Addie's is an unremarkable-looking Thai restaurant in Earl's Court, but the fact that it's busy gives it away. It has been for almost three decades, and in a city full of faded gourmet icons, it is astonishing that eating here is as delicious as it has always been. As soon as the (free) prawn crackers are on your table, you will know. They're the grainy, caramel-colored sort, not the terrible, foamy white kind. A decent Thai restaurant can always be identified by the quality of its crackers.

Inside, it’s painted an unfashionable shade of dark red, with tables tucked into cosy nooks along the wall. The menu is intimidatingly vast, but when ordering, this is the kind of establishment where it pays to have a roving eye. A quick spy at the tables in your vicinity should help you decide: everyone gets the papaya salad. This dish, with thin ribbons of pale papaya, carrot and beans sprinkled with peanuts and served in a nice deep bowl, was fresh and frighteningly spicy. (A general warning: dishes here are not designed to suit the Western palate). The pad thai, usually a dull choice, was also superb: served with a traditional latticed pancake of egg on top, the noodles beneath were luscious and slippery, spliced with beansprouts and fat, sweet prawns. The only minor disappointment was a plate of overly greasy vegetable spring rolls.

Aside from that, the meal was nearly flawless. It's also inexpensive, making Addie's an uncommon breed in West London. Make this your neighborhood hangout if you live nearby. If not, this is a restaurant worth making the trip to Earl's Court for.

Google rating: 4.4/5

Phone: +44 20 7259 2620

Address: 121 Earls Ct Rd, London SW5 9RL, United Kingdom

Service options: Dine-in · Takeaway · No-contact delivery

Prices: £11-25

Website: http://www.addiesthai.co.uk/

Andu Cafe, located on Kingsland Road, serves hearty amounts of Ethiopian vegan food at a low price in a welcoming, no-frills environment. Inside, it's straightforward: take a seat among the fairy lights, framed photographs, and artificial plants, and you'll be asked if you want the customary injera (a sour, spongy pancake) or a piece of rice, which will appear quickly alongside six courses. They're served in a charming plastic tray with partitions—yes, like at school—or, if you're going for the injera and want to be more grown-up, you can ask for them to be served conventionally, with the stews neatly stacked on top, for a bit more. It's only £7 per person or £12 for a large taster plate.

It’s all about the beans, greens, and lentils here, which are pimped out with plenty of garlic, ginger, and turmeric. Standouts included the misir wot – a comforting stew of spicy red lentils with minced garlic – and the tikil gomen, an aromatic mix of chopped cabbage, potatoes, and onions. It’s not game-changing stuff, and the menu is pretty simple (there are no desserts or sides), but it’s good quality and delicious. Andu Cafe is a charming, cheap, and cheerful place, and one that has clearly nuzzled its way into the hearts of hip young locals. Andu Cafe is considered be one of the best cheap eats in London.

Google rating: 4.6/5
Phone: +44 20 7254 1780
Address: 528 Kingsland Rd, London E8 4AH, United Kingdom
Service options: Dine-in · Takeaway
Prices: £7 - £12
Website: http://www.anduvegancafe.com/

From the outside, Anima e Cuore appears to be a gelateria and café. But the tiny restaurant at the back (22 seats only) serves – at very low prices – Italian food that can stand comparison with the best in the capital. Although this stretch of Kentish Town Road has seen an increase of high-quality dining and drinking establishments, it is still not a location where you would expect to find cookery of this caliber. And the restaurant itself is unattractive, with hardly little décor and an amateurishly produced menu. However, some great cuisine may make you forget about everything else.

The name means ‘heart and soul’, and Anima e Cuore’s owners have certainly put everything into this intriguing Italian eatery on Kentish Town Road. During the day, it’s a “low-key” café and ice-cream parlour dishing out sustenance for passers-by, but the space out back also conceals a remarkable little restaurant.

