Eat cheap in London
There’s no mistaking it: finding nice places to eat cheaply in London can be a challenge, with meals often costing in pounds what they’d cost in US dollars back home (i.e significantly more expensive). Nonetheless you can save money or get better value by eating like the locals and avoiding the tourist traps.
British food has long been an international laughing stock, but it’s a reputation that’s far from deserved – London in particular has some of the most varied and vibrant cooking in the world: it’s a gastronome’s paradise, far more open to new ideas and cuisines than the eateries of Paris, Milan or Madrid. You can get every cuisine imaginable here, and get it well.
But these top tips will tell you how to save money on meals in London WITHOUT scrimping on quality – I’ve got the best tips and tricks to find the cheapest places to eat and drink in England’s capital.
Picnic in London
You can save a fortune if you don’t insist on sitting down in a restaurant for lunch and dinner every day. London’s office workers have the right idea: picnic. A meal lunch from one of these places can cost as little as £2-£4 for good, tasty food that will fill you up. Why not save your money for a nice evening meal, or picnic in the evenings and get a lunch deal in a restaurant? Here's where to buy your picnic stuff from.
Go to Mar
ks and Spencer – a high class but relatively inexpensive food and clothes shop – there are branches everywhere. They have inventive sandwiches, deli-type stuff, salads, drinks – everything you could need, designed for eating ‘on the go’ and it’s all tip-top quality. If you really want to scrimp they have a ‘meal deal’ for just £2 though the sandwiches are really boring compared to their slightly more expensive (and more delicious) options.
Boots is another great option – a drugstore with a chiller section, their meal deal is the best value anywhere – just £3 for a healthy drink, snack and sandwich.
These two places are also oddly great to buy bottled water – you’ll need it in the summer if it’s hot and you’re walking around; bizarrelly the (big) 2 litre bottles are often cheaper than the smaller ones.
So where else? Well, ok, it’s an American chain but you can’t beat Subway for a quick, healthy and cheap lunch. Their meal d
eals will fill you up for just £3. Branches everywhere.
You can also get (more expensive) sandwiches and sometimes hot soup in coffee shops. They're not as good so I wouldn't recommend them for picnicking but you can at least eat indoors if the weather's foul. For reference, in my entirely biased opinon: Nero has the best coffee, Costas is slightly cheaper. Starbucks is depressingly familiar.
Where do you eat it? Well London is crammed full of parks - you're rarely more than a few minutes walk to one. There are also benches everywhere, on the main squares and often by the river too. Unlike many cities, there's an abundance of places to take time out and just sit for a bit, without spending any money; the key to finding these places is to walk a couple of blocks away from the main tourist sites. Obviously the idea of picnicking holds more appeal in the summer but if it’s raining but you can always nip into one of the big museums and picnic either in designated areas or on the many benches provided. It really is a great way to save money.
Pub Grub
Pubs are the great leveller in British society: suitable for almost all ages, they’re a social arena rather than a drinking 
den or pickup joint. Many serve food: they’ll usually have a menu outside, on the bar or often up on a blackboard. And thank goodness, it’s now against the law to smoke in them so the days of coming home drenched in second-hand cigarette smoke are a thing of the past.
Pub Grub is hearty fodder rather than gourmet food – think sausages and mashed potato, pies, steaks and chips (french fries). Oh, and everything comes with chips, even the chips.
‘Ploughmans’ lunches are a traditional meal you'll find in a lot of pubs – hunks of bread, some cheese, a few pickled onions and perhaps a small salad. If you'd like something hot then there's sometimes roast beef and vegetables or perhaps a roast dinner. There are usually jacket potatoes, burgers and things like that too. Step into a pub and see if anything takes your fancy.
All of this food is designed for travelers– people who have things to do the rest of the day but want to take an hour or two out for some food and a drink or two: as such, they can be extremely pleasant places to stop for a while. A pub lunch is of course best enjoyed with a pint of bitter or cider (about £3). As pubs are such a huge subject for the uninitiated visitor I've got a whole guide about pubs and how to find a nice traditional pub. It is, if I do say so myself, well worth a read for any visitor to London.
Lunch deals: eat like a King for hardly any more.
It’s usually a LOT cheaper to eat in any restaurant at lunchtime. They’re less crowded because many Londoners are at work & many have 'set lunch deals' – keep an eye out for advertising signs on any restaurant you pass, but for best value, why not head to some of the best restaurants in the world at lunchtime?
The global downturn has meant that these lunch deals are such good value I've written a separate guide to getting the most delicious food London has to offer for a small amount of money.
Top tip: Buy an Evening Standard newspaper (50p) and read the news that matters to Londoners, while seeing if there are any restaurant vouchers in it that are good for the evening too.
