Since the 2008 financial crash, The Lipstick Index has been used to describe finding joy in the little luxuries – like lipstick – when the economy is flailing and we’re forced to cut back on larger treats. These days, as dining out becomes an increasingly foundational part of our lives, we’re discovering those moments of happiness in small edible luxuries as much as we are in new lip colours.
While on-again-off-again tariffs and wars threaten economic stability, London’s restaurants are injecting a little luxe into the mundane: caviar is spooned on the whipped peaks of soft serve, fine-dining fries, served in takeaway cartons, are paired with Martinis and posh hot dogs are coming off the pass in the city’s most opulent dining rooms. There’s the South London Michelin-starred restaurant that’s launched a summer sandwich residency, and the omnipresence of mini Martinis. London is having a high-low summer.
As the weather started heating up in May, there was a queue outside of Adam Byatt’s Michelin-starred Clapham restaurant Trinity. They weren’t there for one of his elegant signature dishes – chicken caesar and smoked pork Rueben sandwiches were the draw. Each year Byatt opens Trinity Outside, a summer residency in the square that’s, well, outside his fine diner. But this year, instead of small plates and oysters, Byatt and his team parked a pastel yellow food truck in front of the restaurant and started spinning out sarnies.
“You’re getting a little piece of a Michelin-star restaurant,” Byatt tells Broadsheet. “You’re getting all the theory, the thought process, the production value, the supply chain and the expertise that goes into making a Michelin-star restaurant happen – all condensed into this amazing sandwich. It’s a taste of the restaurant, with a much lower price point.”
Punters are embracing the concept; Trinity sells around 250 sandwiches a day. It’s also bringing a fine-dining touch to other foods typically more associated with casual dining than international accolades: there’s a rotating selection of soft serves using the season’s best produce (at the time of writing it’s a peach melba flavour), chips topped with seasonings like lemon and parmesan, and French rosé at £6 a glass. “I think people tune into us being a little bit different and disruptive,” says Byatt. “They can get on side with that.”
Four miles north in Mayfair and restaurateur Martin Kuczmarski is similarly pitching for accessibility at his buzzy New York-Italian restaurant The Dover. There, he’s doing comfort-food classics with a fine-dining bent – including fries that arrive at the table in a cardboard carton inspired by one of the first boxes McDonald’s used to serve its fries.
“I wanted to make that contrast between high and low, for everyone to feel a sense of occasion without it being intimidating,” Kuczmarski tells Broadsheet. “And the fries are a good example. We have a white tablecloth. We have the red rose on the table. We have beautiful candles. With the fries, there’s a little bit of cheekiness to it, to get the atmosphere lower so it’s not intimidating.”
Photos of the fries served alongside a Martini in Italian crystal have been social media feed regulars since The Dover’s launch, becoming increasingly popular as the restaurant has cemented itself as one of this season’s hottest venues. And that high-low thread runs through the rest of its menu: drinks come with a side of popcorn in a silver ice-cream coupe; mini hot dogs (which are also on the menu at Jeremy King’s upscale Bayswater restaurant) and spaghetti and meatballs are served on fine china.
At other London hotspots it’s soft serve, the fast-food dessert staple, that’s the vehicle for an ingredient widely considered the pinnacle of luxe dining: caviar. Take Bebe Bob – the Soho diner with a menu based around caviar and chicken – where black globes of Oscietra caviar crown sour cream soft serve that’s drizzled with extra virgin olive oil (itself a luxury in 2025). At £15, it’s around triple the price of London’s upper-scale soft serves, and even more expensive than a Mr Whippy cone – but a sight more luxe.
Caviar-topped soft serve is also coming to sleek new Shoreditch seafood bistro Noisy Oyster. Ice-cream gussied up with rotating ingredients (think vanilla, yuzu or chilli) will be topped with a caviar bump. All this caviar – it’s also dolloped on mascarpone-filled maritozzi – isn’t just for social media cachet, either. “Soft serve is very creamy and on the sweeter side, and caviar gives some saltiness and complexity to the dish,” Noisy Oyster co-owner Madina Kazhimova tells Broadsheet. “It’s a very nice combination to finish a dinner.” It also complements another Noisy Oyster signature, the mini Martini – itself a chance to try something a little luxe at a lower price point. It’s an affordable drinkable luxury that’s becoming a staple across London, from top cocktail bar Tayer & Elementary to American-inspired bistro Rita’s and Italian diner Nina.
“I think Michelin-style restaurants with tablecloths have a huge barrier to entry,” says Byatt. If you’re going to make your business as accessible as possible, you have to find all those different barriers to entry to break down.”