Why is every appetizer and entree at this restaurant the same price?

By Jack Fifield

A glam Chelsea restaurant has opened a new menu where each appetizer and entree is the same price – to help simplify splitting the bill.

Mucci’s introduced its “10/20” menu earlier this month – where every meal costs £10 ($13) and every meal costs £20 ($26) – in the hope it will simplify the dining experience.

Owner Giuseppe Mucci, originally from Bologna, northern Italy, opened his restaurant six years ago.

At the end of 2024, after changing the impact of the Covid-lockdown and Brexit, he began to notice more and more diners asking him for a special menu adjusted at a fixed price.

The restaurateur, who has almost 30 years of experience in the food industry, said: “We have several menus for several customers.

“That’s when I realized that people don’t need to look for discounts, they’d rather have a simple way to enjoy a restaurant without worrying about the final bill.

“Something more clear, direct – something they can easily share with their friends.

“For example, with a lunch order there are always one or two people who are invited who may not be sure about the options, or are suffering from the economic downturn.

“When you choose a restaurant, you never know how much you’re going to eat.

“To have that menu in advance, it really helped everyone to say ‘yes.'”

Mucci’s menu includes $10 appetizers such as tuna tartare with avocado and orange gel, and arancini – Sicilian rice balls filled with bolognese sauce and served with fonduta cheese.

The £20 ($26) entrees include a range of Italian pizzas, pastas, and meat dishes – including 200g of thinly-sliced ​​sirloin steak.

The restaurant owner, 44, said he had to make adjustments and was ‘generous’ to ensure the price point was sustainable, while some items had to be dropped.

After becoming poor on a farm in the countryside of Bologna, making sausage, cheese, and olive oil, Giuseppe ran away from home at the age of 16.

After living in a five-star hotel aged 18, Giuseppe knew he had to leave his hometown.

At the age of 20, he got into his little Lancia Ypsilon car surrounded by paper maps and went to Spain – where he learned the language and got a job.

Later, he did the same and went to France – sleeping for several weeks in his car, before finally driving to London and settling in 2004.

He said: “I will sleep for weeks in my car until I find a job.

“I can’t even pay the rent, so I sleep in the car.

“You try to apply for a job, you get a quick wash at the gas station – hard times, but full of hope, adventurous times.

“When you’re 20, you know, you feel like you’re invincible.”

Humble upbringings and hard graft have influenced the way Giuseppe runs his business today.

He said: “I believe I’m a very kind person, but I think I know where I come from – I come from very poor.”

Now, he sees his restaurant as a kind of ‘confession ground’, similar to a church, with clients from a range of backgrounds and professions all telling him about their struggles amid years of sluggish economic growth.

The owner, who lives in Battersea, said: “Everyone comes from all different backgrounds – you’ve got bankers, financial managers, dentists, stylists – all come to claim and tell you how it is.

“Everybody’s struggling, everybody’s going to tell me, so I know for sure every industry has been affected in the past years by the economic slowdown.

“We won’t change it, but we can adapt and make it easier for our guests, my staff, and suppliers.

“I think that if people know more about it and people try more, it could eventually become a new model that will be followed.

“I want to get the same model when I go out in other restaurants – it’s not just a simple Mucci, it’s also something that other operators should consider.”

Mucci is located at 442 Kings Road, Chelsea, SW10 0LQ.

Trials of the restaurant’s 10/20 menu began earlier this month, with a full launch expected in April.