Castle at Taunton offers £15 menu amid cost of living crisis

The Castle hotel in Taunton is the latest hospitality venue to launch a cut-price menu to help customers struggling with the cost of living.

Throughout September, the hotel's Brazz restaurant will offer a fixed-price menu at £15 for two courses or £20 for three courses.

It will be served Tuesday to Saturday from midday to 2:30pm with dishes including heritage carrot soup with spiced croutons; chicken terrine with apricot and toasted sourdough; venison shepherd's pie; and a steamed ginger sponge.

The team were inspired after chef Tom Kerridge launched a similar "too good to be true" offer across three of his restaurants this month, which he said was designed to "get the excitement and buzz" back into dining rooms.

Andrew Swann, executive chef at the Castle hotel, said: "I love to see a busy and buzzing dining room full of happy diners and we hope by offering such great value that more people will be able to enjoy lunch out even with things as difficult as they are. Simply prepared dishes but with great local produce is what this menu is all about."

Ronan Hunter, general manager and director at the Castle hotel, added: "As Tom Kerridge states, with a menu like this, we won't make any money from it, but we want to be able to offer people on a tighter budget the opportunity to still come out and enjoy a lovely lunch in Brazz.

"Whilst the current situation with energy prices and rising costs across the board are in many ways more challenging than Covid, it's a good time to put out a ‘too good to be true' value menu."