London might well be the world’s greatest food city, but thanks to do a never-ending cost of living crisis, it’s not like any of us can eat out as much as we’d like to. So welcome to our list of London’s best cheap eats. Every highlighted dish here costs £10 or less and variety is the name of the game. Expect London staples such as pie & mash, but also discover the best bargain places for naan, lahmacun, baps, doubles and burgers. These places give you the kind of buzz only a bargain bite can deliver, while you can relish the fact that you’re supporting small independent London businesses. So hit the streets – feasting at some of London’s best restaurants needn’t empty your wallet.
RECOMMENDED: The best vegan restaurants in London.
Leonie Cooper is Time Out London’s Food and Drink Editor. For more about how we curate, see our editorial guidelines.
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Brave the queues at this small but mighty hole-in-the-wall Chinatown spot, which serves up jianbing pancakes and superlative street food. Whipped up right in front of you, these lacey crepes are stuffed with spring onions, chilli oil, pickles, hoisin sauce and pork belly if you want to make it meaty. Worth the wait.
Price: Crepes start at £5; buns at £3.
You probably wouldn’t stumble upon Asian Takeaway unless you were looking for it, but it’s more than worth the quest. Tucked away off Rye Lane, this little hatch is banging out shish and curries like nobody’s business, for really affordable prices. The daily selection tends to include an on-the-bone chicken dish and their great chana masala, and a combo platter won’t set you back much over a fiver. On a hot day, eat at the tables next to the truck, and make sure to order a naan, freshly made on the tandoor, to scoop everything up.
Price: Combo platter, £5.50.
Sandwich lovers, assemble. This endlessly charming deli has been run by the same family since 1900 and has an epic line out of the door every lunchtime. Punters come in their droves for old school sarnies made to order by white-coated servers who offer up more fillings than Pret could ever muster. Salt beef, tuna mayo, many, many kinds of cheese, they've got it all. Eat-in at the fabulous formica tables and on caff-style seating, while surrounded by jars of jam.
Price: Cucumber and cream cheese sandwich, £3.50; pastrami, £9.
Just of Peckham's main Rye Lane, you'll find this family-run food truck serving up sublime, North African-style wraps packed with with falafel, halloumi, and lamb and chicken shawarma. All the bread is freshly made, and they slather everything in a bounty of stunning sauces.
Price: Chicken shawarma wrap; £7.
A slice of Echo Park in Stoke Newington, this LA-style taco joint offers a short menu of grill and guisado (braised) tacos. Most are pork and beef-based, though there’s a cactus leaf nopales offering for vegetarians and faux chorizo for vegans. A sensible diner would order three tacos, but you’d be within your rights to order four, even five. Prices are extremely reasonable, and though they look petite, Sonora’s paper-thin tortillas come packed to the floury brim. Truly excellent stuff.
Price: Carne asada taco; £4.50, barbacoa taco £4.50; bean quesadilla £2.
Found within the Radha-Krishna Temple on Soho Street, Govinda's restaurant serves up what they describe as karma-free food. Vegetarian and vegan dishes with an Indian lean are the speciality here. Plus there are at least ten salads on the menu each day – think mango, celery and walnut or fried, marinated courgette and aubergine. It's all offered to Lord Krishna before it hits the plate, too, so you're getting a free slice of Krishna's mercy for good measure.
Price: A vegan thalis with five items is £7.95
This Latin American indoor market was recently saved from the developers axe; even more reason to go and feast on authentic Colombian food in the friendly cafe in this popular community spot. Empanadas are a big draw, but the meat-y, brothy sancocho soup is the true elixir, packed with veg, yuca and meat on the bone. It just feels good for you.
Price: Sancocho; £5.
From the team behind Dom’s Subs and Rasputin’s bar, Juptier Burger is a grab-and-go burger joint nestled into Netil Market. Inspired by futurist 1950s architecture, it looks a little bit like a spaceship and sells two things; burgers and fries. Their lightly smashed Hill and Szrok beef pattys come sandwiched between Martin’s yellow-hued potato rolls. A veggie option is available, and a portion of fries come as standard with every burger.
Price: Cheeseburger and fries; £10.
A grab-and-go neighbourhood treat, the gem in Stamford Hill's crown is this much-loved Caribbean takeout spot. Trinidadian doubles with tamarind sauce, or curried lamb roti are the way to go – and don't forget to wash it all down with some fruit punch.
Price: Doubles; £4 for veg (channa or pumpkin and channa), £5 for jerk or curry chicken, £6 for curry lamb or curry goat.
