Tell me where to go...

Crussh

Every time i turn around another of these soup/smoothie bars has sprung up.... which i am most happy about. They have a wonderful arrangement of yummy looking sandwiches, giant sized sushi hand rolls (the salmon is especially good), excellent salads, including smaller sized 'health pots' which are also very tasty.

But let's talk about the soup! They have a rotating menu of different fresh, wholesome, and soups that are quite often all you need to cheer you up on a cold winters day, or a cold summers day taking the English weather into account. They serve 4 or 5 different options every day, but get there early because they have been known to run out of the popular choices! Whether it is simple, organic or gourmet you are after you can always find a soup to fit your mood - but the chicken chilli with a chunk of their gorgeous wholemeal bread fits any mood... especially the one after the night before!

One tip though, if you decide to sit down and eat in their Rathbone Place branch, you might want to check out the seats downstairs, as one of the machines they use in there is very noisy!

Lunch that makes you feel good, for under a fiver!

The Stockpot

18 Old Compton Street,
London
W1D 4TN

If you are hungry and skint this is a fabulous option.

You can get 2 courses off a very limited set menu for £5.50. Or if you want to order just one course that is fine – and there are many more options! There is soup for £1.45, pasta dishes for around £4 and main courses (beef stroganoff, gammon steak, chicken and mushroom casserole and many more) for around a fiver. They have a wide range of omelets and salads, both about £4, desserts ice creams and cheeses and the most expensive things on the menu are grilled lamb cutlets and mixed grill, both coming in at £6.95. 

But is any of it any good?

Well the food is served with no fuss, the omelets are rather large but they come on their own (side salads are £1.80, or you can have chips, new potatoes or vegetables for £1) The tuna niscoise salad is a small-ish plate that is loaded almost too high with lettuce coleslaw and carrot (in equal portions, so slightly odd) tuna, black olives, a hardboiled egg, anchovies, tomatoes cucumber and red onion, so all the expected ingredients. Staff are friendly and helpful and importantly, quick. If you ask for water they will bring you a jug of tap water, not just a teeny glass, and they don’t insist upon mineral water either., gets pretty busy at lunch time but there are quite a few tables – even a couple on the pavement if you are quick enough… and of course it isn’t raining.

You can easily be full up for under a fiver!

Nanobyte Bar

183-185 Wardour Street
London
W1V 3FB
www.nanobytebar.co.uk

This pub on Wardour Street has a chilled out atmosphere and varied menu, ranging from tapas style small dishes, to sharing plates, sandwiches and full on main courses. So is a good choice for lunch, mid-drinking snacks, or full on hung-over stodge. Their jacket potatoes come in at around £4.50. £4.70 for a decent sized spud with chili and sour cream and a side salad (which actually consisted of more than a single lettuce leaf). They have a pretty varied range of sandwiches: fish finger, sausage, steak and onion, BLT, roast veggies, etc etc.. are all £4.10 or £4.25 (except the steak which comes in at £4.95)

 If you want to splash out a bit more, their burgers are GOOOOD (£6.85 with chips and coleslaw). It’s a great place to go if you don’t really know what you fancy, or if you are with a group of indecisive people. They also have a very reasonable wine list – and usually do that ‘buy two large glasses and get the rest of the bottle free’ deal (although this might not be the wisest lunch time decision!). The service isn’t quick, but it’s usually quick enough so that it turns up before your lunch hour runs out!

It is open 11am-11pm Monday to Saturday, 12:30om-10:30pm on Sundays

Porsini's

29 Poland Street, W1 3DB

+44 (0) 207 434 1831

Porsini’s is a great place for sandwiches, pasta, pizzas, giant jacket potatoes, huge salads and various other Italian(ish) delights to take back to your desk or eat in. Very well priced - a giant coronation chicken ciabatta for under £3, pizza for about a fiver, a jacket potato that will fill you up so much you think you may never eat again, for about £3.50. They can be a little heavy handed with the butter on these though, so keep an eye out, unless you like that kind of thing, in which case this is your ideal place!

They also are a good place for bacon sandwiches etc to help you deal with a hangover and distract you with friendly chat.

Kyoto Sushi

27 Romilly Street, W1D 5AL

+44 (0) 207 4372262

My favourite restaurant for cheap sushi. Many restaurants claim to serve fresh good value sushi. This place actually does. They do a lunchtime bento box for under a tenner, which is a good way of sampling everything, the salmon terryaki was particularly good, the chicken one had a bit too much skin for my liking.

However a much better idea is to order a la carte. Their sashimi is fresh high quality fish that is sliced thickly and beautifully. They have a wide range of rolls, nothing unnecessarily elaborate but all delicious.