There’s precious little decor, the menu is recited (or scrawled on paper) and you’re expected to bring your own booze, but the kitchen delivers some “absolutely sensational” food. Polenta in various forms is a speciality and pasta is made fresh each day (perhaps ox-cheek cannelloni or black tagliatelle with smoked salmon and peas), but you might also find plates of tuna tartare with cucumber sorbet, swordfish carpaccio or beef fillet with green cauliflower cream and toasted hazelnuts – all fashioned by chefs who’ve worked in big hitters such as L’Anima and The Ledbury. One warning: “everyone round here knows about it, so book in advance”.

Google rating: 4.6/5

Phone: +44 7590 427171

Address: 127 Kentish Town Rd, London NW1 8PB, United Kingdom

Service options: Dine-in · Takeaway · Delivery

Prices: £30 - £49

Website: http://animaecuore.co.uk/

When it comes to the best cheap eats in London, people always mention Ariana II. Kilburn is fortunate to have this tiny Afghan restaurant serving kebabs, curries, and excellent regional specialties—and a BYOB policy keeps costs low. Ariana II attracts visitors from all over London because of its superb food, low rates, and BYOB policy. The exterior is indistinguishable from the lines of kebab shops on Kilburn High Road; within is a modest, simple dining room with a few Afghan pictures on the walls (there's more room in the basement). But you can count on a cheerful greeting and prompt service.

The menu represents the diverse influences on Afghan cuisine, including those from the Arab world, the Indian subcontinent, and farther afield in Asia. These may be found in dumplings, tikkas, and kebabs, but the food also has a distinct flavor. Warmly spiced fried pumpkin pastries (bolanee kadoo) with a side of hot chakni relish (also available by the bottle) and plump, moreish leek-filled aushak ravioli topped with ground beef and yoghurt make excellent beginnings.

For mains, kabuli palow (a melting, slow-cooked lamb shank buried in a mound of yellow rice dotted with pistachios and peppers) is a must. To drink, order minty yoghurt dough or freshly squeezed juices, and conclude with cardamom-flavoured tea and pastries.

Google rating: 4.1/5

Phone: +44 20 3490 6709

Address: 241 Kilburn High Rd, London NW6 7JN, United Kingdom

Service options: Dine-in, Takeaway, Delivery

Prices: under £30

Website: http://www.ariana2.uk/

Bancone is a chic Italian restaurant in Covent Garden with a short, straightforward menu divided into three sections: antipasti, pasta, and dessert. It's a long, tight room with a long eating counter, an open kitchen, and incredibly delicious pasta, led by chef Louis Korovilas, who formerly worked at Michelin-starred Locanda Locatelli. Chefs at the front window roll out pasta dough virtually all day, putting it on a display for passers-by while feverishly cutting and shaping for those inside who are anxiously waiting for their pasta.

There are generally around eight plates of pasta on the menu, and half of them are usually suitable for veggies. Proper al dente pasta is slightly undercooked and hard to get right, but the chefs here nailed it. In fact, all the pasta they tried was perfect: slightly chewy, so it had a little bit of bite, but soft and silky, so it held its sauce beautifully. The best dish was the poetically named "silk handkerchiefs" (it’s technically called fazzoletti) with walnut butter and confit egg yolk. Simple, but delicious: soft sheets swimming in a rich sauce, with little chunks of walnut for texture. At £8, it was also great value. Just as good as the plate of beef shin ravioli with saffron butter, sweet parsley oil, and soft, flavourful meat. Sadly, things went downhill with the salty tomato, squid, and olive bucatini (tubular spaghetti). The pasta, again, was flawless – but this dish needed less salt, more balance.

The restaurant itself is a touch office-like (it appears to have been one), but you don't come here for the appearance. You come to Bancone to eat inexpensive, wonderful pasta at the bar while people-watching others around you. Purchase those silk hankerchiefs.

