Though eating out is increasingly expensive in London, there’s no reason to fall into Wagamama’s flavourless arms or lean yet again on a branch of Ivy brasserie, which should only ever be used as a last resort.
London is full of accessible dining. And at restaurants that might otherwise appear out of reach. Scores of independent, family-run places, else smaller groups that still operate as a restaurant rather than a food factory, offer excellent set menus. Some are periodical and subject to change, but most are available throughout the year.
Here you’ll find a list of 45 restaurants that offer good set menus. This list has been updated over the past three years. As of April 2026, the prices and deals stand, but check before you book or visit.
- Plat du midi: £15/16
- Table d’hôte: £29
- Siu yeh: £18
David Loftus
“I never wanted to do this, but here I am,” Amy Poon told me last year, having revived her parents’ much-loved Chinese restaurant after so long out of the game. But her pop-ups in 2018 proved to be so successful that it turned out a full-on comeback was inevitable, and now Poon’s exists again, newly installed in Somerset House. The restaurant serves old classics from the original Chinatown menu such as magic soup and roast duck salad, as well as new dishes. The Ode to Fuschia (a homage to the respected author Fuschia Dunlop) is made with silken tofu, avocado and diced pidan, while The Hill That Amy Didn’t Die On is a heritage recipe for sesame prawn toast, spruced up with a sliver of lardo. There are three deals available at Poon’s: the plat du midi, between 12-2.30pm each day, brings a choice between magic soup, zha jiang noodles (just as it was served on Lisle Street in the 1970s), or a wonton noodle bowl; the table d’hôte is on each day until 6.30pm and includes the same soup, three small dishes from the menu and claypot rice; and the siu yeh, a late-night meal popular in southern China which is simply noodles or rice topped with fish or meat. Here it’s on from 9pm.
- Lunch specials: £12.80, £13, and £14.85 (depending on veggie/meat)
MW EAT
There are all manner of offers at Masala Zone, one of London’s most popular everyday Indian restaurant groups. The food at each one is solid and hugely affordable, even at locations in the centre of town. The thalis are particularly satisfying, while curries such as butter chicken and lamb rogan josh hit the spot, not least because each is less than a tenner. But it’s hard to look past the lunch specials, three options all under £15 and available from midday until 5pm every day. There’s a masala omelette toastie naan, made with onion, tomato, green chilli and coriander and layered with cream cheese and a tangy, Bengali-style chutney; a masala dosa with sambar and coconut chutney; and a lamb keema dosa with the same accouterment.
- Tea tales: £25 per person
Dim Sum Library
This new(ish) Covent Garden restaurant brings upmarket Cantonese dishes without the common Mayfair price tag. The food is quite glamorous, but the room is pared back, somewhere for a quick lunch rather than a long, boozy Friday night. On the a la carte menu are new-age London classics like wagyu beef puffs, king crab and sea urchin spring rolls, lobster bao and black truffle chicken. Lavish, but affordable, mostly. But none would fill you up on their own (unless Ozempic is involved). The tea tales menu, at £25 per person, will. It’s a two-tier dim sum afternoon tea. Dumplings include mushroom and beetroot, sea bass and prawn, as well as crispy pork wontons and the restaurant’s signature wagyu beef puffs (usually £15). The two-course menu comes with unlimited tea and a little egg tart for pudding (a third course, perhaps, but super dainty).
- Lighter: £9.95
- Classic: £12.45
The cult burger slinger Meatliquor, now with three sites in East Dulwich and Oxford Circus — in addition to sister bar Bloodsports — puts on two lunch deals every weekday between 12-4pm. The first is a lighter option and includes a simple cheeseburger (beef or vegetarian), hotdog or fried chicken sandwich with French fries or coleslaw, and the second, for less than £3 more, opens up the entire burger menu. Highlights? One is the legendary Dead Hippie burger, made with two mustard-fried beef patties, American cheese, house sauce, pickles, lettuce and white onion, and another is the Parma, which comprises a slab of breadcrumbed mozzarella, fried chicken, marinara sauce and parmesan in a bun. Both offers include a drink and are very much worth your time.
