The Michelin Star has been the ultimate standard of exceptional dining service and food quality, given to (and occasionally taken from) restaurants around the world. The “stars” serve as the coveted medal of recommendations to diners everywhere. The guide gives one star for “a very good restaurant in its category,” two for “excellent cooking, worth a detour,” and the top three stars for “exceptional cuisine, worth a special journey.” Today, the Michelin guide covers 23 countries.
Starred-dishes or starred-meals refer to food served in Michelin-graded restaurants. Obviously, they can be very expensive (with the exception of some Hong Kong starred restaurants which averages along the fine dining price.) While some food connoisseurs argue that the best doesn’t have to be the most expensive, there’s also a grain of truth in the saying you get what you pay for. This is definitely true when it comes to Michelin-starred dishes. There’s something to be said for the rare experience of eating meals of the finest quality ingredients using best-kept traditional secrets or the latest kitchen innovations by the most renowned chefs and cooks.
So what are the most expensive Michelin-starred dishes in the world today and how much should one prepare to savor them? Here goes.
1. Warm lobster in a summer preparation
Guy Savoy (Paris, France)
Price: €330 as part of the Prestige Menu (excluding drinks)
A dinner at Guy Savoy by chef Guy Savoy is definitely not a cheap event. From expensive wines to ala cart and various set menus, one prepares megabucks for a mega-dining experience.
One of the most-talked about meals is the course consisting of tender, fresh lobsters with select shellfish in summer vegetables, heads of fresh bulbs mixed with herbs in bubbly, light vinaigrette. Refreshing to the tastebuds but be prepared to have a withered wallet after the meal.
2. Kobe and Matsusaka Steak
Dons de La Nature (Ginza, Tokyo)
Price: €260
Dons de la Nature is among the premium priced restaurants in the world, with origins in Tokyo but with dishes prepared by Chef Yoshiji Otsuka based on French cuisine, using seasonal ingredients. The restaurant welcomes regular patrons who make their bookings after each visit in advance, bespeaking the private atmosphere of the place.
It is best known for its marvelous charcoal steaks using beef only from virgin cattle, age 32 months, truly a “ gift of nature.” Dons de la Nature customized the preparation of its steaks based on size and cut. Its 2-month aged wagyu beef has been dubbed the ultimate in Kobe beef experience. With the best Kobe and Matsusaka beef in the world, it is no surprise that a sirloin steak in this place comes to about £100 per 200 grams.
3. Shirasu
Kadowaki (Minato-ku, Tokyo, Japan)
Price: €190
Kadowaki, a kaiseki restaurant offers Japanese-style cuisine with notable influences from Europe prepared by chef Toshiya Kadowaki. It is known for serving only the freshest fish to be found in Japan (notably the snapper) cooked to perfection with select spices.
Among dishes of this calibre is the Shirasu specialties from Suruga Bay State. Shirasu are dried baby anchovies and the ones served in Kadowaki are sourced only from the finest production centers in Japan. Shirasu is a notable dish in Japanese home-style cooking and its intricate preparation and delicate handling of ingredients require only the skilled and the experienced to serve it in perfection, which Kadowaki does without fail.
4. Dairy Cow Beef
De Librije (Zwolle, Netherlands)
Price: Part of a tasting menu that costs €182
De Librije or “The library” is located in a 16th century Dominican monastery building, and seemed destined to become a source of the finest dishes from Amsterdam’s seasonal bounty that even those with vows of simplicity cannot resist. This means one can enjoy here a bevy of fresh vegetables and meat, notably beef from Dutch cattle through a variety of menu, either set by the chef or customized.
It boasts of a sensational beef dish that comes from a 7-year-old dairy cow, which is cooked right at the table on a hot stone. Once done, it is served with potato crisps, mushrooms and buttery bone marrow.
5. Suckling Pig
Akelarre (San Sebastian, Spain)
Price: Part of the €155 tasting menu
Spanish cuisine remains the richest and most succulent among world cuisines, and nowhere is this demonstrated than in the hefty tables at Akellare restaurant in Spain. With juicy meats prepared by chef Pedro Subijana complemented by its very own vegetable and herb garden plus a view overlooking the sea, the restaurant is able to lure diners with tasting menus at €155 per person plus 10% VAT (drinks not included).
