The best budget menus at London restaurants

The best menu deals under £28

The Ninth
Fitzrovia

At this smart and understated restaurant on Charlotte Street, chef Jun Tanaka’s focus is Mediterranean-style cooking, but with the refinement dial turned to 10. The lunch menu, at £28 for two courses, is amazing value. Dishes might include a tomato tonnato or homemade tortellini starter followed by succulent, grilled poussin or harissa roasted cauliflower main. This is expert treatment of the best seasonal ingredients. For just £4 more you can add a dessert, and if The Ninth’s famous pain perdu is anything to go by, it’s really worth doing that.

En Root
Clapham and Peckham

Enjoy En Root’s special lunchtime deal which consists of delicious coconut curry, golden rice, a daily changing dhal and rainbow salad in a laidback atmosphere. This is old-school vegetarian restaurant vibes and a slap-up lunch for the almost impossible-seeming price of a fiver.

Forza Win
Camberwell

Handmade pasta and wine for £10. WHAT? You read that right, at Forza Win’s new outpost in Camberwell, you can enjoy a bowl of pasta and a great glass of something for just a tenner during the first hour of every service. Which is the same price this bargainous deal was 5 years ago, inflation be damned!

Flat Iron
Covent Garden, Waterloo, Marleybone, London Bridge, Spitalfields, Kings Cross

Famous for their eponymous ‘Flat Iron’ steak – taken from the featherblade and known for its tenderness – Flat Iron still serve up a trademark cut for only £12 at all of their sites, despite rising costs. For the same price, the Herdburger – the invention of Fred Smith, Head of Beef – can be enjoyed, and is made using beef sourced exclusively from the Flat Iron herd in Thirsk, Yorkshire. Add sides including beef dripping chips and crispy bone marrow garlic mash for £4. Soft-serve ice cream seals the deal, and is complimentary, so that makes three dishes for under £20. Ker-ching.

Bocca di Lupo
Soho

At Jacob Kenedy’s Soho restaurant you can enjoy a menu of top quality Italian dishes with change from a twenty. Bocca di Lupo offer a daily lunch special for £12.50, available from £12-3pm. And for a later meal, they also serve up an amazing pre-theatre deal: £15 for a starter, main and salad, with the option for a glass of red or white and a coffee for an additional £10. The menu changes each week, but flavours are always simple and comforting with options like Tigelle with pesto modenese, Rigatoni con salsiccia and silky Fiordilatte.

Mambow
Peckham
Malaysian food is hard to find in London, which is why we’re even more excited by the terrifically good value lunchtime menu at Mambow in Peckham. Rich curry, fluffy rice and pickles for a tenner? Yes PLEASE. Find Mambow inside Market Peckham – a new food hall.

Pahli Hill
Fitzrovia

Pahli Hill in London’s Fitzrovia offers a set lunch menu Tuesday through Saturday of exceptional value. You can get 2 courses for £23, with the option to opt for a meat or vegetarian thali as your main course, which includes (breathe): stir fried spring green beans, ridged courgette kofta, paneer, papad & pickle. Fans of Indian food will be in heaven.

Riding House Café
Bloomsbury

At the newly-opened Riding House Bloomsbury, from 5.30pm you can enjoy a special tasting menu for 28pp for 2, 4 or 6 guests. The ‘Tour De Carte’ takes highlights from Chef Partner Henry Omereye’s globally-inspired menu: expect sourdough roll with black tahini butter; asparagus, feta carrot and seeds; tempura broccoli and king prawn skewers, and nothing but a 40 day aged Côte do boeuf for the main!

Radici
Islington

Lovers of Italian food can enjoy the menu at Radici, located in Islington. Francesco Mazzei offers a £20 menu from Wednesday to Saturday 12pm to 3.30pm, and from Tuesday to Saturday 5pm to 7pm. Expect Southern Italian dishes inspired by Francesco’s hometown of Calabria, such as canneloni or roast porchetta.

Brasserie Zedel
Piccadilly

In the vein of a Parisian bouillon, the ‘Prix Fixe’ menu at Brasserie Zedel in London’s Sherwood Street is just £13 for two courses, or £17.25 for 3. That’s a vegetarian starter; steak, chips, and peppercorn sauce, and a caramel tart with change from a £20. You can’t say fairer than that, mon chérie…

Noble Rot
Soho and Bloomsbury

The seasonal changing set lunch menu at Noble Rot will set you back only £18 for 2 courses or £22 for 3. This restaurant has sharply become a staunch Londoner’s favourite, impressing as much with its chic interiors as in the standard of the simple and refined cooking. Book ahead!

Hawksmoor
Air Street, Borough, Canary Wharf

Enjoy a prime steak with Hawksmoor’s 2/3 course menu including 35-day dry-aged rump steak and chips, and a peanut butter shortbread. Available in London, Manchester and Edinburgh lunch and early evenings. Check your local restaurant for the times this menu is available.

Social Eating House
Soho

Paul Hood opened Social Eating House in April 2013 and was awarded a Michelin star six months later, which tells you all you need to know! The restaurant’s prix fixe menu starts at 2 courses for £24.50 with dishes to choose from such as slow cooked Cumbrian chicken with chorizo, or a strozzapretti pasta, with egg, artichoke and parsley. Desserts are well worth saving room for.

Rick Stein
Barnes

With 2 courses for £22.95 or less, the menu at Rick Stein’s Barnes outpost offers much to be enjoyed. Choices of top-quality fish are always on offer, and might include a clam chowder, smoked haddock with new potatoes or a tamarind and aubergine stew for vegetarians.

For budget recipes and menu planning, check out our collection.