Fodor's Travel Talk Forums

Fodor's Travel Talk Forums (https://www.fodors.com/community/)

- Europe (https://www.fodors.com/community/europe/)

- - Meals (https://www.fodors.com/community/europe/meals-300469/)

I am looking for a good estimation on meal costs in London. We will be in the city for 4 days. We will have breakfasts taken care of at the hotel. Is $20 (US) a good estimate for a couple for lunch? Is $40 a good estimate for dinner? We are not fancy people, so we are not talking about fancy restaurants. We are talking pubs and otehr local fare. Are my guesstimates okay or unrealistic? (Please note that we are not drinkers)

Your estimates are probably fair for inexpensive places in London, without drinks or mutiple courses, perhaps slightly low if you want anything beyond pub food. Frommers.com has many restaurant listings with specific cost estimates which will give you a better idea. A far better title for this thread would have been something much more specific, such as "Estimated cost for meals in Central London?"

Those would be low-end meals in London. What you might want to consider is going to a two-meals per day plan (one plus your breakfast) and then perhaps just grab an early afternoon snack if you need it to tide you over until dinner. It would give you a little more breathing room. Another thing you can do is to sort of "picnic" on one day and then enjoy things a little more on the next.

One small piece of advice, stay away from museum or gallery cafes and restaurants where they really hike the prices. In the last five years there have been a number of good chain eateries come on board, maybe a couple of dinners at these will preserve the budget. London can be very expensive for the unwary. Have nice time.

Agree with the above posters, re: avoiding museum cafes, also the picnic idea is a good one - stop off at Sainsbury, Marks & Spencers or Tesco Metro & pick up some stuff for lunch. However, here are some suggestions for tasty & inexpensive meals: * Pizza Express. By far the best of the Pizza chains IMHO. * Chinatown - look along Gerrard St - tons of restaurants, all good value * Cranks - vegetarian restaurant, several branches in W End * Look around Old Compton St in Soho, lots of places, some pricey, some cheap * Brick Lane. Super cheap curries. Stay away from places like Leicester Square & Picadilly Circus - many tourist trap places that are not very nice & a rip off. Mac

If your hotel is near a non-touristy neighborhood, you should be able to find pubs and family restaurants that will be well within your budget. We stayed in Bloombury, so each evening we would take a walk away from the busy, touristy section into the residential neighborhood. We had no trouble finding reasonably priced places for dinner.

I think your estimate is reasonable. Especially since you are not looking to eat at the more "upscale" restaurants. We spent around that much ourselves on our last trip. You can find many places that offer reasonably priced meals. We're leaving tomorrow - very excited!!

Hi Luv, You will also find various shops and grocery stores that sell takeout.

If you are happy to go for sandwich/ salad/crisps (potato chips) type meals at lunch I'd estimate about £7 UK per person - you might want to have a little lee way for times when you have less choices in the vicinity and end up spending more. In London many office workers don't take their own lunch to work (though many do too) and frequent instead the many tiny sandwich shops all over the capital - these often have wonderful fresh sandwiches with all manner of wonderful fillings. For dinner, the best advice I can give you to save money is to look into early dining options and investigate pre theatre dinner menus at some of London's nicer restaurants. If you are seated and order before 6.30 (sometimes a little later) you can enjoy a really good 3 course meal for about £18UK plus drinks. Avoid alcoholic drinks to keep prices down and don't feel embarassed to ask for tap water with ice rather than just bottled water - which is what you'll get if you just ask for still. With most pre theatre menus you will be given a choice of 3 dishes for each course and can have either starter and main or main and dessert for about £15uk or the full 3 for £18uk. Occasionally you will be asked for the table back by 8.30 but seldom has this actually happened to me and I use pre theatre menus often. I can recommend those in Criterion, Circus, Indigo, Escargot, Bertorelli's, and there are many many other places. Check out LondonEating.co.uk or top table for ideas on restaurants. Kavey

PS Prices above are per person. Avoid places like garfunkels and angus steakhouse - these aren't good quality and are just as expensive as many nicer options available to you. Also look into ethnic food choices - Thai and Indian are both popular. China Town is great value for lunch - especially if you like Dim Sum.

Thank you so much for the replies. I will adjust my budget as such. Thanks! Keep up with ideas of eateries. We will be staying at the Thistle Lancaster gate area. Know of any good, yet cheap places in that area? Pardon me if I ask stupid questions. We were booked for Paris, but in light of the war and politics, we are choosing to go somewhere people like us!! (haha)

Try also Cafe du Jardin and Deuxieme in Covent Garden for pre-theatre menus from about £12 for 2 courses. Tips of about 12.5% are usually included. Try also Zizzi in Covent Garden, Sapori on Drury Lane in Covent Garden and Strada just off Kingsway for great pizzas at about £7-8 each. They are HUGE and really well made. Chinatown can be hit and miss, in my opinion. I also don't like pub good. Gastropubs, on the other hand, are great. Standard pub fare tends to be 'pinged' in the microwave. Gastropub food is well made and good value. Time Out will point you in the right direction. Also check out www.toptable.co.uk for good deals, and lastminute.com for tw-for-ones etc.

What is a Gastropub? I am going to be in London in a couple of weeks and although it's true I'm not really a pub frequenter, I don't recall ever seeing anything there called a Gastropub on my previous visits.

GastroPub is a new trend (for several years) of pubs in England,more focus on food. Usually they have younger chefs, offer trendier menu. check :www.squaremeal.co.uk for the list of them in London.