East London’s top 10 budget eats

Guardian Travel is currently compiling a thorough overview of London’s best budget eateries. In his second instalment, Tony Naylor heads out east, into Shoreditch, Hackney and beyond Part one : Central London’s top 10 budget eats See our interactive map of Britain’s best budget restaurants St John Bread & Wine, Spitalfields On the face of it, let alone in a “budget eats” feature, £5.70 seems an awful lot to pay for a bacon butty. It is one of the themes of this series, however, that – particularly when you’re eating on a tight budget – value is more important than cost. And the St John bacon butty is indisputably worth every one of those 570 pennies. It comprises two large chargrilled slices of proper artisan bread (from the on-site bakery, thickly buttered and liberally stuffed with Gloucester Old Spot bacon . The rashers have a good three-quarter-inch rim of gloriously silky translucent fat around their outer edge. In its generosity, its use of supreme ingredients, in its hilarious disregard for anything you might describe as healthy eating, it is Fergus Henderson (owner of this and the more famous parent restaurant, St John) on a plate. There are also kippers, pikelets or, if you really insist, porridge and prunes available for breakfast, but that bacon butty will set you up for the day like nothing else. From 11am, Bread & Wine – a pleasingly spartan former bank – serves elevenses, cakes and whatnot. Then, from lunch onwards the menu consists of small ‘n’ large plates (£4-£15), which people mix ‘n’ match, splashing the cash. That said, if you can squeeze in for a simple bowl of celeriac and bacon soup, do (£5.90). • Breakfast £2.60-£5.70, elevenses cakes £2.90. 94-96 Commercial Street, E1 (+44 (0)20-3301 8069, stjohnbreadandwine.com ) Beigel Bake, Brick Lane The tile work at this Brick Lane bakery has seen better days, but then you might look a bit tired yourself had you been serving fresh breads, pastries and filled bagels to hungry Londoners, 24 hours a day, 7 days a week since the late 1970s. Beigel Bake is a legendary stop-off for late-night revellers, but you will find queues of varying lengths here whatever time of day you drop by. In a place where filled bagels start at 90p, spending £3.50 on one may seem rash. But the warm salt beef bagel is worth it. Tasty, moist, gelatinous thick-cut braised brisket on a fantastic dense, chewy bagel, served with peppy mustard, it is simple but satisfying stuff. Filled bagels from 90p. 159 Brick Lane, E1 (+44 (0)20-7729 0616) The Gun, Docklands There is not a lot of individuality or joy in Canary Wharf. People are too busy making money. Escape its soaring glass and steel boulevards, however, and, a short walk away, you will find Tom and Ed Martin’s polished gastropub, the Gun. An oasis of laughter, clubbable informality and good food, it is also a fine place in which to consider the mad folly of the Millennium Dome, visible across the Thames from the pub’s waterside terrace. There is a proper restaurant section at the Gun, but the budget traveller should grab a table in the back – by the toasty open fire – and give the bar menu the once-over. There, you will find the likes of homemade fish finger sandwiches, a cheeseboard, devilled whitebait or a half a pint of prawns at under £10 a head. A sausage roll (£4.50) is a substantial slab, more lunch than a snack. A hunk of soundly sage-seasoned, smoothly ground, juicy sausage-meat in a perfectly bronzed, buttery thin pastry, it is seriously good stuff. It’s like the best Christmas Day stuffing … ever. A sample pint of Fuller’s London Pride (£3.50) is as lively as it can be, which is not very. It is a definitive boring brown bitter. • Bar menu available for lunch and dinner, from £4.50. 