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Central London is always busy and always a bit too expensive (or a lot too expensive). But it’s still hiding some of the city’s best budget food, I swear. Deep central, or the theatre district — around Tottenham Court Road, Holborn, Leicester Square — is where you go before a show, after a museum or just because you’re stuck in town picking up your comics at Gosh! or seeing a film premiere. And if you know where to look, you can eat well for under a tenner — or at least under £15. Here’s how.
Chequers, 7 Bedford Street
Chequers is just a simple sandwich bar that does great and giant sandwiches — mostly for under £6, but you can stretch up to £10 if you really wanna go big. They also do a very nice soup special which rotates daily for just £7! How could you complain? Eat one and then be too full to pay any attention in the National Portrait Gallery. They’re definitely a lunch spot, because they sadly close at 3pm, but you can nab a sandwich as a pre-matinée snack if you’re feeling lucky. Chequers
Seoul Food, 17 Theobalds Road
A lot of the stuff here is deep fried and it’s all delicious. They do Korean corn dogs, tempura, some katsus and bowls. The most expensive thing on the menu is £10.50 and it’s the giant hearty prawn katsu, which sets the bar pretty high and is really and truly good news for your wallet. Seoul Food
Breadstall, 92 Berwick Street
Honestly one of my fave pizza places in this city. You can buy two slices (massive though, I swear. Probably the equivalent to about half or two-thirds of a Franco Manca) for just £7. For full sizing — I think a regular pie is 20 inches (according to my decrepit and ill practised GCSE maths, that’s 314 square inches of pizza. So a quarter of it is, like…nearly 80 square inches?) which feels crazy high as a number so maybe don’t take that seriously. Mathematicians please don’t come for me, my A levels were like 14 years ago.) But it’s a really good amount of pizza for £7, anyway! You probably won’t have any going spare, but you also won’t have spent full-pizza amounts.
Pick up a drink elsewhere at one of the corner shops and save your pounds. Eat in or take it to Soho Square and enjoy the sunshine and feel content that you have won the game that is eating in central London. Cheesy, flavoursome, and a giant fluffy crust to reward you for getting to the end of your slice. Dips aren’t cheap but also aren’t outrageous; they come in at about £1.50. If you felt super thrifty and organised, you could stop over at Maoz (see below) four minutes’ walk away for their 75p garlic sauce. Breadstall
Pide&Co, 38 Kingsway
I think this place opened fairly recently (I pass by it on my way to pottery class). They do a bunch of huge salads and meal-sized mezze for £5-£10, and lahmacuns for £7. The only thing that isn’t great value here is the pide which is closer to £15 (which is what I’ve tried here most, guilty, but I’ve longingly eyeballed other people’s orders when they’ve gotten the mixed mezze) — but it’s also giant and delicious so if you do feel like a splurge it’s worth it. It lasts me at least a dinner and then breakfast the next morning. Pide&Co
ECCo Pizzas, 186 Drury Lane
Not to be confused with ICCO, ECCo Pizzas is legally distinct but also great and extremely cheap pizza in central London. There is also another unaffiliated Ecco Pizza in Westminster, which is also very cheap and good and I would recommend but I can’t do two listings with the same name in the same article that aren’t affiliated so just, like, hold that one in your mind’s eye and go there if you ever find yourself at the methodist church.
Back to ECCo Pizza: they’re really generous sizes and they do actually also do some pasta. This place is nothing fancy but it is very serviceable, and it’s usually not super busy in the evenings. Everything tastes great and is made to order — great for pre-theatre dinner. It’s literally next to the Shaftesbury Theatre and Top Secret Comedy Club (both of which will not let you take your pizza boxes in there, fyi, so finish the whole thing or be prepared to leave your pizza in a questionable big plastic box for a couple of hours while you enjoy your show). ECCo Pizzas
Deli Box, 126 Cheapside
Here’s a Cityside option for you if you’re coming from your job in finance (do people at Bank of America still work at St Paul’s in 2025? idk. Sorry, LOL, I’ve never worked in finance). Chicken curry? £5.50. Katsu is £4.50. Unbeatable value and it’s right next to St Paul’s Cathedral so you can eat on the steps and feel like a total tourist. Pr you can go to Christchurch Greyfriars Church Garden for some beautiful foliage.
