Cheap Dinner Dates in London Under £20 a Head: Menus, Queues and Timing

How to keep a dinner date to about £20 each

A £20-a-head dinner in London is less about finding a secret place and more about ordering with a plan. The restaurants below publish menus where a main course, a side to share and a soft drink each can come in around £20 per person before service. Once you add a glass of wine each, a second plate or a pudding, the total moves past that line quickly.

Three habits do most of the work. Share sides rather than ordering one each. Drink tap water, which is free to ask for, and keep alcohol for one round or a separate place afterwards. Read the service charge line: several of these restaurants add 12.5%, so a £40 bill for two becomes £45.

Every price here was read from the restaurant's own published menu on 14 October 2026. Menus change, sometimes daily, so treat the numbers as a guide to the price level rather than a promise. Where a restaurant does not publish prices online, this guide says so instead of guessing.

This guide is about specific sit-down restaurants. For a walk through whole food districts, such as Brixton Village, Brick Lane and Chinatown, see the separate neighbourhood food guide linked at the end.

Padella: fresh pasta at Borough Market and Shoreditch

Padella makes fresh pasta and keeps its menu short. The menu on its website is dated Wednesday 14 October and is shared across its sites. It lists antipasti from £4 to £14.50 and pasta from £9.50 to £16.50, with Parmesan 50p extra. Puddings run from £6.50 to £8.50, wine starts at £7 for 125ml, and a 500ml carafe costs between £26 and £32.50.

Two plates of pasta at the lower end, one antipasto to share and tap water keep two people well under £20 each. Do the sums before ordering a carafe, which alone would take up more than half the budget.

Borough Market, at 6 Southwark Street, takes no reservations. You join a virtual queue by scanning the QR code at the door or remotely through the Dojo app, and groups of up to six can use it. At lunch, tables are offered from 11.30am and remote joining opens at 11.45am. At dinner, tables are offered from 5pm and remote joining opens at 5.15pm. Dinner runs to 10.30pm Monday to Saturday and 9pm on Sunday. If you don't have a smartphone, the hosts can add you.

Shoreditch, at 1 Phipp Street off Great Eastern Street, takes bookings up to four weeks ahead and holds a table for 10 minutes after your slot. It also keeps kitchen and bar counters and heated terraces for walk-ins, and runs the same Dojo queue when busy, which you can join remotely within 2km. For a date where you'd rather not stand around, book Shoreditch. For Borough, join the queue as soon as remote joining opens.

• Padella Borough MarketFresh pasta restaurant

  Borough, SE1

  6 Southwark Street. No reservations; virtual queue at the door or via the Dojo app. Dinner from 5pm, remote queue from 5.15pm.

• Padella ShoreditchFresh pasta restaurant

  Shoreditch, EC2A

  1 Phipp Street. Bookable up to four weeks ahead; counters and terraces kept for walk-ins.

Flat Iron: a steak dinner that stays within budget

Flat Iron serves one main steak cut at a fixed price, which makes it easy to budget for. Its menu lists the Flat Iron Steak at 15.0, a smashed onion double cheeseburger at 14.0 and a 35-day aged ribeye at 20.0. Sides include beef dripping chips at 4.5, creamed spinach at 4.5 and a green salad at 3.5, with sauces at 1.5 each. The menu prints prices without a currency sign.

Two Flat Iron steaks, one portion of chips and one salad to share come to £38 on those menu prices. Add the optional 12.5% service charge and the bill is about £42.75, or roughly £21 each. Skip a sauce or split a second side and it stays close to the line.

Flat Iron's FAQ says it always allows plenty of room for walk-ins. When there is a wait, you don't queue: staff take your details and tell you when your table is ready. If you book, tables are held for 90 minutes for one to four people. The restaurants cannot be reached by phone, so changes go through the confirmation email or the contact form.

Its locations page lists more than a dozen London sites, including Soho (17 Beak Street), Covent Garden (17-18 Henrietta Street), Spitalfields (88-90 Commercial Street), Shoreditch (77 Curtain Road) and Southbank at the Royal Festival Hall. That spread makes it a practical fallback when the first place on your list has a long queue.