27 Coldharbour, E14 (+44 (0)20-7515 5222, thegundocklands.com ) Frizzante, Hackney and Rotherhithe This cafe at Hackney City Farm is a refreshingly rough ‘n’ ready, slightly ramshackle place. But for the steady stream of young mums and toddlers coming through the door, you might mistake it for some arty, hipster hang-out. Which, this being Hackney, it kind of is as well. There is a small deli section and ice-cream counter, but it is worth settling in and sampling Italian chef Eddy Ambrosi’s blackboard specials, such as pappardelle pasta with a slow-cooked pork ragu, pressed organic brawn terrine or a wild British mushroom risotto. Much of the produce comes from farms in Kent and Essex, and, depending on seasonal availability, Frizzante’s own veg patch. A portion of lightly cured salmon and scrambled eggs, topped with a particularly zingy creme fraiche and chives, is huge (£6.50). Bright swirls of orangey yolk suggest good eggs, although personally I think they could have been creamier. There is a fine line between scrambled eggs and omelette. • Food served until 4pm. Breakfast £4-£7. Daily specials from £5. Hackney City Farm, 1a Goldsmiths Row, E2 (+44 (0)20-7739 2266, frizzanteltd.co.uk ). Second branch at Surrey Docks Farm , Rotherhithe, SE16, open Wednesday to Sunday Hackney Pearl, Hackney Wick From breakfast to late-night cocktails, this trendy cafe-bar is, laudably, trying to do lots of important things well. Food-wise the emphasis is on labour-intensive, from-scratch making and baking, running the gamut from bar snacks, like the Pearl’s little pots of homemade pork scratchings (90p), to fantastic, fragrant apple, cinnamon and clove muffins (£1.80). A bowl of parsnip soup is warm, wholesome, properly seasoned and vibrantly fresh in flavour, and arrives with good bread. That day’s chalkboard menu includes appealing dishes such as lamb and caper hash with fried egg (£8.20). Breakfast includes the kitchen’s own granola, sweetcorn fritters with chilli jam, and bubble ‘n’ squeak. A sample coffee was disappointing – buying Square Mile coffee is one thing, treating it with the respect it deserves is another. Note: the evening menu is more expensive, with most main dishes topping £10. • Breakfast £3.50-£7.50, soups/sandwiches around £4.50, daytime mains £7-£9. 11 Prince Edward Road, E9 (+44 (0)20-8510 3605, thehackneypearl.com ) Tayyabs, Whitechapel An utterly predictable choice, perhaps, but there is a reason why everyone raves about Tayyabs . This Pakistani grill and curry house is very, very good. How can you not love a restaurant where, on a sunny Tuesday lunchtime, the staff have to throw open the doors in order to let out a sudden build-up of aromatic smoke from those famous tandoor ovens? Tayyabs’ long-marinated grilled lamb chops (four for £6) remain one of life’s great savoury pleasures, the meat essentially a delivery vehicle for a complex hit of sweet ‘n’ smoky, hot ‘n’ spicy flavour, edged with a crisp, blackened strip of fat. Don’t be surprised to find yourself gnawing the bone long after the meat has gone. There is no standing on ceremony at Tayyabs and eating in here can be a pretty quick turnaround experience. On busy weekend evenings particularly, you are not encouraged to linger at your table. But at these prices (curry and rice around £7-£8) this is exceptional food: conscientiously cooked, sparkily spiced and lifted by liberal use of fresh herbs. Seeing it in daylight for once, Tayyabs is quite a smart space these days, too. • Starters from 95p, mains from £5.20. No alcohol sold, BYO no corkage. 83-89 Fieldgate Street, E1 (+44 (0)20-7247 6400, tayyabs.co.uk ) Cay Tre, Hoxton Such is the cluster of Vietnamese restaurants around the Kingsland Road/Old Street junction, they probably deserve a feature in their own right. Cay Tre is a good place to start your exploration. With its fashionable black ‘n’ white wallpaper and multicoloured lighting, the space itself is very modern Shoreditch, but in terms of its accumulated knowledge and skill, the cooking harks back generations. You could spend a long time trying to discern exactly what has gone into the clear, light broth that makes Cay Tre’s pho (Vietnamese noodle soup) stand out. Packed with fresh coriander, spring onions and, in my case, beef, it is neither as salty nor as hot as you might imagine, but instead reveals new ingredients (star anise, garlic, roasted onions, cinnamon, some sort of base meaty, umami flavour) with each mouthful. It is a delicate clean soup with a nonetheless serious depth of flavour. The accompanying noodles are great, too. As a takeaway, this “small” pot of goodness is enough for a solid lunch or light dinner and costs just £3.50, which makes it all the more remarkable. Eating in at Cay Tre, the pho dishes are affordable throughout (around £7), but, at night, a main meat or fish dish plus rice might nudge £10. If you need to stick rigidly to a budget, then at lunch and before 6pm, the menu offers various “one-dish meals”, such as lemongrass-marinated barbecue pork with bun (cold vermicelli noodles) or mixed seafood with jasmine rice, at £6.50-£8. • Takeaway dishes £3-£8, starter/main deal £9.50. 