Google rating: 4.5/5
Phone: +44 20 7240 8786
Address: 39 William IV St, London WC2N 4DD, United Kingdom
Service options: Dine-in · No takeaway · No delivery
Prices: £30 - £49
Website: http://www.bancone.co.uk/

Bao? Wow. This slick former street food operation brings Taiwanese cuisine in from the cold, with plenty of hit dishes and a great tea selection. The transition from street stall to permanent site is not an easy one. Many successful street food traders simply lack the skills for staffing rotas, spreadsheets and hitting slim profit margins. That’s why the three founders of Bao cleverly teamed up with more experienced and deeper-pocketed operators – the team behind Trishna and Gymkhana – to smooth the journey from market pop-ups to a permanent Soho establishment.

This Bao-Trishna marriage appears to be blissful. The décor is sleekly Japanese, with casual yet efficient service. Most notably, the tantalizing cuisine is new and inventive. While it is inspired by Taiwanese street food, the kitchen goes well beyond those bounds. In New York, Chef David Chang achieved something similar with Korean food: the Momofuku founder's steamed buns became a cult culinary item. Chang addressed a new generation of novelty-seeking urban customers by subverting and recreating cuisine.

Bao is London’s equivalent of Momofuku’s Ssäm Bar. The restaurant’s name derives from gua bao: fluffy white steamed buns, in this case filled with braised pork, sprinkled with peanut powder, and yours for £3.75. Other sorts of bao (bun) are more slider-like, such as little burger baps wrapped around soy-milk-marinated chicken, sichuan mayo and kimchi. There’s even a dessert bao – made with doughnut batter and filled with Horlicks ice cream – that echoes the malted cereal milks at NYC’s Momofuku Milk Bar.

Yet buns are only half the story. Xiao chi (small eats) are given equal prominence, reflecting their cult status in Taiwan, where much culinary innovation comes from street food stalls. Pig’s blood cake – a neat little block topped with a lightly cured egg yolk – tastes of soy sauce and black pudding. Vegetarian dishes are enticing: oyster mushrooms are cooked with jade-coloured fragments of century egg; intensely savoury dice of roasted aubergine have a slight garlic kick.

What lifts this diner from merely great to sublime is the drinks list. Sakés, artisanal ciders, well-matched beers and hot oolong teas vie for attention alongside creations such as foam tea – a chilled light oolong artistically topped with foamed cream. Arrive hungry; leave happy. But be warned: Bao is small and doesn’t take bookings.

Google rating: 4.3/5

Phone: 07769 627811

Address: 53 Lexington St, Carnaby, London W1F 9AS, United Kingdom

Service options: Dine-in · Kerbside pickup · No-contact delivery

Prices: £11-25

Website: http://www.baolondon.com/

Everyone misses certain things when they leave east London. Some like warehouse parties or canalside strolls. Waving goodbye to the East End left a hole in everyone's heart the size and shape of one of Kingsland Road's many Vietnamese restaurants, which, as you may understand, puts a strain on the old circulatory system. Things are looking up for rent-hike refugees in Peckham, though, since erstwhile Bussey Building regulars Bánh Bánh have now joined the expanding food village at the tip of Peckham Rye. The restaurant is owned by five siblings of the Nguyen family, who have based their cuisine on recipes left behind by their grandmother, who worked as a cook in Saigon in the 1940s. It is housed in a neutrally furnished, plywood-clad facility.

Granny Nguyen was obviously a pioneer. There are many of delicacies that you would not anticipate, such as the house's unique banh khọt pancakes, which are gob-sized eggy hemispheres filled with juicy prawns and topped with spring onion, served still-cooking in a cast-iron skillet, with leaves and dipping sauce on the side. These, like everything else on the menu, cost less than a tenner. Although the dishes are meant to be shared, most of the bigger selections can be eaten on their own, making Bánh Bánh an excellent choice for a fast solo lunch as well as a communal blow-out with friends. If you go for the latter, grab a few die-hard Hackney types, order one of everything, and watch their expressions as they clash chopsticks over some of the greatest Vietnamese food in the city. This is one of the best cheap eats in London.

