Number of London restaurants charging £150+ a head nearly doubles

The number of restaurants in London charging £150 per head or more per person for a meal has risen 46% to 54 up from 37 last year, according to data from Harden’s London Restaurants 2024 guide.

There has also been a 59% jump in the number of London restaurants charging over £200 per head from 17 last year to 27 this year.

Alongside this, 191 restaurants in the capital are now charging more than £100 per head, up from 154 last year, an increase of 24%.

This trend can also be seen across the country with 50% more restaurants outside of London charging over £100 per head, 181 this year compared with 121 last year.

Furthermore, 56 non-London restaurants are charging over £150 per head up from 40 which is an increase of 40%, and 19 are charging over £200 per head up from 13 last year, an increase of 46%.

The data from Harden’s also shows the “tepid” rate of growth in the London restaurant scene with only 123 new openings in its 2024 guide.

This is the lowest level of openings since its 2012 edition, which combined with a relatively high rate of 77 closures equates to a current level of net openings more in line with the growth rate in the 1990s.

Modern British was the most popular cuisine choice for new openings with 30 restaurant debuts across London.

Italian was the next favourite with 18 new openings followed by Japanese with 10 new openings.

Peter Harden, the guide’s editor and co-founder, said: “It’s somewhat ironic that the venue diners most often nominate as London’s most overpriced restaurant is still the River Café. But at £150 per head, it’s definitely no longer an outlier in terms of pricing: perhaps it’s just that the middle class diners who take part in our survey can still just about afford to go there.

“It is tempting to conclude that the capital is becoming a playground for what used to be called “the jet set”. But historically one of the striking features of the London restaurant scene has been its lack of a top tier of splurgy, expensive destinations such as those that have long characterised top-end dining in Paris and Tokyo. Perhaps it is perverse to complain if London can now hold its own internationally.”