Active discussions

Meet the Other Phone. A phone that grows with your child.

Meet the Other Phone.
A phone that grows with your child.

Buy now

Please or to access all these features

Talk
AIBU?

Share your dilemmas and get honest opinions from other Mumsnetters.

Original poster

to be unsure about going for ££ Michelin Star lunch ££

389 replies

DismalDaughter · 03/07/2019 14:54

I’ll try and keep it brief! I appreciate it’s a First World Problem....

Very close friend has big birthday coming up. We have been friends forever and our DHs are friends too. They have no DCs, no pets, no mortgage - just 2 big fat salaries / bonuses / shares and lots of exotic holidays!

On the other hand DH and I have a substantial mortgage, DCs and pets! DH is our breadwinner. He works very long hours to provide for us. I was a SAHM but now work p/t and term time. I earn peanuts. My (our!) choice - DH earns enough and I wanted to be home for DCs.

We don’t have much of a social life as no family nearby, but we have maintained this friendship (and others) buy socialising mainly at our house over the years. No issues - we provide food and booze and they bring along pudding and more booze, and sometimes sweets for kids. All good!

DCs are now at high school so it feels as though ever so slowly we are starting to get our lives back a bit. We’ll leave kids home alone for a couple of hours from time to time to go shopping or for lunch, and once to the cinema. Kids are happy to be left and well behaved - so no problem with this.

So... DF has suggested that for her upcoming 50th she’d like the 4 of us to go for a posh lunch. DH would like to go and says we can afford it as a “once in a lifetime experience”. But I’ve looked at the website and I reckon for the 2 of us it’d be about £700 😵 Dates are released 3 months in advance so we need to make a decision. I get that for them it’s about a day’s salary (between them) but for me that’s over a month’s pay! And I’m really struggling to get my head round that. Even though DH has a career, like I say we have a mortgage, kids, pets etc.

I don’t know, I wouldn’t hesitate to go on holiday or pay for DCs to go on school trips. But this just seems a bit OTT. Out of my comfort zone I suppose. Or am I missing the point? Will it be worth every penny? I’d appreciate views! And as I said at the start, I do appreciate it’s a “nice” dilemma to have.

Are any of you experienced Michelin star lunchers?! Would I regret not going?!

OP posts:
PurpleFlower1983 · 03/07/2019 15:25

If it’s The Fat Duck I would probably do it as a once in a lifetime thing and it will be an ‘experience’ rather than just a posh meal. Anywhere else and I would be suggesting something more affordable!

Ginseng1 · 03/07/2019 15:26

That's ridiculous (we'd be comfortable like our good food!) but there's no way I'd spend that. You'd get a weekend away for that! They must be very out of touch with reality to suggest it.

LaurieFairyCake · 03/07/2019 15:26

I spunk all sorts of money on shite I don't need but this is a bridge too far for me

GeminiRising · 03/07/2019 15:28

Dinner by Heston Blumethal does a set lunch for £45 if you're going somewhere in London and has 2 Michelin stars.

Obviously alcohol will need to be added on top but it would be nowhere near £350 a head!

I'm planning to go with my best friend for her 40th birthday, it's a once in a lifetime experience but we don't want to go bankrupt for it!

TreeSunset · 03/07/2019 15:28

I was expecting you to say £100 each and thought that was extravagant!

Whatafustercluck · 03/07/2019 15:29

Just had a quick nosey at the Fat Duck prices out of curiosity. If it's a 3 Michelin star meal experience your friend is after, there are plenty that don't come close to Heston's prices! Including the current no. 1 and 2 UK restaurants Nathan Outlaw and L'enclume.

pencilpot99 · 03/07/2019 15:29

I once had lunch in PIC in Valence, France a couple of years ago (recently featured in Professional MasterChef as one of the restaurants the finalists worked in and 3 Michelin stars). The food was amazing and it was a great experience, but I don't think the cost was more than about 500 euros for the two of us (which is a lot of money, I know, but it was a special occasion for us). £700 sounds a lot and I wouldn't pay that, especially if it was to celebrate someone else's birthday!

Holidaycountdown · 03/07/2019 15:30

That does sound extremely expensive for lunch, most we’ve spent was at Le Manoir, came to about £400 for the two of us including a nice bottle of wine, pre drinks, post drinks, everything else you can think of to spend money on at lunch....where are you going?!

mynameiscalypso · 03/07/2019 15:30

I would say that it is probably worth it for the Fat Duck, it's a proper experience and far more than just a meal. Presuming you like food/drink though! We did it the day before we got married and it was amazing. We've been to a few other Michelin star places (including 3 stars) and am not convinced that many of them would be worth £700.

MrsTerryPratchett · 03/07/2019 15:31

Not worth it and I love my food!