Google rating: 4.5/5

Phone: +44 20 7207 2935

Address: 46 Peckham Rye, London SE15 4JR, United Kingdom

Service options: Dine-in · Takeaway · Delivery

Prices: Under £10

Website: http://www.banhbanh.com/

Remove your thoughts of the elephant's leg of mystery meat; shawarma has just gotten sexier, courtesy of chef Josh Katz and his Middle Eastern grillhouse, Berber & Q. And, because Haggerston is a bit of a pilgrimage for some, they've done the nice thing and opened one right in the center of Exmouth Market. This pocket-sized shawarma bar, complete with hanging plants and exposed brickwork, is the type of spot you'll want to bring your pals for a boozy catch-up.

The menu is a scaled-down version of the one at the original, with a focus on spit-roasted meat — lamb, chicken, or beef — served in a rice bowl, on a sharing plate, or in a pita. But rest easy, veggies: there’s also a cauli shawarma (nicely jewelled with juicy sultanas), and the mezze is entirely meat-free. Every blackened aubergine had a double hit of chilli and anchovy; every drop of oil was swept up with toasted challah bread. Moist mejaderah (a Levantine mix of rice and lentils), crackly fried onions, tangy lime pickle, a veiny pickled egg, fiery harissa, and a generous dollop of tahina were all sublime, but didn’t upstage the butter-basted lamb. The beef brisket, though, lacked spice and was smoked to the point of brittleness. One gripe – for essentially a deconstructed pita, £14 for the rice bowl seemed a little steep, especially when the mezze (five for £22.50) is such a steal.

But the desserts made up for it: vanilla soft-serve laced with halva bits and slathered in unsweetened caramel sauce, and a sensuously wobbling cardamom panna cotta studded with rose petals.

Google rating: 4.6/5
Phone: +44 20 7837 1726
Address: 46 Exmouth Market, London EC1R 4QE, United Kingdom
Service options: Dine-in · Takeaway · Delivery
Prices: £11-25
Website: http://www.shawarmabar.co.uk/

Bibimbap is one of the best cheap eats in London that you should try when coming here. This is the Soho location of the famed Korean mixed rice restaurant. Since the first location opened in 2011, BiBimBap has become a frequent favorite for an inexpensive and comforting bowl of its namesake meal—bibimbap—since the first location opened in 2011. There are 10 variations of spicy rice mix to pick from here, including beef fillet, spicy pork, and five different veggie alternatives, all topped with a variety of shredded veggies and ready for you to combine with as much chilli sauce (gochujang) and bean paste as you like.

Even the simplest version topped with seasoned vegetables (cucumber, bean sprouts, spinach) and a fried egg was filled with flavour, and just the right amount of crisp rice. Their spicy hotpot with pork slices and hot and sour pickled kimchi cabbage also packed a flavoursome punch. What the Charlotte Street branch lacks in spaciousness, it makes up for with lively dishes and charming staff.

Google rating: 4.2/5
Phone: +44 20 7287 3434
Address: 11 Greek St, London W1D 4DJ, United Kingdom
Service options: Dine-in · Takeaway · Delivery
Prices: Under £10
Website: http://bibimbapsoho.co.uk/

Bleecker is in the upper echelons of what's already a pretty damned good burger scene in London. Originally starting out in the street-food market, they've slowly become established across town. The cheeseburgers are great, but if the Blecker Black is on offer—with extra black pudding-that should be your go-to burger.

Following its Bleecker St Burger Spitalfields hatch in the famed market, Victoria is the first restaurant proper for this highly acclaimed outfit. Bleecker’s cheap, cheerful, and intensely tasty formula employs British beef prepared by Bermondsey’s The Butcher, with fillings including bacon, blue cheese, and tofu options. Their highlight is the Bleecker Black: a double cheeseburger with a disc of black pudding sandwiched within that adds a heavier, saltier edge to the plump burger patties, which are cooked to your preference. The trademark "angry fries" are coated in blue cheese, hot sauce and mountains of salt, or there’s a sweet potato alternative too. There is stiff burger competition in London, but the taste of Bleecker’s burgers has rightfully earned it a loyal fanbase.

