Whether you fancy a midday splurge or a bite to eat at a local favourite, The Good Food Guide has got your back. The menus may be shorter, but the quality of the ingredients, the skill of the chefs, and the charm of the service doesn’t change whether you eat at 1pm or 8pm.
Click here to read part 2 of our 40 great value set lunches under £40.
Eleanore, Edinburgh
Chef Roberta Hall McCarron’s bright, scandi-vibes spot at the top of Leith Walk draws a loyal crowd – not least for its £38 lunch offer. Pull up a (high) stool and start with snacks such as cashew nut ‘faux gras’ choux, or aubergine tartine with tapenade, garlic and comté cheese, before cod, mussels and cauliflower with warming vadouvan spicing. Round things off with the indulgent chocolate-hazelnut flavours of a gianduia panna cotta.
Chapter, Edgbaston
'Pop in for lunch, dinner or sometime in between’ is the message from this laid-back neighbourhood spot in Edgbaston. No wonder it’s popular: two courses cost just £24 and three cost £31, with the monthly changing menu including the likes of goats’ cheese mousse with golden beetroot to start, before a luxurious fish pie or wild mushroom risotto, and a citrus posset with honeycomb to finish.
Sam's Riverside, Hammersmith
A west-London lunch that doesn’t break the bank? Head to Sam’s Riverside, the stylish, relaxed Thames-side spot by Hammersmith Bridge where a midweek set menu comes in at £30.50 for three courses that might include smoked mackerel pate, then calf’s liver with crisp potatoes and onion gravy, and chocolate fondant with crème fraiche to finish. The deal is offered early evening Wednesday and Thursday, and all evening Monday-Tuesday too.
Heaneys, Cardiff
There’s a ‘relaxed, vibey’ atmosphere in this classy Cardiff restaurant where nobody stands on starchy ceremony, and food is ‘sublime’. The monthly changing set menu – five courses for £35 at lunch and Wednesday-Friday dinner – is a spectacular bargain, the January one including a luxurious venison cottage pie, hake kiev with wild mushroom and brown butter hollandaise, and pear and sake frangipane.
The Unruly Pig, Suffolk
A midweek lunch is three courses for £35 at this stylish pub-restaurant near Woodbridge. On the ‘britalian’ menu? Silky smooth white onion velouté, an enduring favourite, could precede house-made bucatini with crab, mussels and a sharpening dash of chilli, before a tropical finale of panna cotta with pineapple, passionfruit, rum and coconut.
Quince, Westgate On Sea
A spot to know on the Kent coast, this appealing bistro with ‘triumphant cooking’ melds to delicious effect the British and Spanish influences of chefs, pals and co-owners Ben Hughes and Rafael Lopez. Lunch is a steal at £26 or £29.50 for two or three courses and dishes that ripple easily with the seasons. A starter of confit trout, charred cucumber and crème fraiche could precede a tender chicken leg with mustard creamed veg, then a blood orange and almond cake with – of course – quince sorbet.
Noble Rot, London
It’s an inspector favourite – and for good reason. At £24 for two courses and £28 for three, the daily changing, no-choice lunch at all three Noble Rot restaurants (in Mayfair, Bloomsbury and Soho) is famously good value. A recent visit offered the hearty warmth of crisp pork belly with frisee salad, then grilled mackerel with tarragon aioli and hispi cabbage, with a rhubarb and custard tart to finish. Paired wines are tempting add-ons.
Number 16 Glasgow
This little bistro in Glasgow’s West End is a local favourite for good reason: the food is imaginative, tasty, and at £26 for two courses (with choices) and £32 for three at lunch, it’s excellent value. Expect dishes such as pork neck and nduja roulade with polenta, followed by pan-fried cod with haricot beans, parsnips and salsa verde, then dark chocolate mousse with caramelised buttermilk ice cream. Another tick? It’s open seven days a week.
The Devonshire, Soho
The set menu at The Devonshire has become a legend in its own hand-written, never-changing lunchtime since the Soho pub opened after renovation in late 2023. It’s a simple offer, and all the better for that: prawn and langoustine cocktail to start, steak, chips and bearnaise sauce to follow, and sticky toffee pudding to finish. Get lucky with a booking and that’s lunch sorted for a legendarily keen £29.
The Ingham Swan, Ingham
This ancient coaching inn turned welcoming pub-restaurant in north-east Norfolk is a good steer after a bracing morning seal-spotting at Horsey Gap. Settle in (walk-ins are welcome) at lunch or dinner for a generous menu du jour that might start with twice-baked cheese soufflé or Brancaster mussels in white wine, followed by pan-fried bass with crushed potatoes, hispi cabbage and beurre blanc sauce, then warm raspberry and almond bakewell tart with raspberry sorbet. Yours for £28 (two courses) or £34 for three.
