Beefeater Menu Prices Through the Years (1974–2026)

Reading an old menu

Beefeater prices changed with the meal, the time of day and the offer. A three-course set meal is not directly comparable with a steak bought on its own, and a Christmas Day booking has a different price from an ordinary lunch. The dated examples below show what was advertised at particular moments. Prices and offers varied between branches.

The earliest figure is especially useful but needs its date explained. In September 2002, the Morning Advertiser looked back at Beefeater’s beginnings and recalled three-course meals for £3. That is a later account of the 1974 offer, so we describe the launch price as reportedly about £3. It is not a surviving 1974 till receipt or a promise that every diner paid the same amount.

For anyone remembering a family meal, the small print can be as revealing as the headline price. Was the starter included? Did a children’s meal include a drink? Was the offer available only at lunchtime? Those details help explain why two people can remember different bills from the same chain without either memory being wrong.

From the first steak supper to daytime offers

The reported £3 opening meal belongs to Beefeater’s early steakhouse proposition. Later price examples show a wider choice and a greater role for promotions. In November 2007, trade reporting described mains from about £6 to just under £20, alongside twenty-two new dishes. A range such as that tells us more than an isolated cheapest dish: it includes different meals and cuts, each with its own price.

In October 2009, the chain’s daytime offer included rump steak for £5.95 and three courses for £9.95, available Monday to Saturday. These were promotional meal prices. Comparing the £5.95 rump directly with an evening steak would lose the restrictions that made the offer work.

The following October brought a quite different example: Simon Rimmer’s four-course Steak Lover’s menu at £24.99, offered at nineteen Beefeater Grill restaurants. A special menu available at selected sites should not become a supposed national average. For a reader trying to date a memory, the name of the promotion and the number of courses may be a better clue than the price alone.

Children’s meals and the birthday years

Beefeater marked its fortieth anniversary in 2014 with a limited-edition ’74 tri-tip steak, reported at £10.99. The anniversary name looked back to the year the chain began; the price was a 2014 price, not something taken from the original menu. That distinction matters whenever a modern promotion borrows an old date.

The Mr Men revival later in 2014 offered children’s meals at £4.49, £5.49 and £5.99 for one, two and three courses respectively, with a drink included. The trade report also described a charitable contribution from the three-course option. Those details make the children's prices a useful comparison within one menu, although they are not adult dinner prices.

By May 2017, the Daytime Saver advertised dishes for £5 and steak and chips for £6. Trade coverage published in 2018 recalled that offer across 130 pubs, with a noon-to-6.30pm window from Monday to Saturday. Someone who remembers a low-priced afternoon meal may therefore be remembering an offer with specific hours. The ordinary evening menu had different prices.

Roasts, festive menus and the final years

A May 2021 report on two Doncaster pubs advertised Sunday roasts from £10.99, children’s roasts from £3.99 and an extra slice of meat for £1.49. “From” is part of the price: a different meat or extra portion could change the bill. These prices applied to the two named Doncaster pubs.

In December 2024, another Doncaster Free Press report gave festive three-course meals from £23.95 and Christmas Day meals from £59.95. Those two figures belong in separate rows because they describe different occasions. Christmas Day service cannot fairly be used as the ordinary cost of a Beefeater dinner.

The menu-culture page preserves further examples from the final period, including steak prices and descriptions of the meals people remember. The end of the brand in September 2026 also ended the usefulness of its old menus for planning a present-day visit. A reopened building now has its new operator’s menu; the prices on this page are historical.

Berni prices deserve their own table

Berni Inn was a separate chain before Whitbread bought it. Its prices belong to that earlier story, even where a building later became a Beefeater. A 1973 Liverpool Berni menu, described by RetroWow, offered a rump meal for £1.04, gammon for 90p and plaice for 75p, with a starter, chips and dessert included. The table separates those meals from Beefeater’s reported launch offer.

An undated 77p rump is a particular source of confusion. A later Spectator account attributes that figure to early Beefeater dining, while a surviving Berni transcription on this site gives the same rump price. Without a clearly dated original menu, it is safer to keep that attribution disputed. There is no inflation-adjusted column here: the original pounds and pence are shown with the date and meal conditions, so readers can make a fair comparison without guessing a modern equivalent.