Not Breaking the Bank in London
 

Some friends are visiting London in about 2 weeks. Can anyone suggest a few interesting and enjoyable dinner spots... ethnic OK... that would run about £20 per person without wine? Somewhere in Central London would be fine. I thought of Kensington Place as they have a prix fixe dinner.

Copied from Evening Standard's Insider Guide:

Abu Zaad
Cuisine: Middle Eastern
Rating: Food 4 stars, Service 3 stars, Ambiance 3 stars
Description: "Eat yourself senseless for a fiver a head!" -- it's not just low prices, though, which inspire fans of this "very authentic" Syrian, near Shepherd's Bush Market, but also a "huge choice of exciting dishes"; the rear dining room is rather "opulent", too, at least by local standards.
Price: £16 (per person)
Address: 29 Uxbridge Road, London W12
Phone: 020 8749 5107
Open: Lunch
Dinner: -11 pm

Amaranth
Cuisine: Thai
Food: 4 stars Service: 5 stars Ambience: 4 stars
Description: "Absolutely fantastic" cooking (that's "very good value", too) and incredibly "smiley" service have won a "massive following" -- by Earlsfield standards -- for this "outstanding Thai BYO"; "booking is vital".
Price: £19 (per person)
Address: 346 Garratt Lane, London SW18 4ES
Phone: 020 8871 3466
Dinner: 6 pm-10.30 pm
Dinner only, closed Sun

Bar Estrela
Cuisine: Portuguese
Food: 4 Stars Service: 3 stars Ambience: 3 stars
Description: "The biggest and best of the Portuguese places along South Lambeth Road", this "thriving" café (with pleasant tables outside) is simply "wonderful"; "cheap and cheerful tapas" are the highlight of a huge menu.
Price: £20 (per person)
Address: 111-115 South Lambeth Road, London SW8 1UZ
Phone: 020 7793 1051
Open: Lunch
Dinner: -11 pm

Chowki
Cuisine: Indian
Food: 4 stars Service: 4 stars Ambience: 3 stars
Description: "Astonishing value, given the location and the constantly-changing menu" -- this "novel", year-old Indian near Piccadilly Circus has won instant popularity as a "great central place to eat".
Price: £23 (per person)
Address: 2-3 Denman Street, London W1D 7HA
Phone: 020 7439 1330
Open: Lunch
Dinner: 5.30 pm-11.30 pm

The Eagle
Cuisine: Mediterranean
Food: 4stars Service: 2 stars Ambience: 4 stars
Description: "The original is still the best", says one of the legion of fans of London's first gastropub (1991)& "if you can get a seat", that is; it's the "the great rustic food" (Mediterranean) which is the attraction -- not the "smoky" and "packed" setting or the "somewhat arrogant" staff.
Price: £24 (per person)
Address: 159 Farringdon Road, London EC1 3AL
Phone: 020 7837 1353
Open: Lunch
Dinner: 6.30 pm-10.30 pm
Closed Sun dinner

There are 93 pages of cheap London restaurants, so I only got to the E's... if you live (or spend a lot of time) in London, I highly recommend spending the 10 quid it costs to join the Insider's Guide at This Is London... they have a whole section called "Cheap" and it's saved me loads in the past couple of years.

www.thisislondon.co.uk

Good luck!

Thanks for the great reply!

Other suggestions...
 

http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/showthread.php?t=340050

My review of Viet Noodle Bar on Greek Street. Good Pho and other Vietnamese specialties.

http://www.balibalirestaurant.com/

Quite good Indonesian, Malay and Thai. If you get there early (before 7) they have a set meal that's usually pretty good. Closest tube is Leicester Square and Convent Garden.

http://www.chutneymary.com/

This is a great Indian place in Chelsea. It's a little on the pricey side, but it's best to be SURE, rather than guess.

http://www.veeraswamy.com/index.htm

Another good Indian place; it is off Piccadilly Circus. Same owners, I believe.

http://www.cafepacifico-laperla.com/Pages/Pac_Lon.htm

If you get lonely for Mexican, this is the best place I've found in London.

http://www.coventgarden.org.uk/featu...tea_house.html

Best Teas in London

Timothy

..............................

The Albert Pub in London is great. The lunch we had there was our favorite meal in London. I haven't been there recently, but about 2 years ago, lunch was about 14 pounds per person for a prix fixe menu that included dessert, but not alcohol if I recall correctly. The food was excellent and the ambience was fabulous, very ornate. Many members of parliament dine there, so many that they installed a bell there to let the members know when they need to return to parliament. The pub is not far from Westminster Abbey. Not sure whether they serve dinner or not or if so, what it costs, but it is a wonderful choice for lunch.

http://www.pubs.com/albesw1.htm


Hope your friends have a great trip.

Guys, if you want Asian noodles, go for the Hare & Tortoise mini chain where professional Malaysian Chinese cooks prepare your precious Yakisoba & co. Don't let that underpaid student working in the Wagamama kitchen take revenge on you for the too short coffee breaks. Apart from some Vietnamese Pho joints in Chinatown nobody does noodles better.

There's nothing more British to me than Fish & Chips. A great place for it is the Rock and Sole Plaice, at 47 Endell Street, which is near Convent Garden. It's one of the oldest Fish & Chip places in London. :)

For my husband and me, food is generally fuel to keep us going when we're traveling. We were in London last year and dropped into Sainsbury's a lot- it's a grocery chain that has selections of sandwiches and other food to go. Not very elegant, but it doesn't break the budget and it gives you a few pounds to spend someplace a little extravagant. In our case, it was a dinner at Simpson's-in-Strand!

Thanks for all the good suggestions. I've put all of them in my files for future use. We're going to eat at The Cinnamon Club. During this month of January, they have a fairly reasonable prix fixe dinner and lunch so it seemed a good time to try this lovely spot.

If anyone is interested, the details are on www.london-eating.co.uk (a very handy website).

Re:Sainsbury's... it's my local supermarket. Their prepared Peking duck dinner with pancakes is something I never found in the States! I prefer Waitrose, but that's the pricey spread. :-)

All sorts of suggestions here.

Thanks, Wingnut. I especially liked the sounds of this one... not for our dinner but for me wandering around!

>For my money, the best sandwich in London is a chicken melt from Earl's on Endell St in Covent Garden. Chicken, cheese, red onionss & horseradish sauce (which sounds odd with chicken, I'll grant you, but is actually fantastic) toasted in ciabatta. The trick is that they microwave it a little first to get the cheese melting, hence avoiding the standard "panini problem" of burnt bread and cold filling.<

While I'm here, do you have a good suggestion for Islington? We're going to a Flamenco do there in a few weeks. I want to have a good lunch first.

Many thanks.

As a rule, I try to avoid Upper Street. When I do venture to N1, however, I like:

Gallipolli, a nice Turkish place andLa Porchette for pizza. There's also a nice central/south American place but I can't for the life of me remember its name...

Cafe Espania
 

I highly recommend Cafe Espania on Old Compton St in Soho/West End. It is tapas restaurant that has great and plentiful food that is easy on the wallet. If you select wisely you can probably get by on 20 GBP WITH wine.

My husband is fond of Belgo - he says for the food, but I think he enjoys the beer selection a bit more. :) So whenever we are in London we have to go to Belgo Centraal at least once. Depending on when you go, you can get pretty good prices (they usually have lunch specials plus they have their Beat the Clock deal).