Budget Guide
London
Budget Bar Night
in London
By Sofia Reeves
·
March 24, 2026
·
8 min read
London is one of the world's most expensive cities for a night out, and one of the most rewarding once you know where the value lives. The £18 cocktail at a Mayfair hotel is real. So is the £5.50 pint of cask ale at a Bethnal Green pub with more history and better company than anywhere in Mayfair. The gap between the two experiences, in terms of enjoyment, is not measured in pounds.
This guide covers 5 pubs and bars across Shoreditch, Dalston, and Hackney, all within budget parameters and none of them compromising the things that make London's bar scene worth visiting. The total outlay for one drink per venue, with a tip, runs to £28 to £34 depending on your choices. Our editor Sofia Reeves ran the route on a Thursday evening in late March and confirmed every price.
"London has always had cheap drinking for those who know where to look. The pub was invented here precisely because ordinary people needed a good place to go. They still do."
The Budget: £30 for 5 Bars
Bar 1: The Carpenter's Arms (Bethnal Green)£5.50 — £6.50
Bar 2: Howl at the Moon (Shoreditch)£6 — £8
Bar 3: XOYO (Shoreditch, bar side)£6 — £7
Bar 4: Netil360 (Hackney)£6 — £8
Bar 5: Dalston Superstore£5 — £7
Total (1 drink per bar)£28 — £36
Bar 1: The Carpenter's Arms — Bethnal Green
The Carpenter's Arms
Bethnal Green
$
Opens 12pm daily
A Grade II listed Victorian pub that was once owned by the Kray twins, which the current owners mention with more pride than discomfort. The cask ale selection runs to 6 rotating real ales, all properly kept. The pints are priced at £5.20 to £5.80, which is remarkable for an East London pub in 2026. The fireplace works in winter. The garden works in summer. The regulars include everyone, which is what a pub should mean.
Bar 2: Howl at the Moon — Shoreditch
Howl at the Moon
Shoreditch
$
Opens 4pm weekdays, 2pm weekends
A craft beer bar with 20 taps and a pricing policy that does not assume everyone in Shoreditch is on a tech salary. The house lager is £5.50. The better craft options run to £6.50 to £7 for a half pint of something from a London microbrewery. One of the best
craft beer bars in London for the combination of tap quality and accessible pricing. The room fills quickly after 6pm on weekdays.
Bar 3: XOYO Bar Side — Shoreditch
XOYO (Bar Side)
Cowper Street, Shoreditch
$
Opens 5pm on non-club nights
The main club at XOYO charges entry. The bar side, accessible on non-club nights through the Cowper Street entrance, does not. This is a bar where the room is genuinely interesting, the music is well-programmed by whoever is warming up, and the drinks are priced for the people who work in bars rather than the people who own them. Bottles of beer run £4.50 to £5.50. Gin and tonic is £6.50. Check the calendar before visiting.
Bar 4: Netil360 — Hackney
Netil360
Hackney, London Fields
$
Opens 12pm weekends, 5pm weekdays
A rooftop bar above the Netil Market in London Fields, open year-round (with heaters in winter), with unobstructed views of the East London skyline and drinks priced at roughly half what you would pay for the same view at a Southbank hotel. Craft beers are £6 to £7. Wines by the glass start at £7. The roof deck is not glamorous, but the view is the same sky and the company is far better. One of the best-value spots on the
London rooftop bar circuit.
Bar 5: Dalston Superstore
Dalston Superstore
Kingsland Road, Dalston
$
Opens 5pm weekdays, 12pm weekends
Two-floor bar and venue that anchors the Dalston bar scene with cheap drinks, rotating DJs from 10pm, and a crowd that represents the neighbourhood accurately: creative, mixed, and not interested in being anywhere else. Canned beers run £4 to £5. Doubles are priced reasonably. The ground floor runs quiet enough for conversation until the music kicks in. One of the
best after-work bars in London for people who want the night to go somewhere after the first drink.
The Route: How to Connect the 5 Bars
Start at the Carpenter's Arms before 7pm (Bethnal Green tube, then a 5-minute walk north on Cambridge Heath Road). Walk 15 minutes west to Howl at the Moon in Shoreditch. XOYO is 8 minutes on foot from there. For Netil360, take the 26 bus or walk 25 minutes northeast to London Fields. Dalston Superstore is a 10-minute walk north on Kingsland Road, or 3 stops on the Overground from Hackney Central.
The broader London bar scene extends well beyond East London, covering Soho, Brixton, Peckham, and the South Bank. For the full overview of value options across all of London, the best cheap bars in London guide covers 25 options across 8 neighbourhoods. The best bars in London editorial covers the consensus picks at all price points.
Sofia Reeves
Senior European Editor
Sofia covers Europe's bar scene from a base in London, with quarterly reporting trips to Amsterdam, Berlin, Paris, and the Iberian Peninsula. She has been writing about bars for 11 years and insists that the best bar in any city is never the one that won an award last year.
