From a £28 sandwich to £37 for fish and chips – what are you really getting for your money?

Flummoxed by soaring food prices in restaurants and shops, Hannah Twiggs sinks her teeth into the most bonkers offenders to discover if they have any excuse to charge so much

Harrods’ £28 wagyu steak sandwich is the most expensive butty in Britain (Getty/Fabulous)

As someone who frequents restaurants more than the average Briton, I’ve found myself baffled over the last few years by how expensive things have become during the cost of living crisis.

We might have all tightened our belts over the past year, but as the latest edition of Harden’s London Restaurants finds 54 venues in the city where a couple could expect to receive a bill of £300 or more, it hasn’t stopped fine dining restaurants upping their prices to dizzying heights – or punters paying for it.

Perhaps we’re still riding the “you don’t know what you’ve got ’til it’s gone” wave out of the pandemic. Perhaps surging prices and an acceptance of our new, make every penny count reality have created more of an occasion out of dining out. When I’ve been lucky enough to eat at the highest ends of fine dining, I’ve asked the chef: “How is it still so busy?” The response is usually that the most expensive restaurants never really took the hit. Or rather, the cohort of people able to afford eye-watering bills didn’t.