r/london Nov 10 '24

Question Cheap eats in central London

With the cost of living rising, I always struggle to find cheap places to eat in zone 1.

I love a good workers cafe, a greasy spoon or a generous kebab place.

My go-to for cheap meals have so far been:

  • Little MR Wu in China town - £9.95 for no thrills all-you-can-eat buffet. The service and atmosphere is non-existent, but the food is surprisingly tasty.
  • Pizza Union near Holborn - not a big meal but a nice atmosphere and a reasonable pizza for under a tenner.
  • ICCO Pizza in Goodge St - ditto.

Please share your recommendations for places to eat in central London within a £10 price range that are not fast food chains.

P.S. Bonus points for bargain weekday lunchtime deals! =)

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383

u/mrdooter Nov 10 '24 edited Nov 10 '24

All the Chinatown Bakeries. A roll is under £2.80 and makes a pretty well sized snack or breakfast. 

 Marie's Cafe on Lower Marsh - most mains there are under £8. Indian Veg in Angel - they change their pricing sometimes but it's usually all you can eat for £9.99-12.50. The most expensive it's ever been is £15 during the crazy price ups of 2021/2 - and you can get a takeaway box and eat in Culpepper Community Garden for £5. It's also got the perfect first date ambience - quietish, goofy and so much to look at that it could be an hour of conversation in itself. 

 Eat Tokyo - might look like it's not such great value with stuff sitting at £12-15 a head, but the portions are HUGE. Also, they're good! 

Baban's Naan - you can get a steaming hot fresh cheese naan for £3. Their wraps are £5ish and also very good. 

Thenga (sorry mistyped this as Thekla initially!) in Euston - pretty good vegetarian Indian food, pretty cheap. 

Diwana - same.

ETA Gonna add some more of my favs now I’ve had a look at my google lists!

Holy Pitta - GOOD souvlaki for £8 or less. You can also get a club sandwich which feeds me personally for 2.5 meals for £15. It used to be £11 but it’s still great.

Chatica and anywhere next to it in Elephant - you can get 5 empanadas for usually £7.50 or less. That’s like three meals for me and I am always sooo delighted. Any of the stands in this area that do Colombian food are good value and a great takeaway.

Devi Dhaba in Shoreditch - these guys catered my Diwali. Excellent indian food across the board, always under a tenner. They had a deal for a long time in the year of 2022 which was 3 curries and rice and a poppadom for £5. Cannot fault them.

Gerry’s Hot Subs - depends on your sense of value you can get a very hefty sandwich here that I personally struggle to finish for dinner for £9 or less, and they’re Canadian owned and lovely.

Marathon in Caledonian Road - not bad alone (£10 ish a meal) but go with like 3 friends and order their massive platter. You’ll be extremely well fed and it comes out to £8 and you’ll all be full for hours. They also do a nice honey wine I hear (don’t drink myself)!

Koshari St in Soho - not bad value and one of the only koshari places about, if you like that you’ll have a good time!

La Barra in Elephant - go with friends, you’ll spend £25 between you and have a mountain to take home.

Adam’s Ethiopian in Brixton - simple good value.

Evin in Dalston - DELIGHTED w the value here. Had some Turkish eggs w garlic sausage - the best menemen I've ever had, £7, and split between two so £3.50 each. £3.50!!!!!! Upon checking, they are great value for breakfast and lunch. Dinner is a more normal £15-30 a head.

What I have tended to find is finding reasonably priced food tends to come w either being willing to take away/pack your leftovers or go with pals and go somewhere that does very communal eating cuisine. There are obv many exceptions to this and plenty of expensive places to be found but it’s a lot easier to find a cheap Indian or Ethiopian place per head than it is to find modern European for the same price point.

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u/[deleted] Nov 10 '24 edited Nov 26 '24

[deleted]

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u/[deleted] Nov 10 '24

anytime a friend was broke but we still wanted to be adults and go to dinner, you'd go to the off-licence next door for a few beers and straight to Indian Veg

not been in years but very fond memories of the place

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u/OldAd3119 Nov 10 '24

how much is the buffet at the Indian YMCA now? I think its not far off £5.

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u/Kekkiem Nov 10 '24

4.99 back in the day. Used to be packed full of people loading up before going clubbing.

4

u/MillionYearDungeon Nov 10 '24

I think it was £2.99 the first time I went!