- Menu espresso: £30
- Menu Vibrato: £82
Soho’s hottest Italian restaurant doesn’t come cheap: small plates, from gratinated mussels to salt cod with potatoes, start at £11; pasta dishes begin at £24 and sides move upwards from £8. But you want to eat this food. Osteria Vibrato delivers excellent Italian cookery, regional and traditional — or at least adjacent to tradition — in a chic room of white linen tablecloths and flickering candlelight. The white risotto, made with 30-month aged Parmesan and a classic of Lombardy, is stunning. It’s also £28. So those who have less to spend might consider the menu espresso, new this month (April 2026), and which comprises a starter of antipasti before pasta or soup each lunch time (midday until 2.30pm). At the time of writing, the pasta served is tagliatelle con ragu bianco di cortile, a white ragu — often with rabbit but any meat goes — from Emilia Romagna, or ribollita, which is a thick, bean-laden stew from Tuscany (some would say “peasant” here; I will not). Otherwise, the menu Vibrato is a veritable four-course feast at £82.
- Play du jour: £27.50
- Prix-fixe: £21 for two courses; £24.50 for three courses
- Formulae: £29.75
The more casual restaurant at the newly opened Simpsons in the Strand, Romano’s specialises in “Grand Café-style English cooking”, owner Jeremy King says, which is served in a beautiful room by some of the best staff in the business. There are three deals here. One is the plat du jour, available Monday to Saturday for £27.50. Not bad? Even better when you consider that it buys you a sirloin steak (not the ubiquitous bavette) with French fries and beurre maître d’ hotel (herb butter). Otherwise, there’s a daily three-course prix-fixe that begins with a celeriac remoulade, offers a mushroom vol-au-vent or sausages with bean stew for the main course, and finishes with a glorious custard tart; and the formulae menu, which raises the game slightly by way of a tomato and courgette tart, Lincolnshire Poacher souffle, and an accompanying drink (house wine or beer).
- Two courses: £26
- Three courses: £30
Adrian Lourie
This debut set menu is a blinder. It’s quite a Hopkinsonian restaurant, Cafe Cecilia, insofar as everything is charmingly simple but deceptively so where it matters: as with anywhere worthwhile, goodness is in the minutiae. The first offer comprises a celeriac soup with brown butter and hazelnuts, before breaded Middle White (Fergus Henderson’s favourite pork) with a fried egg and an anchovy for oomph. Fans will be upset to learn that Guinness cake isn’t on the set. Rather, it’s banana bread with Guinness ice cream, pecans and espresso. A decent alternative. Otherwise, go here for breakfast and have boiled eggs and Coolea on toast for £13.
- Plat du jour: £15, or £20 with a glass of wine
James Nelson
Of a similar school and popular with a similar crowd, Cafe Deco is a wonderful restaurant from the chef Anna Tobias and the team behind 40 Maltby Street, which remains a benchmark for modern dining in London. Nuance was lost a few years ago when people started musing upon a “beige food” trend and marking Cafe Deco down as a forerunner. Anyway, the plat du jour here is clearly one of the best options in London, with dishes such as salt cod with potatoes and mustard-glazed ham with roast parsnips and celeriac. Heavenly cooking at play.
The Palomar: Shakshukit
Studio Paskin, the hospitality group founded by siblings Zoë and Layo Paskin, celebrated its 10th birthday last year. The Palomar came first in Soho and then came The Barbary in Notting Hill. Neither are in any way like The End nightclub on Tottenham Court Road, which is how the Paskins made their name. What a place. Anyway, there’s now the same deal at both restaurants, drawing inspiration from areas such as southern Spain, north Africa and the Levant. Dishes vary at each but expect the likes of mackerel with chermoula, kale salad with white beans and preserved lemon, and chicken labanieh with yoghurt sauce, chilli and burnt onion.
- Two courses: £18
- Three courses: £26
Press handout
Bocca di Lupo, one of London’s greatest Italian restaurants. Owner Jacob Kenedy is a master at work. Firstly, check the restaurant’s Instagram every so often to find out whether there are any more post-10pm sandwiches, served from the counter. There could be trippa alla romana or calamaretti with bottargo mayo. They’re sold at London prices (£18 a go) but still worth having. Otherwise, the set menu is astonishingly good value for the same sum, with a changing roster of starters and main courses available. The food tours Italy and takes in the finest regional classics.
