Inexpensive London restaurants-impossible?
 

i will be traveling to London in a couple of weeks with my 4 children ages 9-15, my mother, and my husband. my husband has some business meetings so will not be with us all the time. we are staying near the London Eye/ County Hall area. we are not looking for "memorable" dining experiences. we are trying to stick to a budget as much as possible. we have taken the kids to Europe a couple of times, but never London. as much as we would enjoy great food, sometimes with a group this size and the ages of the kids-you just need to eat without spending a fortune. any recommendations are appreciated.

Around county hall - ie part of the complex, there are the usual chains which aren't that pricey if you like pizzas, burgers, chinese and the like.

There's a bloody good fish n chip place at the back of Waterloo station (Turn left on Waterloo Rd - it's just past the tunnel.

There's also a couple of pubs there that are good for food and the best (and spendiest) cake shop in the world.

Also the Hole in the Wall pub at the front of the station has good cheap food, but I don't know if they let kids in (sorry).

Google for Time Out London's Cheap Eats section.

You can also go to discountbritain.net and print off 20% off entire check coupons for many decent restaurants. You can look them up by the area.
Do the kids do Chinese? There are super cheap meals in Chinatown near Leicester Square.
And many pubs have great full lunch deals -- often in an upstairs restaurant. You can easily make that your big meal of the day and save some money.

And by the way, even after you convert the final bill which is in pounds to your dollars, you'll be pleasantly surprised when you realize that it includes the taxes and generally the service as well.

Don't be fooled into thinking the chains are the way to save money. I'm very aware that in the theatre district in particular many places have pretheatre two or three course meals which are excellent for less money than a plate special at TGIFridays would be!

A chain that I can recommend is Le Pain Quotidien (Belgian, I think, though there are locations all over the place now, including the U.S.): http://lepainquotidien.co.uk/ Lots of London locations, and we found them (we ate at two, once for lunch and once for dessert) to offer very nice food at very good value. Lots of healthy options, bread that's better than decent, and it would especially easy to feed children here without breaking the bank. Despite the bakery sounding name they're open late and do serve alcohol.

If the weather is nice, pick up sandwiches, crisps, drinks, at Pret a Manger or Tescos, Marks, etc. and sit in a park. The Pret a Manger chain has limited seating, usually full all hours.

As NeoPatrick suggested, the pre theatre dinners in the theatre district are usually great value.

Wagamama is always a hit with my kids.

Try Masala Zone for Indian food.

And Harvey Nichols 5th floor cafe would probably not come to mind as an inexpensive option, but they do a two course meal for 12,50 every day except Sunday. It's a nice place for a casual dinner (the Cafe, not the restaurant which is more expensive).

Some great suggestions here. Thanks for starting this thread, Donna!

It's definitely NOT impossible! Wagamama is perfect for this group, I think. I'm a picky eater (and don't care for a lot of Asian styles), but I love Wagamama. Plus the tables are cafeteria style, so seating everyone together shouldn't be a problem. There are lots of locations around London. Also second Pret - delicious and cheap.

I haven't been, but Belgo Centraal in Covent Garden is on my list for next time. They have a beat-the-clock special between 5pm and 6:30pm where you pay the time on the clock (so, £6.15 if you order at 6:15).

As Cathinjoetown mentioned, grocery stores and Marks & Spencer have a much bigger and better prepared foods section than we're used to in the US (assuming you're from the US). It's easy for everyone to grab a sandwich, salad or whatever else is there and enjoy a picnic in a park.

thank you all for the wonderful suggestions! they are exactly what i had in mind.

yes, jent103, we are from the US so i would not think grocery store=decent sandwich.

we usually try to eat one meal a day picnic-style and one restaurant meal while traveling, so all these suggestions are helpful. thanks.

I have been to Belgo Centraal, and yes, the beat-the-clock menu is an excellent deal (M-F only).

And don't forget to check out Borough Market and the Grilled Cheese sandwich stall!

Here's how I keep my lunches really cheap in London ... this isn't for everyone, but most days for lunch I go to Boots, Sainsbury's, Tesco, or Marks & Spencer and get a sandwich, a bag of crisps, sometimes a yogurt, and a drink, and enjoy my picnic in a park. Believe it or not, I find the sandwiches to be quite varied (a much more interesting selection than what you'd ordinarily find in a drug store or grocery store in North America) and tasty. Boots also has pasta salads that come in plastic containers with a little "spork" (a sort of spoon / fork combo) mounted on the inside of the lid - I find these pretty tasty as well (the pasta salads, that is, not the spork!).

If I want something warm for lunch, particularly if it's raining so I don't want to picnic in a park, I like to go to a Cafe Nero (these coffee shops seem to be sprouting up all over the place in the UK) and get a warm panini.

Also, another pleasant street nearby is The Cut, south and east of Waterloo Station, between Waterloo Road and Blackfriars Road. We enjoyed great pizza with some family friends visiting London at Pizza Paradiso, 61 The Cut. There are a couple of theatres and a used bookstore nearby so it is nice couple of blocks there.

Also in the cut is Taz (or possibly Tas) which is the original branch of what is now a small chain of Turkish/Arab restaurants. That's not expensive - and is good.

Also there's a pub - The Anchor and Hope - which is a gastro pub but is quite reasonable for lunch (and can get pricey at night) and is bloody good.

ps I would rather eat my own feet than go to Wagamama, but children and yanks seem to like it.

Pay C_W no mind. Wagamama is a perfectly reasonable option for feeding a family: prices okay, decent selection of healthy options. There are now branches in the U.S., but the UK branches (well, okay, it was just the once) are stuffed with locals (and not all of them children in tow, though that is a pretty common phenotype).

"ps I would rather eat my own feet than go to Wagamama, but children and yanks seem to like it."

Funniest thing I've read today! David you kill e!

Wagamama has come to Boston. Walking by I saw not a soul was in the place. Maybe because it is new?

Mim:

Bostonians give it short shrift because they probably think of it as <i>just another upstart Italian restaurant with "mama" in its name!!</i>

We stopped in at Wag for lunch at Heathrow Terminal 5...was pretty decent and bordering the reasonable, even when the £ was 2-1 last year.

stu t.

I visited a Boston branch of Wagamama in the shopping center immediately adjacent to one of the convention centers (where I was, huge surprise, attending a meeting) and it was mobbed. Of course, so was Au Bon Pain (though even Au Bon Pain isn't so bad that I'd resort to eating my own feet; I'd just go hungry).

Now that I think of it, though, it wasn't mobbed the first day. I guess people saw me eating there and figured it was reasonable. ;-)