• Flat Iron SohoSteak restaurant

  Soho, W1F

  17 Beak Street. Flat Iron Steak listed at 15.0; walk-ins welcome, with no queue to stand in.

Kiln: Thai-style grill plates on Brewer Street

Kiln, at 58 Brewer Street in Soho, cooks over open fire and serves small plates meant for sharing. Its food menu lists an aged cull yaw and cumin skewer at 3.80, a herbal sausage of cull yaw at 7.90, a courgette and radish salad at 7.90 and claypot glass noodles with Tamworth belly and brown crab at 11.80. Brown jasmine rice and sticky rice are 2.90 each. Larger plates run from 18.9 to 38.5.

For about £20 each, build a meal from smaller plates: two skewers, the claypot noodles, one salad or greens dish and rice for two lands around £38 before service. The menu adds a 12.5% discretionary service charge and notes that most dishes contain shellfish and pork and some are very spicy, so ask the staff before ordering if either matters to you or your date.

Kiln takes no reservations. Its contact page says guests are seated as space comes up. You can wait at the bar with a drink if there's room, or leave a number and get a message when a table is free, which suits a first date: a short walk round Soho fills the wait. The kitchen runs from 12pm to 11pm Monday to Saturday and to 9pm on Sunday.

Kiln's menu lists its suppliers by name and changes with what arrives, so the dish list on any given evening may differ from the one quoted here.

• KilnThai style grill, small plates

  Soho, W1F

  58 Brewer Street. No bookings; wait at the bar or leave a number for a text.

Dishoom: the queue everyone knows, and how to avoid it

Dishoom is often the first name people think of for an affordable dinner, and it can fit a £20 budget if you build the order around its cheaper dishes. The all-day menu lists House Black Daal at 11.50, plain naan at 4.90, steamed basmati rice at 5.20, vegetable samosas at 7.90 and pau bhaji at 8.70. Grills such as chicken tikka and sheekh kabab are 15.50, and biryanis run from 18.50 to 21.50, which is where a cheap evening starts to slip.

Daal, one grill to share, a naan and rice for two comes to about £37 on those prices. The menu says an optional 12.5% service charge is added and can be removed if you feel the service fell short.

The Shoreditch branch at 7 Boundary Street sets out its booking rules clearly. You can book for any group size during the day, but after 6pm bookings are only for groups of six or more, and most tables are kept for walk-ins. It says breakfast and lunchtime usually mean little or no wait. After 6pm and at weekends a queue often forms, with total waits of about 30 minutes to an hour. Chai is offered while you wait, and you can move to the bar once there's room.

For a date, that gives you two options: book a weekday lunch, or arrive well before 6pm on a weeknight. A Saturday 8pm walk-in is the slot most likely to mean standing outside.

• Dishoom ShoreditchBombay style café restaurant

  Shoreditch, E2

  7 Boundary Street. Evening bookings for groups of six or more only; 30-minute to one-hour waits at busy times.

BAO Soho and Tayyabs: two places whose prices you check in person

BAO Soho, at 53 Lexington Street, is walk-ins only. It opens 12pm to 3pm and 5pm to 10pm Monday to Thursday, 12pm to 10.30pm on Friday and Saturday, and 12pm to 9pm on Sunday. BAO's menus page mentions BAO15, a weekday lunch set served from 12pm to 5pm that varies by location, but the website text gives no dish prices: the food menus are posted as images. Check the menu at the door before you sit down. Arriving close to the 5pm reopening on a weeknight gives you the best chance of a quick seat.

Tayyabs, at 83-89 Fieldgate Street in Whitechapel, is a Punjabi grill and karahi restaurant open seven days a week from 12pm to 11.30pm. Unlike most places in this guide, it takes bookings online and by phone, and its site says you can bring your own bottle. Its online menu lists grills such as lamb chops, seekh kebab and chicken tikka, karahi dishes and tandoori naan, but shows no prices and says nothing about corkage. Check both before you order.

