The UK capital is rarely associated with thrift but thankfully you don't have to spend big bucks to be well fed in London.
Upmarket fish and chips, exotic street food, diners, cafes and bakeries all feature in our list of London's best budget restaurants; a diverse collection, but they've all got one thing in common: an almost palpable love and passion for the food they produce.
People may scoff at the idea of hummus being the basis of a whole meal rather than a simple dip, even more so at it being the main item offered at a restaurant, but they’ve obviously never eaten at Hummus bros. Pairing it with tender chunky beef and aubergine or chicken and guacamole makes for dishes that are surprisingly filling and very cheap. Those with gluten sensitivity can order it with rice cakes or tortilla chips instead of pitta.
One of Korea’s national dishes, bibimbap is a nutritious and filling one-pot meal. Rice, marinated meats or seafood, vegetables and egg are mixed together and cooked the traditional way in a stone bowl (make sure you don’t touch it as it’s scalding hot). They’re priced between £7-£11; add specialities like spicy kimchi pancakes and prawn katsu to your meal if you’re very hungry.
This Italian bakery on Wardour Street is always packed, and it’s little wonder given their mouthwatering array of artisan breads, pizzas and hearty pasta dishes. Ordering is done at the counter which can make it hard to choose, especially once you reach the passionfruit cheesecakes and obscenely sized chocolate tarts.
One of the co-owners of Franco Manca used to be chief executive of Pizza Express, and this mini-chain has a strict rule of ensuring their most expensive pizza is always 50p cheaper than the Pizza Express margherita. This means their generously-sized pizza with organic southern Italian tomato, Spanish dry cured chorizo and their very own mozzarella is only £6.95.
You’d be forgiven for thinking that a hair salon and Korean restaurant rolled into one is going to be so insufferably cool your ears will bleed. While it’s positioned firmly in hipsterville the restaurant’s marinated bulgogi beef, crispy pork belly and spicy stew with kimchi and pork are fantastic and all priced under £9. Then you can get a haircut next door in less than 20 minutes.
One of Kingsland Road’s many Vietnamese noodle joints, and also one of the best. There’s a vast menu with many different variants of noodle stir fries and soups, as well like herby shredded pork wrapped in rice paper, chargrilled quail and spare ribs. Take your own booze and a meal will cost you less than a trip to the cinema.
When a Japanese restaurant is popular with expats you know you’re onto something, and this bargain eatery set over three floors is one of the capital’s less appreciated gems. The menu has sushi, katsu curries and bento boxes, it’s open till midnight and extra portions of rice are free. If you needed further convincing they take sustainability very seriously, so they don’t offer tuna and their electricity is supplied by renewable providers Ecotricity.
Budget restaurants often compromise on atmosphere, but that’s not the case at this romantic little eatery with exposed brick walls and dim lighting. Also unusually for a Pan-Asian restaurant, their menu includes Filipino dishes like empanadas and lumpia spring rolls alongside Korean beef bulgogi, Malay nasi goreng (fried rice with ground peanuts) and Japanese katsu curry.
Dosas are a popular Indian street food - pancakes made from rice flour and filled with potato, chillies, chutney, lentils, tomato and spices, masala dosa being the most common. Although London’s street food explosion only happened within the last three years, veggie restaurant Diwana Bhel Poori has been serving this staple food for at least a decade. Bring a bottle and eat for under a tenner.
This posh chippy is one of the capital’s best places to eat fish and chips. Haddock, coley, cod, pollock and plaice are grilled, battered or baked in matzo breadcrumbs, and their chunky chips are divinely moreish. The premises’ are licenced, and the surroundings are agreeable enough for you to turn your fast food dinner into a pleasant sit-down meal.