Table-Hopping on a Budget in Pricey London

Dining in London without spending a queen’s ransom? It’s not easy, but it’s possible.

London has a wealth of trendy restaurants that in recent years have reversed the city’s old reputation for bland food, but finding affordable ones is another question.

This is a city where dinner in a Chinese restaurant can easily run $150. Beyond fast-food outlets and chain restaurants, the places that most visitors hear about are almost uniformly expensive. Fine for an occasional meal, but not for dining on a budget.

We decided on an arbitrary spending limit of 10 per person, about $17 U.S., as a guideline, and set off to find good, cheap food in London.

Pubs are a good place to start, but we soon found that pub food has a sameness that quickly wears thin. An exception is The Hillgate near the Nottinghill Gate station to the Underground.

Proprietor Liam Murphy cures his own salt beef and serves excellent roast beef as well for about 4, with vegetables and potatoes. It’s a warm neighborhood pub, and lunch there is a delight. Tables outside are popular in fine weather.

Geal’s, a famous fish restaurant, is just a block away but was closed on the day we were there, so Murphy steered us to a tiny shop near his pub. Its sign read simply: Costas Fish restaurant. “Best fish and chips in London,” Murphy said.

Inside, Andreas Papadopolous greeted us warmly and showed us to the small dining room in the back. We walked past the deep fryer on the way, and he rushed to take a large piece of cod out of the hot oil.

“The secret is to buy fresh fish every morning,” he said, “and cook it to order. The oil has to be fresh too, and it takes time to make a great batter.”

For fish and chips, this little shop ranks right alongside the Sea Shell of Lisson Grove and has cheaper prices. A small cod is 3.50 and a large order is 5.90. Both come with chips (french fries) of superb quality. Everything is cooked fresh to order and the restaurant is open for lunch and dinner.

Always on the lookout for good places to get a quick bite before the theater, we found several good restaurants in the West End. Porters near Covent Garden offers traditional English meat pies at 4.25 each.

We tried the turkey and chestnut, which came with large chunks of turkey and cooked chestnuts in a herb gravy topped by a huge puff of golden brown pastry.

Sausage and mash (leek and ale sausages served with mashed potatoes covered with a savory ale and onion gravy) was 4.25, and a side order of bubble and squeak (mashed potatoes, cabbage and onions formed into patties and baked rather than fried) was 1.35. For dessert we ordered spotted dick, which is what they call a rich sponge cake dotted with white raisins and served with a warm custard sauce (2.15).

Cafe Flo is a cozy French restaurant on St. Martin’s Lane in the center of the theater district. Soupe de poisson (a fish soup served with garlic mayonaise) is just 3.50. Follow that with grilled pork sausages served with a puree of peas, onions and gravy. It tastes much better than it sounds, and you’ll be under 10. Other entrees run between 5.50 and 6.95. A prix fixe menu of two courses and coffee is just 8.50.

Open until 8 p.m. every evening, Butlers is a tiny shop serving excellent coffees and teas, along with light snacks.

For under 4 we had a hot ham and cheese croissant sandwich and capuccino. Butlers is always crowded, but waiting for space at one of the small tables or at the bar in the back has become a London pre-theater tradition. The shop is also one of the few places in the city that serves great decaffeinated espresso and capuccino.

Everyone makes the trip to Harrods at least once during a visit to London, and several small cafes in the large store offer good value, but nothing like the value at The Stockpot just around the corner on Basil Street.

Open from 8 a.m. until 11 p.m., the small restaurant is part of a chain, with branches in several parts of the city. In the morning you can have your choice of several variations on the typical English breakfast of broiled tomato, bacon, sausage and eggs for 2.10.

For lunch and dinner, specialties include a pork chop with apple sauce for 2.85, salade nicoise for 2.65 and beef burgundy at 2.40. Even with these prices, service is included. Cash only is the rule. The Chelsea Kitchen on Kings Road is also part of the group.

If a friend and book publisher who lives in London had not invited us for tea we never would have ventured into the Chinoiserie at the Hyatt Carlton Tower. This is not the setting we would have chosen for an affordable light meal.

“My favorite tea in London,” he said as we settled into the comfortable chairs in the lobby. “Just good service and no pretenses.” The other occupants ran the gamut from Middle Eastern businessmen to fashionable ladies in for tea after shopping on trendy Sloane Street. There were even guests in sport shirts.

Besides continental breakfast in the morning and afternoon tea, the Chinoiserie serves light snacks from 11 a.m. until 10:30 p.m. Sandwiches of chicken, Norwegian prawns and Scottish smoked salmon cost 4 to 7.50, and salads and elegant pastries range from 3.50 to 8.50. Afternoon tea includes finger sandwiches, scones and pastries for 8.50.

Nearby, in the basement of the posh General Trading Co. near Sloane Square is Justin de Blank’s delightful cafe. It has a separate entrance and the restaurant is open in the evening after the store has closed.

We enjoyed lunch at a table in the glass-enclosed patio in the back. A salad with huge chunks of white chicken cost 4.65 and a spinach and broccoli soup exploding with flavor was 2.20.

Another great way to eat reasonably in London is to take advantage of the profusion of good Indian restaurants. Our favorite is Diwana Bhel-Poori House, a vegetarian restaurant on Drummond Street near Euston Station.

Bhel-poori (a cold appetizer of puffed rice, potatoes, onion, green chili chutney), an Indian specialty, is 3.50. The only problem is overeating. The food is plentiful and varied and the waiters will make suggestions from the many dishes.

Be sure to order the sweet lassi (1.10), a yogurt drink that is perfect with the spicy food.

We even found an affordable restaurant with a very famous chef. Tall Orders’ Nick Gill earned a Michelin star at Hambleton Hall, one of England’s posh country hotels, and his newly opened restaurant on Fulham Road near the Parson’s Green underground station is one of the bargains in London.

Each dish on Gill’s eclectic menu arrives at your table in a Chinese bamboo steaming box, and each costs 2.95. If you order lots of dishes your total can be hefty, but we found that two to three items per person was plenty.

Try the tartlet of caramelized onions, sun-dried tomatoes and feta cheese, slightly sweet and intensely flavored, and the superb free-range chicken, roasted with fresh rosemary and served with tiny roasted potatoes and aioli , or garlic mayonnaise. Desserts include chocolate mousse and a lemon tart with oranges and Cointreau.

Recommended: Butlers Tea & Coffee Company Ltd., 26 Rupert St. Cafe Flo, 51 St. Martins Lane. Chinoiserie, Hyatt Carlton Tower, Cadogan Place. Costas Fish restaurant, 18 Hillgate St. Diwana Bhel-Poori House, 121 Drummond St. The Hillgate, 24 Hillgate St. Justin de Blank’s The General Trading Co., 144 Sloane St. Porters, 17 Henrietta St., Covent Garden. The Stockpot, 6 Basil St. Tall Orders, 676 Fulham Road.