Eating out is increasingly expensive, but that’s no reason to fall back into Wagamama’s flavourless arms or lean yet again on Nando’s, where the chicken, once enjoyable, has become so dry it’s as if it’s been cooked in a Richard Ayoade joke.
Because look at all this – set menus and deals at some of London’s best restaurants. Sausages at Noble Rot, steak at Hawksmoor, moules mariniere at Claude Bosi’s Josephine.
Here you’ll find an ever-updated list of prime set menus, each one joyfully accessible. Below are 15 restaurants but more are on the way.
- Two courses: £24
- Three courses: £28
At Noble Rot’s Soho outpost is a set weekday lunch menu of satisfying design, one that brings the comfort of affordable pan-European cooking much as any bistro in some unremarkable but charming Continental town square, one with elegant, once-bombed out flagstones, colourful awnings and some sort of fountain. There might be a hefty Morteau sausage perched on braised lentils or a rich goulash that would please even a Hungarian farmer called Ivan.
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Few Michelin-starred restaurants in London are as accessible as Chishuru, Joke Bakare’s groundbreaking West African restaurant that moved to the West End two years ago. Though the modern iteration is a world away from her first site, a casual, canteen-like space in Brixton Village, the food remains affordable and this is no truer than in the £45 set lunch. Starters include sinasir, a fermented rice cake with butternut squash and chilli; main courses include the likes of char-grilled guinea fowl with celeriac, jalapeno and an egusi (bean) sauce. A little pricier than everything else on the list, but it’s top cooking and vital in London.
- Two courses: £29.50
- Three courses: £35
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Carousel is best known as an incubator space, somewhere for visiting chefs to come and wow Londoners with their foreign charms. Don’t forget that it’s as much a wine bar and its own restaurant, one with an excellent lunch deal between Tuesday and Saturday, 12-3pm. Starters might include sea bream ceviche with asparagus or a juicy tomato salad; later on, lamb belly with gooseberries and chilli salsa or crab rice with lime and curry leaves.
Korean Dinner Party
Inspired by Koreatown in Los Angeles, Korean Dinner Party rolled into Soho with all the irreverence and flippancy required of a fun dining spot in Kingly Court. The vibe is east-meets-west: kitsch cocktails, traditional sake and new-Asian hip hop. As for the food, a £15 set lunch combines a choice of one pickledog and one order of Korean-style tacos, or there’s a classic, bubbling and spicy stew of kimchi, enoki mushrooms, tofu and egg yolk with brown rice as a main (a solid dish, especially when hungover). Go on Tuesdays, and there’s a taco special, with three offered with all the sides for £22. But even the full Seoul-to-Soho tasting menu comes out well, costing just £35.
- Three courses: £29 on Sundays
Sam Harris
Artusi, Peckham’s hit Italian restaurant – now with a site in Soho, too – has had one of the best deals around for years. On Sundays, between noon-4pm, diners may enjoy a veritable feast for under £30, one that brings top ingredients cooked well. When on, the smoked cod’s roe with polenta and a fried quail’s egg is superb, so too any number of pasta dishes. Desserts vary, but there’s always homemade ice cream, happily.
- Two courses: £36.90
- Three courses: £39.90
Stuff
Tattu is one of those mad London restaurants designed for convivial nights, for hen dos, for Dubai-inspired dates and groups of wine-drenched friends intent on glamour and probably shots. To that end, the food needn’t be up to much beyond promising fun and bold flavour. Somehow, Tattu pitches a little above that, which makes two courses for £37 and three for £40 all the more rewarding. Crispy squid or wagyu dumplings might precede teriyaki salmon or wok-fried chicken noodles. None will win awards but none will disappoint either.
The Now Building Rooftop, Outernet, Denmark Street, WC2H 0LA, tattu.co.uk
- Daily dish of the day: £ 16.50
- Menu de canut: £24.50 for two courses, £29.50 for three
Josephine
There’s a fair argument to suggest this is one of the best deals around in London. A generous bit of Lyonnaise cooking, from Claude Bosi’s team no less, for £16.50. During the week, every day brings something new, whether slow-cooked veal with pilaf rice or a classic moules mariniere. Otherwise, try the menu de canut, which has the famous aucisson brioche as well as andouillette. There are affordable wines, too. No wonder the restaurant is set for expansion (not just Marylebone).
