Nearby Good Friend (14 Little Newport Street, WC2H 7JJ) takes a Taiwanese approach to fried chicken: flattening breasts into large schnitzel-sized steaks and before frying till crispy and dusted with a choice of flavoured powder, from plum to seaweed. It’s just £6.50. Back to buns, and Baozilnn (24 Romilly Street, W1D 5AH, baoziinn.com) offers a solid dim sum and bao menu, all under £10. Five pieces of jiaozi dumplings with chilli oil is £9, a brace of bao buns is just £6.50 and four soup dumplings are just £8.90. For budget Japanese food and round the corner from Oxford Circus, Maragame Udon (1-4 Argyll Street, W1F 7TA, marugame.co.uk) offers a range of accessible eating for under a tenner. Either go for a single bowl of bouncy udon noodles (usually about £8 each) or build up a range of treats like tempura (from £1.25 each) gyozas (£1 each) omusubi rice balls (£3.25 each) tofu or chicken skewers (£2.50) and kimchi (£1.95) for a budget feast. Around town, and there are plenty of other sub-£10 plates worthy of some attention. Historic pie and mash slingers Arments (Pie House, 7-9 Westmoreland Road, SE17 2AX, armentspieandmash.com) G Kelly (526 Roman Road, Old Ford, E3 5ES, gkelly.london) and Manze’s (204 Deptford High Street, SE8 3PR, manzepieandmash.com) each offer meat pies, mash and liquor for under £10, or for some more modern, relaxed Mexican fare, head east to Sonora Taqueria (208 Stoke Newington High Street, N16 7HU, sonorataqueria.com) where sides begin at £1, tacos from £3.50 and the quesadilla is £5.50.
Best things to do in London when you only have £10
