Café Below

This budget-priced haven in the undercroft below St Mary-le-Bow Church started life in 1989 as homely vegetarian cafeteria The Place Below, but smartened up slightly a few years ago - and added meat.

It's still a busy takeaway and eat-in lunch spot for City workers (arrive by 12.30pm to bag a table), but now opens from breakfast, via afternoon tea and early evening nibbles, to dinner.

The daily changing seasonal menu features soup, salads, hearty sandwiches and hot dishes, and suppliers are name-checked (Tudge's sausages and bacon, Brindisa chorizo, River Farm smoked salmon).

There are vegetarian specials aplenty, such as a comforting spinach and mung bean casserole with a coriander and pepper salsa, alongside the likes of noodles with slow-braised pork slivers, pak choi and a light ginger-chilli dressing.

Drinks include Meantime beer, Dunkertons cider, and wine. Stone walls and wooden tables mean this is a noisy venue when packed; it's calmer come the evening when the menu is less café, more restaurant.

Pan-fried sea bream, creamed leeks and crushed new potatoes, and rump steak with red wine sauce, are typical dinner dishes - but prices remain very reasonable. A welcome addition is the waiter-service outdoor eating area in Bow Churchyard.