- Two courses: £26
- Three courses: £30
Matt Writtle
This opened to a degree of fanfare in 2024 and has been ambling along nicely since. Jackson Boxer steers a menu of classic French cooking “through a modern lens”. There’s an agreeable “fries on the prize” (congratulations) offer comprising duck fat fries, caviar, and a martini for £50 if that’s your vibe, or better yet, with two martinis for £55 (good). But the real situation is the pre-theatre. It’s hard not to enjoy ham with celeriac remoulade and steak frites, or carrot râpée before choux farci (stuffed cabbage) with roast cauliflower and onion broth. Desserts include a sorbet or a block or two of 24-month Comte, the latter being a sensational turn of events.
- Two courses: £27
- Three courses: £32
Matt Writtle
It was here that moved me to update this guide. Rita’s, a much-loved Soho restaurant, has launched (as of November 2025) a new weekly set lunch menu, which will rotate each week to make the best use of the produce available. Small farms such as Allwood near Wigan and Flourish in Cambridge are coveted here. As for the dishes? To begin, the menu started with a fennel, citrus, and blue cheese salad before moving onto fried chicken with mash and gravy. There’s a softly American feel to the food. Pudding? Acho chile poached pears with crème fraîche. Good: there must always be more poached pears.
- Tasting menu: six courses for £66
Fat of the moment: roasted lamb fat with seaweed bread, alongside baked celeriac, and walnut custard
Vicki Couchman
Many in and around the restaurant industry ask why Ben Marks’ joint hasn’t ever been awarded a Michelin star. The fact it hasn’t been is a damning indictment on the guide. Consider the mussel tartare, which comes fine on top of “yesterday’s bread” and is soaked in the liquor from moules mariniere. Highly inventive and a lot of fun, much the same as the fried cod cheeks with curry sauce arriving with all manner of accoutrement. Here is the move: take half a cod cheek, cover it in a smidge of pickled gooseberry sauce, a little of the tartare and two slivers of sliced cornichon, then add to that a dollop of the curry and a sprinkling of fried capers. Email me if you find a better mouthful this side of Christmas. And by the way, six courses for £66? Tremendous value, really it is.
- Full feasting menu: £30 per head
Wonderful falafel with silken hummus; sabzi khordan, a Persian starter full of fresh herbs, walnuts and white cheese; breaded halloumi with chilli relish; potatoes with mustard labneh; and boregi, or crisp pies filled with cheeses and vegetables. What began as a corner shop owned by an Essex-born woman and an Iranian mechanic evolved into one of Peckham’s most joyful places to eat. The food is rooted in Persian cooking but moves through Lebanon, sometimes stopping in the Balkans, so too Syria and beyond. It’s a neighborhood restaurant; a community enclave. The feasting menu to share is worth its weight in gold — and for £30, it’s an utter bargain of an evening.
- Sharing menu, one of everything: £72 for two
Adrian Lourie
There’s a reason Speedboat Bar is expanding: the food is a hit and Londoners seem to love a “gap yah” Thai. A note here for the prawn ceviche, full of lime and chilli, the Chinese sausage and the “minced beef” (larb, yeah?) with big leaves of holy basil. While good for snacking and beer towers, not to mention a game or two of pool, the Yaowarat Road — named after the main artery that runs through Chinatown in Bangkok — sharing menu is available for two or more and spans the likes of sweetcorn fritters, crispy pork and black pepper curry.
- Two courses: £29
- Three courses: £32
Clare Menary
A lot of people in the hospitality industry and food media are talking about Lilibet’s, including this paper’s restaurant critic David Ellis who gave the restaurant his lesser-spotted five stars. Here is what appears to be a sensational deal: two courses for £29 and three for £32. Starters come to share, including sea bream with green olive tapenade and barbajuan, the Monegasque spiced fried pastry, before main courses of fried fish goujons with mayonnaise and grilled chicken with tomatoes and capers, both of which come accompanied by a Caesar salad. There’s the option to add a pasta course for £8, prepared simply with chilli lime butter and parmesan, before chocolate mousse or strawberry cheesecake for those going for three courses.
- Two courses: £25
- Add sorbet for pudding: + £4
Adrian Lourie
Akara is the more casual and carefree sibling to the Michelin-starred West African restaurant Akoko but is as much a dutiful nod to the region’s culinary nous and its growing popularity in the London food bubble. The restaurant takes its name from a black-eyed bean fritter from West Africa, a dish that is also popular in Brazil, where it’s known as acarajé. It is the starter on the £25 set lunch – filled with either barbecued tiger prawns or roast celeriac – before a main course of Lagos chicken, smoked mackerel or king oyster mushrooms with efik and carrot rice. Coconut and lime sorbet to finish is an extra £4.
