Cheap Eats in Nottingham: Good-Value Places to Eat

The city-centre lunch deal: Manahatta

Manahatta's lunch offer is the cheapest sit-down option in this guide: choose any dish from the Brunch & Lunch menu, the Deluxe Burger or the Chicken Caesar, and it comes with a soft drink for £9. It runs all day Sunday to Friday, so a late weekday lunch costs the same as a noon one. Upgrades are where the bill can creep: swap to the Flat Iron Steak with fries and a mini Caesar salad for £1 more, or trade the soft drink for a house wine or a pint of Madri for £2. If you are keeping costs down, stick with the standard deal and the soft drink.

The food is NYC-inspired, and the deal suits a shopping trip or a lunch between meetings. For a broader look at where the city's full-price kitchens sit, see our guide to The Best Restaurants in Nottingham, Picked by What You're After and use this page for the days you want to spend less.

Cosy Club, Victoria Street: handy all-day dining, not the budget pick

Cosy Club sits at 16-18 Victoria Street, a few minutes' walk from Old Market Square and about ten minutes from Nottingham station, in the building its own page calls the former Reform Club. The room is the draw: a grand winding staircase, wood-panelled walls and a maze of corners that makes it a sensible choice for a group that wants space and a table without a fight.

Value here comes from flexibility rather than low prices. It serves breakfast through to dinner, welcomes walk-ins when the booking slot you want is gone, and runs vegan and gluten-free options across the menu, so mixed groups are easy to please. Treat it as the comfortable all-day option rather than the cheap one.

Order from the small plates if you are watching the total: the Sharing Monkey Bread or the crispy cauliflower. For a proper Nottingham food rundown before your visit, our companion guide covers the city's signature dishes and where to find them.

Cod's Scallops: the chippy worth paying a little more for

Cod's Scallops is the gourmet end of the chippy spectrum, a step up from a standard takeaway in both sourcing and price. If you want a cheap chippy tea, this is not the cheapest option on this guide; if you want one excellent fish supper rather than two forgettable ones, the trade-off is worth it.

Menus and prices change with the catch, so check the current board rather than budgeting from memory. For the wider picture of where to get a good fry in the city, our fish and chips in Nottingham guide covers the cheaper end of the scale.

Everyday People: one bowl of ramen, done properly

Everyday People is a canteen-style ramen shop from chef Pete Hewitt, with counter seating around an open kitchen, so it suits a solo lunch or a quick pair rather than a long group dinner. The tonkotsu is the rich, lip-smacking choice, with pork collar and belly in a heavy broth; the shio is lighter, built on a clear chicken and niboshi dashi stock with chicken breast, a chicken meatball, fried enoki and marinated bamboo.

One bowl is genuinely enough here, which is what makes it good value: the broth and noodles fill you without needing a stack of sides. If you do add a small plate, the slow-roasted beets with smoked tofu dressing or the crispy radish and potato cake with kimchi are the ones to pick.

It is an independent ramen shop in spirit, and the small-plate style of eating has plenty of vegan-friendly equivalents across the city; our vegan restaurants Nottingham guide is the place to look if that is your priority.

Taquero, Hockley: tacos rather than big plates

Taquero comes from the team behind Iberico World Tapas and Bar Iberico, and the room is buzzy with big, satisfying Mexican flavours. The money-saving tactic is simple: order tacos rather than loading up on larger plates and starters, and the bill stays modest.

The tacos use proper corn tortillas, filled with things like birria beef and cheese with a dipping consommé on the side, or barbacoa lamb with coriander salsa, pickled chillies and curtido-style celeriac. Start with a shared plate of chicharrón or tuna tostadas only if the table is splitting them, then put your budget into the tacos.

To drink, the local Neon Raptor craft beers keep things Nottingham-made, and they are a better-value match for tacos than a long mixed-drinks order. If you want alternatives by cuisine, our pick of Indian restaurants Nottingham and the wider city guides cover them.

Raymond's, Hockley: sharing plates without the big bill

Raymond's opened in 2024 and serves modern, creative sharing plates in a smartly designed room with plenty of interesting wines by the glass. The dish to order is the fish skin crackling, often served with vadouvan mayo, which is already treated as the signature.

Sharing plates get expensive when everyone orders their own; the cheap way to eat here is to agree two or three plates between two people and add more only if you are still hungry. The celeriac with brown butter hollandaise, pickled celery and hazelnut, or the braised ox cheek with pomme purée and pickled red cabbage, are the sort of dishes that stretch across a table.

Kushi-ya and Iberico World Tapas: small, picky lunches

Kushi-ya handles Japanese grilled dishes and Iberico World Tapas covers Spanish small plates. For a small, cheap picky lunch, Iberico's tapas format lets you order two or three plates and stop, while Kushi-ya's grilled skewers do the same job with less commitment than a full main.

Iberico is the better bet for a group that wants to graze and share, since tapas plates divide neatly; Kushi-ya suits a couple who want a light lunch without leftovers. Neither is a bargain-basement option, so keep the order tight if the point of the meal is spending little.

For a bigger evening out in the same area, the city's Michelin star restaurants Nottingham sit at the other end of the scale entirely.

Cafés and bakeries for a cheap fill

When you want food rather than a meal, the city's bakeries do it best. Tough Mary's Bakehouse is the sourdough and baked-treats stop, Small Food Bakery works in small batches, and Outpost covers coffee; a pastry and a coffee from any of them costs far less than a sit-down lunch.

Delilah Fine Foods is the independent deli option if you want to assemble a picnic or a train lunch rather than sit down. Combine a bakery stop with a bench and you have the cheapest good lunch in Nottingham.

If you want a proper cooked breakfast instead, our breakfast in Nottingham guide covers the morning options, and for a weekend brunch with drinks included, see bottomless brunch Nottingham.

How to eat cheaply in Nottingham

Lunch is where the value sits. A fixed lunch deal such as Manahatta's undercuts almost any evening order, and it is available all day Sunday to Friday, so a late lunch works as well as an early one. Evening sharing plates are the easiest way to overspend: the food is good, but the bill climbs with each extra plate.

Book ahead for groups at Cosy Club and the Hockley restaurants, and accept that walk-ins are easier solo or in twos. If you are choosing between a chippy and a ramen counter, both are filling for one person; the chippy is the pricier, more occasional treat, while the ramen bowl is the everyday cheap fill.

Set a per-head limit before you order and count plates as you go at tapas-style places. Menus and prices change, so check the venue's own site for current figures rather than relying on any published round-up. For the fuller picture of the city's restaurants by occasion and budget, start with The Best Restaurants in Nottingham, Picked by What You're After.

Where to go for seafood or a bigger splurge

Cod's Scallops aside, Nottingham is not a seafood city in the way coastal towns are, but there are options if that is what you fancy. Our seafood Nottingham guide covers them, and if the budget is looser, the Michelin Star Restaurants in Nottingham page shows where the money goes.

Our Nottingham pubs and food landmarks page has a short guide to each named place we cover.

Which Nottingham cheap eat should you pick?

For the single best-value meal, choose Manahatta's £9 lunch deal on a weekday and keep the upgrades for another day. For picky eating, put your money into tacos at Taquero or one bowl at Everyday People rather than a spread of sharing plates, and save the chippy for the evening you want a treat.

Check current menus and prices directly with each venue before you travel, since deals and dishes change. Our best restaurants page is the place to go when the budget loosens or the occasion calls for something more.