Cheap eats in Clapham

The best cheap eat in Clapham is a slice at Joe Public on the Pavement, in the old public toilets right by Clapham Common tube. Clapham has a reputation for brunches that cost as much as dinner, but you can eat very well here for not much, if you know where to stand. These are the places we go when payday feels a long way off.

Joe Public, 4 The Pavement

A tiny pizza counter in a converted public convenience, next to the tube. The pizzas are US-style, cut by the slice from 20-inch pies, and the prices are low. It is stools only, so this is a stand-and-eat or take-it-onto-the-Common job. Order a slice and the house lager, and you have dinner for the price of a cocktail elsewhere.

Berberè, 67 Venn Street

Berberè's dough is made with organic stone-milled flour and proved for 24 hours, and it shows. The deal to know: on Mondays and Tuesdays at lunch, a pizza and a drink is £12. That is the best-value sit-down lunch near the tube. Book if you are a group.

Venn Street Records, 78 Venn Street

Across the street, Venn Street Records is a bar first, but it feeds you well for little. Cocktails are two-for-one from 5pm to 8pm every day, and on Thursdays pints and house wine are £6 and cocktails £7. The #CheapDate deal gets you two drinks and two pizzas for £15. Get there for six, eat, and you are set for the night.

Kaosarn, 110 St John's Hill

A family-run Thai restaurant up the hill from the Junction, and it is BYO, which takes a big line off the bill. Harden's readers call it "great value and so authentic". Pick up a bottle on the way and order a spread to share. There are sister restaurants in Brixton and Battersea too, but this one is the closest to the Junction, and an easy stop on the way home from the station.

Mien Tay, 180 Lavender Hill

One of a small family-run group of Vietnamese restaurants. Order the pho, and if you want something you will not find elsewhere, the goat with galangal. Good for a midweek dinner when you cannot face cooking.

Set menus that punch above the price

• Minnow, 21 The Pavement. Two courses for £25 or three for £29, Monday to Thursday until 6.45pm. Happy hour runs from 3pm to 7pm with house wine at £6, and on Tuesday evenings there is no corkage if you bring your own bottle and order a main and a side.
• No 32 The Old Town, 32 The Pavement. Two courses for £24.95 or three for £29.95, weekdays from noon until 7pm. On Wednesdays the sharing menu for two is £25 a head.
• The Pepper Tree, 19 Clapham Common South Side. Thai food with a set lunch, and two-for-one cocktails from 4pm to 7pm, Monday to Thursday.

A pint and a Thai: The Alexandra, 14 Clapham Common South Side

A local trick worth knowing. The Alexandra, the big pub on the south side of the Common, brings in Thai food from The Pepper Tree a few doors along, so you can have a curry with your pint and the match on. There are separate drinking areas around a huge central bar, a garden and an upstairs darts room. It is a sports pub at weekends, so expect a crowd when the big games are on.

Northcote Records, 8-10 Northcote Road

The Junction sibling of Venn Street Records, at the top of Northcote Road. Pizzas start at £6 and cocktails are two-for-one until 7pm, Monday to Thursday. It gets loud later, so come early if you want to talk.

Crispin's cafe, Studio Voltaire, Nelsons Row

The cafe at Crispin is the cheap way into one of Clapham's best kitchens. Snacks start at £3 for a Comté croquette, half pints are under £4, and there is no booking. It runs from 11am to 6pm, Wednesday to Sunday.

For afters: Nardulli's, 29 The Pavement

Finish with gelato on the Pavement. Nikita Pathakji of Maai calls it world class, and her order is the lemon sorbet and the amarena cherry. Take a cone over the road onto the Common.

How to eat cheaply in Clapham

Go at lunch and go midweek: that is when the set menus and deals run, and when the Pavement is quietest. Use the happy hours, which mostly finish by 7pm or 8pm. And remember the Common is free: a slice from Joe Public on the grass on a sunny evening beats most tables in SW4.