The lunch menu is where it's at

Osip, the Michelin-star restaurant just outside Bruton, Somerset, as acclaimed as it is notorious, is now launching a £75-a-head table d’hôte menu. This will run alongside its classic 10-course tasting menu — £165 a head, sans wine — in a sign that fine dining has to adapt its offering to overcome what restaurant critic Giles Coren predicted might be its death in 2026.

Consider this a metonym for what is happening in dining more widely. A redistribution of high-low values is taking place across the restaurant scene as punters seek both fairer prices and simpler food — and smaller portions become the norm everywhere, courtesy of Ozempic.

Thus it is that a two-Michelin star restaurant such as Labombe by Trivet (Old Park Lane, W1) can serve a two-course lunch for £30 a head, whereas a one-person bill at Bar Vallette (Kingsland Road, E2), a hip east London joint that specialises in pintxos and where the food holds rather more starch than the tablecloths, can easily come up to £60 without drinks and before the service charge is applied.

Anyway, Osip’s table d’hôte menu is reportedly inspired by the spirit of the French auberge, with menus that change according to the local harvest — the restaurant is attached to a farm — and using offal left over from the meats used in the tasting menu. Here’s hoping you like tripe...