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Meals per day in London

Can you give some idea on average daily meal cost in London?

Posted by
3985 posts

That is impossible to answer. It completely depends on you.

I typically stay at a hotel that includes breakfast. For lunch, I often get a sandwich and sparkling water from a meal deal at a grocery store; my preference is Sainsbury because it is the least expensive — maybe £3-4. Dinner varies. I could spend £15-30 at pubs. Sometimes my main meal of the day is at lunchtime so I get a very light & inexpensive dinner (under £10).

Posted by
888 posts

Too much depends on what type meals you plan to eat. If all sit down table service it's obviously going to run you more. Is toast and coffee enough or do you need a "full english"?

Lots of inexpensive options like grocery, department stores and places like Pret a Manger which has great sandwiches, soups, breakfast items. many museums have quite nice lunch rooms. As long as we have a room refrigerator we can get by in Europe pretty cheap.

One thing I do is use Google to search the area around my hotel. Google the hotel name, click on the little map, then select the "nearby" button and type in cafe or restaurant. From there you'll get a list and can read about them. Most will have their menu online so you can check prices.

Posted by
3940 posts

As the others said - you can find any budget - we've (as a couple) grabbed a meal for 15GBP total, and we've also had meals that were 45-50GBP.

Posted by
23177 posts

Where do you live? What is the daily meal cost where you live? When you go out for dinner in the evening, what do you spend per person? From that I will give you an estimate for London.

Posted by
1075 posts

Don’t forget about the conversion cost. Britain to me is easy to be all like “Oh this is only 10 pounds” and then you get your credit card bill and see that it’s been converted to $13, ha! The exchange rate isn’t bad right now but when I went in 2004 it was 2 to 1, so our 20 pound lunch was actually $40!!

Regardless I don’t recall London as being exceptionally expensive for food; you can definitely find cheap eats, esp ethnic food. Or to go places like Marks and Spencer.

Posted by
6113 posts

Breakfast - £5 for a cappuccino and a Danish eaten in a cafe. Sausage & egg McMuffin - £2.70. Full English fry up £10 including tea or coffee. More expensive in a restaurant.

Lunch A meal deal (sandwich, crisps and a soft drink) from a supermarket or shop such as Boots or WH Smith’s will cost £3-4 pp. A sandwich and a pot of tea in a cafe - £6-10 depending on how fancy a place it is. A hot meal in a pub with a pint of beer £15-20 pp. A fancy restaurant starts at £25 for 2 courses food only and you can spend over £100 a head.

Dinner as lunch.

A cream tea is £5 and upward.

Afternoon tea is anywhere between £15-50+ a head.

Posted by
5 posts

Don't forget - compared with the USA - the price in a UK restaurant includes tax, and standard tip is restaurants with a waiter (unless included) is 10%

Posted by
926 posts

Our food budget strategy is to buy items, mostly picnic type items, at Super Markets like Sainsbury for breakfast and lunch and do restaurants for diner. 15 pounds a day for two people. Food in London Super Markets is less expensive than similar items in the USA. Shopping this way doesn't mean that you miss out on regional food. It is quite fun and interesting to seek out uniquely regional items and try out things one would never find in a USA Super Market. The diner meal can be all over the place in price and type, and usually will involve evening drinks. So it is hard to average that out. Best guess at an average evening meal is about 30 pounds for two. So we do nicely at a individual daily cost of around 22 pounds. We are not foodies, yet we feel like we have experienced "local fare." :)

Posted by
3514 posts

With the current exchange rate, I find meals in London to be the same price range as was I pay when I am in the main business area of most major US cities. When you add alcohol, the prices do seem to go up quickly.

As others have stated in their examples, it really depends on what type of meals you prefer as to what you will pay.

Posted by
1321 posts

Like everyone has said, it’s truly a how long is a piece of string question .

I generally either have big breakfast, light lunch, regular dinner (if staying at a place with a breakfast buffet) or light breakfast, regular lunch and regular dinner.

A lot depends on my itinerary and if I’m meeting up with friends.

I’m not particularly thrifty, others are. I generally won’t do meal deals at Tesco or M&S but I might if it works with my schedule.
I’m not above grabbing fast food either.