301 Old Street, EC1 (+44 (0)20-7729 8662, vietnamesekitchen.co.uk ) Pavilion Cafe, Victoria Park Victoria Park is currently in the midst of major renovation work, which means this lakeside cafe is currently lacking its lake (it’s been drained) and its usually picturesque views (unless you love mud and industrial diggers). But still, on a dull Wednesday morning it is packed, such is the quality of the food. Superior, seasonal ingredients are confidently handled in everything from sandwiches to a beef shin stew with turnips, sprouts and rye bread. The Pavilion will prick the interest of vegetarians, too, with unusually thoughtful dishes like sprouting broccoli, crushed artichokes and soft boiled egg on toast, with a hazelnut dressing. A plate of eggs Benedict easily passes muster, although it has been left to linger on the pass. It is lukewarm rather than hot. It is also worth noting that the Pavilion gets very busy with mums, giddy toddlers and buggies. Anti-social singletons who want to eat at its communal tables in peace may want to take a paper (the Guardian, of course) and an iPod. • Breakfast £2.50-£8.50, sandwiches £4, hot dishes £5-£8. Takeaway available. Victoria Park, corner of Old Ford Road and Grove Road, E9 (+44 (0)20-8980 0030, the-pavilion-cafe.com ) Albion at the Boundary, Shoreditch If confirmation were needed that Shoreditch has lost its edge, the arrival of Terence Conran’s boutique hotel and restaurant, the Boundary , is surely it. Its gentrification is now almost complete. Still, on the upside, the site’s newer ground-floor deli-cafe, Albion, is a great place to eat. And we can always do with more of those. Look beyond the shelves of HP Sauce and Yorkshire Tea (we get it, the Albion is a celebration of Englishness) and you will find some good, and good value, food here. You can eat in the “caff” – a big Conranesque canteen space – for under £10 a head if you’re careful, but with so many good things to take away from the deli section, why bother? There are made-to-order sandwiches, savoury pies and tarts, biscuits and cakes, and chilled drinks of a Meantime Brewery/Fentiman’s quality. A sample pork and chutney pie in thick, glossy pastry is superb. A slice of Bakewell tart is, whilst an expert bit of baking, possibly a bit too refined for its own good. The jam is spread a little too thinly along the base and, consequently, the almond filling lacks the requisite sweet fruity tang. But still, overall, well worth a visit. • Cakes and biscuits from 55p, snacks/sandwiches £2.50-£5. 2-4 Boundary Street, E2 (+44 (0)20-7729 1051, albioncaff.co.uk ) Mangal Ocakbasi, Dalston There are no end of places on Stoke Newington Road cooking kebabs on traditional Turkish ocak grills. Opinions vary, of course, as to which ocakbasi restaurant is the best, but Mangal – a 1993 entrant in the Good Food Guide and still listed in the 2011 edition – has a proven track record of producing superlative meats over many years. The restaurant proper is a little expensive for this piece (main dishes from £9), but, out front, takeaway customers can choose from 13 types of kebab (marinated lamb, chicken wings, lamb chops, quail, etc), which the grill chef then moves up and down a great trough of hot charcoal with patient authority. It is worth getting a takeaway just to watch him at work. Boldly seasoned with chilli, garlic and parsley, the minced lamb beyti kebabs are sensational, an explosive combination of heat, carbon and hot lamb juices. Moreover, you get two eight-inch kebabs, a small, discus-like loaf and a great mixed salad (it includes everything from gherkins to pickled radish) for £6. It could easily be split between two for lunch. • Takeaway kebabs from £5.10. Arcola Street, off Stoke Newington Road, E8 (+44 (0)20-7275 8981, mangal1.com ) Tony travelled from Manchester to London with Virgin Trains London Restaurants Budget travel Top 10s Food and drink Food & drink Restaurants United Kingdom Tony Naylor guardian.co.uk

Posted by on March 25, 2011. Filed under News, Politics, World News. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0. You can skip to the end and leave a response. Pinging is currently not allowed.