Pahli Hill, Fitzrovia
While other restaurants have nudged prices up since this list was first published, the cost of lunch at this welcoming restaurant has stayed the same – £25 for two courses, £32 for three. Choose from small plates, big plates, and sweet plates and dip into the vast scope of Indian regional cuisine snacking on chaat or spinach-potato hara kebab before chicken, veg or fish thali, the sweet carrot halwa.
Dilsk, Brighton
This classy restaurant in Brighton’s seafront Drakes hotel is shortlisted for the Best Set Lunch in the GFG Awards 2025 for excellent reason: chef Tom Stephens’ £35 four-course lunch menu (Thursday-Saturday, with choices) is one to know. His laminated brioche has its own fan-club, served before starters perhaps of treacle-cured salmon with brown shrimp, a main of fallow deer with hay-baked beetroot and parsnip, and dessert of tea-poached pear with clementine curd.
Bistrot at Wild Honey, Mayfair
The little sibling to chef Anthony Demetre’s stylish main event – Wild Honey – this comfortable bistro in what was once the hotel bar at the Sofitel St James, is a good lunchtime bet in this otherwise pricey part of London. Three francophile courses, cooked with hearty flair and available from noon till 6.45pm, cost just £29. Start perhaps with a pork, duck and chicken terrine en croute, before hachis parmentier (cottage pie) with a green salad, and canelés to finish.
Cloth, Smithfield
There’s been a jostle for seats ever since this wine bar and restaurant opened on quiet Cloth Fair, by Smithfield Market in April 2024. There’s a loyal lunchtime crowd, not surprisingly given what the kitchen offers Tuesday-Friday: a £29 prix fixe with three courses (two for £24) of hearty deliciousness such as salt cod brandade with hen’s egg and chicory, followed by lamb ragu with polenta and parmesan, and rhubarb sorbet to finish
MJP @ The Shepherds, Fen Ditton
There’s a cracking lunchtime deal at Mark Poynton’s pub-restaurant with rooms in Fen Ditton just outside Cambridge every Thursday-Saturday (and Wednesdays too from February 5th). Expect simple, hearty food such as crisp lamb shoulder with herb and red pepper salad or butternut squash soup to start, followed by tandoori cauliflower with cumin dal and yogurt, and winter-warming sticky toffee pudding with vanilla ice cream to finish. Two courses are £22.50, three for £30.
The Kirkstyle Inn, Slaggyford
The culinary ambitions of this pub with rooms in Northumberland’s South Tyne valley, are firmly on the gastro-radar. The £85 tasting menu is a popular draw but for superlative value (maybe after a dose of Pennine Way walking), check out the £35 set menu offered Thursday-Saturday lunch. Fill up deliciously on smoked mackerel rillettes with pickled cucumber, lamb hotpot with braised red cabbage, and sticky toffee pudding – then maybe go for another walk.
Josephine Bouchon
With the appetite for homely French bistro fare showing no signs of dimming, chef Claude Bosi’s Lyon-celebrating restaurant in Fulham (coming soon to Marylebone too) is an excellent place for your gallic fix. For best value, check out the £29.50 ‘menu de canut’ or ‘silk-workers menu’ (referencing the historic Lyon industry) where you might follow a fresh salade lyonnaise with black pudding, apple and mashed potato, and finish with a classic floating island with pink pralines and custard. Less hungry? Two courses cost £24.50.
The Elephant, Torquay
Now approaching its 20th birthday, Simon Hulstone’s harbourside restaurant in Torquay is as popular and fresh-faced as ever. Drop in for lunch when a £39.75 set menu – superb value for cooking and service of this calibre – might tempt with beetroot-cured trout with dill and horseradish, followed by bavette steak with café de paris butter, Roscoff onions and sprout leaves, and a date sponge with spiced cranberry and mascarpone to finish.
20 Stories, Manchester
Whizz up to the top of the No.1 Spinningfields building for spectacular city views, the Pennines on the horizon, and the glamorous setting of 20 Stories. The set menu (£29 for two courses, £34 for three) keeps lunchtime spend in check, and tempts with well-made classics such as caramelised onion and blue cheese tart, pan-fried skate with lemon-caper butter, and an elegant chocolate-cherry opera cake.
Roe, Canary Wharf
Big, bold Roe landed in Wood Wharf in spring 2024 with a menu of distinctive dishes that, inspectors decided, are ‘easy to love and difficult to forget’. The set menu is definitely easy to love: at £34, the Roe Selection includes small plates such as venison tartare with crisp potato and whipped cod’s roe, large plates of sriracha mussels and sourdough or dry-aged steak with bearnaise, and desserts including caramelised banana parfait.
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