London - Food Budget?
 

I've read in Fodor's and Rick Steves that if you plan to "budget eat" you can get by on 7 GBP per person per meal, excluding drinks & service, if you stick to Fodor's lower price places and Pub Grub, Daily Specials, Ethnic Restaurants, Cafeterias, Fish & Chips, Bakeries, & Sandwich Shops.

Does 7 GBP per person per meal (without drink or service) sound correct, if we don't plan on any top-end meals?

Can a child eat at a pub?

If we plan to have a beer with dinner, should we budget about 3 GBP per beer?

£7 will be a little tight. yes it can be done but you are better off budgeting £10. even a normal curry will cost about £10 when you add the extras.

beer in a pub is no more than £2.70/pint. beer in a cheap restaurant, budget £3.

most london pubs are not child friendly. some do allow but generally not in central london.

We discovered that very often take-away food is a lot less expensive than eating in the restaurant. If the weather is nice, you could always have a picnic. In the evenings you could bring your take-away food to the hotel. I'm not suggesting you should do this for every meal, but it's fun once in a while, and it could save you some money.

10 - 12 pounds sounds a bit more accurate.

You have to factor that an average take away sandwich is about 2.50 pounds to 3.50 pounds, a sound can be 70p-1.50 pounds, and a pastie can be around 1.50-2.00 pounds.

Since you will be walking alot, you will probably work up an appetite and with a child, you will no doubtedly have those little ice cream and sweets excursions.

You can have a cheap breakfast and lunch for 5 pounds each, and a very, very decent 10 pound meal.

So I would say maybe 12-20 pounds per person per day.

Also, there are those water and candy incedentals as well!

birthdaygirlstrip,
What's a sound? And what does it taste like?
Anyway as it is £7 per person per meal then that is more than enough for lunch from a bakery or sandwich shop. I'd pay something in the region of £3.50 to £5. In fact, if you went to Benjy's or Greggs, (both commonplace around London) and you didn't pick anything too fancy, then less than £3 would do it.

Sounds is used as slang in grammar----ie "That sounds about right."

I forgot to break down the price per meal, but I still feel that 20 pounds per person per day is very adequate and that the breakfast and lunch could be 5 pounds or less and the dinner a reasonable 10 pounds.

Of course, all drinks with meals, all drinks outside of meals, could make things higher.

I have a great MLA book--- it is used, but you are welcome to it. I know I was not using standard English, but I often speak in slang in non-formal forums.

7GBP per meal sounds fine. If you want to spend more on one meal each day, you can economise on the other. Boots, Marks and Spencers and Tescos all have a good selection of sandwiches etc. for quick snack meals. Pub meals are pretty cheap as well.
Carolena

Ps---Keep a lookout for the unique and tasty sandwiches!!

The US does not have the market covered on premade tasty and fresh sandwiches. There were thanksgiving sandwiches, curry sandwiches, bacon and eggs sandwiches! The selection was out of this world! And the bread was great!

Have a great time foodwise!

Also, if you get the chance, try a pastie! They are great!

i agree with the others that you can eat for £7 not including service or drinks. however, unless you want to go to a sandwish shop, this is not easy to do.

a meal where you can actually relax and enjoy yourself, this is very difficult to do. you can eat in a low end pub for £7 but in most cases you are getting poor value for money. if you figure £10-12, you have many more options and will get better value.

here are some very cheap favourites where you won't feel like you are slumming it:

-Au Lac (vietnamese - kingsland road, shoreditch)
-le mercury (french - islington)
-kandoo (persian - edgware road)

as i said, even the cheapest curry joints exceed £7 per meal (Ex drinks) unless you order very carefully and go without bread or rice.

I would rather splurge a little more for better meals and cut out the expensive snacks. We were in London once with a group and several would balk at going to a decent pub or inexpensive restaurant as they didn't want to spend that kind of money. But through the day they were stopping for ice cream bars, cokes, and constantly picking up candy and other snacks. If they had combined all the money they spend on "food" in one day, they could have had two decent meals!

Thanks for everyone's input!

I only expect we will be eating lunch, snack, & dinner. We generally are quite light eaters, even when we spend a day walking.

