LDNGuide
Where To Have A Great £10 Meal With The ‘Eat Out To Help Out’ Scheme
The government’s ‘Eat Out To Help Out’ scheme offers diners a discount of up to £10 per person, excluding booze, when they eat out from Monday to Wednesday throughout August.
Some restaurants have created new menus especially for this, while others are applying this discount to the total bill. Here are some excellent participating restaurants where you can get a great and, in some cases, truly outstanding meal for £10. Yes, a tenner.
Find all of our ‘Eat Out To Help Out’ guides, here.
The Spots
If heaven was a place on earth, then it would look a lot like Sông Quê to us. A bowl of bun noodles from the best Vietnamese spot in Dalston ordinarily costs a tenner, or thereabouts, and the same goes for their excellent pho. If you fancy a side as well, the grilled beef wrapped in betel leaf is a winner.
The modern shawarma spot is open Monday to Wednesday, and with EOTHO their ‘bab and chips’ - an order that will roll off the tongue for many in London - is just £5. So it would be rude not to throw in a doner beignet too.
The Chinese-influenced, neon-loving, sesame noodle spot in Clapton is open Monday to Wednesday for August. Their lunch bowls - red braised pork belly or fish fragrant aubergine - are under £5 with EOTHO discount, or come for a dinner and get a few other bits and bobs.
A brasserie reborn, Bellanger has reopened with a new, more accessibly priced menu and look. It’s only open on Wednesdays for the EOTHO scheme but there is a £10.95 two-course prix-fixe, a three-course for £14.25, and the full formule, including a glass of wine, is just under £20. Once you factor in the discount, that’s amazing value.
Stewed oxtail, curried goat, cod fish fritters, and a deliciously sweet mango sauce are all on the menu at the colourful Caribbean spot in Brixton. A hearty portion of jerk chicken, rice and pea, coleslaw and sweet chutney costs around £15 normally. So you can get more than enough for a tenner.
The excellent Xi’anese spot in Bloomsbury is reasonably priced in regular times (a bowl of biang-biang noodles will set you back a tenner), but throw in the EOTHO discount and you have total bargain.
The wine bar and restaurant on Lamb’s Conduit Street is home to London’s best set-lunch menu that’s always changing and always delicious. Ordinarily it’s £18 for two courses and £22 for three. But you can cut that in half.
photo credit: Koray Firat
One of Dalston’s OG ocakbasi restaurants, Mangal 1 has been serving adana and beyti kebabs for years. You’ll be able to get both, with rice, for under a tenner. Alternatively, you could load up on lahmacuns.
The Xi’anese specialists are offering a three-course set menu involving a murger, a noodle dish of your choice, an ice cream mochi, and a soft drink. All for £10.
Just for August, Bubala will be opening on Mondays to serve a selection of small plates for £10, including the EOTHO discount. The Middle Eastern-influenced vegetarian spot in Spitalfields serves the perfect food for summer, so book ahead.
Monday to Wednesday there will be a changing Thai barbecue dish as part of Smoking Goat’s EOTHO set meal. £10 will get you their chilli fish sauce wings, the daily plate, sticky rice, and pickles. They’ve also just opened a new outside seating area on Redchurch Street.
The ‘all in’ from Blacklock serves two people. It comes with nibbles, beef, pork, and lamb chops, grilled flatbread, and a side each. £20 per person AKA a tenner in August.
London’s legendary udon bar has outside seating in both its Soho and City locations. Though there are no set menus here, a bowl of handmade udon comes in at around a tenner before the EOTHO discount. That’s probably enough, but you could also get some kaarage on the side too.
The Portuguese piri-piri specialists with spots in Southwark and Shoreditch is open Monday to Wednesday, and you’ll be able to get a half chicken with a side for under £10. It’s worth squeezing a custart tart in, if you can, too.
This spot is Permanently Closed.
The excellent Soho pasta spot is offering a fine deal involving focaccia, any two pasta dishes, and a gelato or sorbet, for £10. The crab cacio e pepe is essential.
This spot is Permanently Closed.
Whether at their Brixton or Clapham branch, you know you’re going to get fed well at Eat of Eden. The Caribbean and Ital-influenced vegan restaurant has plenty of grain and vegetable-filled platters, perfect for mid-August.
Bao’s Borough branch is offering a slightly ludicrous (in a good way) set menu involving a classic pork bao bun, Taiwanese fried chicken, and their 40-day aged beef and butter rice bowl for a tenner. Expect competition.
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In what can only be described as ‘The Greatest Deal Of All Time’, QCH is doing three absolute classics at lunchtime - their pork chop, confit potatoes, and olive oil ice cream - for an obscenely reasonable ten of your English pounds.
Persepolis’ tasting menu is a whirlwind of delicious vegan and vegetarian Persian-inspired food. There’s meze, there’s a black honey ice cream sundae, and a load of unexpected bits in between. It’s £20 per person only now, well, you get the gist.
There are plenty of tables outside at this Japanese spot in Brixton and there are also plenty of reasonably priced, tasty options on the menu. From okonomiyaki, to prawn and kimchi yaki soba.
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Hawksmoor announced their £10 steak, chips, and sauce deal and, somewhat unsurprisingly, people went absolutely bananas and starting booking. It’s available in all London locations, if you can get a booking.
Not only are Bao’s soft and pillowy buns standardly priced at around £5 each. Their bigger plates, like Taiwanese fried chicken, or beef cheek nuggets, are priced just over that too. What we’re saying is: you can eat very well here for £10.
London’s most famous set menu just got even more reasonable. Yes the legendary three courses for £15 - including perhaps the world’s most famous carrot salad, as well chopped steak and chips, and a chocolate tart - is now under a tenner. A glass of house red, anyone?
The Shoreditch BBQ specialists are doing a starter, a meat, a side, and an ice cream for a tenner. Things like crispy pigtails, beef brisket, coal roasted aubergine, smoked pit beans, and malt soft serve are available.
Both Camberwell and Elephant and Castle locations of Theo’s are signed up to the EOTHO scheme, though only E&C is open for dinner. A margherita is usually £8.50 and hazelnut affogato is a fiver. So, you might even get some change.
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