Enjoying a grave atmosphere

What's the best bargain in London when it comes to food? Some would say it's the £46 set lunch at Le Gavroche - quite reasonable when you consider it includes a bottle of house wine.

Others might nominate the fish pie at Sheekey's, which is a meal in itself and only costs £10.75. If it's inexpensive food you're after, Café Daquise in South Kensington does a very respectable set lunch for £7.50.

However, according to Frommer's, which has just updated its London travel guide, the answer is none of the above. In their eyes, the restaurant that offers the best value for money in the capital is the Café in the Crypt at St Martin-in-the-Fields.

I imagine this wasn't welcome news to the café's loyal band of regulars, a middle-aged, music-loving crowd who pop downstairs for a nice meal after one of the 350 concerts or recitals that the church holds every year.

The Café in the Crypt is one of those 'hidden gems' that, once discovered, occupies a special place in the heart. Unfortunately, the secret is now out, and when I went there last Tuesday it was so crowded I had to fight for a table.

It wasn't hard to spot the regulars. They were the ones looking daggers at the interlopers, like embattled locals in a Cotswold village. Not a very Christian attitude, I suppose, but then the Café in the Crypt is so nice - and so cheap - it's not hard to see why they want to keep it to themselves.

You enter through a discreet doorway at the side of the church and descend a narrow set of stone steps until you find yourself in a cavernous, vaulted chamber. It's a good idea not to look down at this point because you might end up staring at the following: 'Here lies the body of Mrs Elizabeth Williams of St James who departed this life 13 August 1750.'

This is one of many reminders that, in essence, you're dining in a graveyard. For a token consideration, you can even spend half an hour in the bowels of the crypt, making brass rubbings of the more interesting gravestones.

The food is served buffet-style, and the line snaked almost all the way back to the entrance on the night I went last week. This was at 6.30pm and, in addition to a lot of European and American tourists, there were quite a few theatre-goers in attendance.

St Martin-in-the-Fields is in the heart of the theatre district and it's an ideal place to grab a quick bite before the curtain goes up. My wife and I were off to see The Old Country, the newly revived Alan Bennett play at Trafalgar Studios, and we had no difficulty squeezing in two courses and a glass of wine in less than an hour.