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10 most expensive restaurants in the world

2013-11-25_08-01-50Fine dining at Michelin-starred restaurants around the world can come at a price. But what you get for those high price tags (which can often be accompanied by sticker shock) are outstanding dining experiences that can take you to a castle in Switzerland or to an underwater culinary experience in the Maldives. From Japan to Europe to the Big Apple, luxe dining menus are often designed tasting courses paired with wines, which substantially adds to the consumer’s bottom line.

SOURCE:  10 most expensive restaurants in the world.

I guess there are people, especially the 1%er who don’t mind plunking down between $200 and $600 per person to eat at one of these top ten restaurants but 4TheRestOfUs that will usually be the day when hell freezes over. 🙂

I guess I could eat at one if it managed to sustain me for the rest of the month as that is about the total monthly food budget for my wife and I. We do eat out at least a hand full of times each month but that is often a Big Mac and Coke or on occasion a visit to the Olive Garden or similar place.

I am somewhere between the “eat to live” vs. “live to eat” categories. I enjoy good food but don’t relish and sometimes I just wish I didn’t have to eat so often.  While I celebrate that a few of us can afford to eat a $600 meal I think I will limit myself to a top of thirty bucks or so in almost all cases.

11 thoughts on “10 most expensive restaurants in the world”

  1. Personally, I prefer the two hundred dollar meal to the thirty dollar meal-and if that means I can only eat it once or twice a year, I do so. but then I am a gourmet snob and admit it when it comes to food-one who likes to eat it but cannot cook it. While I would not pay six hundred dollars, I will, for example, pay these prices (the game platter) plus dessert and wine, which ends up being a hundred dollars per. However, I dont eat at the Olive Garden, the Outback, Red Lobster or the like. Ever. Bad, I know.

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    1. Diversity, that is what makes this country great! We all like our own things….

      I would imagine I would prefer the $200 meal to but only if it had an 80% discount day. As I get older I guess my taste buds are dying off so food is even less important to me than it was before. I do like some things that many don’t, for instance oysters on the half shell, but only buy them with I am near a coast. But then again I don’t buy the $100 oyster if there is such a thing.

      I am certainly happy for you Barb that you have these $200 – $600 restaurants to go to. I suppose the tips are still 15% there? Let’s see serving a table for two would get me $100 – $150 tip. That probably means the waiters there are in the six-figure income category. Who would have guess waiting tables could be so lucrative. 🙂

      Thanks for the different view Barb…..

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    1. I’m like Barb a bit, in that I dislike most mass market franchises, including every one on her list. I’m not sure if the quality has slipped, or if my taste buds are just more refined after many decades of eating high quality, unprocessed food. We went to Soup Plantation a few weeks ago with friends that just love eating there, and other than the fresh salad ingredients, I found everything else to be of really poor quality. I’m including the soups, breads, pizza and desserts. Just not good at all. Very little flavor in anything.

      On the other hand, I love good quality food that some might call simple or ethnic. If it’s done well, and full of flavor, I’m in. Right now I’m crazy about Vietnamese and Indian food, both pretty inexpensive here.

      I also enjoy the occasional fine dining, but it really needs to be worth the price and something I can’t make on my own at home. We accidentally stumbled on Yountville’s toney The French Laundry last spring, and I admit I gave thought to trying to get a reservation until I really thought about the cost – $295 a pop per person, plus another $100 for tax and tip. Plus wine. Minimum of $790 for two people, more with wine, which doesn’t run cheap there. Their corkage fee alone was an unbelievable $150 a bottle.

      I guess at the end of the day if I’m shocked by the price, I’m probably not the niche they are going after!

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      1. I never would have guessed that you guys were gourmet diners. Your responses have triggered several ideas for some future posts.

        * Does a food have to be expensive in order to be “fresh”?
        * Is gourmet food healthy food?
        * Is the price of the meal in direct relationship to its quality?
        * Can inexpensive food be fresh and of quality?
        * Are the basic ingredients much different between expensive food and other food?

        Thanks for the thoughts. I will get back to you later with these formal questions. 🙂

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        1. Here’s another true confession – I’m also highly influenced by the energy in a restaurant, meaning I detest the energy in McDonalds, but really like the energy in, say Chipotle or Starbucks. Dislike Denny’s, IHOP, etc. for the same reason, but enjoy the ambiance in a lot of the interesting and inexpensive ethnic places we go, particularly if there are a large number of 20-somethings in the place. That’s usually a good sign!

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        2. Very interesting Tamara. I’m not sure just what “energy” means but it sounds on first thoughts like youthful vigor. Yeah Denny’s, IHOP, maybe even Olive Garden are primarily for the older crowds and Starbucks is primarily for the younger groups. Us old folks just refuse to pay $5 for a cup of coffee even if it is “better quality”. Maybe this is primarily you battling against the ever-present aging that we all face. It catches some of us sooner than others I guess 🙂

          You should blog some about this on your site. I would love to learn more about it from you….

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        3. I don’t think it’s about resisting aging, but rather about continuing to look for places that match my energy, still very high at 51 because of the personal choices I/we continue to make. I find the energy very low in the places I mentioned as not caring for, and very high in the places I mentioned as enjoying. I simply like being around high, positive energy and the people that produce it, regardless of age. 🙂

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  3. We rarely eat out anymore. Things taste better made at home. Instead of my taste buds dying, I am finding delight in small, more well spiced meals.
    We, occasionally, will go to a very small, very nice (pricey) restaurant. It would not be surprising to spend several hundred dollars for an exquisite meal. We don’t do it often, because those places are few and are between. We are not interested in a “trendy” place. If people are looking around to see who is there, we would not be there.
    We have, seriously, entertained the idea of going on a cooking trip to southern Italy.
    I know it seems like a major waste of money to some, but we are pretty simple in most of our adventures. We both love to cook and are really learning how to do it (at the ripe ages of 56 and 63).
    I can see the other side of the argument. I know the money is important to the rest of my community. The amount could do so many other things. I like to think I occasionally can add to the income of someone who sees food more as an art then a filling.

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  4. I do enjoy eating out but my comfort level is around $60 for both of us. I always was a “cheap date” since I was happy with fish ‘n chips or a good pizza. We had lunch at a local Italian spot yesterday. My manicotti was delicious and my husband enjoyed his spaghetti with meatballs.

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