There are so many places to eat in London, it is often difficult finding a suitable place to grab a bite or have a sit-down dinner in! As you can expect, the quality of food and prices you will pay vary, from the numerous typical fast food places (McDonald's, Burger King, KFC and the rest) to luxurious dinners where you can spend a good portion of your London budget. Here we look at some tips to help you have a cheaper, yet still enjoyable, meal in London.

See also our new guide on Tips for saving money when eating out in London.

Recommended Places
Abu Ali 136-138 George Street, W1 (off Edgware Road) Underground: Marble Arch
Walking down Edgware Road, you'll find an extraordinary amount of Lebanese places, and we reckon this is one of the best. Get many of the small dishes and share amongst a group of you. Price: smaller dishes about £5, main courses about £10.

Cay Tre 301 Old Street, EC1V Underground: Old Street Website: www.vietnamesekitchen.co.uk/caytre
Excellent Vietnamese place in the Shoreditch/Hoxton area, tasty dishes are served up in smart surroundings. They have an extensive wine list too, and make recommendations of particular wines according to the dish type.

Chilango 27 Upper Street, N1 Underground: Angel Website: www.chilango.co.uk
If you're anything like me, you'll absolutely adore Mexican food. Unfortunately for us Londoners, good Mexican food has taken a while to arrive in the capital but we're now lucky to have a number of places pop up recently. One of the best is Chilango - a simple but great value place serving burritos, tacos and salads. Each selection is stuff full with a main and then plenty of vegetables, salsa and beans. Make sure you're hungry - the dishes can be on the large side...though, of course, I always manage to finish mine! Available to take away or eat in in the brightly coloured upstairs area.

Kulu Kulu 76 Brewer Street W1 Underground: Piccadilly Circus
Conveyer-belt style sushi dishes at reasonable prices, with an impressive selection. Sushi on the conveyor belt comes on plates that are colour-coded, so that your total bill can be added up at the end (I guess this also provides you with the possibility of limiting to how much you want to spend, if need be). The place is a little small, and popular, so you sometimes need to wait for some free space (although they do limit customers to the time they can stay in the restaurant during busy periods). Price: dishes are £1-£3.

Little Bay 171 Farringdon Rd, EC1 (also in Kilburn, Battersea & Croydon) Underground: Farringdon Website: www.littlebay.co.uk
This place always seems to be in "cheap eats" lists and always seems very full whenever I've seen it! Serving a variety of European dishes at amazing prices (during daytime and evening, when prices rise slightly), the restaurant even once held a "pay what you think your meal is worth" promotion. (On average, people ended up paying more than they were supposed to, so that tells you something about the quality!)

Pho 86 St. John Street, EC1 (Also near Oxford Circus & in Westfield) Underground: Farringdon Website: www.phocafe.co.uk
Serving "Vietnamese street food", pho is in fact the national dish of Vietnam. A big bowl of noodles served in broth with accompanying meat (meatballs, steak, chicken) or vegetables which is brought to your table with your own selection of garnish and herbs so you can make it to your own taste. Very filling and delicious.

Ramen Seto 19 Kingly Street, W1 Underground: Oxford Circus
Situated just behind Regent Street, this place is perfect for a post-shopping bite, or a pre-going-out meal. Japanese noodle and rice food, and some sushi; recommended dishes include chicken ramen, chicken teriyaki or salmon udon. Price: about £7 for a main course.

Wahaca 66 Chandos Place, WC2 Website: www.wahaca.co.uk Underground: Leicester Square/Covent Garden/Charing Cross
If you love Mexican cuisine, you must definitely come to this place! As well as normal main courses, they serve "street food" which are small plates of tacos, tostadas and quesadillas (amongst other things) to share. Get four to five dishes between two people and you'll have plenty; each dish costs about £4. Delicious.

A curry on Brick Lane Anywhere on Brick Lane, E1 Underground: Aldgate East/Aldgate/Whitechapel/Liverpool Street
If you're hankering after a curry whilst you're in London, you must head to Brick Lane in the east part of town. The famous street is almost entirely filled with curry houses - it's just a question of picking the right one! You'll find waiters/managers standing outside their establishments, trying to entice you in with special deals and the like. Don't feel pressurised into agreeing to dine at anywhere you don't necessarily want to. One place I've found to be particularly good is The Shampan which is at 79 Brick Lane. Some places are also "BYOB" (bring your own booze) so you can stock up on wine or beer cheaply at a local supermarket, which also helps keep costs down.

