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From London to Abergavenny and Belfast to Glasgow, you can dine in top-rated restaurants on a budget.
While Michelin-starred restaurants might feel beyond reach price-wise, research by consumer group Which? shows that you can enjoy this top-quality food for as little as £20 per person.
You’ll find these cheaper Michelin menus nationwide, from Torquay in Devon, to High Newton in Cumbria.
Some are in major cities like Glasgow, Belfast, and there are even a couple in central London.
Read on to find out where you can find a bargain meal at a Michelin-starred restaurant.
The Coach, Marlow - two courses for £20 or three for £25
You’re unlikely to find a set lunch menu from a British Michelin-starred restaurant cheaper than The Coach’s.
It’s in this comfortable but polished pub environment - complete with TV screens playing the match of the day - that chef Brad Cacela has designed a traditional but playful menu of two courses for £20, or three for £25.
The latest edition features haggis bonbon with whisky sauce, Turkey Schnitzel, and a warm mince pie with clotted cream.
Add sides, like hispi cabbage or chips with bearnaise sauce, for an extra charge.
The Star Inn, York - £28 for two courses or £33 for three
Along the river Ouse, a meal at the Star Inn is another unpretentious affair.
The restaurant’s Market Menu offers the chance to sample its Michelin-starred fare at the reasonable price of £28 for two courses, or £33 if you fancy dessert.
Both come with a glass of fizz.
The latest sample menu lists three choices for each course with winter veg soup, prawn cocktail or pheasant risotto to start, and a choice of chicken schnitzel, fishcake or truffle macaroni cheese for mains.
Starling, Esher - £30 for three courses
You might recognise head chef Nick Beardshaw from the BBC’s Great British Menu.
But that doesn’t mean dining at Starling will bust your budget.
In fact, head there for lunch on Wednesday or Thursday, and you’ll enjoy three courses for just £30.
The Ninth, Fitzrovia - £38 for two or £43 for three courses
At The Ninth in Fitzrovia, London, the set menu is now available for both lunch and dinner.
It includes dishes like seabream carpaccio, burrata with beetroot and hazelnut pesto, and venison ragù to start, followed by roast chicken ballotine, grilled mackerel with confit rainbow chard and pumpkin risotto.
The menu is £38 for two courses or £43 for three.
Jamavar, Mayfair - £51 for three courses or £57 for four
In London's prestigious Mayfair, Indian restaurant Jamavar’s lunch menu is £51 for three courses, or £57 for four.
It’s available every day, including weekends - and cheap, good eats in London are hard to come by.
The Michelin Guide recommends the Malai stone bass tikka, which handily features on the set menu. Other house specialities include the Sindhi methi gosht kid (goat, spinach, cinnamon, and fresh fenugreek) and old Delhi butter chicken.
The Elephant, Torquay - £36 for two courses
The Elephant offers a two-course lunch menu for less than £36, with two choices per course.
You don’t have to book a day off to enjoy the frequently changing seasonal menu either, as it’s available on Saturdays (as well as Wednesday to Friday).
The Elephant has held its Michelin star for 19 years, so chef Simon Hulstone is doing something right.
The Masons Arms, Exmoor - £39.50 set menu
At The Masons Arms, the a la carte menu costs up to £70 for three courses.
However, if you visit between Wednesday and Friday between 12pm and 2pm and you can enjoy chef Mark Dodson’s Michelin-star-worthy cooking for just £39.50 for the set menu.
The Barn at Moor Hall, Aughton -£55 for three courses
Sourcing much of the ingredients from its surrounding five acres of land, at The Barn, the sample three-course set lunch costs £55 (Thursday-Saturday) and the dinner menu costs £75 Wednesday-Friday.
You can save more money by dining on the vegetarian menu.
It's £48 for a three-course lunch (available Thursday to Saturday) or £56 for dinner (Wednesday to Friday).
John’s House, Loughborough - £49 for three courses
This Michelin-starred restaurant - the only one in Leicestershire - is a family affair.
It sits inside a 16th-century farmhouse that was chef John Duffin’s childhood home and uses local ingredients and organic produce, much coming from the surrounding farmland run by his brother.
Evening tasting menus here are between £100 and £120, but if you come at lunchtime (12pm-1.30pm), Wednesday to Saturday, you can sample the three-course set menu for less than half the price (£49).
Heft, High Newton, Cumbria - £49 for four courses or £45 for two
To the rear of its more casual pub entrance, Heft serves a four-course set daytime menu and a 10-course set menu at dinner.
It’s the lunch, served from Thursday to Saturday, that won’t bust the budget, at £49.
The Michelin Guide says the food is ‘inspired by the surroundings’, with chef Kevin Tickle ‘using his imagination and his local foraging knowledge’ to produce original dishes.
Apart from Sundays (where an even cheaper two-course £45 menu is available), you’ll need to arrive promptly for midday as food is served 40 minutes later to all diners.
Rogan & Co, Cartmel - £49 for three courses
Michelin-starred Rogan & Co. is part of the Simon Rogan restaurant group, which has various fine-dining establishments worldwide, including one, L’Enclume, in the same village of Cartmel.
Both restaurants use produce from a shared farm just a mile away; chefs get a say in what’s grown. But L’Enclume’s three-Michelin-star tasting menu is £250.
Meanwhile, Rogan & Co’s winter midweek set lunch menu is just £49 for three courses.
Le Champignon Sauvage, Cheltenham - £43 for two courses or £50 for three
At this longstanding Cheltenham bistro, which has been open for 35 years, you’ll find a two-course set lunch menu served from Wednesday to Saturday, and dinner menu served from Wednesday to Friday.
The French cuisine is £43 for two courses and £50 for three, with truffle arancini and braised beef with spiced split pea purée on the sample menu.
However, the Michelin Guide suggests that the desserts here are the real strength, and to watch out for the chocolate delice or cheesecake.
Fordwich Arms, Fordwich - £45 for three courses
This red-brick, ivy-clad pub with a wood-panelled 1930s bar and roaring log fire looks like a charming spot to enjoy a Michelin-starred £45 three-course (plus bread) set menu, available Wednesday to Friday (lunchtimes only on Fridays).
In summer, the wisteria-covered terrace overlooking the River Stour outside looks equally inviting.
The Michelin Guide says that the quality of the locally sourced ingredients is excellent, adding: ‘The cooking is modern, creative and sometimes playful, but this is never at the expense of flavour.’
Hambleton Hall, Oakham - £58 for two courses
Hambleton Hall has retained its single Michelin star for over three decades – one of the longest held in the UK.
The Michelin Guide says the cooking here is dependable; you’ll find classic dishes with ‘distinct flavours’ and ‘modern touches’ and bread from its artisan bakery.
To sample for less than £60, you’ll need to book lunch at this quintessentially English hotel restaurant between March and November, when its ‘lunch for even less’ offer is £58 for two courses.
The Walnut Tree, Llanddewi Skirrid - £42 for two courses
The Walnut Tree has come a long way since its appearance on Ramsay’s Kitchen Nightmares in 2004.
When chef Shaun Hill took to the stove four years later, he turned things around, landing it a Michelin star in 2010 and retaining it since.
According to the Michelin Guide, you can expect a ‘delicious’ but ‘no-frills’ approach.
The sample set menu, including braised shin of beef Bordelaise and skate with brown shrimp and dill sauce, reflects the unpretentiousness, priced at £42 for two courses.