It appears the high end of the recommendations, thus far, is about 20 GBP per day per person. Doing the currency conversion to dollars...20GBP comes out to about $35. If I budget $35 per person per day, with 3 people (2 adults and a child), it comes to over $100 a day for food. For 6 days in London, that's a $600 food budget.

That's way beyond what my food budget thoughts were! I am bringing all the budget food tips from this website and all the travel books that I can find at the library with me (I'll take notes on them all & not take the actual books with me)!

Although, it looks like many of you are indicating 10 GBP for dinner, and quite a bit less for lunch and a snack. So, if I go with about 14 GBP per day per person and do the conversion, at today's exchange rate, it looks like I'd be coming in at about $24 per day person. For 3 of us, that would put us at about $75 a day. For 6 days that would be closer to a $450 food budget.

Let's say we ordered 2 curries with rice and bread for dinner, would that be about 10 GBP per person? We've done that at home several times and found that there's enough for us to each share with our 7 year old. So we end up only buying 2 complete meals that we share with him, instead of getting him his own separate meal. Maybe I should factor in a bit less for my son??

Since walkinaround indicated that most pubs aren't child friendly and we will have our 7 year old with us, we might skip the pub grub. Although I really want to try a sheperd's pie and some bangers and mash!

We don't always do relaxing sit down dinners, especially when travelling. Are sandwich, pastie, and fish & chip places open in the evenings.

I'm noting down all your recommendations on where to eat good for less. Any additional recommendations or thoughts on food budgeting will be greatly appreciated!!

One more thought. A light snack for us, even our child, is a protein with complex carb and not a sugary snack(for example, cheese w/bread or crackers, small sandwich, in NYC we grab a hotdog from a street vendor, etc).

We do plan to do afternoon tea as special treat one day, with a scone. We might try some shortbread biscuits. However, as a general rule, we stay away from the sweeties!

My 7 year old, can be a complete, well behaved, polite little boy, until you put more than 5 grams of sugar in him. Then he becomes a completely different boy. We stay away from juice, candy, ice cream, etc. Even a cup of regular cow's milk has 12 grams of sugar. We are extremely careful about sugary snacks. So we won't be doing like Neopolitan's friends which sound like they snacked themselves through the day on sugary snacks.

We usually just have a nice protein/carb snack between lunch and dinner. The sandwiches you all described sound amazing! I could see us getting one for lunch and then another one for a snack later.

I also think it will be very difficult to eat on 7 pounds per day/per person. Sandwiches (the pre-made/packaged kind) start at about 2.50 but if you want something more filling it will be more like 3.50. Now that is just a sandwich - when you have been sightseeing and walking it is usually not enough to full you up. If you add a bag of chips or some cookies and a drink of some sort you are over 7 pounds in the blink of an eye.

Snacks can be a budget killer as they add up quickly,i.e. Ice cream in the park, a piece of cake/drink to hold you to dinner - that sort of thing adds up real fast. With a child it is hard to say no to ice cream (it's hard for me to say no to ice cream :-) ).

If you are staying in an apartment (we do) you can save a considerable amount on breakfast (we do). While I love eating out we do mix our meals to include eating in and eating out. Actually at the end of a long day it is sometimes nice to just stop at Tesco/Sainsbury's/Marks&Spencer and pick up some food and eat in. You might want to consider an apartment because not only is it great to have more room you can fix some simple meals and snacks.

Forgot to mention - most museums have cafeterias/cafe's and you can get full meals or just snacks/sandwiches/etc. Also major department stores have restuarants and/or cafe's for quick snacks.

There is a chain called Garfunkal's (think Denny's) with many locations. Not exactly gourmet food but prices are on the lower end of the restuarant price range.

Sorry, for mis-understandings, but my original inquiry was 7 GBP per person "PER MEAL", excluding drinks & service. It was not 7 GBP per person for an entire day, but PER MEAL for each person. Taking into account 2 meals while touring a day (excluding snacks and drinks), I was really asking about 14 GBP per person, per day for meals.

I think based on most responses...12 to 20 GBP "PER DAY", looks like what most people are advising. So my original 7 times 2 equals 14...looks like it might be in the right ballpark.

