Dining Prices in London

Could someone tell me what some approximate meal costs are in New York? The answer is that the figures will be similar in London. You can spend $7 to $200 per person for a decent meal. Sorry, don't mean to be difficult, but it is true.

In 10 nights in London in June our dinner prices for two including a glass of wine or two each averaged right at 45 pounds (or $90). We ate at good places mainly in Covent Garden/theatre district. That's almost identical to our average in New York at similar restaurants in the theatre district.
Names of the restaurants where we ate?
Joe Allen, Maggie Jones, Covent Garden Grill, The Wolesley, Salieri, Bank, Pasta Brown, Boheme, Brasserie, and The Forge.

If we had tried we could have done less, or if we wanted to splurge we could have done much more.

Oh, and before someone says "expect to pay the same amount in pounds that you'd pay in dollars at home", therefore making it double in cost -- I say NONSENSE. No way would those meals have averaged $45 for the two of us with wine at similar restaurants at home!

You can spend £ or ££££ in London.

In my recent trip, the cheapest meal I had was £6 for lunch (I had a soup, bread and lemonade) to £90 for dinner (tasting menu at a 2* Michelin restaurant).

Other examples:
£ 23 for dinner at Belgo Centraal (1 beer, 1 mussel pot, 1 dessert)
£ 13 for a 2-course Prix Fixe lunch at Boulevard Brasserie
£ 13 for dinner in Chinatown
£ 30 for dinner at Tom's Kitchen (1 beer, 1 entree, 1 dessert)

All above prices are for 1 person.

As mentioned previously, dining in London is similar to what you'd experience dining in New York. My person experience is to double anything you'd expect in the US. I went earlier this year and their PPP (purchasing power parity) is higher than that of the U.S. Basically this means that if you were to go to McDonald's (hopefully you dine slightly better) and a BigMac were $3, it would be nearly 3 Pounds in London as well (or just over $6). In a week I don't recall ever spending less than 30 pounds ($60) for two. We spent the majority of our time in the Theater District (Leicester Square) and there were many nice and reasonably priced (for London's standards) restaurants. I'd plan to pay around 20 pounds a person for each meal and a bit more for nicer dining. **Do be warned, no free refills and ask for extra ice on the side (they give very little ice with sodas)!! Also a service charge is often automatically added to the bill, so check before you tip.

What do you spend at home? What do restaurants cost there?? Just as hard to answer for London. In my own neighborhood there are places where I can get a full cooked breakfast for $4 or huge sandwiches for $5, and a fine dining steak house w/ a massive wine cellar where you are lucky to get out for $100 per person.

Same will go for London - you will spend what you can afford - there will be places that fit whatever your budget is.

Since the exchange rate plummeted because of the extremely weak dollar, we have been focusing on buying take-out food in London and preparing our own meals. We love Pret a Manger sandwiches, the smoked salmon at Marks and Spencer among other things, the Duchy Originals products available at Waitrose among other things and now there is even a Whole Foods in London almost next door to the Kensington tube station. We picnic on fruit salads and the above items washed down with wonderful English tea, and frankly, it's a lot less expensive than eating at any restaurants I know about.

I know I haven't answered your question about restaurants, but I have described another approach. When the dollar becomes strong again, if it ever does, then I am sure I will answer differently!

I have been in London when the £ was $1.45, and when it was $2.47. Much better and much worse than it is right now. In all cases, I could find restaurants that fit in my budget. Not that self-catering/picnics/take out sandwiches aren't a good idea for meals on the run. Just that even the current exchange rates don't mean you are limited to take outs.

I get sandwiches at Pret and M&S too - but a steady diet of take out sarnies isn't my idea of a great holiday.

In general, the pubs I went to for meals generally ran about £7.95 give or take a £, not counting drinks.

"I've heard that food pricing is ridiculous in London"

Balderdash. But an awful lot of the information people give each other is really ridiculous

Whoever's telling you this is a fool, and you really should take anything else they tell you with a HUGE pinch of salt.

Well, to be fair, it *can* be ridiculous, particularly in places where tourists are known to congregate - as pretty well everywhere.

But it doesn't *have* to be, if you shop around.

