London is an extortionate city and that’s before you order a mortgage-worthy pint to drown your sorrows. Thankfully, there are lots of brilliant (and brilliant value) restaurants to eat in across the entirety of the city. Plates of food that are flavourful and filling, and won’t have you forking out more than £10.
THE SPOTS
Large takeaway container
Our go-to order at this small, bright red cafe in Paddington is a large chicken rice box, which is filled with minced lamb, plenty of shredded chicken, sweet potatoes, roasted carrots, and grilled aubergine, plus a couple of the cold salads. Which by the way are far more than a couple of tomatoes and some limp lettuce—they’ve got couscous, bean salads, a creamy potato number, and plenty more. It’s the kind of food you watch an overachiever meal-prep on FitTok and wish you had the energy, and aesthetically pleasing kitchen, to do the same. It’s a little over a tenner if you choose to eat in, so we like to get our takeaway box and sit by the canal.
Large jerk chicken box
Win, loss, or draw—you’ll find some Arsenal fans looking for satisfaction around The Tastebox’s smoking drum. The Caribbean takeaway spot at the top of Gillespie Road makes some of north London’s smokiest jerk and it’s an excellent meal pre or post match, or any day of the week for that matter. Oxtail stew and curry chicken are always nourishing boxes to get into and, if you’re lucky, you might be able to grab one of the seats outside. More often than not they’re for regulars though—so you might want to put some hours in first.
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Burrito
This Mexican kiosk, set among the gardens and gravestones of St John at Hackney church, slings excellent breakfast burritos, plus hearty egg, bacon, and hash brown tacos. The Quarter Kitchen's barbacoa tacos are worth sitting down with if London weather is playing ball, otherwise get a foil-wrapped breakfast to go. The burrito—tortilla-swaddled scrambled eggs, sausage, hash brown, American cheese, and salsa roja—is no joke. When it’s this good, it’s easy to believe that breakfast truly is the most important meal of the day.
Yogurtlu paca
There is no wintry situation that a soup or stew from Haringey Corbacisi, a no-menu Turkish spot in Harringay, won’t solve. Wander up to their counter to see what’s on offer but, if in doubt, go for the yogurtlu paca. It’s a lamb and yoghurt soup made up of gently stewed meat, an unsociable amount of garlic, and almost as much butter as Nigella Lawson puts on her toast. The pickles and warm bread that come with it are welcome too, as is everything about this comfortable, low-key restaurant.
Falafel pita
All recommendation websites have biases. We’ll more than likely bang on about this place or that place because, well, everyone has favourites. So you’ve more than likely heard or read or even consumed the falafel pitta from Pockets at this point. But that doesn’t mean we won’t stop going on about it, nor eating one on a weekly basis. We can’t stress enough how worthwhile the queue or journey to Hackney's Netil Market for this gorgeously layered, heavily condimented, springily soft falafel pitta is.
Chicken tikka naan
For all of London’s extortionate living expenses and heinous overpricing, there are still unbelievably delicious bargains to be had for a few quid. Take this chicken tikka from Shalamar, just off the Whitechapel Road. The Pakistani canteen-style restaurant is low-key in every way apart from flavour. The chicken tikka—which is under a fiver—is sensational. The kebab is juicy to the point of the meat falling apart under half-arsed fork pressure, while being charred on the edges and purring with chilli powder and turmeric. With a spoon of their simultaneously snappy and creamy mint sauce and a freshly blistered naan… it’s spot on.
Wonton noodle soup
With a tenner in your pocket and rumbling stomach, the conclusion is almost always found in Chinatown’s most brusque and legendary staple. There’s a wealth of choice with a single £10 note at Wong Kei but it’s the scalding wonton noodle soup we tend to turn to. This isn’t the most deeply flavoured soup and nor are the noodles as elastic as hand-pulled establishments. But the wontons are stuffed with minced prawn, the addition of crispy pork belly is essential, and with a spoonful of Wong Kei’s chilli oil, you have one of London’s great good-value meals.
Beef stew
The daytime Camberwell cafe is a favourite among locals seeking hearty nourishment and, on weekends-only, phở with an aromatic broth that’s been tended to like a moving Tamagotchi owner. Midweek, it’s all about the beef stew though. Viscous and fragrant, it’s the colour of the ground at wetter Glastonburys past and the beef is ludicrously feeble. Combined with a handful of gently cooked carrots and dolloped onto a bed of steamed rice, it’s a delicious and almost school-like plate of food. Made for shovelling and spooning.
Sandwich
There are few things more exciting than 40 Maltby Street’s weekly-changing sandwiches. These are doorstop sandwiches of the most Costco variety. The hunking combinations range from coronation pheasant, to homemade fish fingers smothered in tartare and brown shrimps, to cauliflower cheese croquettes with hot sauce, and more. All layered between 40 Maltby’s hard crusted but perfectly springy and moist focaccia. A half will probably sate you but a whole one may well see you skip dinner.
