The UK's 'secret' cheap restaurants featuring the stars of the future
If you fancy eating some top-notch food for a very reasonable price, read on and discover a well-kept secret.
Do you baulk when reading restaurant reviews where meals cost £200 for two with wine – yet like the idea of gourmet grub? Well, remember that these renowned chefs all had to start somewhere…
Training restaurants at catering colleges and cooking academies can be fantastic places to sample excellent food at much lower prices. Of course, just like restaurants, even these vary in price and style, with some cooking up homemade comfort food for around £3 while others serve cordon bleu main courses, but still for under £20.
Note that many training restaurants have limited opening hours and are sometimes only open during term time. Bookings are often required, so check the website and call or email before planning a visit.
Tante Marie
Try gourmet dishes at prices that are more gastropub than fine dining at The Restaurant at the Tante Marie Culinary Academy in Woking, Surrey. It’s the UK’s oldest independent culinary training establishment and The Restaurant, which launched in April 2015, is staffed by graduates of the school’s Cordon Bleu Diploma.
Open every day for lunch and dinner plus weekend brunches and Sunday lunch, The Restaurant won the OpenTable Diners Choice Award within a month of opening.
Sample menu and prices: tart of the day £7; Tante Marie breakfast £8.95; roast chicken breast with fried gnocchi, wild mushrooms and broad beans £15.95; salt caramel tartlet with cocoa nibs and crème fraiche £6.50.
Perth College
Twice the winner of ‘Best College Restaurant’ in Scotland and Northern Ireland, Perth College’s Gallery training restaurant is open for lunch on Thursdays and Fridays during term time. It also runs themed dinners on Tuesday evenings such as Spanish, Cuban, Russian and Thai nights.
Sample menu and prices: tenderloin of pork fillet with gruyère cheese and sunblush tomato with grain mustard mash £4.50; toad in the hole with onion gravy £3.50; bottle of wine £9; cocktails £3.50. Three-course dinners are £15, gourmet dinner £35.
Oxford Brookes
The award-winning restaurant at the Oxford School of Hospitality Management works with Oxford Gastronomica, a study centre supported by influential food writers, chefs and broadcasters. During term time, the restaurant is open Monday to Friday for lunch and also hosts supper clubs on selected dates. If you’re inspired by your meal, they offer lessons at their Cookery and Wine School.
Sample menu and prices: wild mushroom risotto cakes, macerated onions and truffle oil; pork sirloin with butter bean, apple and chorizo; signature dessert of caramelised banana and peanut butter ice cream. Two courses £14.50, three courses £16.50; wines from £18.95.
Manchester College’s tasty trio
With three onsite training restaurants, there’s plenty of choice at Manchester College and the prices are very low. Bistro East at Openshaw Campus is open Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday lunchtimes and Thursday evening and a three-course £6.95 lunch menu may include mushrooms en croute, chicken tournedos and Eccles cake with spiced mascarpone cream.
Restaurant 141 at Fielden Campus serves up themed menus of experimental cuisine on selected Thursday nights using "modern alchemy techniques". Menus start at £15.95.
Book ahead for Thursday evenings at the 3rd Floor Restaurant at Wythenshawe Campus where the focus is on seasonal, bistro-style food. Sample dishes include home-cured salmon with sourdough and pickles for £1.75, homemade steak and kidney pudding braised in Newcastle Brown ale with chips and mushy peas for £2.95 and crème brûlée with shortbread £1.95.
Pillars training restaurant
Students at the London School of Hospitality and Tourism work at this award-winning restaurant which is open on Tuesdays, Wednesday, Thursdays and Fridays for lunch and afternoon tea, and for dinner Wednesday to Friday. They also run themed dinner events, updated on the website.
Sample menu and prices: afternoon tea from £10; three-course lunch £12.45; two-course dinner £16.50, three courses £18.50 with dishes such as caramelised leek tarte tatin ‘rarebit’ £3.25, deconstructed coq au vin £5.95, yellow polenta cake with grilled vegetables £5.95 and spiced poached pears with ginger cake, spiced ice cream and caramel sauce £3.25.
Fifteen
This one isn't so secret. Part-training restaurant, part-apprenticeship scheme for unemployed young people, Jamie Oliver’s Fifteen opened in 2002 in London as a non-profit restaurant and cocktail bar.
Head chef Robbin Holmgren and others supervise 18 apprentices, who do the butchery and fishmongery onsite before running the kitchen for a week at the end of the course. There are partner restaurants in Amsterdam, and in Cornwall, led by head chef Andy Appleton.
Customers can also order antipasti dishes at the bar. The restaurants are open daily for lunch and dinner and profits go to The Jamie Oliver Food Foundation.
Sample menu and prices in London: Exmouth mussels, leek, cider, lovage £9; Wye Valley duck sausage, Casteluccio lentils, fennel slaw £15; Agnolotti, fresh peas, Perroche goat's cheese, mint vinaigrette £16; Fifteen carrot cake trifle £6; Sunday roasts from £17.
Cornwall: Cornish Harvest lunch £24; three-course lunch £32; seaside taglierini with fennel and pangrattato £16; John Dory with peperonata and salmoriglio £28; dinner tasting menu from £65.
Merits Restaurant
Merits is the training restaurant of Richmond-upon-Thames College in Twickenham and is open Wednesday, Thursday and Friday lunchtimes during term time.
It also runs a Wednesday evening bistro and monthly themed evenings, often raising funds for local charities or themed around events. There is always at least one meat, fish and vegetarian option on set menus.
Sample menu and prices: three-course lunch menu £9.50; Wednesday bistro three course £15 which offers the likes of squid stuffed with black olive and slow cooked tomato, slow-cooked pressed belly of pork, pistachio and olive oil cake with poached apricots, purée and sorbet.
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