Good portions, big queue but it moves fast. Not everyone is huge on the quality at this place but imo for the price you really can’t complain. For me personally, the price point is a big part in being able to enjoy the deliciousness. The pricing is reminiscent of Wasabi in its heyday when you could get a huge curry for £5 — but this definitely tastes more homegrown. Deli Box
La Forchetta, 92 Cowcross Street
An old, old favourite of mine, also Cityside — it’s literally next to Farringdon station. Their full English clocks in at £10 these days, and it is a FULL English — massive plates, served diner style and swimming in Heinz baked beans. My favourite thing is the paninis — they do something called a New Yorker, which is a panini served with chicken escalope, cheese, bacon and bbq sauce. It clocks in around £8 but is so huge I eat it over two meals or if I’m feeling decadent, I snack on it all afternoon and then am like, alas! I must have a snack dinner, I am simply too full for anything else!
They also do a really good-lookin’ roast chicken and reasonably priced jacket potatoes with a salad and the works. They used to be open 24/7 but I’m pretty sure that post-2020 that’s not true anymore. But you’re guaranteed a very nice breakfast and lunch here! La Forchetta
Maoz, 43 Old Compton Street
Maoz does great schnitzel and great falafel in the centralest of central AND it’s open till 1 or 2am (depending on the day)! So you’re sorted for your pre-hangover meal and it’ll set you back less than your average pint (£8 for a bowl, £7 for a pitta or a roll for meat options, subtract £1 for all veggie options which include falafel, halloumi and aubergine). Rhe mains are substantial for that price, though. If you don’t want fries, this is a great place to eat for under £10 and their garlic sauce is appropriately prized at 75p a pot. That’s a price I’m actually happy to pay for garlic sauce, and it’s always in the budget.
If you do want fries, it’ll cost you a comparatively crazy £4.20, so maybe do without or settle for the under £15 mark. The real hack here is to spend £2.50 on pitta and 75p on garlic sauce and just go to town — that’s homemade garlic bread, baby! Maoz
Chinatown Bakery, 9 Wardour Street, 25 Wardour Street, 7-9 Newport Place
My husband used to work for a digital tours company that went bust, and spent three months doing a tour of Chinatown during which he sampled a lot of the local fare. He found himself coming back to a hyperlocal chain called Chinatown Bakery over and over (as do I) because it’s cheap and delicious.
You can get a pork bun here for £2 or less. Finish it up with a coconut one or a cream cake for the same price. You’ll leave with a bill of less than £5 and you can munch on it at the Prince Charles Cinema no questions asked, or take it home for later. Cheap. Cheerful. Plentiful. They never seem to run out except very close to closing time. Also delicious, which definitely helps. And there’s a really good range of flavours — the roast pork buns are a favourite, but I also like the chicken curry buns, the garlic buns, and the ham and onion buns. On the sweet side, they do a really delicious taiyaki. Chinatown Bakery
Sapori, 60 Horseferry Road
This one’s a 20-minute walk from the main theatre district but people do find themselves around here sometimes so I feel inclined to include it.
Do not, I repeat: DO NOT go here if you have literally any work to do for the afternoon or evening because their sandwiches will have you in a food coma for about three hours after. They cost around £9, but they are also massive and could easily take you through two meals (you can ask them to cut in half and wrap one up). The pasta is also big but is now sadly closer to £15. bummer. Sapori
Hungama Indian Street Food, 21 Charing Cross Road
Banging pre-theatre meal. Most of their veg curries are £8-£10. Most of their non-veg ones are £9-£12. They have a a great lunchtime deal where they do a thali for £12/£13 so you can try a bit of everything for minimal cost. They do no onion and no garlic dishes on request, but where this place comes into its own is the pav bhaji and vada pav, which I highly recommend; really flavourful and the sweet soft bread is (for me, at least) deeply nostalgic.
They also have some fun Indian drinks, including Masala Jeera Kashmira (that’s cumin cola to the uninitiated), and their takeaway boxes are beautifully laid out to keep everything separate until you mess it up by mixing everything together. Hungama Indian Street Food
Pastino, 92 Tottenham Court Road
I am really loath to order expensive pasta in restaurants. It just feels so not worth it to pay £12+ and get pasta when there’s pizza on the menu for the same price (my close Italian friend, Nicole, has also attested that basically every Italian restaurant in London is god awful. The maximum she has ever given one is a 7/10). So Pastino kind of resolves that issue for you, because you can get pretty good hot pasta for under £8. The aglio e olio starts at £3.95 if you just want something really simple, but if you want something fancier, there are options all the way up to £8. The most expensive things on the menu at that mark are the beef ragu, the tiger prawns and chilli, and the zozzona. The pasta is egg-free by default — if you want egg pasta it’ll taste a fair bit better but take your bill up £2.