Duubi and bariis
A Somali feast this good cannot be ignored. The lamb shank from Brother’s Cafe doesn’t need much help falling off the bone. Its proximity to the Tottenham Hotspur stadium means that collapsing is in its very DNA. But the vital point of difference between these two destinations in N17 is that Brothers is actually worth travelling for. The lamb and rice are both fragrantly spiced, mixing star anise with turmeric and cinnamon with melt-in-your-mouth fat. Throw in some basbaas—a sharp Somali chilli sauce—and you have an enormous meal that’s easily fit for two people. Or one that likes a second dinner.
Ham, egg, and chips
Ham. Egg. Chips. Three of our favourite words in the English language. Norman’s version of it is unsurprisingly excellent. The Tufnell Park cafe prides itself on faultless, high-quality plates of British breakfast and lunch classics. Plates of food and white bread sandwiches that make you wistful for the playground, with the occasional slice of red Leicester thrown in. As far as ham, egg, and chips go, this one is almost faultless. Thick, salty gammon of the delicious rather than offensive variety; superlative fat chips all crisp and fluffy, begging to be doused with Sarsons; and runny eggs, yolk positively akimbo.
Roti beef rendang
Of all Normah’s delightful dishes, the one that sends us into perfect content silence—and convinces us that it’s not the end of the world if the brown sauce gets on our white trousers—is the roti beef rendang. Arriving in a small bowl filled to the brim with a thick beef stew, topped with crispy onion, and fully covered by two pieces of flaky and lightly charred roti, this braised beef curry is wholesome and comforting. Scooped up with the thick, layered roti makes for perfect bites. The homely Malaysian spot in Queensway is a regular go-to.
Hilib
This Somali spot off Whitechapel Road is a favourite. The tender lamb shank alongside bariis iskukaris and Somali flatbread is the kind of thing we could eat daily. But for £10, the hilib (lamb shoulder) is the way to go. Just like the shank, it falls from the bone and is happily smothered in basbaas (Somali green chilli sauce).
Jerk chicken meal
After one bite of Smokey Jerkey’s jerk chicken, there will be no doubt that south London is well on top in the jerk stakes. The move is: hit Smokey Jerkey for some jerk chicken then happily sit in a nearby park with it and a pot of their enlivening homemade pepper sauce. The depth of char in this jerk isn’t the kind you find north of the river. It’s blackened and sunk in, while the meat stays as tender as it should be. Peering into Smokey Jerkey, you’ll see their smoker in the kitchen—a kind of Robot Wars, garden shed creation that helps make for some of London’s finest Caribbean cooking.
Margherita
This little Italian deli and restaurant is in a quiet bit of Islington between the Essex Road and Upper Street, but nothing about this old-school restaurant is particularly quiet. The staff are joyful, there are bright Fellini posters and Ferrari flags on the wall, and the pizza is something to shout about. Yes, the pie topped with speck and shavings of grana padano is crisp and salty and all the things you want a pizza to be. But sometimes you just can’t beat gooey, expertly formed, blink and it’s gone, margherita.
Falafel pita
There are many things to like about Balady’s Leather Lane location like its grab-and-go convenience, and order station that demands decisiveness. Of course our favourite thing about it is their falafel: crisp and fresh out the fryer, it’s fluffy inside, steaming with green herbiness and spices, all of which cry out for the combination of fruity amba, punchy zhug, and cooling tahini that lines their soft pittas. That will always be the #1 appeal, closely followed by their fantastic hand-cut chips.
Jerk chicken sandwich
One of Hackney's best sandwiches is this sporadically present jerk chicken one. The meat from a freshly grilled leg is methodically pulled off by Otis—the world’s most laconic and considered grill master—and its crisp blackened skin carefully removed with peking duck-like precision. All of this is put between two thick wholemeal slices and topped with careful ladles of fragrant and spiced gravy with carrots, onions, and cabbage knocking about in there as well. It’s available Wednesday to Saturday or, as Otis will tell you, “whenever I feel like getting out of bed”.
Pork and chicken bánh mì
Hai Cafe makes one of London’s finest bánh mìs. This little arm’s length-wide spot in Lower Clapton heftily fills its short baguettes with a combination of spiced pork belly and lemongrass chicken, an intriguing—and wholly delicious—crushed black sesame seed spread, plus pickled bits, green chilli, a slice of head cheese, and, of course, crispy shallots. The pork belly in its classic sandwich is bolshy: caramelised chunks that will undoubtedly fall onto your lap before being transferred deftly into your mouth.
Mixed starters with bread
There’s no point denying our love of bread. One of our favourite breads is from Patogh, an old-school Persian favourite in W1. Their bread is slapped inside the walls of a clay oven, baked and blistered, then arrives at your table still warm, which is the kind of thing that makes our heart start beating a little faster. Made to be torn and dipped and scooped with their shallot yoghurt, houmous, and crunchy shirazi salad—it’s a faultless meal.
