Restaurant recommendations with no minimum spend in London

[Dandelion24]

Hey,

Can anyone recommend a fine dining/modern restaurant in London to have dinner that doesn't require a minimum spend please?

Trying to book a group dinner for 12 and most places I am finding are insisting on set menus with a £65 minimum spend. I just want the flexibility of ordering off the main menu without such a high minimum or worst case a £30/£40 minimum spend

I think you’ll struggle to get fine dining with that budget. A table of 12 takes a lot longer to serve than 3 tables of four, and a minimum spend or set menu means they don’t lose money and the set menu means people get all their food together.

What sort of cuisine do you like? A Turkish/Middle Eastern restaurant will offer lots of dishes at various prices, usually with no minimum spend (and you can also bring your own drinks in many places), same with Indian restaurants.

Also, where are you looking in London? North/South/Central etc.

Unlikely to find that in fine dining - they need you to have a short menu so that they can get the food out of the kitchen in a timely fashion (for you and the other customers). They also need to cover the costs - a table of 12 will usually stay a lot longer than a table of 4 but can spend very little (having dishes to share, tap water, no coffee or dessert) Many restaurants cap table sizes at 6 because of this.

Fine dining and £30/£40 minimum spend doesn’t really compute.

Have a look at Brasserie Zedel or Balthazar. They both used to be good with groups, and pretty affordable for central London. It’s not fine dining but it’s nice enough.

Is there really any difference between the ordering habits of people in smaller or larger groups? That 12 person table sharing dishes and not ordering drinks or desert - they could be 3 tables of 4 with the same orders. The table for 12 is probably not sharing out one dish across all 12 people in most cases.

In large groups there are often some people there who don’t really value the experience but just turned up becasue it’s a birthday or whatever. If they aren’t really interested in the restaurant they just order 1 main and 1 drink which is a lot less than a normal table would order on a night out specifically for dinner.

yeah, I'm afraid unfortunately your prices are unrealistic for fine dining. Because even if you have 12 people and you all only want 1 course and a glass of wine, in which case, sure, you're going to maybe get the £35-£40 limit... nicely, the restaurant doesn't want you. A table of 2 that does that is okay because in most cases, they'll leave quickly or worst case, it's just one small table. But a table of 12, by definition, is going to be lurking for ages, taking up space, and if they're only buying one main course and a glass of wine, it's just not worth it.

You could try somewhere like a posh tapas style place - Dehesa in Soho or Enoteca da Luca for example. Especially if you're flexible on timings as they might be okay with this. So the quality of the food is really good and it's a fine dining experience in many ways, without the white tablecloths and formalised "fine dining" expectations.

For a Cheezious Menu experience in London, try Flat Iron for affordable steak, Dishoom for Indian comfort food, or Franco Manca for sourdough pizza. No minimum spend, just delicious options. These spots offer casual dining like the value and variety you'd find in the best menus around the globe!

Dishoom mentioned above is on You Tube Gary Eats