Five to try: Cheap Hedonism

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APOLLO BANANA LEAF
190 Tooting High Street, SW17
(020 8696 1423) £16
The Hedonist's Guide — Eat London, written by Joe Warwick, draws on recommendations from chefs and restaurant insiders. Contributors were asked to consider specific motivations including Frugal Feasting. Trevor Gulliver, co-founder of St John, loves the authentic Sri Lankan cooking here: "Remarkably cheap, generous portions and they'll pack up what you can't finish to take away." The local Tamil community concurs.
Be ready for "canned music, mirrors and crap ethnic art". Unlicensed, no corkage.

FOOD LAB
56 Essex Road, N1 (020 7226 1001) £17
Liliana Tamberi came into my life when I spotted her behind the fabulous display of salume at Locatelli's Refettorio and then later running the kitchen of a gastropub called Matilda. Her love of Tuscan food and baking informs this charming café-cum-deli, open from morning to early evening. Caroline Stacey observes: "Great Italian cakes and coffee, fancy furniture out on the street and a sweet Italian guy behind the counter." I've met him; he is. Unlicensed. Settle for a healthy smoothie.

JAPAN CENTRE (TOKU)
212-213 Piccadilly, W1 (020 7255 8255) £26
On the ground floor of the Japan Centre there is the best off-sale sake selection in town. The sushi and sashimi is good enough for Ichiro Kubota, head chef of Michelin-starred Umu — who is famously and rightly dismissive of what is generally served under those names in this country. On the second Tuesday afternoon of every month, Toku closes to become JC Sushi Academy where you can learn to slice and roll your own.

HUNG TAO
51 Queensway, W2 (020 7727 5753) £12
Tom Parker Bowles is a regular at this Cantonese restaurant. He finds it "stupidly cheap with fine congee and noodle soups". Students and, apparently, "slumming-it scribes for The Mail on Sunday" also appreciate the value of the one-bowl meals where barbecued meats that hang like delectable washing in the window are added to noodles and rice with a flourish of green vegetable to exemplify healthiness. Service "gets the food from the kitchen to the table".

19 NUMARA BOS CIRRIK
34 Stoke Newington Road, N16
(020 7249 0400) £21
Charles Campion, author of his own London Restaurant Guide (Profile Books, £9.99), speaks of the "magnificent grilled meats" at what is currently considered "the reigning Turk" in Dalston. Cooked on an ocakbasi charcoal grill, the meats — mostly cuts of lamb from spare ribs to sweetbreads plus chicken and quail — are barbecued to perfection. A salad, delectable grilled onions in pomegranate syrup and some stunning bread come with the main courses.

A Hedonist's Guide Eat London by Joe Warwick (£9.99). Prices estimate two courses with an appropriate drink.