The Shoreditch restaurant is offering its tasting menu for £185 on Tuesdays and Wednesdays, at a discount of £100, for the next two months.
In a message on Instagram, chef-patron Isaac McHale says the decision was made so that the restaurant didn’t ‘price people out of coming to see us’.
“Over the past few years, the cost of running a restaurant has risen sharply — something we feel every day, and something I know our guests feel too,” he says.
“Dining out used to be something I’d save up for and do every few months. It felt expensive, but still within reach. I think it should still feel that way.
“I don’t want to price people out of coming to see us — but I also have to run a sustainable business.”
The Clove Club’s full tasting dinner menu will be priced at the ‘pre-pandemic’ level of £185 on Tuesdays and Wednesdays, and will cost £285 on Mondays, Thursdays, Fridays and Saturdays.
The restaurant also serves a short dinner tasting menu for £225 on Mondays and Thursdays in its Front Room, a lunch tasting menu for £185 on Wednesday to Saturday across the restaurant, and a three-course lunch menu for £95 on Wednesday to Saturday.
Affordable fine dining
The move comes as a number of fine dining restaurants seek to make their restaurants more affordable in the current climate.
This month, Michelin-starred Bruton restaurant Osip has introduce a Table d’Hôte menu priced at £75 per person. .
Available every evening alongside Osip’s 10-course £165 set menu, the three course Table D’Hôte menu includes snacks and house-made bread, two sides to share with the mains, finishing with petit fours.
“In the spirit of the French auberge, we wanted to create a more accessible, rustic-inspired daily changing menu, that the local community can come back to again and again to enjoy,” says chef-patron Merlin Labron-Johnson.
“We also wanted to give those further afield, who may not have been able to visit Osip previously, the opportunity to visit us.”