King's Joy ranks the world's cheapest three-Michelin-star joint

Photo: King's Joy

Sure, Michelin-starred nosh is great. But you know what’s better? Not paying a shit ton of money for it. And, contrary to popular belief, some restaurants with Michelin stars (even some with the highest three-star rating) are actually sort of, kind of affordable. 

But which Michelin-starred restaurants around the world are the cheapest? Well, a study by price comparison site Money.co.uk has crunched the numbers to find out. By comparing restaurants’ cheapest set-menu prices, the report has come up with a ranking of the world’s cheapest three-Michelin-star establishments. 

Now, obviously, this stuff is relative. These places still aren’t exactly McDonald’s-meal-deal-level prices. Michelin-starred restaurants are famous for costing a rather ridiculous amount, with cheques pushing into the several hundreds or thousands per head, so the below restaurants are only really cheap compared to the high status of their competitors. 

Top of Money.co.uk’s list is Beijing's vegetarian heavyweight King's Joy, where the cheapest set menu starts at just 699RMB (£83, $110) per person. Then comes Lung King Heen in Hong Kong, which starts at 990HK$ (£96, $126), followed by Nakashima in Hiroshima, where the cheapest menu costs 17,320¥ (£108, $142). 

All of which might not seem that cheap – until you see Money.co.uk’s list of the world’s most expensive three-star Michelin restaurants. The cheapest set menu price at Paris’s Guy Savoy apparently costs a whopping 530€ (£441, $583), while Kitcho Arashiyama in Kyoto works out at a minimum of 66,000 ¥ (£411, $543) per head. Eye-watering stuff, eh?

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