20 of the most affordable set menus at London’s best restaurants

Consuming out is more and more costly, however that’s no cause to fall again into Wagamama’s flavourless arms or lean but once more on Nando’s, the place the hen, as soon as pleasing, has change into so dry it’s as if it’s been cooked in a Richard Ayoade joke.

As a result of have a look at all this – set menus and offers at a few of London’s greatest eating places. Sausages at Noble Rot, steak at Hawksmoor, moules mariniere at Claude Bosi’s Josephine.

Right here you’ll discover an ever-updated listing of prime set menus, every one joyfully accessible. Under are 20 eating places however extra are on the best way.

Akara is the extra informal and carefree sibling to the Michelin-starred West African restaurant Akoko however is as a lot a dutiful nod to the area’s culinary nous and its rising reputation within the London meals bubble. The restaurant takes its identify from a black-eyed bean fritter from West Africa, a dish that can be widespread in Brazil, the place it’s referred to as acarajé. It’s the starter on the £25 set lunch – full of both barbecued tiger prawns or roast celeriac – earlier than a major course of Lagos hen, smoked mackerel or king oyster mushrooms with efik and carrot rice. Coconut and lime sorbet to complete is an additional £4.

This little restaurant on Broadway Market is likely to be greatest identified for its croque monsieur lately. It comes topped with beef tartare and fermented pink pepper seasoning and there are solely 5 obtainable per day: very a lot one for the ‘gram, however ok to justify the hype. Failing that, there’s a basic set menu, with dishes corresponding to cured trout with tomatoes, capers and dill, and roast pork loin with charred greens and peppercorn sauce.

Berners Tavern on the London Version is ready up effectively for the pre-theatre crowd, an elegant hangout within the centre of city the place British meals is served in a grand outdated room. It is likely to be greatest loved afterward when there’s candlelight and reside music, however the early menu – between 5-6.30pm – gives promise, not least as a result of it’s obtainable all week bar Sundays. Assume prawn cocktail, roast hen, and raspberry and chocolate opera cake.

Any credible brasserie will do a prix fixe menu and that is true at Langan’s, which relaunched in 2021 with designs on rekindling the glory days of the Seventies and Eighties. Michael Caine is not in situ however old skool favourites are. The set menu – obtainable at lunch and post-9pm for dinner – is very beneficiant because of the inclusion of yellowfin tuna with black truffle as a starter. In any other case there’s hen liver parfait with toasted brioche or pea panna cotta and asparagus. Important programs may embrace seasonal risotto, liver and bacon or salmon with beurre blanc, whereas desserts are enjoyable, fruity and meringue-based.

Value-wise, that is far punchier than most of the others on the listing, however deserves its place as a result of it is likely to be the perfect instance of up to date Sri Lankan in London proper now. The worth tag additionally brings a veritable feast, one the place the nuances of Sinhalese delicacies are dropped at Rupert Road with diligence and aplomb. The menu meanders from inexperienced chilli custard to potato and sambol, crab curry to beef with beetroot dal and okra; the paneer and Tunworth cornetto might be one of many most interesting morsels this aspect of the Indian ocean. It’s sensational cooking, explorative, fiery and academic, and if worth is all, that is it.

Richard Corrigan opened Portrait on the Nationwide Portrait Gallery in the summertime of 2023, a lightweight, breezy brasserie on the highest flooring with “Mary Poppins views” and to punctuate any perusal of high quality artwork beneath. The set menu is a triumph, a standout, and obtainable for lunch and early dinner all through the week. Starters embrace white onion soup or smoked salmon with pomegranate and fennel, whereas mains may very well be orecchiette with wild garlic and basil, or basic fried cod alongside do-it-yourself tartare sauce. Sides – mash, chips, salads and veg – are further and all at £6.

At Noble Rot’s Soho outpost is a set weekday lunch menu of satisfying design, one which brings the consolation of reasonably priced pan-European cooking a lot as any bistro in some unremarkable however charming Continental city sq., one with elegant, once-bombed out flagstones, vibrant awnings and a few kind of fountain. There is likely to be a hefty Morteau sausage perched on braised lentils or a wealthy goulash that will please even a Hungarian farmer known as Ivan.

Few Michelin-starred eating places in London are as accessible as Chishuru, Joke Bakare’s groundbreaking West African restaurant that moved to the West Finish two years in the past. Although the trendy iteration is a world away from her first web site, an informal, canteen-like house in Brixton Village, the meals stays reasonably priced and that is no more true than within the £45 set lunch. Starters embrace sinasir, a fermented rice cake with butternut squash and chilli; major programs embrace the likes of char-grilled guinea fowl with celeriac, jalapeno and an egusi (bean) sauce. A bit pricier than every little thing else on the listing, but it surely’s high cooking and important in London.

Carousel is greatest referred to as an incubator house, someplace for visiting cooks to come back and wow Londoners with their international charms. Don’t neglect that it’s as a lot a wine bar and its personal restaurant, one with a wonderful lunch deal between Tuesday and Saturday, 12-3pm. Starters may embrace sea bream ceviche with asparagus or a juicy tomato salad; afterward, lamb stomach with gooseberries and chilli salsa or crab rice with lime and curry leaves.

