash, go in for lunch instead when the shorter menu is also on offer. That one is £55 and still delivers a creative take on West African flavours with plates like blue mussels with heritage tomatoes, Herdwick lamb with jollof rice & shito XO, and BBQ mango with tamarind & sombi ice cream. There’s an optional soft pairing as well as wine one available too if you want to mix it up with the drinks.
21 Berners Street, London W1T 3LP
akoko.co.uk
F.K.A.B.A.M
After building a cult following as Black Axe Mangal, chef Lee Tiernan did a Prince and rebranded his Islington spot to Formerly Known As Black Axe Mangal, or F.K.A.B.A.M for short, following the restaurant’s hibernation during the pandemic. The name may be different but the spirit is still the same – a mash-up of bistro and Turkish mangal grill houses, heavy metal music, tattooed chefs and some banging dishes. He’s dispensed with the a la carte menu and opted for a £59, four-course menu that changes regularly, so you can expect dishes like the famous squid ink & cod’s roe flatbread, crispy pig cheek & watermelon salad, whole bream with morteau sausage & shoestring fires, and Biscoff diplomat & strawberry sponge. If you wanna go all out, there are always a few bolt-ons you can add to make it an even bigger feast.
156 Canonbury Road, London, N1 2UP
@fkablackaxemangal
Tendril
Rishm Sachdeva’s (mostly) vegan Tendril is where you’ll find some of the best plant-first cooking in town – Rishim is a dab hand with spices and makes clever use of texture to make the veggies really sing. The Discovery tasting menu is excellent value at just £49 and you get a very generous spread, including dishes like a silky cauliflower parfait, crispy potato terrine with fennel remoulade, smoked beetroot with spicy hoisin and sesame, crispy leek fritter with curry leaf aioli, chipotle mushroom with mushroom croquette and Rishim’s signature white bean spread, sweetcorn with charred wakame, and burnt Basque cheesecake.
5 Princes St, London W1B 2LQ
tendrilkitchen.co.uk
Nest
Nest made its name with an incredible £28 set menu when it first opened on Morning Lane in 2018. Fast-forward six years and the restaurant has relocated to a bigger site in Old Street but still has a great value tasting menu at £75 for eight courses (plus a wine pairing for £65). The menu runs on seasons, where one primary ingredient, like game, chicken and duck, is spotlighted, with the wine pairings also focusing on one region per season too.
374-378 Old Street, London, EC1V 9LT
nestfood.co.uk
Six By Nico
Scottish chef Nico Simeone has built quite the empire, with restaurants in Glasgow, Edinburgh, Aberdeen, Cardiff, Belfast, Manchester, Leeds and Liverpool, and two in the capital in Fitzrovia and Canary Wharf. The concept is simple – each restaurant serves a six-course menu, themed around a place or an idea (Orient Express, Chippie, New York and Thai Street Food have all been past themes) which changes every six weeks. The £50 price remains the same regardless of the theme, so it’s a really accessible way to try adventurous and experimental cooking.
33-41 Charlotte Street, London, W1T 1RR
6 Chancellor Passage, London E14 5EA
sixbynico.co.uk
Casa Fofo
After spending time as the head chef of Pidgin, Adolfo De Cecco moved just down the road to open his own spot Casa Fofo. He’s since won a Michelin star for his tasting menus which expertly blend Asian and Mediterranean flavours in some intriguing combinations. Across the eight courses, which’ll set you back £68, you can expect the likes of pollock, bergamot & chanterelles; potato, fermented tom yum & seaweed; umeboshi froyo; and strawberry grape, sake lees & white chocolate.
158 Sandringham Road, London, E8 2HS
casafofolondon.co.uk
Bamboo Mat
The Stratford branch of Nikkei restaurant Bamboo Mat offers a luxury 9-course tasting menu for just £55 (you can also add wine pairing for £25) where all the dishes are presented in a sharing style. Dishes include ceviche deluxe, hamachi tiradito, chicken anticucho, slow-cooked ox cheek in a teriyaki sauce, and a sushi platter piled with dragon maki, bluefin tuna nigiri, and A4 grade wagyu beef aburi nigiri.
21-24 Victory Parade, East Village, London E20 1FS
bamboo-mat.co.uk
