Here are another 20 fantastic set lunch suggestions to complete our 40 Under £40 list. Click here to see our first instalment of 40 under £40 and be inspired to book that long overdue lunch with friends or family, or just to try somewhere new.
Henri, Covent Garden
Chef Jackson Boxer’s take on the Parisian bistro has had a blinder of a first year in its elegant space in the Henrietta hotel. It’s delivering a blinder of a prix fixe too: for £30, lunch or early supper could be carottes rapées with black olive and sesame, then a salad of gem lettuce, parmesan and anchovy with confit chicken, rounding off with a coconut sorbet with roasted figs.
The Palmerston, Edinburgh
Shortlisted in the Best Value Set Menu category in this year’s Good Food Guide Awards, this handsome Edinburgh restaurant and bakery shows how great food and great value can go happily hand in hand. The daily changing set lunch is a hit, including the likes of mince on dripping toast, a house-made pasta main course, and freshening rhubarb sorbet to finish. Yours for just £24, and you can buy a loaf of bread from the in-house bakery as you leave.
L'Escargot, Soho
The venerable snail may be approaching its 100th birthday, but this icon of Soho dining still has what it takes to thrive in the competitive Soho restaurant scene. Like the rest of the menu, the prix fixe – sensational value at £20 for two courses, £25 for three – is an homage to classical French cooking, so expect salade frisée aux lardons or celeri remoulade and jambon de bayonne to start, followed by Toulouse sausages and pommes purée, and tarte au citron to finish. Classics, done by those that know.
Watson & Walpole, Framlingham
The menu fisso changes monthly at this much-loved neighbourhood Italian in charming Framlingham. Drop in after visiting the castle perhaps, for a cracking value £25 lunch which in February is a feast of focaccia, grilled polenta, lardo and puntarelle, burrata with agretti and delicata squash frittura, two pastas – orecchiette with ‘nduja, cream and tomato salsa, and gramigna with sausage and fennel ragù – and moreish zucchini fritti. Whatever you do, leave room for the superlative tiramisù, an extra £9.50.
The Gurnard’s Head, Zennor
The ‘Lunch For Less’ menu at this enduringly popular pub just inland from the South West Coast Path is a steal – especially so as it will feed a hungry walker with fortifying mushroom-tarragon soup, then rump cap of beef with peppercorn sauce, and sticky toffee pudding with Cornish clotted cream for just £30 for three courses (£25 for two).
Credit: The Gurnard's Head
The Coach, Marlow
Chef Sarah Hayward leads the way at Tom Kerridge’s popular pub-restaurant in Marlow. From her open kitchen come classics delivered with contemporary style, and a spectacularly good-value set lunch served midweek (bar Tuesday). Start with onion soup, pepped up with cider and mustard, before a gutsy chicken, leek and mushroom pot pie, finishing off with a blood orange posset and vanilla shortbread. The price? £22.50.
The Ninth, Fitzrovia
Italy meets France in ‘bright and appealing’ dishes at chef Jun Tanaka’s classy neighbourhood restaurant on Charlotte Street, and the £38 set lunch is packed with temptations. Start with seabream carpaccio with blood orange and fennel or lamb strozzapreti with chorizo, before pumpkin risotto with the bitter crunch of tardivo leaves or featherblade beef, slow-cooked and served with carrots and garlicky mojo verde. Round it all off with pain perdu and tonka bean ice cream.
Sticky Walnut, Hoole
Gary Usher’s Elite Bistro family have always ticked the value box, offering appealing, simple bistro fare across all the restaurants. Next time you’re in Hoole near Chester, check out the OG site, Sticky Walnut, and the midweek ‘three for £20’ menu offered lunch and early evening. From the kitchen might come pork rilettes with sourdough toast, then equally chicken leg and smoked bacon cassoulet, with a walnut praline ice cream completing the deal.
Quality Chop House, Farringdon
This restaurant institution on the edge of the City has been feeding locals and less locals with gusto ever since it opened in 1869. The fortnightly changing set lunch is a £29 steal: on the menu for the next two weeks is a salade aux lardons, steak haché with sauce au poivre and a tarte aux citron with crème fraîche. See you there…
The Olive Branch, Clipsham
This handsome pub-restaurant in Rutland deserves its enduring popularity. Hospitality ripples through its bones, as does value for money in the form of the daily changing ‘Lunch for Less’ offer which until 8 March (except Valentine’s Day) is ‘Lunch for Even Less’. Drop in pronto for two courses for £27.50, adding a third for £6.50, and enjoy the likes of ham hock terrine with piccalilli, pollock with curried cauliflower and smoked mussel broth, and a finale of honey butter toast with vanilla Chantilly and miso toffee.