It is understandable when someone's Aunt Betty and Uncle Bob who live in Peoria and eat out once a week at a splurge place like Outback or Olive Garden, go to London and book a dinner at The Ivey as they were instructed to do, that they scream the prices are ridiculous.

I'm always amazed at the people who eat at cheap chains at home who travel and eat at nice restaurants and then say how expensive it was. Duh? Those same type restaurants are often that expensive at home too.

By the same token, meals at Disneyworld are ridiculous, too. Shop at tourist traps, pay tourist trap prices.

I found great meals at places like Wagamama for lunch, less than £8 for a meal. Yes, it's more than I pay at home. But I live in Gainesville, Florida, we're not exactly a metropolis - London is.

I would expect to pay Gainesville prices if I was in a little village in the north of Scotland, or in west Ireland. Not in London

It's expensive, but then again, eating out all the time is expensive no matter where you do it. Try eating out every meal at home for a week, then total up your costs. Eating the same way in London will cost you more, but not double that amount (my guess would be 50% to 60% more, depending on what the exchange rate does).

I certainly agree that when people don't eat out as much back home, they perhaps would be shocked to see how much eating out every meal costs. How London becomes so expensive is that if you were to go to a chain restuarant in London, such as Garfunkels (which is essentially like a Fridays or Chili's), you'd pay just as much in pounds as you would in $ in the U.S., ie. if you'd spend $25 for two at Chili's, for practically the same thing it would cost you 25 pounds (or $50) at Garfunkels!! That's how it becomes expensive. When people travel you'd hope they'd expect to eat out nearly every meal, but what they don't expect is that every meal will cost them literally twice as much as it would in the states!

reed, I don't eat at those chain places, but I see what you mean.

I did a little checking. Garfunkels website is under construction, but I compared TGI Fridays in Boston with TGI Fridays in London.
I've priced the London ones in US dollars for ease.

Sesame chicken strips: Boston $8.99, London $11.98

Cheesey bacon cheeseburger: Boston $8.99, London $ 20.98 (I'm still trying to get over that one!)

New York Sirloin: Boston $18.75, London $25.98

I guess some Americans walk right by nice restaurants assuming they will be expensive and go to those chain places thinking they are going to be cheaper -- like they are at home, but we eat in nice restaurants in London for a fraction of those horribly inflated chain prices.

Having been in London with a family of 4 for a week in a hotel, I agree with some of the advice about avoiding expensive (and usually not very good) chain restaurants. Be adventerous. Try ethnic cuisine (Chinese, Thai, Indian), local small mom/pop restaurants, avoid tourist traps. Our hotel was charging the equivalent of $40/pp for breakfast, but we had a hot breakfast for 4 for $40 total right by the tube station. Don't be afraid to use the concierge service in your hotel if they have one. We were directed to some delicious less expensive restaurants, given the opportunity to see stacks of restaurant menus and tried ethnic cuisine we didn't even know existed (Burmese). There were also lots of airline personnel in our hotel and we quizzed them about places to eat, as they are always on a budget. Be adventerous! You will be able to find good food at reasonable prices if you make an effort. There are also travel books at Barnes & Noble that advertise restaurants. I did research in advance of our trip. Interestingly, we never went to one of those as we didn't make dining a priority and always found some place in close proximity to our other activities. Good Luck!

Here are a few more cost examples from our trip this June -

Family of five meal at Subway Sandwich shop -4 foot long subs, 1 six inch sub, 4 bags of chips, 5 regular sized fountain sodas = approx $60.00

Party of six (we payed for my Mom's dinner) dinner at the Jugged Hare Pub - 6 dinners, 5 soft drinks, 1 glass of wine = approx. $160.00

Hope this helps you with your planning.

We spent 6 days in London this summer with my family of four (husband, 15-year-old and 11-year old daughters). While we ate more casually than we would have in the states, we were still able to thoroughly enjoy our lunches and dinners. (For breakfast, we grabbed Starbucks or something on the street). It seemed that our meals for both lunch and dinner averaged $60 US (without liquor as we don't drink). We liked Belle Italia, Pizza Express, Yo Sushi, Belgo Centraal, Anchor Pub, Locale, Burger Shack, Wagamama and Giraffe - all fun, casual places with good food.

