Greenwich Union

As well as producing some of the capital's best beers, Greenwich's MeantimeBrewing Company also runs a couple of venues which, certainly during the day, offer good, honest sub-£10 tucker. The Union, a polished but still ruggedly handsome boozer, offers upmarket sandwiches and tasty lunchtime meals (midday-4pm), such as aubergine lasagne or a 28-day-aged Aberdeen Angus burger. At around a fiver, the sandwiches may sound expensive, but they come with a big bucket of excellent skin-on chips, and a sample fish finger butty was very good. The fingers had a crisp crumb, there was a proper integrity to the flakes of fish and the bread was fresh. As a well as a comprehensive selection of Meantime's own "craft keg" and bottled beers (from £3.85 a pint), the Union carries a selection of specials from leading craft brewers. The beer menu is an informative read, even if you already feel that you are across your bocks, saisons and dunkles.

Over at the Old Royal Naval College, Meantime's Old Brewery restaurant – an impressive hall dominated by a wall of copper brewing tuns – also operates as a daytime cafeteria (Pepys Building, 020-3327 1280, oldbrewerygreenwich.com). As well as packaged sandwiches and salads, its menu includes brunch dishes, such as eggs Benedict, a stew of the day (£6.50) and, Monday to Wednesday (3pm-5pm), a daily special, such as fish and chips and a pint of the Old Brewery's Saaz Gold, for £10.
• Lunchtime sandwiches from £4.90, meals £7.90. 56 Royal Hill SE10, 020-8692 6258, greenwichunion.com

Heap's Sausage Shop

Martin Heap's shop and daytime cafe is a must for any visitor who loves a high-quality banger. All Heap's sausages are handmade made on site (you can see the small butchery and sausage kitchen at the back of the shop) using natural casings, whole meat cuts and superior spices. The Sausage Shop sells them hot, on a roll, or as part of a complete meal, to eat in or takeaway. That the sausages were good goes without saying. The accompaniments, however, were a minor revelation. The mash was dreamily smooth; the buttered carrots, swede and parsnip winningly fresh; the beetroot and cabbage compote had real depth and breadth of flavour.

A further lashing of rich, creamy mustard sauce on the mash was possibly gilding the lily, but that is hardly reason for complaint. One word of warning, though: don't expect to be in and out if you want to take away. On this visit, a small sudden rush had left staff in something of a fluster. It all seemed a tad chaotic. But heigh ho, the five-minute wait was well worth it.
• Sausage sandwich £3.75, sausage and mash from £5.25 (takeaway) or £6.25. 8 Nevada Street SE10, 020-8293 9199, heapssausages.com

L'Artisan

Most tourists wouldn't walk down this shabby stretch of Trafalgar Road. But press on, for this tiny deli-cafe – it seats just four – is a real find. It is run by Joris Barbaray, a French chef of exacting standards. Open from breakfast, he turns out fine sandwiches, several plats du jour to eat in or take away (for instance, beef bourguignon or merguez sausage and lentils), beautiful quiches, salads and some extraordinarily good-looking fruit tarts. The way that Barbaray carefully portions out and further dresses the three salads – chickpeas in harissa, beetroot and herb. couscous and tomato – that accompany my salmon and dill tart (£4.60), speaks of a man doing his job with real pride and purpose.

That shines through in his food. This is restaurant-quality eating at lunch-break prices: simple, elegant food which, in the finest traditions of French cooking, uses a minimum of excellent ingredients to produce food that sings with its natural, integral flavours. More power to his elbow!
• Takeaway sandwiches and meals from £2.60. 93 Trafalgar Road SE10, 020-8858 0918, no website

Greenwich Market

The line-up changes daily but, particularly on Fridays and Saturdays, you will find a small cluster of street-food stars dishing-up on Greenwich Market. Son of Pampa's churros, filled with its own dulce de leche or brigadeiro chocolate sauce (£2.50, 07853 200150, sonofpampa.com), are legendary in these parts, while the St Sugar of London stall dispenses exquisite patisserie, soups and baked savouries at £2/£3 a pop. A Taste of the Algarve's bubbling pans of chorizo and salt cod stews looked good (£5-£6), and Korean/Japanese stall,Teriyaki-Ya was knocking out appetising curries (£5), but I already had my eye on Pie In the Skyz, whose baby lamb pie was top draw (£4.50, 07949 083 395). The pies are all made and baked from scratch, including the pastry. Even more remarkable, owner Zandra Palmer has learned how to serve a pie, with gravy, in a paper bag that doesn't leak. Clever.

Around the market, there are also a couple of permanent sites worth mentioning. As well as its daily specials, the Spanish deli-cafe Hola Paella also serves, you've guessed it, paella (from £4, 7-7A Greenwich Market, 020-8858 0695) Just off the market, meanwhile, Red Door (biscuits and cakes from£1.85, 10 Turnpin Lane, 020-8858 2131, reddoorgallery.co.uk) is an artsy, crafty shop-cum-cafe that serves decent cakes, tea and coffee. With a dash of character, too. Asked if he had any decaf coffee (not by me, I hasten to add), the guy behind the counter was to the point: "No, it's anathema to me." Well said, that man!
• 020-8269 5090, shopgreenwich.co.uk

Bianco 43

The presence of Italian diners chattering away at the next table was a good sign. As was the authentic wood oven visible in the kitchen. All whitewashed Amalfi coast seaside-shack decor and Italian radio burbling in the background, Bianco43 has a good easy-going feel. Many of the pizzas come in under £10 on the evening menu, but, Monday to Friday until 4pm, they are a bargain £5.95 each.

