On a Budget in London? Think Small
A NEWCOMER to London has to start with the premise that very little is affordable in this city. For starters, there is the £4 subway ride that will take you one stop. And then the check for a modest restaurant meal often looks eerily similar to what you might expect in New York: except the figure is in pounds not dollars, roughly doubling the cost.
Still, London is in a buoyant mood these days, and many Londoners — count among them Russians, Middle Easterners and Asians of all kinds — seem impervious to the prices, just shrugging their shoulders, as they eat and drink at stratospheric prices.
One way to keep down the cost of eating out in London is to choose places that specialize in tapas or that feature “grazing” menus. But finding interesting food at good prices can be a quest of word-of-mouth, luck and instinct.
The least expensive of a pair of Spanish restaurants under the same ownership on Old Brompton Road in South Kensington, Tendido Cero offers a lively atmosphere and fresh tapas, including baby iron squid cooked in ink with rice for £6.50 ($13 at $2 to the pound), baby anchovies marinated in olive oil with parsley and garlic, rather heavy on the garlic (£5) and fresh green asparagus fried in olive oil and sea salt (£4.50). A recent selection of four Spanish cheeses with quince included a hard Manchego (£6.50). For a splurge, ham devotees could choose the most expensive item on the menu: 100 grams of jamon de bettota from the acorn-fed black pig (£14.50).
Friendly neighborhood people fill the black banquettes. The décor is modern: a huge vase of sunflowers at the entrance, crimson ceiling and metal shelves packed with Spanish food wares along part of one wall sets the informal tone.
The soul of old London and staid British food are the hallmarks of Ye Olde Cheshire Cheese, a warren of dark wood paneled bars and dining areas spread over three floors in a 16th-century building on Fleet Street. The place seems untouched since Samuel Johnson ate in the Chop Room, a dining area at the front of the premises. A portrait of Dr. Johnson in a gold frame peers down at his old table. When we visited, the table was filled by a former British newspaper editor and a male colleague dressed in suit and tie, rapidly consuming a bottle of red wine with lunch. These patrons could afford a smarter restaurant, but even among some sophisticated Londoners, the Cheshire Cheese keeps an affectionate hold.
The food was remarkable for its 1950s character: a ham salad of two slices of thin ham, seemingly from a packet, set on iceberg lettuce and beetroot (£7.25). The poached salmon salad featured a thin piece of salmon atop a similar salad (£7.50). The fish and chips — two pieces of battered fish with a generous serving of French fries — came with “mushy peas,” meaning well-boiled green peas common in English boarding schools (£7.75). The exceedingly sweet treacle pudding is the real thing, served with hot custard (£3.95). The beer is considered about the best value of any London pub: £1.07 for a half pint of bitter ale.
Sichuan cooking took a while to hit London but is now flowering at Bar Shu on Frith Street in the heart of Soho. The restaurant, spread across two floors, opened a year ago to considerable gasps from food writers in London. The dishes were too spicy, the critics said. But, if you stay away from the most expensive items and concentrate on the more modest classic dishes, the critics noted that the menu was a good value. I was told to try Bar Shu for the best green beans in town.
The dry fried green beans cooked with minced pork and ya chai, a mustard green from Sichuan (£8.50), were indeed addictively good. (And not hot.) The hot dried beef, lavishly topped with chili and Sichuan pepper, had a warning — two red pepper symbols. It lived up to its billing: a mound of tiny pieces of beef came smothered with red peppers and was screamingly hot (£8.90). Our favorite dish was the milder stir-fired calamari with Chinese chives (£12). Instead of a sweet desert, I finished with the recommended chicken soup, a mild broth with flecks of a root vegetable and silver ear fungus (£3). There is a full wine list, and wine by the glass is £4.50.
A Notting Hill outpost of some fame based on consistently delicious food, E & O has a clientele from the fashionable neighborhood and beyond. The restaurant name is an abbreviation for Eastern and Oriental, a giveaway name for the Thai-, Chinese- and Japanese-style food served in small dishes and created by an Australian-born restaurateur, Will Ricker, who owns several other successful London places. Grazing is the main idea there, so with clever choices the cost can be manageable. The coconut- and pomegranate-filled betel leaves — three of them lined up on a slender rectangular plate — were light and crisp (£5.50). The bean curd and chicken dumplings were fresh and warm (£4 to £6). The duck with watermelon and cashews was quite filling (£11), and the black cod tempura with miso aioli (£8.50) is a favorite. Leave room for the velvety sublime sorbets (£5).
The handsome square room, flooded with light and styled with banquettes, white tablecloths and dark wood, is a good place for London people watching; the bar at the front is always teeming. The wine list starts at £13 for a bottle of Italian white; wine by the glass starts at £4.50.
A friendly neighborhood restaurant in Notting Hill, with exposed brick walls and a bread oven at the entrance, Alounak offers hearty Iranian fare and — by London standards — reasonable prices. Moreover, judging by the number of Iranians eating there, the food is authentic.
The menu features a daily special, along with a large selection of dishes that are always offered. For a starter, we gorged on feta cheese served with a generous helping of mint leaves and peeled cucumber, walnuts and red radishes. We ate on a Tuesday when chicken with sweet and sour forest berries mixed with saffron was the special (£7.20). Alongside the generous portion of chicken came a generous portion of rice. My friend chose the boneless chicken marinated in saffron and garlic, also £7.20. The most expensive dish was a mixed kebab of lamb fillet, and minced lamb (£11.10).
The faludeh desert of shredded coconut with rose water (£2.20) was a sweet ending, and tea with cardamom served in slender glasses made a perfect finale. Alounak does not serve alcohol, but a Sainsbury's supermarket nearby sells wine.
Popina
For those on a truly frugal budget, Popina tarts and quiches can be a life saver. A cash-short Indonesian friend survived London this winter by stocking up on the mushroom tarts sold on weekends at Popina's stalls at the city's farmers' markets. Popina, established by Isidora Popovic, a Serb who came to London in the early 1990s, sells savory and sweet tarts for £2.50 for an individual serving and £7.50 for one that serves four.
The pastry is made with stone-ground English flour, unsalted English butter and free-range eggs from Kent. The spring menu includes a roasted new potato tart; a potato, leek and garlic tart; and a spinach, feta and tomato tart.
VISITOR INFORMATION
Tendido Cero (174 Old Brompton Road, SW5; 44-20-7370-3685). About £30 ($60 at $2 to the pound) for two, not including wine. The wine list concentrates on wines for around £20; £4.50 by the glass. Monday to Sunday noon to midnight.
Ye Olde Cheshire Cheese, (145 Fleet Street, EC4A; 44-20-7353-6170). About £25 for two, including beer. Monday to Friday: noon to 11 p.m.; Saturday, noon to 3:30 p.m. and 5:30 to 11 p.m.; Sunday: noon to 3:30 p.m.
Bar Shu (28 Frith Street, W1D; 44-20-7287-8822). About £50 for two, without wine. Daily from noon to midnight.
E & O (14 Blenheim Crescent, W11; 44-20-7229-5454). About £60 for two, without wine. Reservations are essential for dinner toward the end of the week and on the weekend. Daily from noon to midnight.
Alounak (44 Westbourne Grove, W2; 44-20-7229-0416). About £30 for two. Daily from noon to midnight.
Popina tarts are available at several farmers' markets around London on weekends. Saturdays: Pimlico Road Farmers' Market, Richmond Farmers' Market and Partridges Farmers' Market at Duke of York Square. Sundays: Queens Park Farmers' Market and Clapham Farmers' Market at Bonneville Gardens.
