Cheap eats in Soho

The best cheap meal in Soho is a thali at Govinda's on Soho Street, from £7.95, eaten at a table by the window. Soho has a reputation for expense accounts, but it has always fed students, stagehands and chancers too, and the trick is knowing which door. Here is where we go when payday is a week away.

Under a tenner

Govinda's, 10 Soho Street

Time Out puts it 21st in London, which is a good result for a vegetarian canteen where thalis run from £7.95 to £15.95. It opens at half seven in the morning and closes at nine at night. Order the thali, take what the counter gives you and go back for the dal.

Kung Fu Burger, 104 Shaftesbury Avenue

A takeaway hatch on the Chinatown edge of Shaftesbury Avenue that The Infatuation calls one of the best meals in the area for under a tenner. The burgers are filled buns. Order the shredded pork, then the duck.

Chinese Tapas House, 15 Little Newport Street

Jianbing, the Chinese street crêpe, made to order. A plain one starts at around £5 and the loaded versions get closer to £10. Order it with marinated pork belly and enoki, and eat it on the street.

Jíxíang Baozi, 27 Newport Court

Takeaway only, and worth the detour off Newport Place. Order the crispy oyster cake, plus a chicken or pork fritter for the walk.

Under twenty, sitting down

Koya, 50 Frith Street

Koya is walk-in only and open from ten until ten. A bowl of kitsune or curry udon is £15.50, and the buta miso is £15, which is honest money for noodles this good in the middle of Soho. Go at opening, or after the theatre crowd clears.

Bao, 53 Lexington Street

Bao Soho takes no bookings, and the queue is part of the deal. On Friday and Saturday it runs straight through from noon until half ten. Order the classic braised pork bao, a couple of xiao chi, the small eats, and a peanut milk. It is one of the cheapest seats on Time Out's Soho list.

Wong Kei, 41-43 Wardour Street

The Cantonese canteen where you share a table and come for speed, not ceremony. Order the wonton noodle soup or a plate of roast meat on rice, add chilli oil, and be gone in twenty minutes.

27 Old Compton Street

A pasta bar that Time Out calls a passport back to 1987, with most dishes around £11 and none over £14. Order the biggest bowl of pasta on the board and a glass of the house red.

Lanzhou Noodle Bar, 33 Cranbourn Street

Just over the Chinatown line, with noodles and mains at £9 to £15 and late hours that make it a post-pub regular. Order the beef brisket with noodles in soup, or the spicy peanut noodles if you are skipping meat.

Burgers, bagels and rice

• Dumbo, Berwick Street. Double-patty smashburgers with American cheese and the charred, lacy crust Time Out rates. Order the double and do not overthink it.
• It's Bagels, Soho. A bagel counter with pastrami and salt beef on the board, which Time Out puts on its Soho fifty. Order the works: lox, onion, capers, lemon and tomato.
• Café TPT, 21 Wardour Street. A Hong Kong style café where a plate of roast pork and char siu on rice is lunch sorted. Add the beef flank curry if there are two of you.

A proper lunch for £19.75

Brasserie Zédel on Sherwood Street is the great Soho bargain: a huge French brasserie by Piccadilly Circus, with two courses for £16.95 or three for £19.75. Order the carrot salad, the steak haché with peppercorn sauce and the crème brûlée. Then go downstairs to Bar Américain if your budget stretches to one cocktail.

The £1.20 coffee

Finish at Algerian Coffee Stores on Old Compton Street, where a takeaway espresso is £1.20, a double £1.50 and a cappuccino £2, poured from behind a wooden counter that has been there for well over a century. It is the best coffee deal in central London.

Cheap eats, the rules

Most of these places are walk-in only, so go early or late. Chinatown is cheapest at lunch. Cash is rarely needed now, but sharing a table often is. And never sniff at a set menu: in Soho, the prix fixe is where the bargains hide. If you only have one cheap meal in you today, make it the thali on Soho Street, then spend the change on a £1.20 espresso on Old Compton Street and call it a perfect afternoon.