What is the future of fine dining in the UK?

As the UK population continues to battle with the cost-of-living crisis, many diners are changing their eating habits.

The pool of people who can either afford or wish to spend four hours and £400 on a tasting menu at a high-end, fine dining restaurant, with all the bells and whistles, is getting smaller.

Many restaurants are being forced to close their doors due to rising costs and dropping footfall, while others are having to find solutions to keep business ticking, whether that be offering accessible à la carte menu options or introducing ‘minimum spend’ stipulations.

Just looking through the list of restaurants which achieved top honours at this year’s Michelin Guide UK ceremony shows the wide range of what this country has to offer.

Gwendal Poullennec, international director of the Michelin Guides, told The Staff Canteen: “More and more I think fine dining comes together with authenticity, which makes the world culinary scene even more interesting today.

“We see more diversity, young chefs opening their own projects, realising their own dreams with their restaurants, making it in their image.”

To get a sense of how the UK’s fine dining scene is changing, we spoke with a host of top chefs from across the country, who operate varying different types of restaurants.

Ashley Palmer-Watts, The Devonshire

“I'm 47 now, I've seen quite a big journey of what's popular and what's not. I think there's always a market for every type of dining.

“There's been a massive shift in consumer behaviour and how customers view value for money.

“Recently I ate at Ynyshir and that's not a small amount of money, but it was absolutely incredible, probably one of my most memorable and impactful meals of the last five to 10 years.

“It's all about the experience. It's not just about the food. It's not just about the really fancy tablecloths and expensive fit outs and things like that.

“I think The Devonshire is very of the moment. But that will change in five years. The economics of how people spend their money will change. The great thing is that people still see going out to great places to eat and drink as a real enjoyment and a treat.

“I don't think that's going to be satisfied by AI or computers or virtual reality anytime soon. So that's really encouraging. But it is tough out there.”

Marty Lau, The Araki

“I think the future of fine dining lies within people appreciating quality and consistency.

“At The Araki, we're not here to be a corporate machine. We’re a small, family-run business. We're not just chasing money. It's more to do with the pride.

“I think what people are looking for in terms of fine dining nowadays is obviously the value for money and it’s how much of an experience, how much more worth is it? Is it just a meal or is it beyond that?

“So it's all of these extra parts where you have to create the ambience, you have to create an experience, an unforgettable type of meal where it's just mind blowing. There's no room for error.

“People don't want to be numbers, they want to be cared for, they want to be remembered. So that's what we offer here. We try to keep it at as personal a level as possible.

“Whoever still wants to come, I want to be there to feed them."

Chris Galvin, Galvin Restaurants

“It’s evolution. I always liken it to a game of Jenga, where there's things you can slide out, things that actually don't affect service, don't affect quality and I would say everybody's had to do that. Everybody's had to slide blocks out, that represent costs.

“But I think there's nothing like the ballet of a fine dining experience. Two, three or four hours, when it’s exercised well, it is value for money, because it is a memory for life. I can remember all the best meals I’ve ever had. Some were simple. But often they were in these fine dining restaurants."

• Read more: ‘You’ve got to really love it’ - Galvins celebrate 20 years of restaurant group

“We mustn't forget service. Someone once told me, most of us will never experience a Downton Abbey lifestyle, where you're served hand and foot. You’ve got a butler, a servant, and that’s very much like a restaurant, where someone waits on your every whim - takes your coat, sits you down, serves you bread, serves you a drink, serves you exquisite food. It’s a lovely feeling, done well. Our job is to make it affordable, value for money. That's the most important thing.

“But that's the beauty of London, or Britain - it's a melting pot of different styles. You can have The Ritz at two star, or you can have a pub, The Hand & Flowers, two star. Both amazing experiences, but very different.

“Classics like Chanel, Gucci, Bugatti, Ferrari, they will never go away. They will always be there. You mustn't stop evolving or mustn't stop giving customers what they want.

“Maybe there will be less (fine dining restaurants). Unfortunately, the cull which is happening now and since the pandemic, there's getting fewer, but there's alternatives.

“I think there always will be some form of fine dining. I don't ever see that going away, but it'll just be different, like everything.”

Victor Garvey, SO|LA & Victor Garvey at The Midland Grand

“We need to be careful when we talk about ‘fine dining’ because if people view it solely as a meal, then obviously they're not getting the full intent.

“When you go to a restaurant like SO|LA or Victor Garvey at the Midland Grand, or Gordon Ramsay, it's your theatre tickets, it's your meal, it's your after dinner drinks, it's all rolled into one. It's meant to be an experience.

