Cheap eats in Camden: good food under £15
A plate of chaat for £6.95 in Kentish Town, char siu on rice for £12.95 over the canal, vegan fried chick’n on Parkway and a £10 weekday lunch in a proper pub. How to eat well in Camden without paying market prices.
By Only Camden Editorial
You can eat well in Camden for under £15 a head, but not by following the smell of frying onions down the high street. The value is in a Kentish Town chaat house, a roast meat counter upstairs at Hawley Wharf, a vegan fried chicken joint on Parkway and a pub that does a tenner lunch. Here is where to go, what to order and what it costs.
Babuji, Kentish Town Road: chaat for £6.95
Babuji at 343 Kentish Town Road, NW5, is a South Asian street food restaurant, and its chaat section is where the bargains are. Every chaat on the menu is £6.95: kachori, a puri filled with dhal, chana and aloo under yoghurt, chutneys and sev, which the menu warns can get messy; aloo tikki chaat, spicy potato cutlets with yoghurt, sev and coriander; papdi chaat, crisp wafers with potato, chickpeas and red onion; and shingara chaat. Two between one is a filling lunch for under £14. It is a short walk from Kentish Town station.
Three Uncles, Hawley Wharf: rice plates from £12.95
Upstairs in the Hawley Wharf food hall, on the second floor with communal seating over the canal, Three Uncles is the market’s best value sit-down meal. Char siu on jasmine rice with pak choi is £12.95, crispy pork belly or Hainan chicken £13.50, and any two meats £14.95, per its Camden menu. If you are grazing, the bao are £5.50 for mushroom and pak choi and £5.95 for char siu, curry fishballs are £5.75 and wontons in chilli oil £7.25. Open daily from 12:00 to 20:45.
The rest of the food hall is worth a lap too. Camden Market lists the Hawley Wharf food halls open 11:30 to 23:00 every day, and down by the Lock, West Yard is the street food yard on the water. Prices there vary by stall, so read the board before you queue.
Temple of Seitan, Parkway: vegan fried chick’n
Temple of Seitan at 43 Parkway, NW1, is open 12:00 to 22:00 every day, for dine-in and delivery, per its site. Time Out describes the menu as vegan fried chick’n burgers, wings and wraps, with tots, fries and coleslaw. It is a five-minute walk from Camden Town station, on the way to Regent’s Park.
The Colonel Fawcett: a £10 pub lunch
The Colonel Fawcett at 1 Randolph Street, NW1, is an independent free house with a kitchen led by Andy Evans, and from Wednesday to Friday it runs £10 lunch specials between 12:00 and 15:00, per its food page. The pub also advertises £5.90 pints and two margaritas for £14 every day. A proper meal and a pint for under £16, in a room with a garden, is about as good as Camden value gets. The kitchen is closed on Mondays.
Kentish Town on a budget
Kentish Town Road is the cheapest good eating in our patch, and the 2025 Hot Dinners guide to Camden and Kentish Town is a decent map of it. Three picks from that list:
- E Mono, 285 to 287 Kentish Town Road, NW5: Turkish kebabs with flatbreads made on site and free-range chicken shawarma, to eat in or take away.
- Pho Ta, 85 Willes Road, NW5: Vietnamese, with bun cha and charcoal-grilled meat, and you can bring your own drink.
- Bintang, 93 Kentish Town Road, NW1: Filipino-led pan-Asian cooking, halal, with no alcohol sold but bring your own with corkage.
BYO is the hidden saving: a bottle from the shop round the corner instead of a wine list can halve the bill.
Bakeries and something sweet
Two Filipino spots sit next to each other at the Camden end of Kentish Town Road, NW1, and both make a cheap lunch or a pudding on the walk home. Hot Dinners lists Panadera at number 83 as a Filipino bakery doing a corned beef hash sando, a panko chicken sando and Filipino milk buns, and Mamasons Dirty Ice Cream at number 91 for ube ice cream, pandesal ice cream sandwiches and shaved ice. Further up, Kossoffs at 259 Kentish Town Road, NW5, is an artisan bakery that makes its bread, pastries, salads and sandwiches on site, which is the cheapest way to a good sandwich in NW5.
How to eat cheaply in Camden
- Eat early or late: market food halls are rammed from 12:30 to 14:00 at weekends.
- Walk north: prices drop the further you get up Kentish Town Road.
- Share small plates: £5.50 bao and £6.95 chaat add up to a meal without a main.
- Check the day: pub lunch deals tend to be weekday only, as at the Colonel Fawcett.
