Bethnal Green cheap eats: Best food under £10

1/10
Ailis Brennan3 December 2018

Anyone who knows their cockney rhyming slang will know that it’s ill-advised to eat apples and pears, but Ruby Murray is always welcome to dinner on a Friday night.

Bethnal Green is a cornerstone of London’s East End, and while you’ll have to keep a keen eye out for a Pearly King or Queen these days, it’s not too hard to find good food on a budget.

From slap up British classics to horizon-widening tastes of lesser-known cuisines, these are the dishes you should be spending your tenner on in Bethnal Green.

Full English, E. Pellicci - £7.80

What would the East End be without a caff? One of the best-loved greasy spoons in London, this restaurant has been part of the Pellicci family since Priamo Pellicci started working there in 1900, taking it over shortly after. Its art deco wood-panelled interior has lead it to become a Grade II-listed building, but the fare is still as reasonable as ever: pick up the legendary Full English breakfast for just £7.80.

332 Bethnal Green Road, E2 0AG​, epellicci.has.restaurant

Pulpo a la Gallega, Chiringuito - £8

This tapas bar and cocktail spot opened last summer in the grandiose setting of a former public toilet. It’s had a considerable makeover – and a clean, you’ll be glad to know – and now serves up Galician-style small plates and plenty of cocktails. One must-try dish on the menu is the pulpo a la Gallega, a paprika-spiced portion of octopus served with Spanish-style potatoes – particularly good on the rooftop, overlooking Museum Gardens.

Museum Gardens, E2 9PA​, chiringuito.co.uk

Trio of tacos at Resident of Paradise Row - £10

On first approach from Bethnal Green tube station, this alleyway isn’t an especially inviting prospect. Get closer and Paradise Row is a cheap eats haven, with a bevy of cosy restaurants and bars in the railway arches. This eponymous bar is largely that, but the snacks are well cared for. The trio of tacos offers little portions of pulled pork, beef brisket (both slow cooked) and BBQ jackfruit, on top of homemade soft corn tortillas with guac, pico de gallo, coriander and lime.

252 Paradise Row, E2 9LE, residentlondon.com

Tea leaf lahpet, Lahpet - £8

How many Burmese restaurants do you know in London? Lahpet is bigging up this south Asian cuisine in Bethnal Green, and is named in honour of its signature dish. The tea leaf lahpet here is a salad of pickled, naturally fermented lahpet tea leaves, which are tossed with tomato, garlic, dried shrimps and chilli, before being mixed with a twice fried mix of beans, sesame and peanuts. It’s not the largest dish on the menu, but £8 for an enlightening taste of Burma is a winner.

58 Bethnal Green Road, E1 6JW, lahpet.co.uk

Salted caramel with pistachio crodough, Rinkoff Bakery - £3

Though it's Dominique Ansel who's famed for his Cronut, Rinkoff Bakery does its own pretty mean version of the pastry hybrid (and cheaper, too). The century-old family-run baker whips up its Crodoughs daily, shaping croissant pastry into a ring and deep frying it to created a croissant-doughnut hybrid. This version fills it with salted caramel and tops it with pistachios for just £3 a pop.

79 Vallance Road, E1 5BS, rinkoffbakery.co.uk

Pabellon beef arepa, Arepa & Co - £7.95

If you don’t know your arepas from your cachapas, this Paradise Row restaurant has a thing or two to teach you. Arepa & Co specialises in the eponymous cornbread that is a staple in Venezuelan cooking. Crunchy on the outside, fluffy on the inside, it’s served as a pocket, ripe for stuffing with a selection of fillings, including reina chicken thighs with avocado, or pabellon beef with black beans. If you love the beef, you can also try it as the £6.75 pabellon crillollo, a traditional dish serving the shredded meat in a bowl of beans, rice, plantain and grated cheese.

58A De Beauvoir Crescent, N1 5SB, arepaandco.com

Pasta and a glass of house wine, Sager + Wilde - £10

Sager + Wilde is best known for its wine, but its the food that'll keep you coming back. Good job, then, that the wine bar’s remarkably reasonable lunchtime/early dinner deal incorporates both. From 5-7pm all week and noon until 3pm on every day but Monday, £10 will you get a bowl of seasonal pasta and either a glass of house wine or a negroni. The wine is worth much of your tenner alone, and the pasta is always beautifully cooked too.

250 Paradise Row, E2 9LE, sagerandwilde.com

Chicken katsu curry, Japanese Canteen - £9.45

Fried chicken? Or curry? The Japanese have got it absolutely right when they answer “both”. The chicken katsu curry continues to charm Londoners who want all of the comfort food, and Japanese Canteen serves it for just within budget under this Paradise Row archway. The rice in this donburi dish comes topped with crunchy fried chicken breast, mushrooms and carrots, slathered in curry sauce and sprinkled with zingy house pickles.

255 Paradise Row, E2 9LQ, thejapanesecanteen.co.uk

Costilla Iberico con romero, Laxeiro - £9

If Columbia Road Flower Market gets you in quite the Mediterranean fluster, Laxeiro is here to help. This local favourite, family-run tapas bar has been serving Spanish food to Bethnal Green residents for 36 years, first as a deli and then as a restaurant. If you can stretch to £15 per person, you can get involved in a big plate of paella, but for £9 you can tuck into Iberico pork ribs with rosemary and honey, or a barbecued shoulder of Jabugo Iberico pork and piquillo peppers for £10.

93 Columbia Road, E2 7RG​, laxeiro.co.uk

Fried chicken wings, Clutch - £6.50

Clutch does fried chicken a little differently in their cosy, bright yellow coop. Most of the groundnut-fried chicken portions are slightly beyond your tenner here, but you’re in luck with the wings, which come in at £6.50 for six and are rolled in a choice of honey butter and sesame, spicy naga fire sauce, or a soy and garlic glaze. Turn it into a full meal with £5 skinny, twice-fried chips.

4 Ravenscroft Street, E2 7QG, clutchchicken.com

Scotch egg, The Sun Tavern - £9.50

The Sun Tavern’s first incarnation opened in 1851, but returned to Bethnal Green four years ago with all the luck of the Irish and most of their alcohol too. The bar specialises in serving up poitin and whiskey, but you’ll also need something to soak up all that Emerald Isle liquor. On the food menu, you can tuck into a handmade pork scotch egg from Pig and Hay for £5.50, or a £9.50 board of cheeses selected by Neal’s Yard Dairy, served with chutneys from London-based the Kernel brewery.

441 Bethnal Green Road, London E2 0AN​, thesuntavern.co.uk

100 delicious dishes in London that cost less than £10

1/100

Create a FREE account to continue reading

eros

Registration is a free and easy way to support our journalism.

Join our community where you can: comment on stories; sign up to newsletters; enter competitions and access content on our app.

Your email address

Must be at least 6 characters, include an upper and lower case character and a number

You must be at least 18 years old to create an account

* Required fields

Already have an account? SIGN IN

By clicking Create Account you confirm that your data has been entered correctly and you have read and agree to our Terms of use , Cookie policy and Privacy policy .

This site is protected by reCAPTCHA and the Google Privacy Policy and Terms of Service apply.

Thank you for registering

Please refresh the page or navigate to another page on the site to be automatically logged in