It’s 9.45 pm on a Wednesday and you’ve nabbed a table at London’s hippest East End hangout. You’re shamefully still wearing Sambas, with a pocketful of excuses ready, and your date for the night has just turned up.
Sure, they’re impressed by your ability to secure a table at such a notoriously hard-to-book destination — quarter to 10 is the new half seven, right? — but as you squint at the too-small font on the trend-heavy menu, half-listening to the tediously explained “concept”, the penny drops.
The all-natty wine list starts at £56 a bottle and the staff of art school dropouts recommend anywhere between five and 23 plates, all to share and served whenever the kitchen is ready. “It just depends on how hungry you are,” they say, not especially helpfully.
Doing your best countdown impression — three from the top thanks Carol, the rest from anywhere — and after a perfectly fine dinner, the bill arrives. What did the card machine just read...?
The east vs west cliche has done something of a U-turn of late. As developers, landlords and even the odd greedy restaurateur have cashed in on the cool cache of the East End, this once cheap mecca of interesting eating has become increasingly expensive.
For similar money — or even quite a bit less — diners could be in the glittering West End. It’s not just that the east has become pricey: W1 and its ilk has seen a boom of restaurants which, alongside glitz and gilt and caviar, also offer surprisingly good value and swerve the stereotypes of a £250-a-head night out.
Of course, there are still some astonishingly good restaurants in east London (Perilla, Bistroteque and Singburi remain perennial favourites), and there are still the holes-in-the-wall serving bargain bites out east (the West End does badly here), alongside bona fide masterpieces like Mambow, where two can comfortably dine for £90. But it feels like bastions of progressive cooking seem to be thinning out, with more than a handful of trendy hotspots hoping diners won’t notice the bigger plates on the menu are upwards of £35 a pop, and require a couple of side dishes before they can be considered a “main”. And who, really, wants to travel for an hour in a cab to spend £100-a-head on a few plates of anchovies in something resembling a light industrial estate?
A good night out should feel special, slightly naughty, cosseting and luxurious. On these grounds, and when they cost much the same, splashing out in the West End over sitting on a concrete slab out east seems an easy choice.
And so, replace those Sambas with a pair of dancing shoes, get dolled up, and head to London’s playground. Below is where to do it — none represent a “cheap night out”, but all offer some surprisingly good value eating, where just a pinch of conscious ordering is required.
The Dover
Really? One of London’s hardest-to-book, sexiest new Mayfair openings? Such is the expense of the east end these days that it brings into sharp focus how comparatively reasonable The Dover can be. You’ll not be resigned to the cheapest items on the menu — after all, a budget night out in Mayfair isn’t better than a blowout Hackney dinner — instead, we’re talking Vesper martinis, a bottle of Chardonnay, roast beef and London’s best spaghetti meatballs, all for £100-a-head. Better still, a glass of wine and a bowl of pasta at the bar costs just £27.
33 Dover Street, W1S 4NF, thedoverrestaurant.com
Bob Bob Ricard
The glitz and glamour of Bob Bob Ricard belie how affordable the restaurant truly is. Here one can opt for vodka shots and oysters before bolshy main plates and decent wine, and it can all come in under £100-a-head. While there is the opportunity to drop the deposit for a small flat here (just look for anything with lobster and caviar), things open at just £11 for a starter, £27 for the famous chicken kyiv, and the strawberries and cream souffle is just £9. The wine markup is famously low and while the food is decent, the reason to come is the glamour, so there’s no need to go wild. Spending less never felt so luxurious.
1 Upper James Street, W1F 9DF, bobbobricard.com
Donia
One of London’s hottest restaurants, Donia is ideally located for a glamorous west end night on the tiles — from Kingly Court, the clubs of Soho beckon. It’s a place where you can get close to ordering the whole menu (and yes, you’ll really want to). Start by sharing the skewers (£3.50), the perhaps having the dumplings (£15) or Kinilaw (£11), followed by the famed Caldereta pie (£26) or chicken Inasal (£25), and the food bill remains under £45 a head. This leaves more than enough headroom for a delicious wine, the list for which starts at £35, but there’s a very decent 2021 Morgon at £55 if money allows. Comfy chairs, too.
Top Floor, Kingly Court, W1B 5PW, doniarestaurant.com
Arlington
A bottle of Fleurie? Next door to the Ritz? For £56? Given the name, where it is, and the quality, and suddenly it’s an occasion that won’t break the bank. Add to that chicken Milanese (£26), the famed shepherd’s pie (£19.75) and the bang bang chicken salad (£15.75), and suddenly everyone is eating decently for about £60-80 each. It might mean skipping a martini or two, but on the other hand, Jeremy King’s revival is consistently packed out with a good crowd, much as it was in its heyday.
20 Arlington Street, SW1A 1RG, arlington.london
Bocca Di Lupo
People sometimes mislabel Bocca Di Lupo, consigning it to a realm of “spendy Italians” along with the likes of Sette and the River Cafe. It needn’t be. In fact, this glorious, seasonal, regional Italian hotspot can offer fabulous value. No need to skimp, but navigate the menu wisely — perhaps just share one the frankly huge plates of sweetbreads (£32, but it’ll do two) or the grill pork chop with sage (£21) which, after some antipasti (that starts from £3), and pasta (from £11), should leave you with a food bill under about £55-a-head. Plenty of space for some vino then, and with wine that starts at £29 a bottle and with most bins available under £70, this comfortable, sexy Italian is buono, no?
12 Archer Street, W1D 7BB, boccadilupo.com
Kitty Fisher’s
Three courses, sides, wines and service — all for £100-a-head, in one of London’s most romantic little hideouts. After its early days as a certified talking point, in 2024 Kitty Fisher’s has become a fabulously underrated restaurant. Asparagus with brown crab mayo, whipped cod’s roe, hake with brown shrimp, Swaledale lamb and all the trimmings, with a carafe of something good and a cocktail for good measure? Remarkably, all of that will come in at under £100-a-head. Or pop in for a generous pea soup with Slipcote cheese croquettes (£10) followed by classic Welsh rarebit for just £11 and a glass of crisp 2022 Ciu Ciu from Falerio at £7 a glass. For under £30, you can reaffirm the notion that the West End is a playground full of great value eating.
10 Shepherd Market, W1J 7QF, kittyfishers.com
The Palomar
A small plates restaurant that actually works is a rare thing. Instead of fiddling around with dividing the final flimsy asparagus by three, or staring at a questionable burrata, the dishes at the Palomar encourage diners to get elbow-deep in labneh (£7), baba ganoush (£7) and kubaneh with tahini (£7). Bigger ribeyes are there for about £36 too, which might do on its own. Or, there’s the great value £28 set menu too, which, when topped by up a £5 za’atar gibson martini, is a bargain of a winner. This is a restaurant not built on expensive sharing plates, but an inclusive sharing culture. There’s a difference, and it shows. It also happens to remain unshakably cool, despite being a decade old.
34 Rupert Street, W1D 6DN, thepalomar.co.uk
L’Escargot
Fine French fare is one cuisine that tends to get an expensive label attached to it, automatiquement. Bona fide Soho institution L’Escargot though manages to serve classics including lobster bisque, snail and mushroom pie, half-a-dozen oysters and crab mayonnaise with pickled cucumber each for, or just under, £20. This means three courses from the main menu, once again, not skimping on the order, should come in at about £60-70 a head, leaving a decent budget for wine and service charge. That said, there are also remarkably good set menu options too, including a two-course Sunday lunch for £35 and a two course prix fixe for £27 (three for £32).