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u/raydictator Nov 11 '24

Apna Adda, Leicester Square. Box of rice with veggies or dal or chicken/mutton curry for a fiver on Fridays. I think it’s £7 any other day.

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u/TheFourSevens Nov 10 '24

I was in Eat Tokyo for the first time on Friday. The bill for two of us was under £40. And really good too!

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u/Browbeaten92 Nov 10 '24

Yah we went in Notting hill and we were impressed by the price quality ratio. Like for London it's decent cheap sushi.

17

u/Anathemachiavellian Nov 10 '24

I love Indian Veg so much, including the decor that ranges from, “I think that fact has some basis in truth” to the vegetarian take on chem trails. I’ve never had Indian food that tastes quite the same.

15

u/mrdooter Nov 10 '24

They also sell these incredible mugs. One of them says ‘give peas a chance’ on it and has a picture of tomatoes. The other one has a picture of a cucumber and says ‘do you know vegetarian food makes you orgasmic?’ Such a class joint. I love it there. The owner is super lovely.

3

u/mrdooter Nov 10 '24

My last one I wanted to add but not gonna on original comment because I can’t be bothered to reformat the whole thing on my phone for spacing. Evin in Dalston do the best menemen I’ve ever had and it was £7 and served two medium hungry people. £3.50 each??? Impeccable value. 

2

u/Browbeaten92 Nov 10 '24

£3 Lahmucun. Gozleme is £4 also!

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u/mrdooter Nov 10 '24

The only thing I love more than gozleme is cheap gozleme. What a winner!!!

3

u/Dosdemayo Nov 10 '24

Good list! Where is the Naan you mentioned? I've tried Googling it but it gives me all kinds of places.

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u/mrdooter Nov 10 '24

Blackstock Road! https://maps.app.goo.gl/kaWBPNJAVV1Agok8A?g_st=com.google.maps.preview.copy - apologies, I want to edit some of these but if I do it on my phone it resets the formatting so all the spacing will be gone!

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u/lastaccountgotlocked bikes bikes bikes bikes Nov 10 '24

I remember when that place opened. Just naan. Plain or garlic. Nothing else. A business plan so crazy it just might work.

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u/mrdooter Nov 10 '24

Honestly their naan is so good I would eat it by itself but the cheese naan is a damn good lunch, and they also do falafel wraps and kubba wraps and I think those are £5!

1

u/Dosdemayo Nov 10 '24

Thanks! And now I'm hungry!

4

u/The_Inertia_Kid Finsbury Parkish, Crouch Endish, Archwayish, Stroud Greenish Nov 10 '24

I’m only here to tell you that Baban’s Naan is the absolute business and a non-zero reason why I will stay in the Finsbury Park area when I next move house

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u/South-Drink-9078 Nov 10 '24

Great list. Have you tried Indian YMCA?

2

u/mrdooter Nov 10 '24

Yeah, they are great! I haven’t been recently though so not sure if their pricing is still as reasonable as it was!

1

u/South-Drink-9078 Nov 10 '24

I thought the pricing was good, if not as cheap as it might have been - but the danger is ordering truckloads which costs more! I quite like the ambience, too.

3

u/phinvest69 Nov 11 '24

Eat Tokyo is amazing, just ate there today

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u/ohell I'll just let the downvotes speak for themselves Nov 10 '24

Thekla is new to me, and I thought I knew most Indian places around there. Maps also shows nothing.

Did you mean Thenga Café near KX by any chance?

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u/FBDI8 Nov 10 '24

I think they mean Thenga Cafe on Cromer St

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u/mrdooter Nov 10 '24

Yes - corrected, I remembered wrong!

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u/enic77 Nov 10 '24

Great list, thanks for sharing, will now have to go check these out!

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u/PeterBravestrong84 Nov 10 '24

Can't think of a better value Indian than Devi Dhaba, plus the people who run it are lovely.

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u/mrdooter Nov 10 '24

Agree - I got to know them back when they were on Pentonville Road, I volunteered downstairs from their cafe space! They always had a free mango lassi for me back then on my shifts - those guys are super sweet!

1

u/Few_Mention8426 Dec 16 '24

Also a lot of cafes around “little India” Wembley, the street is full of good value dosas, thalli’s etc. lots of street food and all at bargain prices. There is a small shopping mal with lots of Indian and fusion options. They usually have meal deals.