London is expensive! I was there for the first time last May and tried to keep my dining expenses down. Here's a list of restaurants where I ate: http://www.luvtotravel.homestead.com/Londondining.html

Monica ((F))

Thanks Monica

Monica. I like those places on your list, and have eaten at all but one of them, but most seem to be nearly double the budget being discussed.

By the way, Rock and Sole Plaice is the first place I ever encountered that charging in US dollars deal. I argued for a bit, they insisted it was done through their American Bank and there was no charge. I didn't feel like arguing about such a small amount. Guess what? When I returned I saw it was at the exact same rate that I got on my Citibank card at all other restaurants. So I was actually NOT ripped off.

Yes, I know the places I went to were more expensive than the discussion here, but I thought it would help someone.

The argument I had with the waitress turned my great lunch into a disappointment. I'd go back again but would definitely pay in cash.

Monica ((F))

>>>>I think based on most responses...12 to 20 GBP "PER DAY", looks like what most people are advising. So my original 7 times 2 equals 14...looks like it might be in the right ballpark.<<<

Chocolate, This isn't what most people are saying. Most people are saying that unless you're eating sandwiches all day everyday, that 7 GBP per meal is going to be very difficult.

Are you not planning of having drinks of any kind with any meal?

And I know I'm going to regret saying this, but I think it's inappropriate to go into a sit down restaurant, even a low end one, and order two meals for a pair of adults and a 7 YO. Maybe if he were a toddler. At the very least, ask ahead, or you may find yourselves socked with an "extra plate" charge.

I appreciate budget travel requires careful planning and that London is a very expensive city. Perhaps you would consider skipping afternoon tea at Browns or Harrods and giving your food budget a little breathing room? A traditional tea at one of the big hotels or Harrods is going to cost you well over $100 for three (and you will be expected to pay for 3). Besides it's a sugar intense experience and that seems to be an issue for your boy.

Good luck!

if you are on this tight a budget, i would not go to harrods for tea. i am not an expert on afternoon tea but there are many places recommended on this board that are cheaper. The Orangery in kensington is one that comes to mind.

besides being a waste of money (IMO, of course), i don't think that it is a good strategy to do the kind of sacrificing that you are talking about in order to splurge on one tea...the expectations are too high and it might not turn out to be what you expect ...for many reasons...the kid might misbehave, etc, etc.

£10 or so per meal without drink is the extreme bottom end cheap for a restaurant in london. to pay less than that, you must really search around, get creative with the ordering or be eating fast food or sandwiches. in other words, you are seriously sacrificing. one tea at harrods is not worth all of this.

Orangery at Kensington Palace

Afternoon tea - £8.95
Grand Tea - £13.95

Ok, I guess we'll skip the tea experience.

Keeping in mind the hotel will give us breakfast, realistically, in American dollars for the entire day for 2 adults and one child, do you think that we should budget $100 per day for eating?

Skipping the tea experience sounds good to me. In my opinion it is rather an over-rated/over-priced tourist experience in many cases (not to say British people do no indulge in tea, but it does seem many tourists feel it is something they must do while in the UK).

Are you sure about the hotel "giving you breakfast". If breakfast is included be sure you know what you are getting. It could be Continental breakfast or full breakfast.

Just to clarify, the tea was going into a different budget (for sightseeing) and we usually budget drinks separately.

It's not that we're not planning to have any drinks with any meals. I'm just working on the food end of it, right now, especially since the travel books seem to not include beverages in their price groupings!!

I'm not trying to be a total cheapskate, but had read in both Fodor's and Rick Steve's London travel books that there were quite a few places you can get by on 7 GBP per person per meal, excluding drinks & service. I wanted to run it past people who have been there or live there to see if it's true.

Yes $100 per day, is a bit beyond what I had envisioned budgeting and if it means cutting some things out of the budget like the afternoon tea (especially if it will be over $100 for the 3 of us, but will consider the Orangery and someone had recommended a tea museum), I will re-work our budget. It's just a matter of moving things around.

Thanks for all the input. I really want a realistic food budget for 2 adults and 1 child, who really don't plan to eat "high-end" meals on a daily basis.