I was in London this summer for a week with my husband, my 16-year-old son and 11-year-old daughter. We live in Los Angeles, so we are used to big city US prices. London was expensive. We don't eat out at fancy places here, and we didn't try to eat out at fancy places in London. We finally decided that the numbers were generally close to being the same on the menu but with a dollar being worth two pounds, everything cost twice as much. I was fortunate enough to miss the meal at Garfunkels, which my family hated. We at Italian a couple of nights, and take-out Indian one night. If you can eat cheap for breakfast and lunch, you'll be fine for dinner. Have fun!

We just returned from a 12 day Med cruise followed by two days in Istanbul then two days in London. I tell you that because we at very well for 14 days before getting to London. We expected prices to be double the amount stated in pounds but were suprised to find that everything was so much more expensive than any port in the Mediteranian. We ate at McDonalds our first evening after long flight and train. Three cheeseburgers (just burger, not Big Macs) one fry, one water, and one med. shake cost us about $20.00. That set the tone for the rest of our stay. We were also unlucky enough to eat at Garfunkels for a cheeseburger, shephards pie and shake for about $44.00. The best deal in town was at Harrods where huge chocolate chip cookies were on 70p or $1.40 each. A bargain and great. Wished we bought more than two. London was worth it, but we were glad we only had two days at those prices.

CampbellSoup, if you have read the above posts you will see that your big mistake was that you went to a couple of the most OVERPRICED places in London. You could have been in a nice pub or restaurant and had far better food for less money than going to MacDonalds and Garfunkels.

Just got back from London last week. We ate mostly at chain restaurants such as the ASK (by Victoria Station)where the prices for food were no different from what we pay in Canada. A pasta dish was 7-8 GBP and at home we pay CAN$14 at Boston Pizza. Their pizzas were priced similiar.

Had a nice greek dinner of mezedes at the Real Greek in Bankside by the Thames and it was very reasonable, even the Amstel beer was cheaper than at home.

Where you could pay more would be for the special drinks or desserts (had a great dessert at Garfunkels but it wasn't cheap).

I guess the food budget could be trimmed by an occasional meal from Pret a mange or Tesco as the amount of ready made sandwiches (and other food)is amazing.

And it pays to shop, most restaurants post their menus at the door so it's easy to compare prices.

It very much depends on where you want to eat.

But, as an example, the US chains (Fridays etc) charge about double what they do in the US. So - you can search and dine inexpensively - but expect everything to cost much more than even in NYC.

flanneruk

Yes, it can be ridiculous - esp for an American from a small town. first they have to deal with the pound being worth $2, then they have to deal with food in a big city costing more than in a small town.

So - people thinking they can get a whole blue plate special (salad and main course and bread and coffee) for $10 - or 5 pounds - are in for a shock.

Reuters UK: 9/12/2007: London Restaurants are the World's Priciest, surpassing Tokyo and Paris:

http://uk.reuters.com/article/domesticNews/idUKL1168573520070912?feedType=RSS&feedName=domesticNews

There are restaurants to fit every budget. London is full of ethnic restaurants that are very reasonably priced. Pub meals are also easier on the budget, and a great way to have a chat with some locals. They'll be happy to recommend some places to eat. If you want to eat in some better restaurants, try having your main meal for lunch... definately easier on the wallet. There are lots of places to grab a quick sandwich, or soup that are quite inexpensive. The museums have cafes as well.

ATTENTION ALESKA
REad you response. Intersted in Taking my 16 year old grandson to London for Xmas. Where did you stay? Was the location good? Any suggestions greatly appeciated Shirleyt80@msn.com

We found lunches in the pubs to be a little less expensive than other places. We also went to Selfridge's and got makings for picnic lunches~the picnic we had overlooking the cliffs of Dover was spectacular! We found sodas to be outrageously priced, so we drank water~healthier for us anyway! As most of the replies state, you can pay a fortune in London at some of the restaurants, just like you can in any big city in the states.

ShirleyT, we used Priceline to snag 2 rooms in Kensington at the Holiday Inn. We got a terrific deal. In Paris, we didn't care for the quartier layouts and were afraid to bid for fear of getting a bad location. We paid less for 2 rooms at a 4* in London than 1 room nightly in London. Perfect location, a 2 minute walk from the Gloucester Rd. tube station. Consult http://p070.ezboard.com/bpricelineandexpediabidding for bidding advice. Good Luck!