- Two courses: £25
- Three courses: £29
[object Object]
Ania Smelskaya
This little restaurant on Broadway Market might be best known for its croque monsieur these days. It comes topped with beef tartare and fermented red pepper seasoning and there are only five available per day: very much one for the ‘gram, but good enough to justify the hype. Failing that, there’s a classic set menu, with dishes such as cured trout with tomatoes, capers and dill, and roast pork loin with charred greens and peppercorn sauce.
Berners Tavern, Fitzrovia
- Two courses: £29.50
- Three courses: £35
Berners Tavern at the London Edition is set up well for the pre-theatre crowd, a chic hangout in the centre of town where British food is served in a grand old room. It might be best enjoyed later on when there’s candlelight and live music, but the early menu – between 5-6.30pm – offers promise, not least because it’s available all week bar Sundays. Think prawn cocktail, roast chicken, and raspberry and chocolate opera cake.
- Two courses: £30
- Three courses: £35
Press handout
Any credible brasserie will do a prix fixe menu and this is true at Langan’s, which relaunched in 2021 with designs on rekindling the glory days of the Seventies and Eighties. Michael Caine is no longer in situ but old school favourites are. The set menu – available at lunch and post-9pm for dinner – is especially generous thanks to the inclusion of yellowfin tuna with black truffle as a starter. Otherwise there’s chicken liver parfait with toasted brioche or pea panna cotta and asparagus. Main courses might include seasonal risotto, liver and bacon or salmon with beurre blanc, while desserts are fun, fruity and meringue-based.
- 3 courses: £29
- 3 courses on Sunday: £59
Andrew Montgomery
Born as a place to feed working men in the (then) meat packing district of London, now this is the smart sort of a restaurant. However, what might prompt eyerolls of disdain instead elicit ones of carnivorous satisfaction, with the Quality Chop House famous for their expertly-cooked cuts of game, meat and fish, butchered on-site. Offering a set lunch Tuesday to Friday that changes every fortnight, expect moody slabs of treacle-cured Mangalitza or black pudding with burnt apple purée, roasted chicken leg on white beans and a sparky citrus gremolata, finishing with a classic, cosy slab of coffee and walnut cake. Just up the road is Quality Wines, offering two and three courses for £29 and £35, respectively with caponata; pot-roast pork ribs with pommes purée and mâche and finishing with a pig fat cannolo with candied Amalfi lemon.
The Portrait, Trafalgar Square
- Two courses: £34
- Three: £39
Press handout
Richard Corrigan opened Portrait at the National Portrait Gallery in the summer of 2023, a light, breezy brasserie on the top floor with “Mary Poppins views” and to punctuate any perusal of fine art below. The set menu is a triumph, a standout, and available for lunch and early dinner throughout the week. Starters include white onion soup or smoked salmon with pomegranate and fennel, while mains could be orecchiette with wild garlic and basil, or classic fried cod alongside homemade tartare sauce. Sides – mash, chips, salads and veg – are extra and all at £6.
- Two courses: £24
- Three courses: £28
At Noble Rot’s Soho outpost is a set weekday lunch menu of satisfying design, one that brings the comfort of affordable pan-European cooking much as any bistro in some unremarkable but charming Continental town square, one with elegant, once-bombed out flagstones, colourful awnings and some sort of fountain. There might be a hefty Morteau sausage perched on braised lentils or a rich goulash that would please even a Hungarian farmer called Ivan.
Press handout
Few Michelin-starred restaurants in London are as accessible as Chishuru, Joke Bakare’s groundbreaking West African restaurant that moved to the West End two years ago. Though the modern iteration is a world away from her first site, a casual, canteen-like space in Brixton Village, the food remains affordable and this is no truer than in the £45 set lunch. Starters include sinasir, a fermented rice cake with butternut squash and chilli; main courses include the likes of char-grilled guinea fowl with celeriac, jalapeno and an egusi (bean) sauce. A little pricier than everything else on the list, but it’s top cooking and vital in London.
- Two courses: £29.50
- Three courses: £35
Press handout
Carousel is best known as an incubator space, somewhere for visiting chefs to come and wow Londoners with their foreign charms. Don’t forget that it’s as much a wine bar and its own restaurant, one with an excellent lunch deal between Tuesday and Saturday, 12-3pm. Starters might include sea bream ceviche with asparagus or a juicy tomato salad; later on, lamb belly with gooseberries and chilli salsa or crab rice with lime and curry leaves.