Impressed by Koreatown in Los Angeles, Korean Dinner Occasion rolled into Soho with all of the irreverence and flippancy required of a enjoyable eating spot in Kingly Court docket. The vibe is east-meets-west: kitsch cocktails, conventional sake and new-Asian hip hop. As for the meals, a £15 set lunch combines a selection of 1 pickledog and one order of Korean-style tacos, or there’s a basic, effervescent and spicy stew of kimchi, enoki mushrooms, tofu and egg yolk with brown rice as a major (a strong dish, particularly when hungover). Go on Tuesdays, and there’s a taco particular, with three supplied with all the edges for £22. However even the complete Seoul-to-Soho tasting menu comes out effectively, costing simply £35.

Artusi, Peckham’s hit Italian restaurant – now with a web site in Soho, too – has had among the best offers round for years. On Sundays, between noon-4pm, diners might get pleasure from a veritable feast for underneath £30, one which brings high elements cooked effectively. When on, the smoked cod’s roe with polenta and a fried quail’s egg is excellent, so too any variety of pasta dishes. Desserts range, however there’s all the time do-it-yourself ice cream, fortunately.

There is a honest argument to counsel this is without doubt one of the greatest offers round in London. A beneficiant little bit of Lyonnaise cooking, from Claude Bosi’s workforce no much less, for £16.50. Throughout the week, every single day brings one thing new, whether or not slow-cooked veal with pilaf rice or a basic moules mariniere. In any other case, attempt the menu de canut, which has the well-known aucisson brioche in addition to andouillette. There are reasonably priced wines, too. No marvel the restaurant is ready for enlargement (not simply Marylebone).

Bistro Freddie was one in all London’s standout launches in 2023, arriving in Shoreditch as a chic, conventional restaurant and going all in on the candles and white linen. The categorical set is out there throughout weekday lunch occasions and brings easy however pleasing dishes like smoked mackerel on toast, steak tartare and cod with tomatoes. It’s a stunning house, with good service.

One in all a rising variety of pubs underneath the Public Home umbrella, The Pelican is the unique, a Notting Hill spot favoured by the ‘slebs. The group can do no flawed, it appears – the best place on the town within the Fats Badger, very good pasta at Canteen, a multi-floored parlour of romance on the Hero. And that’s with out its countryside bolthole, the Bull at Charlbury, now underneath the stewardship of the good Sally Abe. The Pelican’s set menu is an reasonably priced level of reconnaissance in all this, with dishes corresponding to cod cheeks with curry sauce, confit duck leg, and sticky toffee pudding.

Kolamba opened a second department final 12 months, launching in Shoreditch after seeing success in Soho. Budding restaurateurs Eroshan and Aushi Meewella have been early to London’s newly buzzing Sri Lankan development. They draw on dwelling cooking and childhood dishes in Colombo on the restaurant, so anticipate the likes of idli with sambar, charred coconut hen and spinach dhal when eating. These are amongst many extra on the set lunch menu.

The prix fixe menu runs from midday till 6.45pm through the week at Bistrot at Wild Honey, the informal restaurant on the glorious Sofitel lodge on Pall Mall. A measured and picked up sideline to chef Antony Demetre’s Michelin-starred flagship Wild Honey, the bistrot brings strong French cooking within the likes of spring potatoes with garlic velouté and duck egg, although is just not confined to France. There is likely to be cottage pie on alongside rigatoni with beef shin ragu.

Michelin-starred meals from the chef Jun Tanaka, for underneath £40? It’s a very good deal, particularly when a major course on the a la carte is more likely to be north of that sum. The lunch deal isn’t a pared-back menu both, actually. Starters embrace sea bream carpaccio and sedani (a wildly underused pasta form) with pork ragu; major programs stroll from hake with cannellini beans to bouncy wild garlic risotto. It’s all large stuff.

It’s a diligent and spectacular mechanism, the set menu, and Hawksmoor nails it like Bob the Builder after a bottle of respectable Merlot. Starters are gracious – the mackerel salad precedes steak effectively – after which up comes the rump with chips, the latter fried in beef dripping, don’t neglect. As for puddings, there isn’t a lot level in deviating from the peanut butter shortbread, however no matter you get, it’ll be good.

The Devonshire retains the value of its set menu remarkably low because of doing one factor (per course) and doing it proper. For £25, a prawn and langoustine cocktail earlier than steak and chips with bearnaise sauce. Spend an additional £4 plus service and there’s a sticky toffee pudding for good measure. Final 12 months’s mad hype has became a spot with a loyal following for good cause.

BAO has change into synonymous with reasonably priced fashionable eating in London, a JKS Eating places standout now seven years outdated. The BAO 15, obtainable between 12-6pm on weekdays, is as a lot a star in a busy sky: the deal varies site-to-site, however reliably brings a bao, a snack (xiao chi; usually fried hen or a vegetarian various) and a noodle dish for simply £15, whereas at some websites two further items of Taiwanese fried hen can be found for an additional £3.50. Don’t assume the menu choices are restrictive, both – among the many snacks are lamb dumplings or smacked cucumber, and the prawn bao, a real basic, is included too.