A sample D.O.P. was precisely as it should be: simple, thin, the base mapped with flavoursome char, the dough fresh and lively, light and easily digestible. The topping, just sweet tomato pulp, juicy baby plum tomatoes, a little fragrant basil and multiple pools of milky mozzarella, was impeccable. Although, given its chewable elasticity, its moreishness, its glossy shine – presumably, the dough is mixed with a little olive oil – you could happily eat the base on its own.
• Pizza from £7 on the evening menu. 43 Greenwich Church Street SE10, 020-8858 2668, bianco43.com

Black Vanilla

Continuing the Italian theme, make sure you visit this gelateria … whatever the weather. With its monochrome colour scheme, high stools and glass counters, it is a narrow, minimalist slice of Milan in SE10. Sorbets and ice-creams are treated with suitable reverence. Made fresh each day, on site, Black Vanilla's gelato is created with milk, not cream, which means that, whilst luxuriously thick, it is still relatively healthy. Flavours are clear and true. A scoop of salted caramel was an obvious slam-dunk, the Earl Grey remarkably clean and fragrant. The staff happily dole out samples and enthusiastically recommend flavours. Black Vanilla also serves its own cakes, sandwiches and a daily soup and stew (£4.25-£4.95).
• Ice-creams £1-£4.95. 5 College Approach SE10, 020-8858 3283, black-vanilla.com

Royal Teas Café

Almost entirely meat-free, this laidback, boho cafe is a very useful stop-off for visiting vegetarians. Breakfasts include spicy bean tortillas, jazzed-up Spanish eggs and cheesy beans with Marmite soldiers. At lunch, the three daily specials can range from the tempting, a mozzarella, avocado and tomato salad, to the somewhat alarming, a broccoli, lime(!) and horseradish soup. However, judging by a sample bowl of vegetable and bean mole (£4.50), the kitchen knows what it is doing. It was a thick, tomatoey stew of good pieces of potato, onion and mushroom that had a real warmth, a real savoury garlic and chipotle depth to it. There is also a selection of baguettes, cakes, nacho and hummus dishes.
• Breakfast from £2.35, lunch dishes from £2.95. 76 Royal Hill SE10, 020-8691 7240, royalteascafe.co.uk

Handmade Foods, Blackheath

While Greenwich has its share of credible budget venues, there are also several outstanding options in the surrounding area, if you're willing to walk a little. A pleasant stroll across the eponymous heath into Blackheath Village will bring you to Handmade Foods: a deli-cafe of real foodist rigour. Seasonal ingredients are sourced from the most serious producers, to create a small selection of hot dishes that you can eat-in or takeaway (for instance, spiced squash or white bean and rosemary soup; organic salt beef, braised red cabbage and turnips; organic shepherd's pie), as well as a revolving array of pies, beautiful salads, tarts and cakes.

A sample pot of braised chickpea, preserved lemon and chard salad (£3.71) was every bit as vibrant as that sounds. At £4.95, a minced beef and swede pie may sound expensive, but this was a doozy, the chunky filling long on well-seasoned, slow-cooked flavour. The pastry was done to a T, too.
• Takeaway prices: breakfast £2-£4.52, meals £3.95-£6.95. 40 Tranquil Vale, SE3, 020-8297 9966, handmadefood.com

Panda Panda, Deptford

Greenwich and Blackheath are chi-chi enclaves. Walk the other way out of town, towards Deptford and New Cross, and the grimy, dilapidated contrast is profound. This is the London that you won't find talked-up in any Olympic tourist brochures. The real London, if you like. As you explore, stop-in at Panda Panda, a bright orange and white cafe that knocks out solid Vietnamese banh mi sandwiches. While not the most complex flavour conundrum you will ever find in a banh mi – the vegetables could have delivered more pickled oomph and I'd prefer fresh chillies to chilli sauce – a marinated pork sampler had decent Chinese five spice flavours and came with plenty of grated carrot, cucumber and coriander. The star of the show was the baguette itself, which had that delicious, authentically Vietnamese banh mi crispness and a light, airy texture within. A good banh mi baguette is very different to its much heavier French cousin.
• Banh mi from £3.45, noodle dishes £4.95. 8 Deptford Broadway SE8, 020-8616 6922, panda-panda.co.uk

The London Particular, New Cross

Saving the best until last? Possibly. The London Particular is a brisk 20-to-30 minute walk from Greenwich, but this hip, unhurried cafe is worth the detour. What makes it special? The attention to detail. The way that your "builder's tea" comes in a mug (important) on a ceramic tile so that you've somewhere to put your tea bag; the way that there are help-yourself jugs of minted tap-water on the side; the way that every element of my huge sandwich (bacon, halloumi, roasted plum tomato, baby spinach, garlic mayo on sourdough, £5) tasted as profoundly as it could of what it should.

Clearly, the LP kitchen team are sourcing carefully and working hard. The menu is simple and hugely appealing. For breakfast, you can choose between, say, a berry and chocolate brioche or roasted garlic mushrooms, spinach, goat's cheese and streaky bacon on toasted artisan bread. For lunch, how about frittata and salad, sweet potato and leek cakes, or, as a treat (£8.60), that day's special, slow-cooked pork belly with celeriac and Brussels tops colcannon? There is a good beer choice too, with drinks from Kernel Brewery and Cheddar Ales.
• Dishes £3-£8.60. 399 New Cross Road SE14, 020-8692 6149, thelondonparticular.co.uk

Tony travelled from Manchester to London with Virgin Trains (virgintrains.co.uk)