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.
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. There are two ways to dine here, a four-course omakase menu or a ten-course kaiseki menu at £64 a head, which 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 £55, 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
Elodie
There are two restaurants at the Birch Selsdon hotel in Croydon, both of which are overseen by Lee Westcott. Vervain is the all-day spot and then there’s the fine-dining Elodie, which serves a seasonal tasting menu based on a farm-to-fork ethos. Lee and the kitchen team make use of produce grown in the on-site kitchen garden and foraged ingredients from across the estate in the seven-course menu, which can include the likes of sweet English pea croustade with smoked cod’s roe, wild garlic capers & marigold; the IPA sourdough with Marmite butter; Cornish crab with heritage tomato, green almond & chamomile; and English strawberry with cultured yoghurt & cherry blossom. With warm, friendly service and a great value price tag of £69, Elodie is relaxed fine dining done right.
126 Addington Rd, South Croydon CR2 8YA
birchcommunity.com
12:51
Great British Menu champ and Yes Chef star James Cochran is the man behind Islington’s 12:51. The menu is modern British, with a particular focus on produce from Kent (James was raised in Whitstable) as well as West Indian and Scottish influences in reflection of his heritage. His £45 five-course tasting menu (which is available in both meat and veggie versions) features plates like Cornish crab, sourdough, sunflower satay & charcoal oil; roast rump of lamb with wild garlic kimchi mayo, smoked yoghurt & roast courgette; and elderflower mousse with summer fruits & caramelised white chocolate.
107 Upper Street, London, N1 1QN
1251.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 £48 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
Anglo
Located on St Cross Street, a quiet road in Farringdon, Anglo looks fairly unassuming but lets the food do the talking. The team makes a great effort to be sustainable by using the best foraged and responsibly farmed British produce, serving natural wines, and reducing its plastic usage. With dishes like leek with seaweed, ramson, black garlic & herbs; squash with Cornish wood ants, mint, sorrel & rapeseed; and British buckwheat with berries, beetroot & raw honey, there’s definitely a nod to the Scandi style of cooking with the menu but it’s a true reflection of the seasons in the UK. You can get the main menu is £85 for ten courses and there’s a shorter six-course version available at lunchtimes for £55.
30 St Cross Street, London, EC1N 8UH
anglorestaurant.com
Pidgin
If you like to constantly try new things, then Pidgin is the restaurant for you. The tiny Hackney restaurant has been serving a modern European tasting menu that changes every single week since it opened in 2015, and it never repeats a dish – that means in the eight years it’s been opened, well over a thousand different dishes have come out of the kitchen (you can see many of them numbered and documented on Instagram). How’s that for variety? Said variety will set you back £72 for nine courses, and there’s a cocktail special on offer each week alongside the regular drinks list and wine pairing.
52 Wilton Way, London E8 1BG
pidginlondon.com