The West End isn’t exactly the place to come for a bargain. Although the area is overflowing with fantastic restaurants offering a diverse range of cuisines, it’s not always easy on your wallet. However, there are cheap eats to be had in Covent Garden if you know where to look, which you will with our guide.
Sandwiches packed with cured fillings are the focus of this deli, hence the name, with all of them including a Reuben packed with home smoked pepper cured Longhorn pastrami coming in at under eight quid. The box salads can also be topped up with hot smoked salmon, hickory chicken, the pastrami and you can even throw in a dessert and get change from £15.
It’s cheap and it’s simple, but that hasn’t stopped Koshari Street from being on the best places to get Egyptian street food, particularly koshari (rice, pasta, lentils and chickpeas topped with onions, tomato sauce and spice mix) in London. It’s healthy, filling and very wallet friendly.
Meals don’t come more traditional or more filling than pie and mash, and Battersea Pie Station is one of the best purveyors of pies in the business. You can get old-fashioned pastry, free-range meat and creamy mash all topped with plenty of gravy for comfortably under a tenner.
A hotel on the Strand isn’t a place you’d head to in search of a bargain meal but the Strand Continental Hotel is hiding that exact thing. The India Club has been around for over 70 years, as it was originally a meeting place for civil servants employed at the nearby Indian High Commission. It hasn’t changed much, so you can still get cheap but tasty South Indian fare – a lamb madras will only set you back £6.70.
Crêperie and cidrothèque Mamie’s brings the food of Breton to Covent Garden and at a great price too. All their buckwheat galettes are under £9 and you can get can get a crêpe piled with pears, caramel, pecans and ice cream for under £7, with plain versions costing far less. Forget flimsy pancakes, these babies are big.
This deli-café close to The National Gallery specialises in high quality Italian agricultural produce, including from their own farms in Cremona. They do serve hot food, including pasta and polenta, but it’s the paninis made with their namesake Rosetta rolls, cured meats and cheeses that are the real draw of this place.
When you’re this close to Chinatown, you certainly won’t struggle to find cheap noodles. Lanzhou Noodle Bar combines tasty and authentic food with value for money prices. Go for the hand-pulled noodles, which you can watch being made before being cooked to order and eat them in a soup or stir-fried. It’s open really late too should you get noodle cravings in the middle of the night.
Once you start adding in sides, sauces and drinks into the mix, Flat Iron stops being a cheap eat. You can’t deny that the centre point of their menu, a perfectly-cooked steak and dressed salad for just ten quid isn’t a bargain.