The money goes up exponentially and the food quality is linear. It might be better, it's not that much better.

yearinyearout · 03/07/2019 15:33

No way in the world I would spend that on a lunch for two, YANBU at all. Absolute piss take.

BridgetJonesDaiquiri · 03/07/2019 15:33

If it is The Fat Duck, I’d agree with your DH that it’s a once in a lifetime experience. It’s really theatre dining - sensory, story, theatre, art, not just a plate of food. You’ll literally be taken on a journey where things are not as they look or seem.

I’ve been fortunate to have visited many other Michelin star restaurants over the years but Fat Duck was something else in terms of an experience. Nothing like anything else, including Hestons other restaurants.

KatherineJaneway · 03/07/2019 15:34

I've been to many Michelin restaurants. Feel free to PM me and I'll let you know true costs if I have been there.

Whatthefoxgoingon · 03/07/2019 15:34

Plenty of 3 star restaurants in London that will cost more like £3-400 for lunch.

I didn’t even like the fat duck!

SinkGirl · 03/07/2019 15:35

That’s a crazy amount for lunch - are you sure?

We went for private dining at Le Gavroche recently for dinner - six courses, £200 per head. We then had wine obviously which was pricey but you don’t have to drink wine.

It was honestly amazing. I’m so glad we went. In our case we weren’t paying so it was even better (!) but if we’d paid it I wouldn’t have thought it was excessively expensive.

Lots of very good fine dining places in London have excellent value lunch set menus / tasting menus available for significantly less money.

Ofitck · 03/07/2019 15:36

I’ve been to Arzak, which has three stars and I paid €150. I thought that was about right, any more would have been a waste. for that money you could fly to Spain and go to arzak!

IvanaPee · 03/07/2019 15:36

@BridgetJonesDaiquiri what’s the food like?! What do you do??

RosaWaiting · 03/07/2019 15:37

Re sensory theatre art

I’m just thinking how many ballets and other shows I could see for £700.....

dinnerpartyhell · 03/07/2019 15:37

Are you looking at the six course menu with accompanying wine?
It is entirely possible it will be that much.

The fat duck is a fantastic experience if that is where you are going, but you will feel very sick at the end. The Manoir would be my first choice.

Op, you are very old friends. Be honest with her, you would love to celebrate her 50th with her, perhaps at your house on another day as the cost of that particular restaurant means you will be eating baked beans for the next one hundred years.

Make light of the cost, a joke or two and tell you will personally cook her dinner to rival said restaurant starting with pork scratchings. Your really should not feel in any way pressurised to accept. I would imagine she is intending to pick up the bill, given the expense, so it is most likely she will reply with something along those lines. In that case we need an update to see if it was WORTH several hundred pounds! Grin

TheHandsOfNeilBuchanan · 03/07/2019 15:38

I've eaten in a fair amount of Michelin starred restaurants and you'd have to really try hard to spend £700 on lunch for two in almost all of them unless you like very expensive wine. Have you overestimated? Add PPs have said lots of Michelin star restaurants in London do a set lunch menu or a tasting menu, at least that way you'd know in advance how much it will cost.

Kyogre · 03/07/2019 15:40

£700 for lunch is crazy. I’ve been for expensive meals (although not £700 🤔). and I’ve yet to go to one that I think was worth the money 😅. It’s just not my thing.

I wouldn’t hesitate to decline the invitation.

listsandbudgets · 03/07/2019 15:40

Wow that's flabbergasting how many stars has this place got.

We've got a Michelin Star resturant a few minutes from us. We *could" afford to go and probably will one day but we've never got round to it yet.. I've just looked. Their lunch menu is £70 pp and if you want drinks pairing its another £60 on top of that so £130 a person. Still expensive but makes £700 look utterly crazy money...

Would be blunt with them and say sadly its outside your budget and then suggest something else - maybe another day if she's set on that particular place for her birthday.

Dont eat a meal where you worry about the cost everytime you chew, it really takes the pleasure out of it

Breathlessness · 03/07/2019 15:40

The Fat Duck is full of wankfrippery. You can have lunch at plenty of places with Michelin Stars for much less money.

AtillatheHun · 03/07/2019 15:41

for that, I'd do lunchtime tasting menu at Roganic and then the theatre. And all the drinks in between. I suspect (it's a long time since I've been) that the only clientele mad enough to pay fat duck prices now are private equity bros out patting each other on the back and tugging themselves at how much they can spend and that's not a fun lunch, theatre of smells or not

Mightywease · 03/07/2019 15:42

We went to the Fat Duck a few years ago and I think it was heading for £500 due the two of us then but it was outstounding.

Not just the food but the whole experience. I left feeling like I'd been on holiday,like I'd taken some time out of my everyday existence and visited somewhere amazing.

If you can afford it then I'd say definitely go, however don't if you feel in any way that you'd rather spend the money on something else or feel it's too expensive. Amazing as it was there is no point in bankrupting yourself for the experience.