jennyakeefe's Qype profile

Chennai Dosa is canteen-style South Indian restaurant, mostly vegetarian. Food is stupidly cheap and stupidly yummy, eg, £2 for a tasty dosa meal – it’s actually hard to spend a tenner. Or for about £4 you can get a full veggie thali with lots different curries: sambar, lentil dahl, veggie korma etc.

Surprised it hasn’t had more reviews as this is definitely my best value meal in South London. It gets packed out with families for weekend dinners, so come early.

This is a fab cheap French restaurant in Soho. The food is top notch for the price; all the usual French fayre. The set dinners are especially good value. I think you have to get there before 7pm to take advantage. There’s a lovely atmosphere with dark lighting and candles. What I would say is try and get a table at the top.

One night we went and it was full, so they shunted us into a little table downstairs by the kitchen. It was really smelly right by all the grease of the kitchen – definitely not the place for a romantic French meal.

The World Food Cafe is a lovely spot, hidden in Neil’s Yard. It serves up vegetarian grub from around the word; my fave is the African stew on rice. It took me right back to travelling days; you really feel like you’re chilling out in some hostel in Rio or something, even though it’s gloomy and drizzling outside.

Everybody sits around huge communal tables, and there’s a really nice atmosphere; everybody chats to either other and shares their papers. At lunchtime, service can be a bit higgledy piggeldy, with big queues to pay. If you’re in a hurry, I would get the payment out of the way when you order. But all in all, it’s a lovely little spot.

El Rincon is a fabulous little Latin American restaurant. The tapas is yummy, the service is friendly and it’s not too pricey either, for the location. If you don’t fancy tapas, thepaella is lovely too, though it takes a while to cook. The lighting’s very romantic - great for birthdays and dates. There’s a nice selection of wine, beer or jugs of Sangria. My boyfriend actually took me here on our second date and we’re still going out three years later, so it must have done something right. I haven’t been for a while, but, writing this, it’s brought back memories and I’ll have to go again soon.

The Lyric is a fabulous little theatre, which always shows interesting productions. It’s very handy for people who live or work nearby to have a decent place in the area. As an off-west end place, it leans towards smaller shows, by lesser known playwrights, but it’s all the better for it. We recently sawOthello , which was absolutely outstanding and lively. The best bit is that the seats are about half the price of its big West End sister theatres; you can get top price stalls seats for just £25. It’s also worth checking out the previews, which are often even cheaper.

This is a super-cheap tapas bar, with a fab lunch buffet. As some of the other reviewers have said, the buffet is very reasonable: I think it’s £6 to eat in and £3 totakeaway, which is a real bargain. There’s a great variety of food, including paella , meatballs, lentils, as well as healthy salads to have on the side. Obviously as it’s all you can eat, you can go back for as much as you want. It’s very handy if you work nearby and want a quick cheap lunch. It’s also pretty quiet, so you can read the paper in peace. The staff are friendly too.

The Sound of Music is a great night out, especially for fans of the film. All the old songs are there. It’s hard not to cry as they escape over the mountains, even if the mountain does look like a giant flying saucer. I’ve seen it with Connie and the girl out of Hollyoaks and they were both excellent.

The only thing I would say is that the current Captain Von Trapp didn’t have much about him and he was much shorter than Maria, so I had trouble seeing him as her love interest! The audience is always great and sings along too.

This is a fab shop for basics at decent prices. I have their tee shirts in about five different colours. The hoodies are decent too. It’s also handy if you’re going on holiday and want to grab a load of vests, shorts and dresses in one go, all year round.

Some of the other stuff is a bit too cool for school, if you don’t fancy wearingLycra head to toe like Jane Fonda (though maybe this is because I’m getting a bit boring and sad in my old age). If you’re heading off to the states anytime, it’s worth doing a bulk-buy as it’s waaaay cheaper.

I’m a big fan of Wagamama; you can’t go wrong with a nice katsu curry, washed down by an Asahi beer. The spicy beef noodles are also a good bet. Different branches are all much for muchness, but this one has got the service licked; it’s all fast and efficient. The prices are very reasonable for central London, which accounts for the chain’s massive popularity. The communal tables can be slightly annoying, but I guess that’s cos I’m such an anti-social Brit. It’s also worth keeping your eyes peeled for 2for1 vouchers; these have been knocking about theinternet recently.

This is the original Busaba Eathai; there are now a few others dotted around the West End. The food really is amazing, especially the curry and fish cakes - you can’t really fault it. Best of all, the prices are super-low.

I would agree with other reviewers that the communal tables are a bit annoying: it is awkward listening to others’ conversations and worrying that they are listening to yours. Though maybe I should just lighten up a bit; I guess that’s how they keep prices cheap.

Also, if you don’t want to queue for ages, why not check out one of the other branches, nearGooge St or Selfridges? These are less well known and a bit quieter.