One thing -- if you're American, the portions are considerably smaller than what you might be used to so take this into account too. I only ate in Indian places for the 2 nights I was there, and the entrees were maybe a 1/3 to 1/2 size smaller than what I normally get in the U.S. I'm used to curry and vindaloo coming out in a platter or serving bowl -- in London, the portions fit neatly into what I'd describe as a cereal bowl or large soup bowl. I thought maybe they did this since I was eating alone but I looked at other tables and it was the same.

It solved any potential problems with leftovers since I normally can't finish an entire entree (in any restaurant) by myself. This wasn't true in London -- I came to appreciate the smaller portions, being able to clean my plate, and not eating to the point of discomfort. But you might have to order more food than you're used to for your family.

I think 14 GBP/pp is do-able if you don't do any sit-down dinners (ethnic food to go) and if none of you are big eaters.

I think $100/day is much more realistic for the three of you. That won't be high end by any stretch but with give you a few more dining options.

The Orangery at Kensington Palace is a good compromise if you decide to go ahead with tea. It's a very pretty setting but a little less formal (stuffy?) than the big hotels. Besides you can combine it with a trip to the Diana Memorial Playground, a guaranteed hit with your son.

The afternoon tea thing is taking a lot of crap these days as an overpriced tourist only experience. So is a carriage ride in Central Park. So what. Both can be fun. Neither is a must do.

And though I typically agree with all of Lori's recommendations, I'd steer far clear of Garfunkels. Bad bad food, IMO.

Chocolate,
On my last four trips to London I have eaten at a restaurant near Covent Garden called Belgo Centraal.
They have a really good early bird special from 5-6:30 called "Beat the Clock" where the price you pay for a meal is set by the time you order it.
Order your meal at 5:30 and it costs £5.30.There is also a glass of free bier included.
Its a limited menu with about 5 choices,but there should be something of interest for everyone.

http://www.belgo-restaurants.com/

I went to London with my husband and teen, and we ate very few sit down lunches (mostly grabbed something on the run). Our dinners were at a variety of price ranges.

One reasonable restaurant that has several locations is Pizza Express. We ate at the one near the Strand. We each had a pizza and there were one or two salads ordered. Our total was £35, but that included beer and wine.

We had a delicious curry lunch at the Indian YMCA in Fitzrovia (41 Fitzroy Square). We got 3 curries (cereal bowl size), 3 rices, 3 vegetable side dishes and 3 chapati for £20 (each is available a la carte). Water is the only drink available - free.

One evening we got takeout from the Marks & Spencer food hall. We had lots of different things; berries, salads, pasta salads, breads, pastries, drinks, and a few snacks for later. Our total was £24.

Belgo Centraal in Covent Garden is another very reasonable option. They offer an "express lunch" - several selections available for £5.95, which includes a drink (beer, wine or soft drink). Belgo have a "beat the clock" special on a selection of their dinners - the amount you pay is the time of day that you eat, in pounds (available 5-6:30 pm). So, if you go at 5:45pm you pay £5.45. They also have a different dinner deal, where kids eat free from the kids menu, if an accompanying adult orders a main course from the a la carte menu. You can look at the menu here:
http://www.belgo-restaurants.com/Centraal%20menu.pdf

You will certainly be able to eat at a wider variety of London restuarants for £15 per person, but it can be done for £10 or less.

Apologies for repeating the information that Lovejoy provided about Belgo. I did not have the most up to the minute version of this thread when I did my reply, so Lovejoy's post wasn't there!

This is what we did in London a few years ago. Myself, daughter(12) and sister we ate the hotel breakfast which was included in the hotel price. We would find the nearest store and pick up food items we wanted. Somedays we ate when we were out the others we ate when we got back from the grocery store. My daughter has a sensitive stomach so it was good to get yogurt and things from the grocery.I also carried power bars from home in my purse for a quick protein snack. It was fun to go to Harrods and pick out food items from the food department, that's were we splurged! I can't tell you what we spent on food but it was very reasonable. But expensive food isn't a priority for me when I travel.

The ASK Pizza chain is another place offering good food at cheaper prices, and not just pizza.

Try a Richoux restaurant for tea. The shops are attractive, and the prices are not so high.

Pret A Manger sandwiches are good, too.

Is tipping required in London? Do they expect it?

Yes, in regular restaurants 10% seems to be the norm.

