Big Mec Burger at Petit Trois

Meet Me for Dinner at Noon

10 Minute read

26 Aug 2026

Caitlin White

Journalist

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As dining out gets more expensive, restaurants are offering ambitious prix fixe menus, omakase, and more at lunch, often for considerably less than dinner.

Dining out in America has never been more expensive. Inflation, tariffs, rising rents, labor costs, and economic uncertainty have put pressure on restaurants and diners alike. But our desire to eat delicious food made by brilliant chefs, to have a little treat, if you will, has arguably never been higher. Spending time outside North America gave me one potential compromise, and that, my friends, is lunch.

In France, restaurants commonly offer a lunchtime prix fixe known as la formule, or the formula. It’s a set menu of two or three courses that gives diners an affordable option for an appetizer and a main, a main and a dessert, or, in the best-case scenario, a shot at all three. If you’ve never experienced it, the chance to have a lovely, long three-course meal in the afternoon instead of the evening is idyllic. Since I started living in France for a few months each year, I’ve actually begun to prefer it.

Here in Los Angeles, chef Ludo Lefebvre has been proudly repping la formule at lunch for years at both locations of his acclaimed Petit Trois. For $44, guests get a three-course meal from the lauded chef. Currently, there are Bibb lettuces or beets to start, followed by steak frites, a staple that never leaves the menu, a seasonally rotating fish dish, or a pasta option. Classic French desserts like choux Chantilly or chocolate mousse round out the meal. In a town where steak frites alone can run more than $40, the setup is a steal.

“My restaurant is French and I wanted to create a French experience,” says Lefebvre, who opened Petit Trois in 2014. “It’s the cheapest way to experience the restaurant for those who don’t want to spend $100 per person, so it’s accessible for a lot of people. Lunch is very important in French culture, but in America, a little less so. In France, because the culture is about living for food, when you have a break, you go eat and enjoy your life. It’s very much about socializing. When my mother comes here to see me, she’s in shock that we don’t do lunch. She’ll say, ‘Where’s the lunch? We’re not sitting at the table? We’re not having a meal?’”

Instead, the emphasis on socializing over a meal in North America tends to fall on dinner. But in an age of remote work, that’s really just a random distinction. Swapping a dinner date for an afternoon catch-up can seriously curb spending without sacrificing the experience of dining out. And the savings aren’t limited to French restaurants. At Shota Omakase in Brooklyn, where the 19-course dinner omakase runs $255 before drinks or additions, a lunch option offers another way into the restaurant for a guest who just can’t swing a $300 dinner, even if they know it’s worth the price.

“There’s no question that inflation and tariffs have continued to drive food costs higher,” says Shota chef Cheng Lin, a 2026 James Beard Award semifinalist. “While our dinner omakase pricing has remained the same as it was years ago, by introducing a lunch omakase with a slightly shorter course format, we can accommodate guests who are unable to join us for dinner. It allows us to offer a more accessible price point, while maintaining the same quality and standards we are known for at Shota.”

Omakase might not be the first stop for those on a budget, but lowering the barrier to entry could make a difference for guests who want to explore fine dining but find it cost prohibitive. Shota’s 16-course lunch omakase is $175, a significant savings from the $255 dinner, and is currently offered on Fridays and Saturdays.

Americans’ attitude toward lunch might finally be shifting. Chef Nicolas Lopez, who helms the kitchen at Txula Steak by José Andrés in Hudson Yards, has noticed a change in recent months. Lopez says he’s seeing fewer office workers grabbing quick takeout orders to eat at their desks and more taking the time to sit down, eat, and unplug before returning to the office. Even if that means 45 minutes or an hour, it’s still an improvement over the dreary desk salad.

“In North America, work culture tends to prioritize shorter breaks and faster pacing,” Lopez says. “Lunch is often treated as functional rather than experiential. That said, we’re seeing a shift in major cities where diners are rediscovering lunch as an opportunity for connection and enjoyment, just in a format that better fits their schedules. A well-priced lunch menu can introduce new guests to a restaurant’s culinary identity and create repeat traffic, especially in business districts.”

He notes that in Spain, lunch is “almost sacred” and can often stretch on for hours. While Txula’s own afternoon menu, the Txula Power Lunch, is built for flavor and efficiency, it’s still a nod to the Basque culture the restaurant draws on. Starting with a traditional pintxo, diners are then given a choice of entrées such as charcoal-grilled cod loin with tomato sauce or Biarritz skirt steak with fries, followed by a dessert like Basque cheesecake.

The three-course offering is $45 and can be completed in as little as 45 minutes for diners in a time crunch. Those who want to linger can order the Martini Hayworth with a gilda skewer, practically a portal to Spain. “The common thread is this: lunch works best when it respects people’s time while still delivering a sense of occasion,” Lopez concludes.

On the restaurant side, a lunch menu can be an effective way to introduce a chef to new diners. For Lefebvre, an accessible price point can get guests in the door and give them a taste of what his restaurants are all about. “The lunch menu is good for me to attract people who have never been to Petit Trois,” he says. “I choose the dishes by taking the most successful and popular plates and offering them in slightly smaller portions. If people come in to try the prix fixe menu, I have to make sure they love the food, then maybe they’ll come back.”

Maybe the answer to increasingly expensive dinners isn’t to stop dining out, but to reconsider when we do it. Lunch can offer much of what draws us to dinner in the first place: ambitious cooking, time around the table, and a sense of occasion, often at a price that makes trying a great restaurant a little easier to justify. The experience doesn’t have to change just because the reservation is at noon.