London’s Cheap Eats
By Yin Yin Lee (ICSM)
For a long time, English food has been considered by many as boring and wildly expensive, qualities that do not endear it to the student budget. However, the recent financial meltdown has triggered a change in attitude from both restauranteurs and the public, leading to the emergence of the no frills, no reservation restaurant, serving honest food at a decent price. With this in mind, here are a few restaurants that offer great value for money:
Viet
34 Greek Street, Soho, W1D 5DJ
For many, good Vietnamese food in London has meant a trek the 'Pho Mile’ (Kingsland Road) but Viet has provided us with a quality alternative in the West End. Located inauspiciously on a side street, one could easily miss Viet but for those in the know, this is a restaurant that delivers mouthful after mouthful of wonderful food. Flavours are robust and there is an intensity that permeates every morsel of food here. Yet the most appealing factor of this restaurant is the price, with the vast majority of main dishes being less than a tenner.
Malting’s Cafe
169 Tower Bridge Road, City of London, SE1 3NA
Malting’s embodies the new ingredient-led approach to cooking as well as any other restaurant in London right now. Food is prepared with fresh ingredients and executed in a no-nonsense manner, that is a refreshing change to the haute cuisine of yesteryear. With a menu that changes daily, each dish comprises of no more than 3 or 4 ingredients, underlining the strong Italian influence to their cooking. Whilst their creations are not groundbreaking by any means, what they do conjure up in their kitchen are crisp and clean flavours that allow each ingredient to shine through.
Falafel Store
Thursdays Only
Lyric Square, Hammersmith, W6 0QL
I’ll be honest here, I don’t actually know the name of this store, but what I do know is that there is always a long queue of hungry punters waiting for some stonkingly good falafels served at a decent price (£3.50 for a large). Whilst I’m generally ambivalent towards meat free food, these falafels are good enough that I can honestly say you don’t notice the absence of meat. My only bit of advice when visiting would be a) get there early to avoid the queue and b) go for the large option with everything on it. You can't go far wrong.
So these are my three recommendations for cheap grub in the capital, hopefully at least one of them is fairly accessible to you guys and who knows, perhaps I may bump into you there!
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