Take Away/Take outs
Cheap, tasty and totally authentic, Londoners are in love with takeaways, a way of bringing the world to your home. Every cuisine is on offer here, with takeaway shops on every street corner. A few years ago the traditional dish was firmly Chinese or Indian; now it’s as likely to be Thai, Malaysian or Japanese. Indian food is particularly good. They’ll deliver to hotels but you normally only pay in cash – get a menu from reception. Reckon on paying about £6 to £8 per person. Delivery can take up to an hour in the evenings though it’s usually quicker on weekday evenings than at the weekend.
Eat International for the best deals
There's a gargantuan range of international food available in London, and not just in the takeaways. There really are restaurants for every cuisine and many of these international restaurants tend to be among the best value too. In fact, eating international is cheap, filling and as much a part of contemporary Britain as cricket or tea. The two biggest are Chinese and Indian.
Chinese
London’s Chinatown, near Leicester square, a gaggle of streets within spitting distance of theatreland, is packed with restaurants from all over the Orient. Sadly they’re not the bargain they once were and some can be pretty expensive; the ones away from the main street with the arch are cheaper and generally better quality. Keep an eye out in other parts of town too: Chinese anywhere is often a cheap and tasty option.
Indian
Indian food is generally inexpensive and very good; the cheapest of them all is Indian Veg at Chapel Market, it’s £3 for all you can eat (Angel tube); it’s classier and there's more variety at Masala Zone next to the Royal Opera house (Covent Garden tube) and another near Angel tube where you can have a large very filling Thali meal for £8. 
Govindas on Soho Square near Oxford Street does an £8 lunch meal – it’s run by the Hare Krishna people and is far 
less spicy than your average Indian meal but equally delicious. Lots of tourist guides tell you to go to Brick Lane for a curry but they’re mostly overpriced and you can be corralled into a mediocre restaurant by an over eager tout on the door promising the earth.(tube: Liverpool Street). For a really nice Indian sit-down meal I'd head instead to the Maharani in Soho. It's on Berwick street and doesn't have a website.
For the very adventurous traveller in search of cheap and tasty Indian food you can go to the kitchen of the YMCA Indian Student Hostel on Fitzroy Square; not fancy but excellent value. (tube: Warren Street or Great Portland Street) Or for connoisseur head to Southall, which has a huge south Indian community: there are hundreds of restaurants to choose from and just stepping out of the tube there is like stepping into the middle of Delhi or Bombay.
Chain restaurants that are good to go to
Sometimes after a hard day's site-seeing you just feel like going to the first restaurant you see without making a special journey to a different part of town. Like anywhere, London has its chain restaurants and these are the ones you're likely to see again and again. Some are total tourist traps to be avoided (anything with the word steakhouse in the title; the Texas Embassy; Planet Hollywood etc etc) but others are actually pretty good - and excellent value. Keep an eye out for some of these as 'not bad' places to eat if you see one and need food right away.
West End Kitchen: Piccadilly Cricus/Hyde Park. West End Kitchen (Panton Street) serves modern European food at excellent value. Nothing fancy, but it will fill you up cheaply in a busy part of town. Tube: Piccadilly Circus
Leon - hardly a chain at all, this is fast food but restaurant quality. The founder started with the premise 'would I mind my children eating this?' and so it's developed an ethos which centers around serving good value, fresh, tasty, seasonal food, often organic. My favourite branch is in Spitalfields market. Great coffee too.
Stockpot – love it or hate it, this is old-style British cooking, with British classics many of which have
fallen out of favor with other restaurants. Portions are large, though it’s not exactly haute cuisine, and prices cheap and it’s popular with locals as well as tourists. The brilliant thing about this chain is its locations: right in the heart of Soho (Old Compton Street, tube: Leicester Square), and on the King’s Road in Chelsea (tube: South Kensington) – therefore making it an ideal choice for the hungry sightseeer.
Pizza Express is a chain of consistently fine and tasty Italian restaurants – you can get a main meal for around £7 or £8 and there are branches all over town. It's actually not bad food and a nice evening option.
One final note - it's not a chain but if you’re by Trafalgar Square be sure to head to the Cafe in the Crypt of the nearby St Martins in the Field church – there’s a café with lovely and extremely well priced hot and cold food, and all profits help the work of the church.
Fuinal tip: However you're choosing somewhere to eat, here's the golden rule: walk a couple of blocks from main tourist sites before choosing a restaurant. It'll be cheaper, better and less crowded. And let me know your suggestions for places you love, especially great places near tourist sites!
This page is updated every six months, and was last reviewed in Autumn/Fall 2009.
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