Whenever he opens a new place, as he did twice last year, the restaurateur Jeremy King reminds his staff that no restaurant worth its salt leaves its customers feeling swindled. The choice to spend a lot or a little, he says, is theirs; bills can be £40 or £400, depending on the mood and the means.
There are others operators who do a similar thing. At the Ivy chain (various locations, the-ivy.co.uk), it’s easy to rack up an enormous tab, but likewise a lunch might be spent sat at the bar, with a shepherd’s pie — incidentally their most famous and perhaps best dish — and a crème Brûlée, for £19.95. The surroundings make it feel an occasion; there is a sense of grandeur. With places like these, it’s all in the ordering: cannily navigating a menu means some of the capital’s best restaurants can be enjoyed without a sense of dread arriving at the same time the little leather book does.
With this method in mind, try, for starters, the likes of Hoppers (various locations, hopperslondon.com), Brigadiers (1-5 Bloomberg Arcade, EC4, brigadierslondon.com), Brutto (35-37 Greenhill Rents, EC1, @bru.tto), the Tamil Prince (115 Hemingford Road, N1, thetamilprince.com), Manteca (49-51 Curtain Road, EC2, mantecarestaurant.co.uk) or Flour & Grape (214 Bermondsey Street, SE1, flourandgrape.com). Look out for the deals too: Honey & Co (54 Lamb's Conduit Street WC1N, honeyandco.co.uk), for instance, run a £25, two-course lunch menu, though only in January.
You might think this approach would work everywhere but, more and more, it simply doesn’t — at the top end of the market, price-wise, it is becoming increasingly common to see drinks lists kicking off in the low teens for the tiddliest glass of wine, starters getting going at about £18, and the very cheapest main still troubling the £30 mark. No amount of cutting one’s expectations will help here; ditto the ever-growing number of places that only offer a tasting menu. Moreover, in compiling this list, over and again we found that places we’d remembered as having the odd lower cost dish had simply scrapped these from the menu, or pushed the price up. That £9 cocktail has become £13; that sharing dish doesn’t come in at £55 for two but £75.
And while London still can boast a number of excellent cheap restaurants — here, for instance, are a handful chosen by the city’s chefs — many are often marked by a sense of being, shall we say, underdressed. They are basic; the food might be excellent, the cost may be low, but the looks leave something to be desired. Sometimes a bit of flash is what’s wanted.
Though getting out for under £80-a-head often feels like something of an achievement these days, below are the places we go when in need of something with high style, but relatively low spend. You would be hard pushed to say all are cheap cheap, but they’re somewhere where a meal might cost between £20-£40 a head and the night still feels special. In other words: here’s where we head on our own dime when the night is an event, but the bill shouldn’t be.
Josephine Bouchon
Chic? It couldn’t be more so: this is a Lyonnaise Bouchon, in Chelsea. Its looks are movie-worthy, just on the right side of being a Disney restaurant: all dark red leather, tiny tables, red and white napkins, the works. Ah, you think on entry, I forgot I’d taken the Eurostar today. Claude Bosi is in charge here, he with all those Michelin stars, and while going à la carte can quickly tot up, all the best stuff is on the “Menu de Canut” (loosely: worker’s menu) anyway. Two courses for £24.50, three for £29.50, and available any time. The brioche and Morteau sausage in a red wine sauce, above, is among the highlights. The brave will have the andouillette with plenty of mustard.
315A Fulham Road, SW10, josephinebouchon.com
Nipotina
A Mayfair restaurant is not meant to make this list, but Nipotina must. The new opening from Samyukta Nair, who also owns Bombay Bustle and MiMi Mei Fair, among others, this is an Italian of good art and soft-coloured walls. Going à la carte might offer pizzas from £13, but the true value is found on the weekday set lunch, which offers two courses for £21. On it is a particularly fine Bolognese, as well as grilled salmon and orecchiette dressed in an indulgent Genovese pesto. Come to feel chi chi without leaving broke. Read the full review here.
49 South Audley Street, W1K, nipotinaristorante.com
The wine bar at Farm Shop
Another Mayfair entry, this one just down the street from Nipotina. Underneath the extremely high-end farm shop is a little wine bar, but one with a good array of food. It’s a looker — usually, the crowd is too — with lots of candles, bistro chairs and low lighting. Wine starts, astonishingly for W1, at £5.50 a glass, and a good meal can be had for £14 (steak tartare and toast), while a proper plate of pork belly with roast potatoes is £17.50. A gem hiding in London’s priciest postcode. Read the full review here.
