Little Bay Farringdon

I was reminded of my question How cheap is too cheap? at Little Bay Farringdon. It's part of a popular mini-chain of restaurants in London and Brighton. At the Farringdon branch they seem to have a more or less permanent "half-price" offer. As it's not exactly extortionate in the first place, this makes the prices ridiculously cheap - £2.65 for a starter, £5.95 for a main course.

I was slightly wary, but the place has good reviews from Time Out and others, so off I went. It's almost worth it for the ahem, striking, decor.

I'm clearly not the only one who likes a bargain, because on a Thursday night the place was packed. There was a bit of a delay in getting the menus - I've never been given bread before the menu before - but after that the service was pretty quick. Actually the food arrived with almost lightning speed.

At these prices it would have been rude not to have a starter, so we ordered moules mariniere and a goats' cheese parcel with Waldorf salad. It wasn't the largest portion of mussels, but reasonable for a starter and frankly a steal for the price. The goats' cheese was wrapped in crispy filo and on some Waldorf salad which was mostly apple, but a nice contrast to the goats' cheese.

About two minutes after our starters had been cleared the main courses arrived: a vegetable moussaka and a slow-cooked shoulder of lamb with roast vegetables and flageolet beans. The lamb had the edge - flaking under the fork after four hours of cooking, the beans flavoured with pesto and some colourful roast vegetables.

Desserts include profiteroles (filled with banana cream - I haven't tried it but my instinct says what were they thinking?), apple cake and cheese platter. We shared a chocolate roulade, slightly too sweet I thought, but very edible. It was served with poached pear and scoop of vanilla ice-cream, a tried-and-tested combination but pretty good nonetheless.

Drinks are not half price, sadly, but still not unreasonable. Red wine starts at £11.95 a bottle and is perfectly drinkable, while the only beer is Budvar in bottles for £3.45.

The whole thing was about £30 including wine, which struck me as astonishingly good value. At twice the price I wouldn't have been blown away, but it wouldn't have been daylight robbery. I still don't know how Little Bay does it, but I suspect I'll be back to find out more.

Little Bay
171 Farringdon Road, City of London, London, EC1R 3AL
020 7 278 1234