“I think the fine dining restaurants that are thriving are the ones that offer the all-inclusive package, where people leave and go, holy shit, was that a fever dream? What just happened? Was that theatre, was it a meal? Why do I feel like I’ve read an encyclopaedia?

“It should mystify people when they come out of the dining experience like ours. If they're not, then we're quite simply not doing our job correctly.

“The climate at the moment is certainly very difficult, but people vote with their feet and to think that there's not enough people to sustain fine dining restaurants in London, is I think a bit naive.

“At SO|LA we're turning people away at the door at the moment. We’re very lucky.

"The one word that I always try and think about is ‘considered’. A lot of people use the word service and love and happiness and fun. All we really want as human beings, our most basic need is to be considered.

“So if every aspect of the experience, let's say the food, the wine, the service, is considering the diner, there should be a queue at the door. And if there’s not, then one of those things is faltering.”

Stephen Tozer, Le Bab & Kebab queen

“Fine dining is an area that completely fascinates me. On one level, fine dining is always just going to track the economy. Everyone knows the economy is not in a good way right now. So there's an extent to which I don't think we need to see fine dining restaurant closures at this moment as the death of fine dining. It's probably the death of disposable income, temporarily.

“I think fine dining will always have a place and is probably actually more robust, more protected than a lot of other kinds of dining, just as a thing to do on special occasions. It's an epic experience. To me, one of the incredible things about fine dining, even if you just forget the quality of the food, it is the social experience of pacing a meal out so much more slowly.

“We sit down together and we have on a tasting menu, maybe it's seven, maybe it's 10 little moments of excitement to look forward to, to talk about. The meal is so punctuated and it's so good for a convivial, social experience, irrespective of the food.

“That’s really missing in British culture, because we're not a culture that savours mealtimes. We’re a culture, especially in London, of rushing around. Most restaurants, ourselves included, will give you an hour-and-a-half on the table. But that's not like a big old catch up with your friends.

“You sit down for two, maybe three courses, you gobble down your starter, you gobble down your main course. You're a bit full, you're a bit tired, the conversation’s over because you feel lethargic and full and then you bugger off. Fine dining slows that down and gives you all these amazing chances to talk and chill and discuss."

• Read more: Stephen Tozer’s ten-year journey bringing ‘fine dining kebabs’ to London

“For me, if I had one critique of the fine dining world, I think so many restaurants nowadays are failing to recognise the fact that it's a social experience first and foremost.

“The food is this very critical, very important feature of that social experience. But people are really there to enjoy something with someone else. The thing they’re enjoying most is the company. Even if it's like a business dinner or something, they're there because they want to have some kind of conversation. If it's a date, it's the conversation. If it's mates, it's the conversation.

“The food is what we're all obsessed by, but we're more obsessed by it than anyone else.

“Some fine dining restaurants just feel like you're going to church. I'm personally not that into that, because it just doesn't have to be that serious.

“We are a little obsessed by the food and wine being amazing, but most other people don't care as much as we do. They're engaging with it on a slightly different level and they’re there fundamentally to enjoy something with the person they’re with.”

Jack Croft and Will Murray - Fallow, Roe & Fowl

Jack: “It’s a very hard question, the future of fine dining. I do really love and appreciate fine dining. You see places like Moor Hall just winning three stars and you really want to go there. But I can only think about that on a personal level and I’ll probably do that two to three times a year.

“I think as an industry, we need to make sure those restaurants do stay around. Without those sorts of restaurants, we wouldn’t exist. There’s no dancing around it - without our training from Dinner by Heston, Fallow, Roe and Fowl wouldn’t be what they are. We attribute it to our training.

“Although we’re not applying it in the same atmosphere, the techniques and attention to detail and our work ethic all comes from those fine dining kitchens, without a shadow of a doubt. You’re not going to get that working in your local pub and then opening a place like this (Roe). You have to put your training in.

“If those places were to die out, it’s going to have a knock-on effect to the rest of the industry. It is integral they are a part of it.

“It’s a bit scary to think they wouldn’t exist, but I think there has to be a way. Maybe they have to adjust slightly. Maybe prices are capped, maybe menus are a bit smaller, I don’t know. Maybe there might be tasting menus with slightly more humble ingredients, grown in the UK.”

Will: “Somewhere like Core by Clare Smyth, for me that’s a once in a lifetime thing. First of all because it’s expensive, but also it’s getting the time to do it.

“It’s more about what’s the future of the British economy than what’s the future of fine dining. The richer people are still going out eating at fine dining restaurants, but it’s everyone else who isn’t.

“But also the expectation hasn’t changed for that level of quality of service, but the price point they expect to pay for it has slightly.

"It’s a challenge.”

What do you think is the future of fine dining? Let us know your thoughts in the comments section below.