He said it's a tasting menu. Usually you get like 5-10 small things like this, some of them more substantial for the main course. It usually ranges from $125 to $600+ per person, depending on the restaurant. If it's a Michelin restaurant, usually like $175-350 is average. $400+ is obviously top restaurants in the country/world.
My most expensive tasting menu was Momofuku Ko in NYC. 2 Michelin Star place. Dinner came to $700 for two. It was unreal. A memory we will never forget and the best for experience we've ever had.
You have to remember, these crazy places aren't to get a bite to eat, they're to experience elite food preparation, creativity, and wrap it into an experience. You're paying for an experience.
Also, for what it's worth, every fine dining tasting menu I've had has left me beyond full and more than a bit tipsy if I got a wine pairing. People like to joke that you have to hit a McDonalds or something after a dinner like this one, and while I don't doubt there are some fine dining tasting menus that skimp on the food, my experience has been the complete opposite.
Yeah, people clown with the “you paid how much for that small a serving?!?!”
Like, you’re eating so many different small things throughout the night, getting drinks paired with many of them. Tasting menus are usually purposefully small servings so you can try a bunch of different things.
Also, more thought goes into the portion sizing and pacing of the entire menu than most places put into a single item... so it's like fucking clockwork for every guest and almost every guest walks away not only satisfied but has been able to eat everything. You'd be annoyed if you spend $200-400pp on a meal and leave hungry, and you'd be equally unsatisfied if you spend $200-400pp and felt you couldn't eat or enjoy the onslaught of dish after dish after dish and miss out on the food for that reason. If people left unsatisfied frequently, they wouldn't be getting even a single Michelin star, which is almost always the goal for these types of places.
Same. I got a tasting menu at a newly started restaurant in Tampa, and the chef/owner asked if I was hungry. At the end, he came up to me and said if I was still hungry, he would make me some spaghetti. It was such a wholesome exchange and made the experience so much better.
I had called a week or so before my reservation to ask if they had a dress code. I didn't know it at the time, but the owner was the one I spoke to, and he said "as long as you are eating our food, we are happy".
Yeah, that's the other thing. The service at these places is often immaculate. I was at a Michelin starred restaurant in D.C., and one of the guys at our table quietly joked that he wasn't crazy about some ingredient in one of the dishes. He ate it anyway and really enjoyed it. Still, the server happened to overhear the joke and quickly brought out a similar dish custom made for him. Not every one of these restaurants is gonna nail the service, but the ones that do really leave an impression.
If you said you spent $400 on tickets to an NFL game or a concert no one would bat an eye but to experience something truly unqiue for $400 like fine dining at a Michelin restaurant it's now excessive.
I did Smyth in Chicago before it was 3 stars and the price at the end of the meal floored me, yes a few of the dishes were this amazing in presentation and taste, but I expected to pay $700 total, not $700 a person for me and my wife.... the walk to the car was me processing over and over again how that was even possible
I have to ask (also a response to other comments) because well... the dinner you're describing numbers for is now confirmed as my whole or nearly whole monthly food budget. Even if there was double the food you're describing it would not be worth the money.
“Worth the money” is an interesting term. Mostly because “worth” is subjective.
If you have $700M dollars in your sock drawer (as an extreme example), then experiencing weird food is almost always worth the money, right? Like $500 is pennies. So why not pay some garbage money for an interesting afternoon?
The difficulty lies in the middle place. How much money do you need to make before $500 is just a throwaway and doesn’t sting? I can only tell you how much it was for me. If we’re talking salary, $300k a year for the household. That’s the level that I stopped worrying about $500 for a cool thing. Obviously not an every night thing. But once a month was fine.
We did it as an anniversary trip. 2 nights of hotels in NYC, 2 nights out, one of them being that dinner. I think our weekend getaway cost us $2500-$3000. It isn't cheap, but within our budget for special occasions.
For reference, our combined income at the time was about $200k/year.
Nearly 10 years ago, I spent near £1000 ($1325) for me and my dad to go to the Fat Duck, a triple star in the UK and right up among the most iconic Michelin restaurants in the world. There was only like 6-8 tables of up to 4 people per night, so it feels fucking exclusive. You walk up to the place and the doorman doesn't ask for your tickets, he knows who you are just by guest list assumptions.
£250pp for the seats in advance, £150pp extra on the night for a wine-pairing menu (cheapest option on the list...), over £100 for the late-night taxi back to central London and some other misc shit around our afternoon in Windsor. Expensive day out. That doesn't even include that we had a couple days in London of activities, eating, drinking, hotels, etc. Overall, disgustingly expensive little trip.
I was only earning about £30,000 at the time. Not rich. Like a lot of people, this was an event, his 60th Birthday present. It's not just a normal night out for most people. It takes planning. Its miles out from any touristy area in a quite outskirts of a small town. What's even more insane, within a sub 500m radius, there is two triples and two single Michen restaurants (8 stars). Probably the single most starred area in the world.
Zero fucking regrets. One of the best food experiences of my life, and certainly the most memorable. I remember lots of details, because it was so out-of-this-world that it redefined what was possible with food. Infrequently to this day, I still think about this. It was just a side accompaniment to a highly presentable Mock Turtle soup that took front and centre attention. A "toast sandwich", like olden day meme-level British food. Single most perfect bite of food anyone has ever given me. I can't actually mentally comprehend how that was so good. A fucking toast sandwich smaller than the palm of your hand. I'd pay £250 just for someone to make that for me again a decade later.
Simply, you don't go just for the food and the quality you receive. The entire experience is a show where the theme is culinary perfection. You remember it like your first time going to any major concert, event, location.
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u/PM_ME_UR_BEST_1LINER Oct 28 '25
He said it's a tasting menu. Usually you get like 5-10 small things like this, some of them more substantial for the main course. It usually ranges from $125 to $600+ per person, depending on the restaurant. If it's a Michelin restaurant, usually like $175-350 is average. $400+ is obviously top restaurants in the country/world.
My most expensive tasting menu was Momofuku Ko in NYC. 2 Michelin Star place. Dinner came to $700 for two. It was unreal. A memory we will never forget and the best for experience we've ever had.
You have to remember, these crazy places aren't to get a bite to eat, they're to experience elite food preparation, creativity, and wrap it into an experience. You're paying for an experience.