64 South Audley Street, W1K, farmshop.co.uk
Mangal II
Mangal II remains a feted spot at the centre of East London’s modern culinary scene. The Dalston joint has been honoured before; dissected, in fact, such is its importance in playing a part in the capital’s dining culture. Above all else, Mangal II is a glorious place to have dinner: the food is polished but comforting; the cooking skilled and the atmosphere fun. Recently, there has been charred mackerel on green tomato ezme; duck dolmas in fermented pepper broth. A set menu is £50 which, while not cheap cheap, is good value for everything you’re getting (and, in a world of £120-a-head dinners, a relief). Otherwise, expect to pay £20-ish a plate. Here is a true London restaurant — one you would recommend to any visitor, at any time.
4 Stoke Newington Road, N16, mangal2.com
Sweetings
When Sweetings opened, Queen Victoria was on the throne, Preston North End were league champions and the burger had only just been invented. Today it is the City’s last canteen, only open for lunch and with tables that cannot be booked. Order crab, lobster, Dover sole and you will leave much poorer. Sweetings offers affordability, too: bowls of £7 bisque, decades-refined, are properly balanced; the fish pie is £16 and wonderfully rich, especially when matched with a house wine, usually something zingy from the Loire. Even traditionally expensive dishes are here good value, with turbot at £30.
39 Queen Victoria Street, EC4N, sweetingsrestaurant.com
Rambutan
A lot of modern Sri Lankan restaurants have opened in London in recent years. Hoppers is a well-known group, Paradise in Soho is well-loved, and Kolamba just opened a second site in Shoreditch. Then there’s Rambutan, the work of chef Cynthia Shanmugalingam in Borough Market. Here, the speciality is food cooked over open fire, and vegetables, fish and meat are prepared in clay pots. Cooking aromas fill the dining room. The food at Rambutan is beautifully prepared and lovingly sold — no main course, even those with saffron or crab, is much over £20.
10 Stoney Street, SE1 9AD, rambutanlondon.com
Henri
It feels like Jackson Boxer is opening a restaurant every week at the moment. The chef’s latest concept is Dove, which has taken the place of Orasay, and only last year he worked with his brother Frank in putting together a menu for the relaunch of Below Stone Nest, the bar in a church crypt off Shaftesbury Avenue. He also opened Henri in 2024, a modern, Paris-inspired bistro in Henrietta Hotel, Covent Garden. The pre-theatre menu qualifies for cheap but chic: two courses for £26, three for £30, with dishes such as a twirly, sesame-flecked carrot rapee and Toulouse sausage with pomme puree available. Read the full review here.
14, 15 Henrietta Street, WC2E, henricoventgarden.com
Kinkally
Charlotte Street haunt Kinkally celebrates twisted Georgian dumplings with diligent fervour and also happens to have a Berlin-esque bar called Bar Kinky in the basement, for after. Splashing out at this chic little restaurant is easy, not least with dishes such as braised lamb with bone marrow, and trout, asparagus and truffle (both plus-£20; reasonable but not exactly budget). Stick to the khinkali, the dumplings after which the restaurant is named, and suddenly we embark on a dinner more affordable. The dumplings, whether filled with wagyu beef, langoustine, or rabbit and foie gras mousse are just £15 a plate. Read the full review here.
43 Charlotte Street, W1T 1RS, kinkally.co.uk
Dream Bags Jaguar Shoes
Jaguar Shoes is more famous as a bar. The Dalston hangout is well-loved by the Salomon crowd, with jazzy cocktails, club nights and live music, fashion shows and castings. By day, it is a little more subdued. It also serves food from Taco Collective, which was founded in 2020 by a trio eager to escape corporate life. A modern and common London love story. Tacos, then: two for £8, three for £11, with fillings 12-hour braised brisket and marinated king prawns.
32-36 Kingsland Road, Shoreditch, E2, jaguarshoes.com
Chishuru
A Michelin-starred lunch, in Fitzrovia, for £45. Chishuru does one and it is, as David Dickinson would say, a real bobby dazzler. At the moment, starters include sinasir, a fermented rice cake with cherry tomatoes and a clementine and chilli dressing, and bean fritters stuffed with okra and candied chillis. Later comes smoked eel with sweet potato cream, yams, beetroot and pepper relish, or chargrilled guinea fowl with celeriac and a jalapeno and bitter leaf sauce. It is demonstrably wonderful cooking: one of the best value meals in town. Read the full review here.
