Need suggestions for finding healthy, low cost meals in England

Pret a Manger is a deli/takeout chain that emphasizes fresh and healthy food. You can “grab and go”or sit down there if one of the few tables is free. See their menu here:

https://www.pret.co.uk/en-gb/our-menu

We often stop in one for a light lunch.

If you like chain restaurant type food served in cardboard Pret will do. I suggest you check menus at local pubs. Many have gone way beyond pub grub (bangers and mash, etc.) and we enjoyed some really good meals at several last summer.

We've often found healthy, lower cost food choices at some churches and museums in various cities. Not sure about smaller towns. The Salvation Army International Headquarters in London, at 101 queen Victoria Street, has healthy offerings for bargain prices as do St.-Martin-in-the-Fields and Gordon's Wine bar. All have websites. You can also post to specific city and town forums on TripAdvisor.com to ask about eateries in those places.

What do you mean by healthy? Are you looking for gluten-free, or vegan, or veggie, or no trans-fat or what?

Eating on a budget and healthier is easier if you stay in apartments, so that you can self cater rather than eating out for every meal, even if this is just a sandwich and a drink.

I don’t care for Pret’s food, as it’s over-seasoned for my taste and too many sandwiches have lots of mayonnaise or dressing on them. They prepare the food fresh at each store, but I wouldn’t describe it as healthy, compared to say Leon.

All the supermarkets plus other stores such as Boots sell sandwiches and have meal deals including a drink. Many also sell salads and provide disposable cutlery.

You don’t say where you are going to be staying. Some towns have charity-run cafes that provide good value lunches.

Wagamama’s is a chain of oriental restaurants that have expanded out of London and provide reasonably priced meals. Carluccio’s is another chain of restaurants selling Italian food providing reasonable value.

There are many good pub meal options these days.

"What do you mean by healthy? Are you looking for gluten-free, or vegan, or veggie, or no trans-fat or what?"

Heavier on the veggies, lighter on the fats.

A lot of museums, gardens, and such do a good job of 'fresh, healthy, and local', provided you can avoid the temptation of the cake plates.

There are also some decent salad and salad/pizza combo options at Pizza Express of all places, though I'd call them more moderately priced rather than cheap.

I often look for a Middle Eastern restaurant when I especially want a healthy meal, planning to get either a vegetarian sampler platter or a chicken shish kebab with side vegetables. The trick can be finding a real restaurant rather than a fast-food gyro stand. Unfortunately, I have no specific places to suggest; I just keep my eyes open as I wander.

I agree that English museums can be good possibilities, though you may pay just a bit extra for the convenience of taking a meal break in the middle of a museum visit. I also had a couple of distinctly mediocre meals in food spots inside very busy London museums (don't remember which ones). They were limited-option cafeteria-style places. So if you know you'd like to eat at a museum, I suggest poking around on the museum's website ahead of time to see what sort of options you will have.

Oops! In my original post I forgot one essential fact. My apologies. My wife has a severe allergy to sesame oil and sesame seeds. We have to avoid foods from regions where those are common ingredients. Unfortunately that can eliminates lots of tasty and reasonably priced food, paticularly asian and middle eastern. Its serious enough an allergy that she carries an epi-pen.
I apologize for this omission. Thanks to everyone for you ideas. They likely will be useful to other travellers, even if some of the suggestions are ones we will not be able to use.

Paul and Kathy you may be interested to know that since 2014 all prepackaged goods produced in the eu have to clearly state on the label if they contain any of the 14 identified most commen allergens of which sesame seeds and products from them are one of those 14. Any business providing non packaged foods eg bakeries, restaurants has to have the information to hand to identify if any of those allergens and which ones are in each item/dish. This is a legal requirement. See https://www.food.gov.uk/print/pdf/node/176

Paul and Kathy you may be interested to know that since 2014 all prepackaged goods produced in the eu have to clearly state on the label if they contain any of the 14 identified most commen allergens of which sesame seeds and products from them are one of those 14. Any business providing non packaged foods eg bakeries, restaurants has to have the information to hand to identify if any of those allergens and which ones are in each item/dish. This is a legal requirement. See https://www.food.gov.uk/print/pdf/node/176

Pret A Manger (or "Pret" for short) has already been covered. It's the European equivalent to Panera Bread (soup and sandwich meal deals).

