He’s famous for giving hapless restaurant owners a roasting but Gordon Ramsay is under fire himself – over his £8 chips.
That’s how much a helping costs at his Savoy Grill, or 25p per chip.
Some customers have found the price hard to swallow with one angry reviewer writing: “We had to pay £16 for two portions of chips which is madness really.”
Another said: “The chips were very disappointing. Not hand-cut or triple cooked as you’d expect from this place but regular and frankly tasteless chips.”
Meals such as Beef Wellington cost upwards of £58 at the central London restaurant – and arrive without accompaniments.
The menu also features £165 caviar, £100 Lobster Thermador and £60 fillet steak, which you can wash down with bottles of wine priced at up to £4,000.
Ramsay, 54, isn’t the only celebrity chef making big profits from spuds. Heston Blumenthal’s London-based Dinner by Heston menu features triple-cooked chips for £9 a portion.
And at Tom Kerridge’s Fish and Chips restaurant in London’s Harrods, triple-cooked chips are £8.50. More reasonably, Marco Pierre White’s Steakhouse and Grill does chips for £3.50, while they are £3.95 at Rick Stein’s seafood restaurants.
Last year, Ramsay was slammed for charging £31 for fish and chips at his The River Restaurant, also at The Savoy.
The father of five – whose latest ITV offering Next Level Chef came in for a slating last week – owns 12 bars and restaurants in London alone and is believed to be worth around £157million.
Ramsay, Kerridge and Blumen-thal were contacted for comment.
I'll stick to local chippy
After heading through the pristine hotel lobby, a left turn takes me into the Savoy Grill, a dimly lit area of culinary excellence off London’s Strand.
A friendly server takes my coat before leading me to a table in the centre of the crowded restaurant.
The historic décor transports diners back to the 1920s, with elegant images from the restaurant in its heyday on the mirrored walls. When the £8 portion of chips arrives in a silver canister, I count 31 – meaning each chip costs 25p.
They were undeniably well presented but nothing to write home about.
Rather than the thick-cut fries served in many gastro-pubs, they were only slightly thicker than a McDonald’s fry.
They were piping hot and clearly freshly prepared.
But do I think they were worth 25p each? Probably not. Next time, I’ll stick to the local chippy.
