In the past year, London restaurant prices have increased by 11.1% – a record of recent times – according to research for the new edition of ‘Harden’s London Restaurants 2012’, to be published on 1 September.
The cost of an average dinner for two in the capital now exceeds £90 for the first time. The average cost of a standard dinner for one (including three courses, or equivalent, wine, coffee and service) at the 1800+ restaurants listed in the guide is £45.01.
Co-editor Peter Harden comments:
“In the 21 years we have followed the restaurant scene, we’ve never before seen annual inflation anywhere near 10%. This year, however, has seen a ‘perfect storm’ – food prices trending sharply upward worldwide, plus the one-off effect of the January VAT increase.
If there is any comfort at all to be found for restaurant-goers, it is that you have to see this gigantic rise in the context of a modest increase the previous year. Stripping out VAT effects, underlying prices have – over the past two years taken together – increased by ‘only’ 4.5% per annum.”
London sees fewer – but better – openings
The number of openings Harden’s records over the past 12 months (107) is the lowest since 2000 (102). This is a major reverse from the position last year, when the 140 openings recorded over the equivalent period were the third highest ever.
“Never mind the ‘width’, though, feel the ‘quality’”, says co-editor Richard Harden:
“It is sometimes said that hard times make good art, and it seems to be the same with restaurants. The way quality is – at last! – flourishing in the London restaurant scene really is impressive.
For far too long, we’ve seen the capital’s restaurant scene seemingly dominated by big media-friendly names – ‘Conran’ in the late-’90s, then ‘Ramsay’ in the noughties – but now we seem to be entering a much more mature era where what counts is quality, sometimes twinned with innovation, not media profile.
Each year Peter and I select was seem to us personally to be the ten most significant openings of the previous 12 months. This year, our selection (set out below) is – arguably for the first time ever – composed almost exclusively of restaurants of note not for scale or fashionable appeal, but simply by virtue of the quality of their cooking. To this extent, we may perhaps say that the London restaurant scene has finally ‘grown up’”.
On the level of closings, the current economic difficulties continue to have remarkably little effect: this year‘s figure (72) is actually in the lower half of the range – 64 to 87 – that’s prevailed every year since 2005.
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Richard and Peter Harden’s top ten notable openings of the year:
Brawn E2
Les Deux Salons WC2
Dinner SW1
Galoupet SW3
Hedone W4
Medlar SW3
Pollen Street Social W1
Riding House Cafe W1
Roganic W1
Yashin W8
NB This list is not directly survey-based. No survey results will be published until 1 September.
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Notes for editors
1. Hardens’s London Restaurants 2012 – the 21st edition of the guide – is published on 1 September, at which time the London survey results (see 2) will be published. The guide is available from all good bookshops, or from www.hardens.com
2. Every year, Harden’s – in association with Rémy Martin Fine Champagne Cognac – conducts a survey of the views of restaurant-goers across the UK. This year, over 8,000 people took part, contributing some 85,000 reviews in total.
3. The UK results will be published at the same time as Harden’s UK Restaurants, in November.
Richard and Peter Harden are available for interview.
For further information, contact Helen Teschauer on 020 7839 4763
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