Press handout
The only outfit in the West End to make a pigs’ ear something you’d actually pay to experience, Fallow have carved a name for their nose-to-tail approach which is a feat in itself, given its the main thrust of so many restaurants that aren’t St John. But more than that, it’s zero-waste more broadly, giving way to ferments and other techniques that create a slow dance between modernity and tradition. The set menu showcases all of the above, featuring currywurst sausage, crispy onion, coriander; English tuna, turnip, hazelnut, XO; leg of lamb, ‘nduja cabbage, gherkin gel; Hen of the wood burger, lettuce, cheese, shallot; Salted vanilla soft serve, British apples, almond crumble or the now famous Chelsea tart made with caramelised whey. Available Monday to Friday noon until 5pm, excluding Bank holidays.
Korean Dinner Party, Soho
Korean Dinner Party
Inspired by Koreatown in Los Angeles, Korean Dinner Party rolled into Soho with all the irreverence and flippancy required of a fun dining spot in Kingly Court. The vibe is east-meets-west: kitsch cocktails, traditional sake and new-Asian hip hop. As for the food, a £15 set lunch combines a choice of one pickledog and one order of Korean-style tacos, or there’s a classic, bubbling and spicy stew of kimchi, enoki mushrooms, tofu and egg yolk with brown rice as a main (a solid dish, especially when hungover). Go on Tuesdays, and there’s a taco special, with three offered with all the sides for £22. But even the full Seoul-to-Soho tasting menu comes out well, costing just £35.
- Three courses: £29 on Sundays
Sam Harris
Artusi, Peckham’s hit Italian restaurant – now with a site in Soho, too – has had one of the best deals around for years. On Sundays, between noon-4pm, diners may enjoy a veritable feast for under £30, one that brings top ingredients cooked well. When on, the smoked cod’s roe with polenta and a fried quail’s egg is superb, so too any number of pasta dishes. Desserts vary, but there’s always homemade ice cream, happily.
- Daily plat du jour: £16.50
- Menu de canut: £24.50 for two courses, £29.50 for three
Josephine
There’s a fair argument to suggest this is one of the best deals around in London. A generous bit of Lyonnaise cooking, from Claude Bosi’s team no less, for £16.50. During the week, every day brings something new, whether slow-cooked veal with pilaf rice or a classic moules mariniere. Otherwise, try the menu de canut, which has the famous aucisson brioche as well as andouillette. There are affordable wines, too. No wonder the restaurant is set for expansion (not just Marylebone).
Bistro Freddie, Shoreditch
- Two courses: £24
- Three courses: £29
Via Press Handout
Bistro Freddie was one of London’s standout launches in 2023, arriving in Shoreditch as an elegant, traditional restaurant and going all in on the candles and white linen. The express set is available during weekday lunch times and brings simple but enjoyable dishes like smoked mackerel on toast, steak tartare and cod with tomatoes. It’s a lovely space, with good service.
- 2 courses: £49
- 3 courses: £55
Press handout
Brothers Chris and Jeff Galvin are looking to make Michelin-starred menus ever-more accessible with their newest set lunch menu. Expect Romana artichoke and oscietra caviar; Orkney scallop lasagne with Sicilian prawn and Amalfi lemon; Cornish cod with sea kale and mussel en mouclade or grass-fed beef brisket. Meanwhile, puddings feature a signature apple tarte tatin and an apricot soufflé with elderflower and aged balsamic among others. Set within the soaring ceilings of a Grade II-listed, former Victorian school, it’s an apt venue for two brother’s showing us there’s still more to learn about the intersection between quality and affordability. Not the cheapest on this list, but unlike some others, the menus are generous in their scope, with lots on offer — there isn’t a feeling of having gone for the “cheap” option, which makes it feel all the more special.
The Pelican, Notting Hill
- Two courses: £24
- Three courses: £29
Press handout
One of a growing number of pubs under the Public House umbrella, The Pelican is the original, a Notting Hill spot favoured by the ‘slebs. The group can do no wrong, it seems – the coolest place in town in the Fat Badger, superb pasta at Canteen, a multi-floored parlour of romance at the Hero. And that’s without its countryside bolthole, the Bull at Charlbury, now under the stewardship of the brilliant Sally Abe. The Pelican’s set menu is an affordable point of reconnaissance in all this, with dishes such as cod cheeks with curry sauce, confit duck leg, and sticky toffee pudding.
