Restaurant critic TOM PARKER BOWLES finds value on the menu on the edges of Notting Hill

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Good restaurants should never be cheap. I don’t mean in terms of price. You can eat exceptionally well with change from a tenner, while some of the more pretentious and showy second-raters send out the sort of bills that make even the most robust of credit cards shatter with fear. No, good eating is all about value.

And much of that value is to be found on the lunch set menu, where prices are rather lower than à la carte, and you’ll find a good deal at everywhere from Le Gavroche (le-gavroche.co.uk) and J Sheekey (j-sheekey.co.uk) to Bellamy’s (bellamysrestaurant.co.uk) and Murano (murano london.com).

For me, though, it’s at Hereford Road (herefordroad.org), on the edges of Notting Hill, where you get the best bang for your buck. Because here, at £16.50 for two courses, or £19.50 for three, you can tuck into some serious modern British cooking. Chef-proprietor Tom Pemberton is a modest genius, and his food is simple, seasonal and immaculately done. Dishes might include duck livers with green beans and tarragon, potted crab, a whole lemon sole, devilled kidney on toast, and rice pudding with jam. Consistently excellent, it’s London’s finest lunchtime deal.

A no-nonsense, old-fashioned caff can still be found (just about) in pretty much every town and city. No artisan coffee, avocado toast or almond milk (File image)

Hereford Road is TOM PARKER BOWLES’s pick for best set lunch menu. 'It’s at Hereford Road (herefordroad.org), on the edges of Notting Hill, where you get the best bang for your buck'

Another West London stalwart is Stick and Bowl (stickandbowl.has.restaurant), a modest and assuredly unshowy Cantonese restaurant in the rather incongruous surrounding of Kensington High Street. It’s been serving up fried rice, noodles and roast meats since 1971, so must be doing something right. The large wun tun soup (£5.50) is as generous as it is satisfying, especially when lavished with chilli oil. A side order of pork pan-fried dumplings (£3) is essential. Add in a cup of jasmine tea (70p) and you have serious Cantonese succour for under a tenner.

But moving from the individual to rather more general, no piece on value is complete without mentioning the great British caff. With their Formica-topped tables, sugary tea, full English breakfasts, bubble and squeak, liver and onions, shepherd’s pie and corned beef sandwiches, they’re our brasseries, trattoria and diners – entirely democratic and blessedly unchanged. There are the eternal classics, like The Regency Cafe in Pimlico (regencycafe.has.restaurant). Or E Pellicci in Bethnal Green (epellicci.co.uk), all dark wood-panelled walls, pasta and mixed grills. And modern heroes like Tufnell Park’s Norman’s.

The Regency Cafe embodies a classic British institution: ‘Formica-topped tables, full English breakfasts, sugary tea’

A no-nonsense, old-fashioned caff can still be found (just about) in pretty much every town and city. No artisan coffee, avocado toast or almond milk. Thank god. Rather white toast soaked in margarine; daily specials (always fish on Friday); vinegar, white pepper, brown sauce and ketchup in tomato-shaped squeezy bottles on the table; the slightly suspect sausages, the floods of baked beans and the ubiquitous bacon sandwich. I love them all. One of my favourites (and the saviour of many a university hangover) was the St Giles Café in Oxford, now gone, and turned into some gourmet hotdog place. Sadly, this seems to be the norm. These places need our support.

The same goes for that other great British stalwart of good value, and the shops that have kept us going through war and peace alike. Yup, the chippy – best, I find, out of London, and often, but not exclusively, by the sea. Whether the Anstruther Fish Bar in Fife (anstrutherfishbar.co.uk), Devon’s Rockfish mini chain (therockfish.co.uk), Henley’s of Wivenhoe (henleysfishand chips.co.uk), Shakies in Fleetwood (shakieschippy.com), The Golden Galleon in Aldeburgh (aldeburgh fishandchips.co.uk), or whatever your favourite happens to be, it’s all about fresh cod or haddock, fried in a crisp golden batter, slathered in salt and vinegar and eaten out of paper with a fistful of fat chips. Tough times lie ahead for everyone, and their future, as ever, lies in our hands. Use them, as they say, or lose ’em.