It's bollocks, obscene really. Not impressed by the way the chef/proprietor tried to defend the absurd price by stating that it includes VAT, as if every other restaurant didn't, not to mention the insinuation that he pays staff more than other decent restaurants when he doesn't.
I've friends who were taken in by the Kerridge TV persona and booked a table there, said it was one of the most disappointing and expensive meals they've ever had, folk not unused to eating out well.
I tend to find that the enjoyment you experience a restaurant is often inversely proportionate to expectation, thus the more ambitious, starry and 'exclusive' the restaurant, the greater its capacity to disappoint. Conversely, some of the most memorable meals out that I have had have been where I have had no particular expectations - an impromptu drop in at The Sportsman at Seasalter for lunch ('you can bring the dogs in, they'll be fine') when I had a run down to Canterbury to get my guitar adjusted by Alisdair Atkin - when I phoned to tell him I had stopped there for lunch, he asked me to tell the landlord that his guitar was ready. It was only when I looked it up afterwards that I learned it had a Michelin star, a hefty reputation and 6 a month waiting list; an evening at The Frog in its original pop-up incarnation in the barrel yard behind the old Truman brewery in Shoreditch, and many more, both here and away. Sept (and several others) in Girona, Locanda dell'Arco in Cissone, and a funny little canteen in the back streets of Alba where there was no menu, you shared your table with strangers, and the food was amazing.