3 Great Titchfield Street, W1W, chishuru.com
Naughty Piglets
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Margaux Aubrey has grown and developed Naughty Piglets over the past decade into one of south London’s most desirable restaurants. Recently, a series of chef residencies have inhabited the kitchen, each taking the hobs for a month or so. Menus change, one month could feature the food of Marseille, the next, modern takes on the cuisine of Argentina. It’s always interesting and always affordable: two can eat well with change from £50. Wines are, granted, a little dear, but the young list is immaculately sourced. Bottles start at £25. There is also the capital’s best jambon beurre, for £8.
28 Brixton Water Lane, SW2, naughtypiglets.co.uk
Chuku’s
Granted, this particular part of Tottenham hardly screams chic. But inside Chuku’s, a terrific Nigerian tapas spot, it is awash with soft pinks and a good soundtrack. The place is sleek, welcoming, and the food is excellent: plates are around £8-10 and a meal might cost £35-or-so a head, with drinks. For that, expect the likes of jollof quinoa, plantain waffles, chicken covered in kuli kuli sauce and more. Read the full review here.
274 High Road, N15, chukuslondon.co.uk
The Devonshire
Much is said about the Devonshire. The famed back room where musicians and media luvvies mingle with glee; the attention to detail and consideration with which the Guinness is prepared; the small but perfectly formed dining terrace, the use of which feels only just over the horizon. The lunch menu has no options, but three courses, with ingredients as delicious and well-sourced as these, for just £29, is nigh on impossible to find in the provinces, let alone the centre of town. Downstairs, the pubs menu of bar snacks, starting at £2 for sausages and mustard, is a must. Read the full review here.
17 Denman Street, W1D, devonshiresoho.co.uk
Jikoni
Ravinder Bhogal’s Jikoni — now, astonishingly, eight years old — remains as stylish as ever, and still a spot to be seen in. Its basic premise, that it is a “no boarders” kitchen, means that food is deliriously cross-cultural, with dishes that draw from across South Asia, the Far East, the Middle East, East Africa and here in the UK. Marylebone feels like a village and this feels its perfect village restaurant; cosy, inviting, familiar and yet not at the same time. Jikoni can easily cost, but there is a Wednesday-Friday lunch where two courses come in at £32; these will be vegetarian or vegan, with the likes of turnip polenta served with cornbread, and cimi di rapa, or crispy aubergine coated in a Sichuan caramel. The quality is extremely high for the price.
19-21 Blandford Street, W1U, jikonilondon.com
Randall & Aubin
Fine seafood is expensive in Britain, but Randall and Aubin manage to control costs whilst maintaining overt generosity with the food. Order the lobster bisque (£10.50), the picked Devon crab (£14.85) and the bouillabaisse (£23.50) and a few sides, and two will comfortably eat some of London’s finest seafood, while perched beneath a disco ball, for about £30 a head.
16 Brewer Street, W1F, randallandaubin.com
Morchella
A struggle to call this a bargain, but there is good reason to include Morchella: the service charge is included in the prices listed on the menu, so diners can be sure of exactly what they’ll pay when they come in to dine. It stops that rather horrible shock of the bill arriving at significantly more than anticipated, owing to, say, 15 per cent being added on. Morchella is truly an impressive space, being an old bank with vaunted ceilings, and the Mediterranean menu, which changes often, can be somewhat madcap but never less than impressive. Choose wisely and a main might be about £14-18, and most starters are under £10. Cocktails are a fortune so best avoided, but there’s wine from £8.50 a glass.
86 Rosebery Avenue, EC1R 4QY, morchelladining.co.uk
Canton Arms
The delightful menu at the humble Canton Arms has leaned into more European influences over the past few years, yet the pub setting has remained distinctly British. This is no bad thing as the result is a proper British boozer up front punching well above its weight in the dining room in the back. Roasted grelots with romesco arrive deliciously reminiscent of Spanish calçots, there’s French boudin noir, and Italian gnocchetti sardi. Starters might be £9, main courses £24; eating and drinking well here is done with affordable ease.
177 South Lambeth Road, SW8, cantonarms.com