Hi,

I think a lot of people were thinking you had to buy 3 meals a day, whereas you are getting breakfast and only looking for 2. That makes your budget a bit more 'doable'.

You want to spend £14 a day each to cover 2 meals. I think you can do this but you'll have to shop around a bit. Say £4 for lunch (sandwich - go to a supermarket or Boots chemist, they have a good selection and are a lot cheaper than many sandwich shops. 'Subway' also have a sandwich of the day special deal.) ...but depending on how active you are being you may need a midafternoon snack as well, a sandwich is not much if you are walking round all day.

Dinner - £10 a head should just about do it but you won't get a lot of choice. Some pubs may allow children into the eating area, but not many in London. And pub food is moving more 'gastro-pubby' and is becoming less of a bargain. Indian restaurants can be very expensive by the time you've added in all the breads and rice and veg etc. Some restaurants offer an all inclusive buffet price and that would help you. Otherwise, you could always buy and eat more cold stuff in your hotel some evenings every other day and then eat out better. For £15 you could put together a pretty good cold feast/picnic dinner for 3. Say a pre-cooked chicken (you can buy those hot too), bread,cheese, salad etc.

Your 7 year old will be able to share your meals. It is possible I suppose in an Indian but he would still need his own portion of rice/bread. We don't serve oversized portions here in the UK - a meal is for one person. It won't be popular with the restaurant either. A lot of places do kids meals though which come in at around £5-£8.

Of course, if you want to stick to places like MacDonalds then your budget will be fine. A MacDonalds meal (normal size) is around £5-£6 in London. (does that give you an idea of how far a £10 dinner budget will go?)

Another poster mentioned this place a while back, and my daughter and I visited in August. Less than 3 pounds for all-you-can-eat Indian vegan food. Not the very best Indian food I've had, but certainly adequate and filling.

92 Chapel Market, near the Angel tube

Cheese seemed to be quite inexpensive at grocery stores. You could buy a good portion of Camembert for 1 pound at Tesco, a price I couldn't imagine at home. Find a good spot to buy bread (although I don't know any offhand), and make your own picnic.

You aren't going to get much for that sort of money, but then let's view it as 21GBP per person per day.

I wouldn't bother with breakfast, I very rarely take it if I'm at home or if I'm away and it's not included (it's not a meal I particularly enjoy). So that's saved you some money (hard to quantify as the price range is large).

The let's assume you have a sandwich and accompaniment for lunch, that's 5GBP (the places like Pret, Eat, M&S will all charge 2-3GBP per sandwich, plus a drink and 5GBP is about right), so that leaves you with 16GBP for dinner. Now you can go to places with a set menu 12GBP for two courses, and they will be OK, tasty perhaps, certainly edible, but nothing special. Or you can go somewhere a little better and just enjoy one good course.

Or you can simply forget the budget and just eat at sensible places and you'll find that that is probably equally suitable. But if you want three proper meals a day then 7GBP per meal is very tight. Lots of places will charge well in excess of 7GBP for a starter, and I'm not even referring to starred or even recommended restaurants. You can always go to fast food chains and they will come within your budget.

Also, factor in a 12.5% service charge if it's added to your bill, that's increasingly common in London these days.

But, I can't tell you of a time when I've spent 7GBP on any meal recently. Even if I pick up a sandwich from a sandwich bar or chain sandwich bar, that's usually over five pounds with a drink and/or coffee. As for sitting in a restaurant and coming away with a bill for 7GBP, even if you go to a chain (such as ASK, Strada, Zizzi) for a simple pizza, that will cost about 10GBP with a drink and nothing else.

Hi

Have you thought about renting an apartment? For eg. http://www.london-house.com or http://www.cyberrentals.com/England/London/r482.htm. Probably cheaper than a hotel and you can cook your own meal. You can buy alcohol from the grocery store at a much cheaper rate as well.

Just a thought.

chains like ASK, pizza express, zizzi, strada, etc are very poor value for money IMO. a small pizza for one is about £8-10 and hardly enough food if you are hungry...even a modest eater would probably want a salad as well. i stay away from these places unless there are few other choices.

i have not been to belgo for a while but i did not find the early bird thing to be a good value, nor did i particularly like the place (despite my like for belgian food and beer). i think that special offer is a gimmick that a lot of tourists fall for.