Dongnae, Bristol
Chef to Watch winners Kyu Jeong Jeon and Duncan Robertson's second neighbourhood Korean restaurant brings a taste of Seoul to Bristol. Their set lunch menu for £24 is based on soup and rice with banchan, kimchi and vegetable tempura with a choice of main dishes, perhaps ox bone broth with brisket and somen noodles or grilled pork belly with ssam and condiments.
Provender, Melrose
Listed in the Good Food Guide’s 100 Best Local Restaurants, this contemporary bistro in Melrose ensures the Scottish borders are firmly on the culinary map. Classical French style meets local, seasonal ingredients in the brilliant-value midweek lunch/early evening menu (it’s offered all-day Saturday and Sunday till 2pm too). For £32 you could feast on pigeon breast with black pudding and winter leaves, before hake pepped up with nduja-braised butter beans, and a freshening blood orange panna cotta with salad of winter fruits.
Sael, St James
Sael is restaurateur Jason Atherton’s warm tribute to British food, seasons and flavours, and dishes that combine familiarity with finesse fill the cracking value midweek lunch/early dinner menu. Expect a hearty onion soup with sourdough and Montgomery cheddar before lamb-shoulder shepherd’s pie, then apple and blackberry crumble with vanilla ice cream. It’s fun, delicious and three courses are just £32 (two for £28).
Dobson & Parnell, Newcastle
This popular spot just back from Newcastle’s arching Tyne Bridge is a place for big-hearted generosity, delicious cooking – and great value. Three lunchtime and early-dinner courses this winter come in at £29.50 and might include fishcakes with pea purée to start, followed by confit pork belly with celeriac fondant and black pudding croquette, and a choux au craquelin with gingerbread crème pâtissiere.
1921 Angel Hill, Bury St Edmunds
Take a breath from exploring this lovely Suffolk market town and pull up a seat at Zack Deakins’ classy, comfortable restaurant just off Angel Hill. The lunchtime menu is £29 for three courses or £25 for two, quite something given the quality of ingredients and skill on show. Start with rabbit and ham hock roulade, then stone bass with brown shrimp, and finish with goats’ milk panna cotta with apple and rhubarb.
The Oak Room at The Angel Hotel, Abergavenny
Sibling to the legendary Walnut Tree restaurant just a few minutes’ drive away, The Angel in Abergavenny shares a similar approach to hospitality: carefully sourced ingredients, cooked with care and simplicity. Book a table and look out for the prix fixe which is a lunchtime steal at £25 for two courses (think finocchiona with cornichons, followed by ray wing with potatoes and classic caper-butter sauce). Spend another £10 to round things off with an apple tarte tatin and amaretto ice cream.
Lasdun Restaurant, South Bank
Curtain-up waits for no diner, but settle into this relaxed brasserie in the National Theatre building for three courses perfectly paced to get you to your seats on time whether before an afternoon or evening performance. Among the choices on the £38 menu are crab soup and brown crab on toast, pot-roast ham with butter beans and green sauce, and an earl grey crème caramel with shortbread. Applause please.
Marmo, Bristol
Pull up a seat at this bright, friendly bistro in central Bristol for a meal that nods deliciously to Italy and where a fantastic-value lunch menu could see you starting with something on toast – pigs head and scamorza cheese perhaps – then a hearty tagliatelle al ragu doused in pecorino, and finally a refreshing quince sorbet. One to know, priced at £27 for three courses and £24 for two.
Kudu, Peckham
This lively spot in south London is a great place to discover South African cooking. Clear your Friday lunchtime to take advantage of the set menu: three courses for £29 that might start with peri-peri prawns or parmesan churros before monkfish cooked on the braai and served with sprout tops and a dashi velouté. The brioche-like Kudu bread is extra, but recommended for mopping purposes, and do save room for a salted chocolate ganache with sesame ice cream for dessert.
Belzan, Liverpool
This cheery neighbourhood bistro is a firm Liverpool favourite, and it’s not surprising given that you can eat three delicious, generous courses and have a glass of wine for £35 (Wednesday-Saturday 5-6pm). The menu changes regularly but a February iteration offered beetroot with goats’ curd and bitter treviso leaves, followed by confit duck leg with braised puy lentils, with rice pudding brulée and rhubarb to finish. We’re in.
Is there a place we should add? 60 Under £40 isn’t quite so catchy, but if it means we spread the good news about another 20 places offering superb lunchtime value, that’s fine by us. Do you have a local lunchtime favourite? Let us know HERE.
