The best budget menus at London restaurants

The best menu deals under £45

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 a 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.

Bébé Bob
Soho

Everyone loves a chicken dinner and the express lunch menu at Bébé Bob (sister restaurant of Bob Bob Ricard) is one for lovers of chicken nuggs. Eating at this chic, Golden Square restaurant definitely feels like a pricier experience than the bill will be, complete with highly attentive service and enchanting interiors. Booths and seating are in a tasteful Mondrian palate of primary colours, and for £19 here, you can enjoy a generous portion of free-range, corn and milk fed chicken nuggets. The top quality chicken from the Landes region in south west France is served with chilli mayonnaise, enough fries to keep you very happy indeed, and a side salad in vinaigrette for good measure.

Maison Francois
St James’s

Maison Francois is a classy French bistro and a lovely place to while away a couple of hours. This January they’re offering diners a top-quality lunch for just £15 a head, with a range of French classics including steak frites, moules-frites and saucisse lentils all on the menu. For the sweet-toothed, the restaurant will also be offering glass of champagne and a treat from the dessert trolley for the same price – the perfect energy booster after a day spent shopping in the January sales.

The Laundry
Brixton

At this relaxed bistro on Coldharbour Lane, food that makes you feel good is executive chef Sami Harvey’s forté. The new weeknight set dinner menu at £29 a head is no different. The menu will change regularly with the seasons, but will always consist of 3 generous sharing starter dishes followed by a main each that highlights the best vegetables on offer when you visit. When so much bistro food can be overly rich and leave you feeling assaulted by butter, it’s refreshing to go for a weeknight dinner that’s super delicious but still contains enough plants to keep the nutritionists happy. The cocktail list includes some brilliant alcohol free options for those middle-of-the-week meet ups, and the service is charmingly easy-going, too.

Joia
Battersea

Atop the art’otel opposite Battersea Power Station sits Joia, a Portuguese restaurant in which you not only get a killer view out westwards across the river, but you can also enjoy a three-course set lunch menu on Fridays for £45. Portions of each course are sizeable, and diners can choose from an octopus salad or wild mushroom soup to start, followed by classic arroz de marisco (rice with red prawns, mussels and razor clams) or feijoada (a bean dish served with exotic mushrooms and coriander). To finish, a melting basque cheesecake or rhubarb with white port sorbet hits the spot for those who want rich and indulgent or fresh and invigorating. Well worth a visit.

Kolamba
Soho

Kolamba is a Sri Lankan restaurant off Carnaby street offering delicious dishes in a casual setting. Their new budget lunch menu costs just £17.50 a head, and includes classic starters of fish cutlet with curry mayo or a banana blossom Pattie. The main is a curry and rice bowl, with main course choices ranging from Ceylon chicken curry to a cashew or pineapple fry. Portions aren’t enormous, but come perfectly formed, with dal, cabbage, symbols and chutney served alongside a bed of rice.

Luca
Clerkenwell

The charming Luca might have a Michelin star, but their express lunch menu means you can taste this top-quality cooking for £32 for 2 courses. We love this spot for its beautiful interiors and flavours that can kid you you’re on holiday if you just squint a bit. Expect starters such as stracciatella with grilled peach and cucumber or conchilgie with roasted pepper and pine nuts followed by mains based around protein: Cornish haddock with jersey royals, or bavette steak served with roasted onion and datterini tomatoes. Desserts, if you have room, will take the price per-person up to £38 each and include tiramisu or a ricotta mousse with pistachios and citrus.

En Root
Clapham and Peckham

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

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 serves up its trademark cut for only £14 at all of its sites, despite rising costs. Add sides including beef dripping chips and crispy bone marrow garlic mash for £4. Soft-serve ice cream for dessert seals the deal, and is complimentary. That’s 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 offers a brilliant value daily lunch and pre-theatre deal: £15 for a starter and main, with the option to include a dessert and coffee for an additional £6. The menu changes each week, but flavours are always simple and comforting with options like cacio e pepe or gricia rigatoni.

Pahli Hill
Fitzrovia

Pahli Hill in London’s Fitzrovia offers a set lunch menu Tuesday through Saturday of exceptional value. You can get two courses for £25, 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 and pickle. Fans of Indian food will be in heaven.

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 three. 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 two courses or £22 for three. This restaurant has become a staunch favourite of Londoners, impressing as much with its chic interiors as the standard of the simple and refined cooking. Book ahead!

Hawksmoor
Air Street, Borough, Canary Wharf, Guildhall, Knightsbridge, Seven Dials, Spitalfields, Wood Wharf

Enjoy a prime steak and a side at Hawksmoor for just £19.50. Available in London, Liverpool, Manchester and Edinburgh too, at lunch and in the early evening. 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 two courses for £29.50, with dishes such as Cornish pollock, sweetcorn and mussels mouclade, or braised pork collar, squash and French beans to choose from. Desserts are well worth saving room for.

Rick Stein
Barnes

With a set lunch menu for £17.50, Rick Stein’s Barnes outpost offers much to be enjoyed. A choice of top-quality fish is always on offer, and the menu might include clam chowder, smoked haddock with new potatoes or a tamarind and aubergine stew for vegetarians.

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