Chains
Belgo Website: www.belgo-restaurants.com
Belgian food - the chain is perhaps best know for its mussels and chips (as well as its enormous selection of beers!). The Covent Garden branch is probably the best one to go to, due to its central location and its interesting cavern-like dining area. They usually offer special deals for set menus during lunchtime (12pm - 3pm, Monday to Friday - check website for specific details); their "Beat the Clock" offer is also great value, where you pay according to the time that you arrived - e.g. pay £6.10 if you arrived at 6.10pm. The times that this offer is valid vary from restaurant to restaurant - in the Convent Garden one it runs from 5pm to 6.30pm. An example set menu is a large plate of mussels, plate of chips and a beer - very filling!

Bodean's Website: www.bodeansbbq.com
Not for vegetarians! For your meat needs, head down to this place for all manner of steaks, burgers, spare ribs and similar. The brave can even order combos of some of the aforementioned dishes. Whatever you order, make sure you go there on an empty stomach for you'll find yourself properly stuffed at the end of your meal.

Giraffe Website: www.gbkinfo.com
Giraffe is a perfect place to go if you and your dining companions can't quite make up your minds on what sort of cuisine you want. The restaurants are also always fun, lively places but great for kids too. Serving "world" cuisine (including various European, Asian, Mexican dishes) that's good value.

Gourmet Burger Kitchen Website: www.gbkinfo.com
Relatively new in concept, Gourmet Burger Kitchen serve up a variety of tasty burger options in comfortable, low-key type restaurants. After picking something from the menu, you then go up to the counter and order it and pay. (Although the meal is brought to your table!) Burger choices include classic, Jamaican, Cajun and (my favourite) Mexican.

Masala Zone Website: www.masalazone.com
Really good chain of Indian restaurants, there are plenty of delicious items on their menu. However, one particular dish stands out of its really good value - the Thali. (You can also opt for the larger Grand Thali.) For this you get a choice of one of their curries from the regular menu plus rice, together with two vegetable options, lentil dal, papadum and chutney. (The Grand version adds a canape, yoghurt, salad and a chapati.) Very friendly service too, and their restaurants are nicely decorated.

Pizza Express Website: www.pizzaexpress.com
A long-running London tradition (the chain has been in business since 1965), these restaurants serve good pizzas, pastas and salads at very reasonable prices - their margherita is great value! The ones in Knightsbridge (called Pizza on the Park) and Dean Street in Soho are also live jazz venues.

S & M Cafe Website: www.sandmcafe.co.uk
From its first restaurant in Notting Hill, the S & M Cafe has expanded into a small chain serving heaty British food - sausage & mash (which is what S & M stands for), pies, breakfasts and the like.

Wagamama Website: www.wagamama.com
This super-styled canteen-style chain of restaurants serve Asian food, mainly ramen, noodle and rice dishes. Good value (e.g. the ramen dishes are very filling and not that expensive) and very efficient service means that there is a high turnover of customers, so even if you find yourself queuing, you will not have to wait for long.

Yo Sushi! Website: www.yosushi.com
Another conveyor-belt sushi place with colour-coded plates of various prices, the food is of pretty good standard. Hip and trendy, you sit on high stools at counters where taps allow you to pour your own water, whilst pushing a button draws the attention of the wait staff (and also makes amusing noises). There's also sometimes a drinks "robot" (i.e. a small thing carrying drinks circling the restaurant).

Sandwich Chains/Cafes
The popularity of coffee houses has really taken off in the UK in the last decade or so, and you'll see them everywhere in London. Whatever area you are in, you'll not be far from a Starbucks, Cafe Nero or Coffee Republic, probably three of the most prolific chains. Of course, that doesn't mean they're good value! Prices can be notoriously high - after all, it's just a cup of coffee!

A well-known sandwich chain in London is Pret a Manger, which has numerous chains all over London. Again, sandwiches are a little on the expensive side (about £2 for the cheapest one) but they are quite generously filled and are freshly-made of the premises every day. They also sell sushi, snacks (crisps, popcorn) juice, wraps, pastries and coffee.

One chain I've got into recently is Crussh, who do sandwiches, smoothies, sushi, breakfasts, salads and assorted snacks. The best for me is their soups, which are really healthy and very filling. Try one of them, with a hunk of bread.

All restaurants charge VAT (15% as of 1st December 2008) on top of the cost of your items if you eat in, so for a cheaper option get your food to take out and enjoy it in a nice park!