Viewing 28 posts - 1 through 28 (of 28 total)
  • So I've been out in London tonight….
  • wrightyson
    Free Member

    It doesn’t get any cheaper does it? We’ve been for some swanky type meal up in Camden, (I didn’t think those two went together) and no swanky wasn’t the word, average was generous. Highlighting of the night was getting a cab from a proper mini cab type place and being told by some cool old gnarly black guy that my clothes were looking good. I’m easily pleased but sharply dressed it would seem!

    pleaderwilliams
    Free Member

    It definitely depends where you go. The great thing about London is that you can find amazing places at every pricepoint. Unfortunately there are a lot of fairly average places with above average prices, so you need to know where to go.

    chip
    Free Member

    Good restaurants should be busy especially at the weekend, and if it’s foreign nosh and there are quite a few punters of the same ethnic persuasion as the food claims to be, that is always a good sign.

    If a restaurant is empty, unless it’s just opened its doors go elsewhere.
    This goes for the humble greasy spoon too, a good cafe will always be packed.

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    onandon
    Free Member

    What chip said,

    You can’t go wrong with these rules anywhere in the world.

    bikebouy
    Free Member

    The places we go you can eat for £70 without wine, I think that’s pretty reasonable.

    Rarely go over Camden way for the simple fact that it’s still seen as a trendy place to go, when in reality it’s just a bit grotty and overrated.
    Even in somewhere like Soho or CovGdn you can eat for what we pay, or head East and even Hackney will seem cheap by comparison.
    Mostly we head to a few fave places up I Clerkenwell/Old Holborn/Aldwich/Aldgate where we’ve found some blooming excellent places.
    We’ve got a couple over Canary Wharf we use and you’d think that prices would spike there, wrong. You can eat very hansomly for what we pay..
    I always steer clear of places that are old and trading only on their “name”, Brick Lane for example, used to be good for a Curry years ago, now it’s just pretty rubbish.

    But then you do have to take your time to find places, or do a bit of research.

    Anyway, anyway you looked good doing it 😀

    soobalias
    Free Member

    The places we go you can eat for £70 without wine

    thats the weekly grocery bill here, not a single meal

    maccruiskeen
    Full Member

    thats the weekly grocery bill here, not a single meal

    But if you eat out every night you don’t have to spend as much on groceries do you. Swings and roundabouts innit. 🙂

    Jamie
    Free Member

    The places we go you can eat for £70 without wine

    Oh how the other half live 8)

    lemonysam
    Free Member

    The places we go you can eat for £70 without wine, I think that’s pretty reasonable.

    Is that per person? Cripes!

    Jamie
    Free Member

    OP.

    If you’re braver than me, maybe have a look at EatWith.

    http://www.eatwith.com/list/united+kingdom

    …it’s like AirBNB for food.

    brooess
    Free Member

    London eating out may not be cheap but there’s so much competition, IMO what you get for a given price point is better than you get in the provinces.
    In particular a lot of London is owner-managed rather than chains so you get more original, better quality and better service.
    I don’t think the cost of eating out has gone up that much in the last 10 years either.
    Depends if you want posh or not but you can eat out very well for £30-40 and up to the £70 above for something more swanky

    maccruiskeen
    Full Member

    OP.

    If you’re braver than me, maybe have a look at EatWith.

    two words

    Armin Meiwes

    bikebouy
    Free Member

    £70 is cheap and yes it’s for two folks, us two 😀

    Clearly you can eat for less, lots of Zizzi’s/Nandos etc around but we don’t eat there, we eat in small independant restaurants which lets be honest we all prefer right?

    I’m not in the “other half”, most of my mates do similar, eat out once/twice a week maybe three times. In the main because it’s bloody easy and socialable and I don’t get in from work until gone 7 even though I live 10mins down the road. Most folks I work with leave about 5, catch the train or ride home and they get in similar times.
    We cook very every night we don’t eat out and our weekly food bill must be about £70 too.. That’s not bad is it. We steer clear of fast food, no Dominos/take out curry etc. the reason for no take out is a simple one… You don’t know what goes on behind the counter, how they cook it/what they put in it. I’m not a fan of not knowing/trusting restaurants see..

    Hey ho. 😀

    Jamie
    Free Member

    I’m not in the “other half”

    I think the other half doth protest too much.

    lemonysam
    Free Member

    £70 is cheap and yes it’s for two folks, us two

    Oh in which case that doesn’t sound too bad for three courses no wine – clearly I’m posh too.

    chestrockwell
    Full Member

    £70 for two doesn’t make it ‘other half’. Two to three times a week might.

    joolsburger
    Free Member

    I can eat out easily in London for 15 quid a head and up you just have to do a bit of research, a quality meal is always going to be 30-40 quid a head in town or around £100 each if it’s on expenses! You didn’t go to Gilgamesh in Camden did you?

    Take a look at this
    http://www.timeout.com/london/food-drink/londons-best-cheap-eats

    piemonster
    Full Member

    Clearly you can eat for less, lots of Zizzi’s/Nandos etc around but we don’t eat there, we eat in small independant restaurants which lets be honest we all prefer right?

    It’s exactly this sort of pompous middle class snobbery that I am 100% on board with. 🙂

    lazybike
    Free Member

    Night out in Camden and a minicab home…living the dream 🙂

    CountZero
    Full Member

    There’s a great Chinese place in Greenwich which is often busy with Chinese eating, a huge bowl of noodles and soup, of whatever variety, or pretty much anything else is £5.99. I had a truly wonderful plate (an inch-thick slab of timber), of beer-battered cod with triple-fried chips in Oslo, Hackney for £13. Top notch nosh, and the Five Points Brewing Co Hook Island Red beer was outstanding.
    http://fivepointsbrewing.co.uk

    mudmonster
    Free Member

    Went to Food for Though vegetarian restaurant last week in Covent garden. Was £8.70 for a proper portion of food. The place was very popular.

    TheBrick
    Free Member

    The other half still lives in London and I live near Bournemouth and I find London cheaper to eat out in than Bournemouth and the quality is much better. Two courses for two people 30 – 40 is standard (plus drinks but we rarely drink anything). Usually closer to £30 than £40. Nice places you just need to know where to go. I’m not talking noodle bars but somewhere nice.

    In busy cities restaurants can quite often be cheaper because although the rent may be x2 they get x3 the trade because there is more than just friday and saturday night trade.

    martinxyz
    Free Member

    Is it me or is any one else thinking fish & chips on a park bench? :O)

    ericemel
    Free Member

    The other half still lives in London and I live near Bournemouth and I find London cheaper to eat out in than Bournemouth and the quality is much better.

    I frequent both places and cannot agree more! In London I have tons of places to eat at under a tenner that are very good indeed. Obviously I know a whole load of places at silly prices too.

    jkomo
    Full Member

    I like to spend £30- £40 each on drink and not eat.

    esselgruntfuttock
    Free Member

    You don’t know what goes on behind the counter, how they cook it/what they put in it. I’m not a fan of not knowing/trusting restaurants see.

    .

    So I assume you hang around the kitchens of the resarunts you frequent to see what goes on? Or do you ‘just know’?

    Do NOT… go to India then!

    Drac
    Full Member

    Depends if you want posh or not but you can eat out very well for £30-40 and up to the £70 above for something more swanky

    Like any other city then.

    MrSalmon
    Free Member

    Clearly you can eat for less, lots of Zizzi’s/Nandos etc around but we don’t eat there, we eat in small independant restaurants which lets be honest we all prefer right?

    I’d take Zizzi’s over plenty of independent restaurants any day of the week.

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