Supermarkets have also started doing lunch combos in what the British press have called the Supermarket Lunch Wars. For between £3 and £4 (US $4 and up) you get a pre-packed sandwich choice (some places it includes a salad too), a bag of crisps (chips) or flavoured popcorn, and a bottled drink (fruit juice, water, etc.). Look for Marks & Spencer (also known as M&S, and in All The Young Dudes as Marks & Sparks), Boot's, Tesco's, Sainsbury's, and Aldi supermarkets and food locations and ask a member of staff. It's not totally fancy but it's not basic by any means.

In London many of the food markets there are wide variety of options of every kind of food imaginable. With your wife's allergies you probably need to ask about the sesame products, but there were many stalls with vegetarian options, GF options etc from all over the globe taste wise. Our family ate lunch at a market multiple times on our trip as it also gives you the ability to have different types of food but eat together.

Not to get too technical, Panera and Pret are two different beasts. Pret has much more of an office worker/train hopper takeaway approach. It’s “grab and go” plastic and cardboard for many people whereas Panera is much more casual sit-down.

Anyway, one thing you will find more of in England is the jacket potato (baked potato) with a pick of toppings. Popular in the U.S. in what, the 90s or early 2000s we don’t see it much here anymore but is apparently still a regular thing in England. It’s a decent option if you want something fairly simple as long as you watch what the toppings are.

As others have said, it’s fairly easy to patch together a meal from the food hall aisles and also some of the department stores still have cafeterias unlike here in the U.S. where many have gotten rid of their cafes or lunch rooms.
Good luck and have fun!

Anyway, one thing you will find more of in England is the jacket potato (baked potato) with a pick of toppings. Popular in the U.S. in what, the 90s or early 2000s we don’t see it much here anymore but is apparently still a regular thing in England.

I'd say they've gone the same way as in the US. Popular in the 90's and early 00's but you don't see them too often now.

fairly popular in Birmingham and at my local hospital and quite a few National Trust properties.... good for weight loss too, depending on topping. Jackets are good for you....

A lot of pubs offer jacket potatoes offering several different toppings.

"I'd say they've gone the same way as in the US. Popular in the 90's and early 00's but you don't see them too often now."

I see them on menus all the time in caffs and pubs.

I never said they'd disappeared off the face of the Earth! They've simply become far less ubiquitous than they once were. There was a time in the late 90's/00's when there was a mobile jacket potato oven in almost every city centre shopping complex, those days have gone. Clearly there's still a market for them but nowhere near the popularity they once garnered.

Sainsbury grocery store had a great takeaway section with salads and the best scones with clotted cream and jam in little containers too. Jam has fruit. That's healthy :) Good prices. Yummy.

Its Sunday so you get my silly answer--- find a healthy looking poor person and ask where he eats or shops.

Not sure this meets the OP’s definition of “healthy” but we feasted at this pub, and several others that had pretty impressive menus: http://www.thefarmhousehorley.co.uk/food/

in addition to the options already mentioned, other quick chains in London with some healthy options include EAT (alternative to Pret), Vital Ingredient, Chop'd, Nandos, Chipotle (obviously not British, but a salad or a rice bowl there can be healthy), Itsu (sushi; may or may not be acceptable based on the allergy mentioned), and Wasabi (same comment as for Itsu). I'm sure you can find some of these outside of London, I just happen to live in London so can speak best to what's there.

A lot of Indian food is vegetarian, and Indian is plentiful in the UK. There are even some Indian restaurants, at least in London, that are 100% vegetarian.

If Borough Market is on your list of things to do, there are lots of potential options for you--salads with good quality chicken, Mediterranean grain bowls and salads, numerous vegetarian stands, etc.

Daylesford is an organic food shop and restaurant with several locations across London; it's a cut above the fast casual eateries I mentioned, but won't break the bank.

If you are going to London, I can give you some additional recommendations, but don't want to overload you if you're not stopping there or will only be there briefly.

I want to add my thanks for all of these ideas. These are the kind of places I also like to eat when I can't stay in a place with a kitchen (or at least a fridge).

Thanks again to all of you for your ideas. It will be a lot easier to eat better now that we have some good ideas of places to try.