Done out like a Tamil truck stop with lurid lighting, furniture the colour of Sunny Delight and movies on the flatscreen TV, this Sri Lankan-South Indian caff is famed for its minuscule prices and superlative dosas. Veggie options are the standouts – the Mysore masala dosa, served with spiced onion, potatoes and three house chutneys is a winner, as are the onion utthapam and veg biryani.
Price: Dosas from £5.25.
A family-run Vietnamese cafe in Clapton, where Mama Hai rules the roost and puts buckets of love into every dish she prepares. It's the sensational mango salad that you'll want to order. It's walk-ins only, but everything is £2 cheaper if you bag if for takeway when all the tables are taken.
Price: Mango salad; £7 takeaway, £9 eat-in.
Dalston’s Dusty Knuckle Bakery – and their Harringey Green Lanes cousin – know how to slay a hangover. Their epic egg, chilli and cheese sandwich (served only in the mornings on the weekends, but all day through the week), is a sloppy, soul-saving riot of pickled green chillies, spring onions and coriander on focaccia. Best consumed when the fabric between life and the hereafter is at its thinnest.
Price: £7.60 (add bacon for £2.20).
Get on your bike (quite literally, as it's near the bikers paradise that is the High Beech tea hut) and head down to this seriously fresh seafood spot in the heart of Epping Forest. Open Thursday to Sunday, swing by for hot and cold platters full of prawns, cockles, whelks and more. Their most iconic dish though, comes in a massive, buttered bun, stuffed with scallops, bacon and black pudding.
Price: Pint of cold prawns; £6.50. Scallop, bacon and black pudding roll; £8.
London’s first ever fully Scottish deli offers a whole host of authentic Scottish food and drink. The filled Glasgow morning rolls for breakfast are a treat (choose between veggie haggis, meaty haggis, square sausage and Stornoway black pudding), but the hot sandwiches for lunch aka ‘pieces’ are where it’s really at. Try the skirlie stuff option, with field mushooms, confit garlic butter, skirlie stuffing (fried oatmeal) and crowdie cheese sauce for £9.50. If you eat-in you can have a pint of draft Tennent's lager to wash it all down with.
Price: Rolls from £4.50. Pieces £9.50-£10.
This kid-friendly Japanese café canalside on the Kingsland Basin, close to Haggerston station, offers up an ever-changing daily set lunch menu of a main dish, rice, miso soup and a small salad. Always delicious and always packed full of variety, there are also rice balls, teas, Japanese toasts and desserts. The name translates as 'kids on the floor', so expect a few of those, too.
Price: Set lunch £8.90
A satisfyingly low-key Kurdish tandoor which pumps out a seriously decent variety of naan-style bread in Finsbury Park, from plain to peshwari via garlic, chilli and cheese. They're so loved that nearby natural wine bar Top Cuvee has even done a collab with them.
Price: Falafel wrap £5.50; three plain naan £1.50.
Michele Manze and family arrived from Italy in 1878, started out as ice-cream merchants and finally opened this pie, mash and eel shop on Tower Bridge Road in 1902. Inside, little seems to have changed since those early days: the Victorian green-tiled interiors speak of history, while the pie and mash is reckoned to be some of the best in town. A truly iconic London feast and one that comes with a reasonable price to boot.
Price: Pie and mash, £5.95.
The very best of Trinidadian fare, from homemade drinks such as sorrel to snacks like doubles, aloo pie and pholourie - warm, light, airy fritters made from split peas doused in tamarind chutney. For mains, there’s dhal puri roti (roti stuffed with split peas) and delicious flaky ‘buss up shut’ (paratha) to eat alongside curry chicken, curry goat or stew chicken. There’s also pumpkin, bodi (green beans) and spinach for a plant based meal.
Price: Curry goat with rice and peas; £10.
Durak Tantuni is an all-night (well, until 2am) Turkish spot at the Turnpike Lane end of West Green Road in north London where they have perfected the art of tantuni – an endlessly tasty dürüm wrap stuffed with fried beef, parsley, onions and a smattering of sumac. A plate of pickled chillis and lemon comes alongside every order - squeeze the lemon over the meat to liven things up a notch.
Price: £4.50 for a tantuni wrap; £9 for tantuni in bread.
The sign outside announces ‘ale, cider, meat’, and that pretty much sums up what’s on offer at one of the best pubs in north London. It's their small but powerful bar snack menu that really sets this boozer apart. The roast pork bap is the finest meaty treat in town and comes complete with heroic crackling and oozy apple sauce. Vegetarians won't be lonely; there are cheese baps and veggie Scotch eggs on offer, too.
Price: Hot roast pork bap £5.95; pork pies £4.50; cheese and chutney bap £5.75.
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