This to say: if you’re not a pasta expert (read: me), this place will do a pasta that you like plenty for under £8. If you are, this place will do a pasta you like okay for under £10. If you only like filled pasta, go somewhere else. Pastino
Thonglor Express, 10 Great Russell Street
I can’t really wax that poetic about Thonglor Express. It’s just good value — loads of options for noodles and fried rice for £12 or under. No service charge here, just bang for your buck. If you’re feeling sweet, get the (still quite well-sized) £10 mango sticky rice for dessert. It is kind of meal sized, so I would recommend this as a solid, filling dessert-for-dinner shout too. Thonglor Express
Grana Cheesy Pasta, 10 Moor Street
A place that catches one’s eye as you’re milling about on Old Compton Street, perhaps waiting in the line for Eat Tokyo (my fave) and you’re like… “Hold up. cheesy pasta??? Now that’s a value proposition I could really get behind.” They’ve been around a year as an established unit, which is enough time to make a pretty good reputation for themselves in the realms of cheesy pasta.
You go in and are smacked in the face with garlic smell. Very seldom have U smelled garlic smell as potent as here. Vampires, beware. The titular cheesy pasta clocks in at around £11.50-£13 a plate, with the exception of the truffle (£15). I’m not gonna lie, the truffle is really, really good. But so is the classic! They also do £12 pizza, which I’ve not tried because the name Grana Cheesy Pasta somehow always makes me want to order cheesy pasta. They shaft you on the drinks here (£4.50 for a soft), so prep to have water or take away and grab something more fun.
You can watch as they cook in here, which is kind of fun and probably an Instagram magnet. The portions are big; the pasta itself is very good and you can watch it tantalisingly spew out of the machine (the mozzarella sticks are, sadly, unimpressive). Grana Cheesy Pasta
Thai West Cafe, 87 Brewer Street
Fresh pad thai in soho for £8 eat-in. The most expensive option is £10 with three toppings on your rice or your noodles. Everything’s quick, cheap, and surprisingly good quality for the price. Thai West Cafe
Fernando’s, 55 St Martins Lane
One of my friend Adam’s favourite café spots in London, which I think speaks highly of them because Adam has impeccable and very carefully developed taste, and he doesn’t come into central often anymore so the fact that this place still makes his list speaks volumes.
They’re good for a sandwich; they specialise in the chicken escalope melt (coming in at just under £7, but you’ll be so full you can barely breathe) but they also do a bunch of different boxed pastas for the same price range. They also do a set breakfast for under a tenner, which in Leicester Square is sort of impossible to find. Fernando’s
Bar Bruno, 101 Wardour Street
Bar Bruno is just a little corner spot with well-made sandwiches. People seldom sit outside there but it’s really nice to get a coffee and a table outside and watch the world go by and the rich lads trickle out of END. while you very slowly slowly eat your panini. They’re open til 9pm, so you can even grab dinner there if you’re looking for a cheap pre-theatre eat. All the sandwiches are massive and usually under £8. They also look really beautiful sitting beneath the glass, so you get to feast your eyes before you feast your mouth! Bar Bruno
The Kati Roll Company, 24 Poland Street
The priciest roll here is £7.50. The bread is delicious and buttery and flaky, and the filling is good too (I’m just a bread fiend I guess). Wait times can get up to 10 minutes although they usually get through pretty quick! A roll is a lighter meal I would say, so get two for £12 or so, or enjoy a big tasty snack. Or just call it lunch and commit to getting dessert later. The Kati Roll Company
Koshari Street, 56 St Martins Lane
You can find ful medames in other places in the city, but koshari is an Egyptian dish that’s hard to source elsewhere in London, so finding it in the centralest of central is kind of hard to believe. You can also get a massive meaty or falafel wrap for £9 or less, in Egyptian kobez bread (again hard to find!) or you can get a koshari bowl from £7–10.
Koshari is a kind of mix between pasta, fried rice, vermicelli noodles, lentils and chickpeas. So kind of like, every grain possible. But it’s smothered in a really delicious tomatoey sauce, so it’s really totally worth the inevitable carb coma. Gluten-free folks beware. Koshari Street
C&R Café, 4-5 Rupert Court
This really squeaks in at under £15 imo. Basically everything is either £12.50 or £13.50. You aren’t expected to tip, though, so I guess it is truly what you make of it, and it does include your carb accompaniment — you won’t have to pay extra for rice at that price point.
It’s good food and good portions and it’s cheap and i haven’t been to Singapore since I was a kid but people say it tastes very authentic (with the exception of the rendang) too, so I think it’s worth including even if it is walking on the less affordable side of the affordability road.
So there you go. Central London will rob you blind if you let it, but it really and truly doesn’t have to. Between the sandwiches, the street food and the sneaky basement cafes, there’s more than enough to keep you well-fed without touching the tourist traps. You just need to know where to look — and now you do!