Google rating: 4.3/5
Phone: +44 20 7828 8016
Address: 205 Victoria St, London SW1E 5NE, United Kingdom
Service options: Dine-in · Takeaway · No-contact delivery
Prices: £3,92 - £23,52
Website: https://www.bleecker.co.uk/

The bigger, freshly relocated Bun House may be identified by the crowds outside marveling at the masterpieces inside: flawless creamy-white closed Cantonese steamed buns prettily branded with a Chinese character. These aid in identifying the contents of the bun, which include lamb, pig, cattle, chicken, fish, and vegetables. If you can't read Chinese, the wall menu makes it plain, and the dessert bun comes in its own holder, which is useful for both identification and capturing creamy custard drops.

Because there are only so many buns one can eat, the menu includes a variety of small meals and rice pots, as well as beer and tea. The buns are as expected-fluffy, light dough wrapped around excellent morsels (i.e., more filling, please), but the addition of sides elevates the dish to the level of a good meal. A chicken, ginger, and spring onion rice pot was almost as nice as homemade, and chili tripe, despite looking like something out of "Alien," had a deep and wonderful fermented black bean flavor. Smashed cucumber and picked daikon were great accompaniments in a venue that was inspired by Hong Kong tea shops from the 1960s.

Before you leave, be sure to order Bun House’s pièce de résistance, an exploding custard bao of ridiculously rich and messy intensity. It’s the best thing here.

Google rating: 4.5/5
Phone: +44 20 8017 9888
Address: 26-27 Lisle St, London WC2H 7BA, United Kingdom
Service options: Dine-in · Takeaway · No-contact delivery
Prices: £11-25
Website: https://bun.house/

The first bricks-and-mortar restaurant from the award-winning street food stall, Butchies is a simple fast food joint, set across two floors, with friendly counter service, good music, and sharp decor. The best place to eat is the bigger upstairs space, where it’s bright and retro-cool.

Burgers are large, with crisped-up fried chicken peeping luxuriously from the bun's edges. Jenny from the Block, with guacamole, chipotle mayo, and streaky bacon, was created with thigh meat, making it daringly dark and delightfully juicy. The guacamole was a little boring - more like crushed avo - and could have used another dollop of chipotle mayo, but the meat made up for it. The Hot Chicken arrived with a 'XXX Hot' warning that it really didn't need, but the fries were excellent: light, crisp, and tantalizingly spicy.

Want extra sauces if you order the moreish strips (50p a pop)? Except for the rather thin blue cheese one, they're all rich and creamy. Also, skip the cheese fries, which were chilly and came with a sad little drip of cheese on top. Butchies doesn't quite live up to the promise, but for fast fried chicken in Shoreditch, it's still a good bet.

Google rating: 4.3/5

Phone: +44 20 3336 9371

Address: 22 Rivington St, London EC2A 3DY, United Kingdom

Service options: Dine-in · Takeaway · No-contact delivery

Prices: Buttermilk chicken sandwiches from £6; OG meal (original sandwich, fries, and soft drink) £9.50.

Website: http://www.butchies.co.uk/

Huge flavours from a huge Chinese menu, with small prices and an even smaller kitchen – it’s all a-okay at TPT. The menu in the window of Café TPT looks longer than the complete musings of Confucius. It’s not unusual to see a big menu in Chinatown, but such a vast repertoire seems impossible from a kitchen galley the size of an origami junk. Not so, because dishes from Hong Kong, mainland China and the diaspora are all produced competently, and some of them with commendable aplomb.

The Cantonese dishes tend to be better than the Malaysian ones: the roast duck on rice was succulent, and a generous helping. A sizzling dish of stuffed tofu, served in a hot stone bowl, was a highlight. Seafood is also a strength, with around 50 dishes to choose from; their squid, part of a noodle dish, was fresh and pert. Many customers were moved to speechlessness by their bubble teas – this is a good place to try these Taiwan-style drinks. TPT isn’t the cheapest of the budget Chinatown cafés, but both cooking and service are better than you might expect. This restaurant is said to be one of the best cheap eats in London.

