Why every appetizer and entree at this restaurant costs the same

By Jack Fifield

A glam Chelsea restaurant has launched a new menu where every appetizer and entree is the same price - to help simplify splitting the bill.

Mucci’s introduced the "10/20" menu earlier this month – where every appetizer costs £10 ($13) and every entree costs £20 ($26) – in the hopes it would simplify the dining experience.

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

In late 2024, after weathering the impacts of the Covid lockdown and Brexit, he started to notice more and more diners asking him for specific, tailored menus at fixed prices.

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

“That’s when I realized people weren’t necessarily looking for a discount, they were more interested in having a simple way to enjoy the restaurant without worrying about the final bill.

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

“For example, with lunch bookings there was always maybe one or two persons invited who maybe weren’t convinced with the choice, or suffering from the economic slowdown.

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

“To have those menus in place before, it really helps everybody to say ‘yes.’”

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

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 ‘be generous’ in order to ensure the price points were sustainable, while some items had to be dropped.

After growing up poor on a farm in rural Bologna, making sausages, cheese, and olive oil, Giuseppe ran away from home aged 16.

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

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Aged 20, he got into his small Lancia Ypsilon car surrounded by paper maps and drove to Spain – where he learned the language and got a job.

Then, he did the same again and drove to France – sleeping for weeks at a time in his car, before finally driving to London and settling down in 2004.

He said: “I would end up sleeping for weeks in my car until I found a job.

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

“You try to apply for jobs, you get a quick wash at the petrol station – tough times, but full of hope, an adventurous time.

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

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

He said: “I believe I’m a very generous man, but I guess that I know where I’m coming from – I’m coming from being extremely poor.”

Now, he sees his restaurant as becoming a type of ‘confession ground’, similar to a church, with clientele 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: “Everybody comes from all sorts of backgrounds – you’ve got bankers, finance managers, dentists, stylists – everybody is coming to confess and to tell you how it’s going.

“Everybody’s struggling, everybody’s coming to tell me, so I know for sure every industry is affected these past years by the economic slowdown.

“We’re not going to change that, but we can adapt and make it easier for the 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 to follow.

“I would love to get the same model when I go out in other restaurants – it cannot be only Mucci’s that’s simple, it should be taken in consideration by other operators too.”

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

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