Sushi slanderers have been converted in this restaurant… if you are unsure of raw fish, this is a great place to test it as their noodle dishes are also great (and filling) their tempura is light and not greasy and it doesn’t cost the earth, which is quite often an issue in the hunt for good sushi. It is worth a visit if only for the décor, pebbles on the floor and Japanese action characters on shelves on the walls. They also have plenty for vegetarians.

Although… I would prefer it if you didn’t go too often, its not a very big restaurant and I wont be able to get a table!

Updated 22/10/07

I went here twice last week and had a long chat with Kim the owner about why his sashimi is so amazing - apparently its all about the french tuna! On my second visit i took a friend who claimed it to be one of the nicest, if not THE nicest sushi she has ever had. The spicey tuna rolls are actually spicey, the soft shell crab rolls are a MUST, and even if you arent a sashimi fan, Kim's tuna may well convert you. I think i could live here.

Hi Sushi

   
40 Frith Street
London
W1D 5LN

+44 (0) 207 734 9688

All you can eat sushi for£13.95... need I say more??

Well yes actually, as all you can eat sushi sounds like it might potentially include a one-way trip to food poisoning... Not so! The fish at Hi sushi is fresh and tasty.

Be prepared to huddle round one of the tables downstairs with total strangers, but they are cool tables at floor level where you sit on a cushion on the floor and your feet dangle below ground. The all you can eat part of the menu tends to be all salmon€ - a couple of different rolls and sashimi, and a few more hot dishes. The only thing that stopped me from eating til I burst, was that I'd had enough salmon. I haven'€™t tried the rest of the menu, but if the rest of it is as good as the salmon, it's definitely worth a try. This is a good place to go if you are looking for a meal in a hurry, pre theatre etc€...

All you can eat sushi for £13.95, gets packed so booking is recommended.

Added October 2007:

I have recently been here and had their lunch time special for £6.

Wow. So. Much. Food.

for your £6 you get to choose a couple of different appetisers (spring rolls etc), some sushi rolls, some kind of meat dish (chicken terriyaki etc) and a giant bowl of ramen - i had the chilli beef one and even though i was full to bursting it was divine. Definitely go and have this is you are hungry - or planning a heavy evening's drinking it will line your stomach a treat!

Maoz Veg

43 Old Compton Street (there is also a branch at 4 Brewer Street)

+44 (0) 207 8511 586

Opening hours: Mon-Thu 11:00-01:00, Fri-Sat 1:00-02:00, Sun 11:00-24:00

Brilliant falafels on Old Compton Street, and what makes them so brilliant is the element of personal choice, with your basic falafel and pita bread you can select your own salad from the salad bar and pile it as high as you dare! You can also opt for extras such as feta cheese or grilled aubergine. Prices start from under £3 and for under £4 you can get a falafel with salad bar and chips: for £4.20 you get a falafel with salad and chips and a soft drink! This is also the perfect mid-drinking snack stop as it fills you up, is quick and easy and not to mention healthy… well maybe not the chips…

I took my brother there who was a little unsure because it was all vegetarian, and he is not a huge fan of spices - his reaction was ‘totally full, very nice, and you don’t even miss the meat!’ Another convert!

Not exactly an atmospheric environment, more of a café/take away, somewhere to grab a quick, great value bite of the middle east (with chips).

Viet

34 Greek Street

+44 (0) 207 494 9888

I am currently trying to work my way through the menu of this little Vietnamese cafe on Greek Street, however their Phos are so good I always end up coming back to them. They are absolutely huge, very tasty and just under a fiver. They come with a side plate filled with herbs, bean sprouts and chillis, so you can flavour it to your own liking.

I have sampled much of the rest of the menu and it is all good, particularly the summer rolls! The Tom Yams are like the Pho’s (huge and tasty) but watch out for stray lumps of lemon grass! The noodle dishes are great, filling and quite often come with a side plate of lettuce and herbs or whatever, although this seems to be somewhat erratic. I challenge you to not thoroughly enjoy your meal… All the food comes out as and when it is ready, so its not necessarily the place for a lingering, romantic meal. 

You can bring your own alcohol if it’s a cheap meal after work you want, or a beer with lunch. Corkage is £1.50. It gets fairly busy, but also has a pretty quick turnover.

No frills, just tasty food that fills you up without emptying the wallet.

Added 09/10/2007

I felt that i should add a little on here about something other than the soupy dishes... its just so hard to  go in there and not order a pho! (i have a friend who started to dream about them after eating her first pho here...) But today my brother and i steeled ourselves, and ordered differently. He had the beef and black pepper udon noodles, of which he concluded that if he felt like having a noodle dish, he would definitely have it again, and i had beef and thai basil fried rice, which was very enjoyable - although needed a good slug of chilli sauce to liven it up! These dishes feel more greasy and not as good for you as the soup based ones (as noddle and rice dishes quite often are) but they are nice... and now that i have ordered something else i don't have to feel guilty about ordering a pho without hesitation next time i go in there!.