- Two courses: £25
- Three courses: £30
Kolamba
Kolamba opened a second branch last year, launching in Shoreditch after seeing success in Soho. Budding restaurateurs Eroshan and Aushi Meewella were early to London’s newly buzzing Sri Lankan trend. They draw on home cooking and childhood dishes in Colombo at the restaurant, so expect the likes of idli with sambar, charred coconut chicken and spinach dhal when dining. These are among many more on the set lunch menu.
- Two courses: £28
- Three courses: £32
North End Design
Stevie Parle, mastermind of rolling out quality pasta at an industrial level via Pastaio, has returned to give London another treat in Town. One of its offers is “a quick lunch”. Start with a humble snack of 100-Acre radishes and Hodmedod miso but expect serious irreverence with dishes like steak tartare with black garlic, candied walnuts and cheese “whizzz”, or wildfarmed rump with Swiss chard, green sauce served with “Town gravy” and finish with the likes of buttermilk Pudding, honey-roasted nespole, elderflower granita or Uji matcha ice cream, black sesame crunch and milk jam. Details might change but for the price, it’s a good chance to try one of the hottest restaurants in town.
- Two courses: £20
- Three courses: £25
Matt Russell
Among the hustle and bustle of Peckham Rye, amid the throngs of hipsters drinking rosé around an open bin, is the haven that is Levan with window, dining room and bar seating. Aside from an astutely-curated wine list is a set lunch menu available Wednesday to Saturday, noon-3pm. While it changes relatively routinely, currently the choices are: sourdough bread and butter; tomato broth; smoked mussels, radish salad; salsiccia with fennel and a marzipan diplomat. Be sure to get the Comté fries when they’re on.
Bistrot at Wild Honey, St James’s
- Two courses: £25
- Three courses: £29
[xya_1360x680].jpg?quality=75&auto=webp&width=960)
Press handout
The prix fixe menu runs from noon until 6.45pm during the week at Bistrot at Wild Honey, the casual restaurant at the excellent Sofitel hotel on Pall Mall. A measured and collected sideline to chef Antony Demetre’s Michelin-starred flagship Wild Honey, the bistrot brings solid French cooking in the likes of spring potatoes with garlic velouté and duck egg, though is not confined to France. There might be cottage pie on alongside rigatoni with beef shin ragu.
- Two courses: £35
- Three courses: £38
Paul Winch-Furness
Michelin-starred food from the chef Jun Tanaka, for under £40? It’s a good deal, especially when a main course on the a la carte is likely to be north of that sum. The lunch deal isn’t a pared-back menu either, really. Starters include sea bream carpaccio and sedani (a wildly underused pasta shape) with pork ragu; main courses stroll from hake with cannellini beans to bouncy wild garlic risotto. It’s all tremendous stuff.
Hawksmoor, multiple locations
- Two courses: £32
- Three courses: £35
Hawksmoor
It is a diligent and impressive mechanism, the set menu, and Hawksmoor nails it like Bob the Builder after a bottle of decent Merlot. Starters are gracious – the mackerel salad precedes steak well – and then up comes the rump with chips, the latter fried in beef dripping, don’t forget. As for puddings, there isn’t much point in deviating from the peanut butter shortbread, but whatever you get, it’ll be good.
- Two courses: £25
- Three courses: £29
Adrian Lourie
The Devonshire, named the UK’s best gastropub by Restaurant magazine for 2025, keeps the price of its set menu remarkably low thanks to doing one thing (per course) and doing it right. For £25, a prawn and langoustine cocktail before steak and chips with bearnaise sauce. Spend an extra £4 plus service and there’s a sticky toffee pudding for good measure. Last year’s mad hype has turned into a place with a loyal following for good reason.
- One course, of three elements: £15
BAO has become synonymous with affordable modern dining in London, a JKS Restaurants standout now seven years old. The BAO 15, available between 12-6pm on weekdays, is as much a star in a busy sky: the deal varies site-to-site, but reliably brings a bao, a snack (xiao chi; often fried chicken or a vegetarian alternative) and a noodle dish for just £15, while at some sites two additional pieces of Taiwanese fried chicken are available for an extra £3.50. Don’t think the menu options are restrictive, either – among the snacks are lamb dumplings or smacked cucumber, and the prawn bao, a true classic, is included too.