Google rating: 4.0/5

Phone: +44 20 7734 7980

Address: 21 Wardour St, London W1D 6PN, United Kingdom

Service options: Dine-in · Takeaway · Delivery

Prices: £11-25

Website: http://www.cafetpt.com/

It’s naughty, nice, and if you overindulge, you might have a nightmare. Cheese is basically the new booze, but now the people behind street food legend The Cheese Truck have gone and made it official by opening The Cheese Bar. The Cheese Bar's biggest feature is that it genuinely appears like a bar. After operating out of a bright yellow ice-cream van for the past three years, it's evident that entrepreneur Mathew Carver put great effort into constructing this, his first permanent location.

The tiny room is dominated by a sleek, rectangular marble counter underneath a burlesque club in Camden Stables Market. Sitting here seems more sexy than any other place that smells like brie should: there's low strip lighting, an allegedly Drake-only soundtrack, and plenty of nice and easygoing bartenders to guide you through the cheese-centric menu. Be cautious not to drool on that menu, which reads like gastronomic soft porn.

The Cheese Truck only served (unbelievably delicious) grilled cheese sarnies, but the Bar’s branched out to serve all manner of cheese-based delights. A case in point: the truffled baron bigod (a brie made with raw cow’s milk) was almost indecently creamy. The wonderful thing about this dish was that the truffle was present without being overpowering – each bite was like cool silk on your tongue. A perfect dish to follow this with was the indulgently oily ‘young buck’ stilton raclette – a hot mess of fried potatoes, sharp blue cheese and smoky strips of meat. Best of all, though, were those grilled-cheese sandwiches.

Google rating: 4.4/5

Phone: +44 20 7428 6441

Address: Unit 93 - 94, Chalk Farm Rd, Chalk Farm, London NW1 8AH, United Kingdom

Service options: Dine-in · Takeaway · No delivery

Prices: £30 - £49

Website: http://www.thecheesebar.com/

Rock 'n’ roll and, er, Ant ‘n’ Dec. There’s just a handful of twosomes so meant to be that they share but an ‘n’ between them. if the popularity of Chick ‘n’ Sours is anything to go by, it should probably be fast-tracked to this hall of fame. Lights are set low – just a touch of blue neon – and music up high as diners and takeout customers file in. It’s unsurprising that the atmosphere is set to ‘party’ on a school night, since the man behind the fowl play is Carl Clarke, the chef behind Disco Bistro among other pop-ups. He’s practiced his chops pairing good times with good food, and posters from his former pop-ups pepper the walls.

The chicken is marinated in Southern-style buttermilk and fried in rapeseed oil. It's going to get messy, especially if you order the chicken in a bun (£11): a massive Korean-spiced burger with slaw, hot gochujang mayo, and chilli vinegar to balance off the soft meat and crunchy batter. Fries fried in beef dripping made their feathers ruffle, owing to crisp, super-salty skins. (In case you're wondering, gochujang is a Korean condiment made from chilis, rice, and soy bean paste.)

If KFC (Korean fried chicken) ain’t your bag, the house fry or chicken tenders can be paired with potent dips (£1.50 each). The St Agur and buttermilk may prove too rich for a chicken dinner, but bone marrow barbecue sauce is an ideal accompaniment, sweet and extra syrupy. Those drinks, that music and the low, low lights create plenty of fun, especially when you’re crammed in tightly with neighbouring diners at tables spanning the width of the room.

Google rating: 4.4/5

Phone: +44 20 3620 8728

Address: 390 Kingsland Rd, London E8 4AA, United Kingdom

Service options: Dine-in · Takeaway · No-contact delivery

Prices: £25 and under

Website: http://chicknsours.co.uk/