London trip - cheap food ideas

[AgileEagle]

Going to London for 5 days, staying at premier inn at Bank
Looking for cheap food ideas for family of 5, kids are not very adventurous eaters unfortunately. Thinking the food costs will mount up so any cheap ideas?
Any suggestions of must see sights also welcome

@richardosmanstrousers have you been to Camden lock?
They give out loads of free samples, would be ideal for lunch, generally they give you one sample per person, not one sample per family of five! They literally push the food at you to try. Maybe take advantage of the samples then buy just a couple of portions to share to fill up. Food may possibly be a bit fancy for the kids' tastes though.

Have look at Gary Eats on YouTube. Indian place in London for 7.95 just off Oxford St. Current a steak at the Casino Steakhouse for £20. You tube Gary Eats and London

If you like steak - look up flat iron, probably the cheapest but nice steak place and they give everyone an ice cream to go which kids tend to enjoy.

If you happen to be in London at a time coinciding with British school holidays, you will find that a lot of the chains and some independent will offer children eat free or a for a £1 with each adult meal purchased

Yes, but i haven't taken the family for a free lunch of samples.

Street markets in London are not cheap.

If weather is decent find some nice outdoor spots and just get a Tesco meal deal and picnic on it. I was in Coal Drops Yards in Kings Cross today, for example, where you can sit by the canal, or you could go to any central London park (St James is nice). Eating is so bloody expensive on holiday that we usually plan a few picnic lunches every holiday. We're going to the Edinburgh festival for a few days this summer which will cost a fortune so I'm expecting to lunch that way at least a couple of times.

If you're visiting any big museums or historical sites, most of them these days have a picnic area, so you can bring your own food and eat indoors. I think it's a great idea as days out/holidays are so expensive and it offers a way to get lunch without bankrupting yourself.

We have been to London on a budget. Breakfast = Sainsbury/Tesco Express for pastries, take back to hotel and make tea/coffee. Depending on the time of year, if you don't have a fridge in your room you can hang things out of a window in a bag (eg fruit/drinks) and it stays cold.
Lunch = meal deal, or cafe
Dinner = we aren't fussy eaters, so this might not apply to OP. We go to local curry houses or such, ie ones that locals eat in, these are mostly in grittier streets/areas, but the food is very good. Whitechapel area is good for curries, Church Street off Edgeware Road great for Turkish/Arabic cuisine.
About 3 years ago dd downloaded the To Good to Go app, this was a novelty as it didn't exist in our town. Anyway, we were amazed at the great things we got, the big (expensive) restaurants in Edgeware Road had enough for a family of 4 in their bags. I don't know if they felt sorry for us turning up to get stuff, but one gave us a whole rotisserie chicken, rice, sauce, salad and bread. Our dinner was £4.50 that night!

Edited: if you can't stretch to a meal deal each time, buy packs of rolls and sliced meat, and you can get multipacks of drink cartons and chocolate bars cheaply too. Depending on your dc, they might be happy with a pot noodle too. London is NOT cheap food wise, I'm surprised people are suggesting Borough market type places, these are definitely not budget friendly!

Stuff all the premier Inn breakfast items into tupperware! 🤣
It's hard to get cheap eats in London sadly.
If the weather is nice I'd simply go to supermarket and get some deli stuff and and and bread and have a picnic lunch!
There's a place called Icco Pizza near Goodge Street that's really cheap though.
There's a few of those all you can eat buffets around, I don't know which are good but there's plenty of selection of different foods I'd imagine and good if you're big eaters.
There's an Indian vegetarian Buffet in Chapel market near angel, that used to be very cheap. Not been for years though.

Instruct everyone to fill up on the P I breakfast, then just ice cream, market bits fruit whatever mid afternoon. Bring refillable water bottles. Download the Bella Italia app, good food and constant deals available.

Pack a small bag for a picnic and take an extra croissant/ yoghurt /little cereal packet for a snack at lunch. W’spoons for the evening meal - sorted.