- Two courses: £35
- Three courses: £39
Bentley’s
Bentley’s has been under the stewardship of the chef Richard Corrigan (mentioned earlier as he’s also behind The Portrait) for two decades this year. It’s long been one of London’s foremost restaurants for fine seafood, serving oysters, a glorious shellfish cocktail, Orkney scallops in the shell and Dover sole. Many believe the fish pie to be the best in town (it is – the one at Sweetings is too salmon-heavy these days). But Bentley’s isn’t cheap. This is Mayfair after all. Those without a hefty budget might consider two courses for £35: starters might include beef tartare with oyster cream and devilled herring milts with focaccia and rouille; among the main courses, crab conchigliette with chilli and lemon, or ravioli in bisque. Dishes like smoked salmon and haddock with brown crab rice and a poached egg bring a £10 supplement, but are worth every penny if you can stretch.
- Two courses: £25
- Three courses: £28
Daniel Hambury/Stella Pictures Ltd
Manteca, founded by the restaurateur David Carter and chef Chris Leach, is one of London’s best examples of a modern Italian restaurant, offering such delights as fettuccine with hogget ragu, roast John Dory and, relatively newly, lumache alla vodka (should be penne but it isn’t a life-altering issue, is it?). Manteca has its own salumeria. Walking by in the morning to see chefs rolling out pasta never gets boring. In June, the restaurant launched a set menu featuring daily rotating plates. The first iteration brought a wild garlic Caesar salad, slow-cooked beef rigatoni, and summer fruit meringue with cream.
- Two courses: £24
- Three courses: £29
Courtesy
Cloth made a big impact when it opened in Farringdon early in 2024. The restaurant is the work of wine men Joe Haynes and Ben Butterworth, who brought in chef Tom Hurst – ex-Lasdun, Levan and Brawn – to oversee the cooking. The food is Anglo-French and brilliant: a Caerphilly and morel tart is a triumph, while the ricotta tortellini with smoked sausage, peas and pecorino would satisfy all but the meat-averse. Starters are close to £20, mains between £30 and £40, so be thankful for the set lunch. It’s limited, with one dish per course, but changes often to keep things interesting. Listed currently is a salad of tomatoes, mozzarella and olives before hogget shoulder with hispi cabbage and anchovies. You will probably need a bowl of French fries, punchy at £7.50. Still, Cloth really is a beautiful restaurant and the service is near-unmatched. House wine isn’t bad at £8.
Sushi is rarely a cheap date. Nor should it be – fish is expensive and sushi isn’t easily knocked up at home. Sushi Atelier is a rare exception to the rule, offering five sushi sets of generous design. The cheapest, at £27, is salmon-based, and comprises a maki roll (eight pieces) and five nigiri. It’s a bit boring. Salmon often is. But the other sets, equal in size, bring the likes of yellowtail with garlic and truffle mayo, otoro and butterfish nigiri, and negitoro rolls. None go beyond £33. You’ll never go to Itsu again.
- Two courses and a drink: £16.50
Laura Jalbert
There are a lot of pasta restaurants in London. They existed before Padella, even if Padella helped spark a modern clamouring for fresh noodles made theatrically in front of customers. Only ten years ago it was more common to encounter spaghetti bolognese made by a tired old Italian whose only wish was to stop having to make it for unknowledgeable Brits. Noci serves good homemade pasta. It’s no Via Emilia or Flour & Grape, but the set lunch menu is sound and the cooking performed with care. What’s more, tomato focaccia, a bowl of pasta and a drink – glass of wine, beer or soft – for £16.50 is hard to beat. There will always be cacio e pepe, as well as changing options such as strozzapreti with creamed courgettes, lemon and toasted pine nuts, and ziti with tomatoes, guanciale and pecorino.
Related News
.jpeg?width=1200&auto=webp&quality=75 "Transfer news LIVE: Arsenal FC offered Alvarez, medical booked; Man Utd ‘sign’ Baleba; Chelsea, Liverpool latest")
Customer Support
1251 Wilcrest Drive
Houston, Texas
77042 USA
Call-832.795.1420
e-mail – news@theinsightpost.com
Discussion about this post