To eat in London on a budget

[mummyof2boys30]

We are heading to London in August for almost a week for 2 adults and 2 kids( who eat adult meals). So need some budget places to eat for dinner. Will get sandwich meal deals for lunch. No cooking facilities in hotel.

Weatherspoons?

Wetherspoons. Not fine dining, but useful for keeping budget down.

The real greek is decent priced

• go to a market for nice bread and cheese for sandwiches (probably the same price as supermarket pre made sandwiches but much nicer)
• some of the old school falafel shops on leather lane are cheap as chips
• get vouchers for meals out if you're there mid week
• some of the studenty cafes / restaurants up past kings cross on the way to Islington are really cheap (there is a great Indian up there)
• there are loads of cheap dumpling places

...Its a massive place. It obviously depends which area you're in

I’d go to a Honest Burger one night.
A burger in gastropub can easily be £14
But Honest burger do a delicious beef burger with chips for £10

There are quite a lot of places that do lunch menus Monday to Thursday. You might want to consider lunch out on those days and then m&s snacks and the like at dinner.

@Darbs76

The real greek is decent priced

....of all the cheap eats in London, surely there are better places than this!

And yes, which areas will you be in?

This is a lovely French restaurant on New Oxford Street https://savoir.co.uk] with decent prices and really nice bistro type atmosphere.

www.timeout.com/london/food-drink/londons-best-cheap-eats

Buffet eat as much as you like curry houses, weatherspoons, buy rolls, cheese and salad, fruit for lunch, Hari Krishna cafe off Oxford Street, some of the noodle bars are very cheap, fill up on breakfast if its included.

Get a month free trial
On taste card. 241 on starters mains and desserts in so many places!

Prix fixe / menu rapide at brasserie zedel is cheap as chips and the venue feels like a real treat!!!

Pizza pilgrims is £10 ish a head in kingly court behind Oxford street

Have you got a Tesco Clubcard? They do vouchers for some chains eg Pizza Express.

Oh and bibimbap is a good shout

Sorry staying Southwark area. I haven't been to London in years and never with children.

Borough Market has a lot of food stalls at the weekend (but avoid Bread Ahead which charges £4 per doughnut). Also try the Waterloo food Market behind the South Bank complex on a Saturday. The cheapest places to sit down and eat are the traditional London greasy spoons (not to greasy these days) and pie and mash shops (Hackney, Walthamstow, Walworth Road). The fish and chips in tourist areas is generally expensive and poor quality, so avoid.

Loads of street food places - much cheaper than a restaurant. Off the top of my head: south bank market next to south bank centre, Maltby St market in Southwark too, Mercato something at elephant and castle, spitalfields markets, tooting markets (amazing), Strutton ground near Westminster. All good for lunch (not sure about mercato thingy as haven’t been) and some are open evenings too.

Cheap curry places are amazing for sharing family teas as well. Chutneys and others on the same street near Euston.

Do you have a budget? I’d do a mixture of cereal for dinner (disposable cutlery/crockery if need be), baguettes with cheese and ham on laps etc, and then things like chinatown buffets (last time I went it was about £7/person), Indian YMCA etc. Too good to Go app may also work for you.

I’d recommend switching your plan around on some days. You’ll get better value in restaurants at lunch. A lot of places will have reasonably priced weekday lunch set menus, so on weekdays you might get more bang for your buck eating out for a big lunch then having a sandwich meal deal later on, if that makes sense? I’d definitely recommend doing that at least once or twice.

Lots of food markets do amazing food like Camden and Leather Lane

@About10thusername - well I like it, each to their own

Brick Lane is really cheap if you like Indian food, and easy to get to from where you’re staying. For pizza, Franco Manca is good with cheap drinks as well (lots of outlets). Giuseppe's Ristorante isn’t really cheap but not expensive, it’s a proper old school Italian with a great atmosphere near London Bridge and they have live music which is good fun. Borough Market is nice but pricey and really only a lunch option unless you want a really early dinner - I would recommend Maltby St market which is what Borough used to be like. Lots of the ramen places have good deals, filling and cheap.

@Thinking2041

I’d go to a Honest Burger one night. A burger in gastropub can easily be £14 But Honest burger do a delicious beef burger with chips for £10

There are quite a lot of places that do lunch menus Monday to Thursday. You might want to consider lunch out on those days and then m&s snacks and the like at dinner.

THIS. Go to the restaurants/eateries at lunch. And M&S or takeaway at dinner - it will be August when you're there so it'll be warm and light outside. A number of parks or along the harbour where you can eat outside.

China town has some budget options.

If you've got tesco club card points convert them for restaurant vouchers