Frugal London food: High-end meals at low-end prices

To dine well — yet frugally — in London means dining ethnic.

Only the price is low-end. In this most-multicultural global capital, you’ll dine in the company of knowing, if younger, London foodies. Haute cuisine — like the five-star hotels where much of its is served — is for expense-account business people, expat Russians, and tourists who lack courage or don’t know better.

Here are three well-reviewed places I’ve sampled for dinner, none costing more than $25 for one person with wine or beer and tip:

• Meraz Cafe is just off Brick Lane, a Bengali neighborhood in East London. Small yet brightly decorated and comfortable. I started with a deep-fried onion fritter, known as a “bhajee,” served with cilantro, red chilli and cucumber. Lamb chops with ginger followed. Also on the table: a curry of new potatoes, fresh coriander and spices, a yogurt-based “raita,” and a plain flat bread called “naan.” All for $18 plus $4.50 for the half bottle of red wine I brought with me. Jennifer Conlin in the New York Times calls Meraz Cafe a welcome contrast to the many “tourist-trap Indian restaurants that line Brick Lane.
• Song Que Cafe, on the Kingsland Road in Shoreditch, the best of a dozen restaurants in a strip known as “Little Hanoi.” Everything on the menu is characteristic of restaurant food served in the North of Vietnam. Pho, a beef-noodle soup, is all you need for dinner: a rich, fragrant stock, rice noodles, a selection of beef parts, coriander, onion and basil.  More than two dozen variants on order, including vegetarian where tofu substitutes for beef, all priced at $13.14. Big appetite and craving a starter? Try the sesame prawn toast, a butterflied king prawn on a baguette slice on top of a minced prawn mixture, what TimeOut described as “a real texture treat.” $7.60 for two pieces.
• The original Franco Manga is an open-bay pizza joint inside a dreary Brixton market. But the food there — and now 12 other locations across London — is artisan quality. Just six pizzas on offer. Sourdough crust. Organically grown toppings. Cooked in a Forno Napoletano brick oven. I’ve tried several, most recently its tomato, mozzarella and basil. With a green salad and a glass of Italian red wine, $19.75.

Three other approaches to frugal London food:

The supermarkets for breakfast. If your hotel does not include breakfast, turn to the convenience-scale supermarkets by Sainsbury, Tesco and Waitrose — typically near areas trafficed by commuters, such as Underground stations. The competition drives freshness up, price down — nothing like the corner store meat “pasties” of old. A typical order: Coffee, bran muffin, yogurt and a banana — $5.78.

The chains for lunch. If you haven’t the time, budget nor inclination for a pub lumch in such classics as Ye Olde Cheshsire Cheese in The City, the Grenadier in Belgravia or  the George Inn in Bankside, rely on the chains that are everywhere in London. The best, in no particular order, are Pret a Manger, EAT., Caffe Nero, Itsu and Wagamama. Pret was first, in 1984, and has since grown into a half-billion pound business with nearly 400 outlets. The others emerged in the Nineties. All express commitment to hand-made, locally sourced food, fair treatment of suppliers and employees, and charitable giving. Soups, salads and sandwiches in Pret, Eat. and  Nero. Noodles and sushi in Wagamama and Itsu. You needn’t spend more than $10 for lunch, often less.

And soup kitchens anytime for frugal travelers short on cash. Students and backpackers — the original frugal travelers to London — relied on food served in churches, what Sandra Gustafson has called London’s “cheapest of cheap eats.” No more. Prominent, centrally located, churches in London no longer consider food service a part of outreach or ministry. It’s a revenue stream. St. James Piccadilly outsourced its cafe to Caffe Nero. Southwark Cathedral closed its church-ladies cafeteria in favor of seated meals in a new, eight-room conference center, catered by a firm that specializes in food for soccer stadia. Cafe in the Crypt at St. Martin in the Fields competes with commercial establishments for the U.K’s “Cafe of the Year” award — and has won. Lunchtime fish and chips with a beer there is $21 — hardly frugal. An emerging alternative is soup kitchens, many run by less-well-known, more out-of-the-way churches. The Pavement magazine is the best source of information, maintaining a detailed directory online.