Makes that 2 rooms less in London than in Paris, sorry.

In Jan 07 we ran across a cozy Singaporean/Malaysian restaurant in Soho, reasonably priced, excellant food, very friendly. Can't find the card right now but it was off the diagonal street that runs thru Soho (that same night there was a small riot a few blocks away because one of the Prince's g/fs (Kate?) was having dinner a few blocks away).

No sooner said before I found the card--
Melati at 30 St. Peter Street (between Berwick and Wardour, not far from the Piccadily Circus tube station). they have a website--www.melati-restaurant.co.uk

We like to eat at the West End Kitchen on Panton Street. It's between Haymarket & Leicester Square. They have a set price meal for about 5-7 GBP not including drink as well as individual choices.

Maybe the official Visit London website can offer some good advice:
http://www.visitlondon.com/attractions/eat/value-eats

Since my travels to London and my --probably bit weird -- interests often take me to places outside of the inner city (which I would "define" to be the part enclosed by the Circle Line), I did not find eating out that expensive.

As many others have also said, I usually focus on:

> Street Food, Ethnic Food (Southbank, East London, West Kensington/Earls Court, whereever)
> Pub Meals
> Museum Cafeterias (In my weird mindset, I always found it okay to spend money there, when in return you get to see awesome museum collections for free)
> Take-away sandwiches from any supermarket for a lunch in one of the parks, the Heath, in Greenwich, whereever..

I have a different take on London than others who have posted. I led 6 students on a four country tour this past summer and London was the most expensive city to eat in. Period. By far. Having been to Paris and Rome many times, I never thought the Euro would be a bargain.

I'm not trying to be contentious but the line of reasoning that argues that London isn't any more expensive than New York City doesn't seem valid to me. Or at least its not particularly valid for the 293 million Americans that don't live and eat in New York City.

I can only afford to travel if I am frugal about what I eat and where I sleep. London is a bit of a shock to a traveler like me.

Incidentally, I don't know if any of you have heard of the "Big Mac Index," which the Economists publishes. It's a cost of living index which uses the price of a Big Mac as its "currency." Try

http://tinyurl.com/35xzvf

sshepard, I'm not sure whom you are disagreeing with. I feel that most here agree London is very expensive. Some posts were tips here to keep it from being simply prohibitive. I didn't see anyone suggesting that other cities in Europe aren't cheaper. Pretty much everyone (I think) agrees that London is the most expensive city in Europe -- if not one of the most expensive in the world.

The comment about New York DOES apply to you IF you go to New York. Of course if you don't go to New York then it makes no difference if prices there are high or not, but the point was mainly that really major cities like New York and London generally DO have higher costs (but the point was also made that with searching, both also have bargains to be found). Even then the NYC comparison was mainly made, I think, to show that London is not TWICE as expensive for food as a city like New York, although it might be for a more rural town or city in the US.

ditto what NeoPatrick said. London and New York are useful to compare since both are the major city in Europe and N America respectively.

Of course London will seem extremely expensive to someone who has never been to New York.

I think most of us have heard of the Big Mac index - it is mentioned on here a couple of times a week at least. But it really isn't a totally valid index for a lot of cities - London included. McDonalds is about the cheapest place to eat in the States, but other types of food may be cheaper in other countries.

If all one wants to eat are big macs/fries - then yes. But if one wants the best budget options, an MickeyD's is probably not going to be the cheapest.

Thanks for the insight. Immediately after I posted I realized that my wording was wrong in that others weren't saying London was a bargain but they were saying that you could get by there if you knew what you were doing. Unfortunately, I did know where to find the dining bargains. Maybe next time.

I don't eat at McDonalds back home, though I did in London once because I was on a budget and I found it cheaper than the other places in the neighborhood. Call me irresponsible. . .

Is London twice as expensive as other big cities in Europe? No. Is it more expensive than Paris and Rome? I think so. But I don't think than many here would disagree with this.

Regardless of the expense, I think London is a "must see." The way the American dollar is going these days, I think it will be quite a while before London (and the rest of Europe) is cheaper. So you should go now. And try to avoid American fast food chains.

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