Download the 2 Good 2 Go app - they sell really nice food very cheap in the afternoons/evenings from food places all over the city. Loads of choice and cheap

I work in bank and it is teeming with office workers so there are lots of cheap ish places to get lunch - pret in practically every street, pure, subway etc. there is a pub called Wetherspoons in cannon st station that does cheap hot food. A place called Lazy Gepetto that does pizza and pasta. The only thing is being a business district a lot of places are shut after hours so you might want to have a hot meal for lunch and buy a sandwich for dinner. You should be able to get two meals under 20 per person like that. Not sure if that is within your budget.

Hmmm, this might work, but the pick up time is often pretty late (vs the time kids like to eat) and you don’t get any choice, and the bags can be cancelled last minute if they have no left overs.

I had a fantastic once in a life time trip to South America, in Argentina and Uruguay no only is it acceptable to take food but if you have a flask they will fill it with water or coffee.

The mention of the fridge in the room reminded me. My carer has quite a restricted diet so if he books a hotel he requests, "a fridge for medical reasons".

That trip sounds amazing.

I think you missed the point as the conversation was referring to Travelodge. (Unless you were referring to a Travelodge in South America??????)

Good point about the fridge.

as the weather looks nice-ish - go to supermarket, have picnic in one of the lovely squares/parks.

Premier Inn offers breakfast, so will you be having breakfast there? If not, supermarket pack of pain au chocolat or croissants. Eat in room or on the go.

Lunch - no way I’d be buying 5 people worth of meal deals every day. Ham and cheese, pack of rolls, pack of apples or some bananas, giant multipack of drinks. Get it from the supermarket and make your own sandwiches, wrap up every morning and each person with a bag carries their own. Then you aren’t wasting a chunk of the day waiting for lunch. Have a picnic, eat on your way to a museum, etc.

Dinner - now that you’ve not spent £150 eating out for breakfast and dinner, you can actually go enjoy some nice food. London has amazing restaurants, food halls, street food trucks, etc Don’t eat at Wetherspoons or Nando’s (grim!). Get out for dinner and enjoy. If kids are too little for a dinner out, swap lunch and dinner. Lunch out at an interesting place. Dinner at hotel, picky bits, fruit, cheese, bread rolls.

Too good to go app, you might be able to pick up a bag after breakfast that will give stuff for picnic lunch. All sorts of places participate. It can be random but that adds to the fun.

When we're on holiday, we load up on the hotel breakfast (Premier Inn do "kids eat free") as much as we can, including lots of hydration.
Then for lunch we'll do something small like ice-creams, crisps, or share a supermarket sandwich.
Then we'll eat out in the evening.

No not Travelodge but every where I stayed.

It was fab. I was not in great health but healthy enough to enjoy it.

We did a lot of supermarket meal deals for lunches. One day we shared a Large Chips from Five Guys (enough for 4) and one free refill drink which we refilled about 4 times.

Why the fuck post AI generated crap like this? To what end?

Look up any offers you can. So for example if any of you are with O2 or have an Amex card, they do offers at places like Pizza Express and other chains. Especially for weekdays.

Lunch I’d avoid proper restaurants and stick to sandwich type places although even those aren’t cheap.

Obviously, avoid spending £££ on snacks and drinks - buy crisps etc from a local mini supermarket instead.

Sights - my favourite free things are the markets (Camden, Spitalfields, Borough, Portobello). Sky garden if you can get tickets. Horizon 22 if not. Walk down the Southbank, see the buskers, go to Tate Modern for free, cross over to St Pauls. Monument is cheap to climb but check opening hours. National Gallery, Portrait Gallery are free and the museums of course. Public river boat is cheap ish way to get a river trip - go from London Eye to Tower Bridge for example. Number 11 bus goes past a lot of sights too.

For shopping areas Regent St and Carnaby Street, Covent Garden, Coal Drops Yard up by Kings Cross.

Walk along Regents Canal from Kings Cross past camden market to Regents Park

Anything you can collect after breakfast will probably be breakfast items! For example, near to Bank, OP could currently get a bag from the Westin (11-1130) which would have breakfast pastries, fruit, jam and butter. Or a bag from Pure which would have a hot breakfast item in it eg omelette wrap.

They won't give out regular sandwiches at that point because those will be put on sale for lunchtime.

I don't think random is fun when you have three kids to feed.

I do like TGTG but I don't think it's much help for OP in this situation.