Bringing your own wine is the biggest saving on any dinner date. If you go to Tayyabs, buy a bottle on the way, and ask about corkage when you book.

• BAO SohoTaiwanese restaurant

  Soho, W1F

  53 Lexington Street. Walk-ins only; prices not given in the website text.

• TayyabsPunjabi restaurant

  Whitechapel, E1

  83-89 Fieldgate Street. Open daily 12pm–11.30pm; bookable; bring your own drinks.

Chinatown and Franco Manca as backup plans

Chinatown, centred on Gerrard Street with Lisle Street running parallel, sits between Soho and Theatreland, a few minutes from BAO, Kiln and Flat Iron Soho. If the queue at your first choice is too long, it is the nearest place with many other restaurants to try.

Franco Manca, the sourdough pizza chain, works as a second fallback because it has many branches. Its menu page lists twelve numbered pizzas, from Marinara and Margherita to Truffle & Burrata, and says wines start at £21.30 a bottle. The page gives no pizza prices, so check your local branch's menu.

Neither of these is a full write-up. They are where to walk next if the evening needs a plan B.

• ChinatownRestaurant district

  Soho, W1D

  Centred on Gerrard Street; the Wardour Street gate opened in July 2016.

Timing: when to turn up

Dishoom Shoreditch says queues often form after 6pm and at weekends, and the other no-booking places reward the same early start. Padella Borough offers dinner tables from 5pm and opens remote queueing at 5.15pm. BAO Soho reopens at 5pm on weekdays. Dishoom Shoreditch says breakfast and lunch are the times you can usually walk straight in. A 5.30pm weeknight dinner is the cheapest move of all, because you skip the bar drinks you would otherwise buy while waiting.

If you'd rather know where you're sitting, the bookable choices are Padella Shoreditch, Flat Iron, Tayyabs, and Dishoom during the day. For a first date, a booked table takes away one source of nerves. A walk-in queue on a later date can be part of the fun.

Before you go

• Prices here come from each restaurant's own menu on 14 October 2026; menus change, so check the current one before you go.
• Factor in service: Kiln, Flat Iron and Dishoom all state a 12.5% discretionary or optional charge.
• Ask for tap water. Drinks are where a cheap dinner stops being cheap.
• Kiln's menu says most dishes contain shellfish and pork and some are very spicy; raise allergies before ordering anywhere.
• For no-booking places, agree a fallback nearby, such as Flat Iron Soho or Chinatown for Kiln and BAO Soho, so a long queue doesn't end the evening.
• None of the pages read for this guide state step-free access; contact the restaurant if that matters.

Questions people ask

Can two people really eat out in London for £20 each?

Yes, at sit-down restaurants with short menus, if you share sides and keep drinks simple. On their published menus, two Flat Iron steaks with shared chips and salad, or two Padella pasta plates with a shared antipasto, come in around £20 each, though a 12.5% service charge where it applies pushes the total slightly higher.

Which of these restaurants take bookings?

Padella Shoreditch, Flat Iron and Tayyabs take bookings. Dishoom Shoreditch takes them for any group size during the day, but after 6pm only for groups of six or more. Padella Borough Market, Kiln and BAO Soho do not take reservations.

When is the best time to avoid queues?

Arrive early on a weekday. Padella Borough starts offering dinner tables at 5pm, BAO Soho reopens at 5pm Monday to Thursday, and Dishoom Shoreditch says breakfast and lunch usually mean little or no wait, while evenings and weekends can mean 30 minutes to an hour.

Can I bring my own wine?

Of the places in this guide, only Tayyabs in Whitechapel says on its website that you can bring your own drinks. It does not mention a corkage fee, so ask when you book.

Do I have to stand in a line?

Often not. Padella uses a virtual queue on the Dojo app, Kiln will text you when a table is ready, and Flat Iron takes your details so you don't have to queue.