Bistro Freddie, Shoreditch
- Two courses: £24
- Three courses: £29
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Bistro Freddie was one of London’s standout launches in 2023, arriving in Shoreditch as an elegant, traditional restaurant and going all in on the candles and white linen. The express set is available during weekday lunch times and brings simple but enjoyable dishes like smoked mackerel on toast, steak tartare and cod with tomatoes. It’s a lovely space, with good service.
The Pelican, Notting Hill
- Two courses: £24
- Three courses: £29
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One of a growing number of pubs under the Public House umbrella, The Pelican is the original, a Notting Hill spot favoured by the ‘slebs. The group can do no wrong, it seems – the coolest place in town in the Fat Badger, superb pasta at Canteen, a multi-floored parlour of romance at the Hero. And that’s without its countryside bolthole, the Bull at Charlbury, now under the stewardship of the brilliant Sally Abe. The Pelican’s set menu is an affordable point of reconnaissance in all this, with dishes such as cod cheeks with curry sauce, confit duck leg, and sticky toffee pudding.
- Two courses: £25
- Three courses: £30
Cook
Kolamba opened a second branch last year, launching in Shoreditch after seeing success in Soho. Budding restaurateurs Eroshan and Aushi Meewella were early to London’s newly buzzing Sri Lankan trend. They draw on home cooking and childhood dishes in Colombo at the restaurant, so expect the likes of idli with sambar, charred coconut chicken and spinach dhal when dining. These are among many more on the set lunch menu.
Bistrot at Wild Honey, St James’s
- Two courses: £25
- Three courses: £29
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The prix fixe menu runs from noon until 6.45pm during the week at Bistrot at Wild Honey, the casual restaurant at the excellent Sofitel hotel on Pall Mall. A measured and collected sideline to chef Antony Demetre’s Michelin-starred flagship Wild Honey, the bistrot brings solid French cooking in the likes of spring potatoes with garlic velouté and duck egg, though is not confined to France. There might be cottage pie on alongside rigatoni with beef shin ragu.
- Two courses: £35
- Three courses: £38
Paul Winch-Furness
Michelin-starred food from the chef Jun Tanaka, for under £40? It’s a good deal, especially when a main course on the a la carte is likely to be north of that sum. The lunch deal isn’t a pared-back menu either, really. Starters include sea bream carpaccio and sedani (a wildly underused pasta shape) with pork ragu; main courses stroll from hake with cannellini beans to bouncy wild garlic risotto. It’s all tremendous stuff.
Hawksmoor, multiple locations
- Two courses: £32
- Three courses: £35
Hawksmoor
It is a diligent and impressive mechanism, the set menu, and Hawksmoor nails it like Bob the Builder after a bottle of decent Merlot. Starters are gracious – the mackerel salad precedes steak well – and then up comes the rump with chips, the latter fried in beef dripping, don’t forget. As for puddings, there isn’t much point in deviating from the peanut butter shortbread, but whatever you get, it’ll be good.
- Two courses: £25
- Three courses: £29
Adrian Lourie
The Devonshire keeps the price of its set menu remarkably low thanks to doing one thing (per course) and doing it right. For £25, a prawn and langoustine cocktail before steak and chips with bearnaise sauce. Spend an extra £4 plus service and there’s a sticky toffee pudding for good measure. Last year’s mad hype has turned into a place with a loyal following for good reason.
- One course, of three elements: £15
BAO has become synonymous with affordable modern dining in London, a JKS Restaurants standout now seven years old. The BAO 15, available between 12-6pm on weekdays, is as much a star in a busy sky: the deal varies site-to-site, but reliably brings a bao, a snack (xiao chi; often fried chicken or a vegetarian alternative) and a noodle dish for just £15, while at some sites two additional pieces of Taiwanese fried chicken are available for an extra £3.50. Don’t think the menu options are restrictive, either – among the snacks are lamb dumplings or smacked cucumber, and the prawn bao, a true classic, is included too.