North London's top 10 budget eats. Antepliler, Harringay The main road that runs through Harringay, Green Lanes, is home to several great Turkish restaurants.
Three in particular are regularly namechecked by local authorities on such matters: Yayla (429 Green Lanes), Hala (29 Green Lanes) and this gem. Antepliler is actually three premises: a cafe, the restaurant and a patisserie, whose various pistachio and walnut baklavas, made with good quality floral honeys, are not to be missed. The restaurant – plain and sturdy, a solid traditional Ottoman space – majors on charcoal-grilled kebabs and dishes cooked in the huge wood-fired oven that squats by the entrance. At £1.50 (takeaway), the lahmacun, a kind of thin, crisp Turkish pizza, topped with a hugely tasty, quietly fiery mix of minced lamb, chilli, garlic, onions, fresh herbs and pulped tomato, is exceptional value. Market, Camden Photograph: Katherine Rose for the Observer The Hampstead Butcher & Providore, Hampstead Kentish Canteen, Kentish Town Ginger & White, Hampstead.
East London's top 10 budget eats. St John Bread & Wine, Spitalfields On the face of it, let alone in a "budget eats" feature, £5.70 seems an awful lot to pay for a bacon butty.
It is one of the themes of this series, however, that – particularly when you're eating on a tight budget – value is more important than cost. And the St John bacon butty is indisputably worth every one of those 570 pennies. It comprises two large chargrilled slices of proper artisan bread from the on-site bakery, thickly buttered and liberally stuffed with Gloucester Old Spot bacon.
The rashers have a good three-quarter-inch rim of gloriously silky translucent fat around their outer edge. Beigel Bake, Brick Lane Photograph: David Sillitoe for the Guardian The tile work at this Brick Lane bakery has seen better days, but then you might look a bit tired yourself had you been serving fresh breads, pastries and filled bagels to hungry Londoners, 24 hours a day, 7 days a week since the late 1970s.
The Gun, Docklands. Central London budget eats. Glasgow's top 10 budget eats. 1.
The Banana Leaf It doesn't look much from the outside - or the inside come to that - but this tiny, friendly takeaway-cafe is a real find. Authentic southern Indian cuisine is the Banana Leaf's culinary remit and regulars swear by its dosas and fiery "special" soup. A main of Chettinad-spiced lamb curry (Chettinad is a small corner of Tamil Nadu) is sensational. The flavoursome chunks of slow-cooked lamb fall apart against a fork. 2. Located in the upmarket Princes Square shopping arcade, this one-time lifestyle store - now just a daytime cafe - offers refuge to Glasgow's shopped-out middle class parents and their designer-clad kids. 3.
A tip for you: when trying to find somewhere good and cheap to eat, follow the cycle couriers. 4.