Among its dearly prepared and dearly priced dishes is the crunchy-tender-juicy-heady suckling pig served with tomato balls or “bolao” and pools of tomato jelly, with confit garlic to decorate the plate.
6. Pigeon with warm foie gras sorbet
Villa Crespi (Orta, Italy)
Price: Part of a €150 Surprise Menu
Villa Crespi restaurant is located in the Moorish-style luxury hotel of the same name and offers innovative Mediterranean cuisine served in romantic rooms overlooking Lake d’ Orta and some snow-capped mountains.
Chef Antonino Cannavacciuolo can be an angel or a devil, based on the effects one gets from his dish of pigeon with warm foie gras, foie gras sorbet, beetroot, cocoa beans with a protruding pigeon leg immersed in Banyuls sauce. The unique pigeon taste and flavor blends well with the silken foie gras.
7. Eel, From the Fire to the Roner
Piccolo Lago (Verbania, Italy)
Price: Part of the Futuro Menu at €85
Piccolo Lago is a family-owned Italian restaurant located along Lake Mergozzo in Verbania. Head chef Marco Sacco whips up exotic shore-inspired Italian dishes from family recipes handed by his father Bruna Saco. Expectedly, bounty from the sea takes center stage and the high price.
Piccolo Lago offers an eel dish that reflects the so-called evolution technique, where the fish is cooked in two ways: as a slow-cooked technique requiring six and a half hours at 65 degrees, and the convention grilling. The dish is served with herbs, garlic and reduction sauce of eel juices and citrus, with potatoes coated with pepper powder on the side.
8. Madagascar Chocolate
Mezzaluna (Bangrak, Thailand)
Price: $625
Located in The Dome at Lebua Hotels and Resorts in Silom Road, Mezzaluna is known among foodies for its record of serving one of the most expensive meals ever in any restaurant during the Epicurean Masters Of The World II Gala Dinner 2007 charity culinary extravaganza. The meal cost over $30,000 per person. Twin Chefs Thomas and Mathias Sühring continue to offer sky-high priced food gems that combines modern European cuisine with subtle Asian traditions.
The pricey Pacific Scallop, Novia Scotia Lobster and Iberico Pork Secreto are just some of its expensive menu attractions. The dessert alone, a selection Louis Roderer Cristal Brut 2000 champagne sherbet and Madagascar chocolate cake with Moët très fine Champagne No. 7 was served at $625.
9. Live Langoustines
Björn Frantzén (Stockholm, Sweden)
Price: Part of a 12-serving menu , full table price €2,178, per head about €200 or higher
Spectacular Scandinavian-inspired dishes are served at Björn Frantzén by chef Björn Frantzén and Daniel Lindeberg who conjures creative dishes with the freshest ingredients right from the restaurant’s very own gardens. So far, diners rave about the “freshness” that permeates throughout the fully laden table, from the bread dough to the fresh piece of lamb one can see before they made it through the burner.
Among the most memorable eating experiences here is in savoring fresh langoustines served on the table alive, and “seared’ with a knife 15 minutes before the diner devours it, which is a style that’s beyond a guarantee of freshness. Luxurious for the diner, not so for the langoustines.
10. Duck Consommé
Atelier Crenn (San Francisco, United States)
Price: Part of a tasting menu at $160
The restaurant is a modest-looking dining place in Cow Hollow down from Pacific Heights. Inside, a small dining room with bare tables but compensated by colorful lanterns bespoke the free-spirited setting.
In the kitchen, French-born chef Dominique Crenn is responsible behind the preparation of the restaurant’s famous Duck Consommé served with what they call corn silk, with chocolate, vanilla purée, rice and apple. One of a kind, wonderful and wallet-withering, but it is all worth the price.
Have you ever spent a fortune for a really extraordinary meal? Was it worth it?