Fatboy's Diner, Poplar

Trinity Buoy Wharf (10 minutes' walk from East India DLR) is a riverside creative hub, an enclave for artists, designers and hip young things. It is, somewhat incongruously, also home to Fatboy's, a 1940s stainless steel-clad US diner, transported to this refuge by the Thames. Gazing out across the water to the Dome, you can enjoy very competitively priced hotdogs, deli sandwiches, such as a BLT or a pastrami on rye, and, of course, burgers. The seasoned fries had a crisp crunch and the sweetly beefy, rather juvenile flavour of a sample cheeseburger was – in this age of increasingly convoluted gourmet burgers – refreshingly simple. A juicy patty, a slice of plasticky cheese, a little lettuce, tomato and a sweep of mayo on a griddled, slightly absorbent bun. It is a timeless classic.
• Burgers and meals £2.95–£7.45. Trinity Buoy Wharf, 64 Orchard Place E14, 020-7987 4334, fatboysdiner.co.uk

Garden Community Café, Custom House

The Canning Town and Custom House estates which abut the ExCeL look pretty rough and neglected. These are not areas into which tourists would ordinarily stray. But appearances can be deceptive and reputations overblown, as a visit to the Garden Community Cafe illustrates. Literally two minutes' walk from Prince Regent DLR, this jolly, friendly offshoot from church-based charity, the Ascension Community Trust, couldn't be further away from the soulless corporate venues which cluster around ExCeL. An Aladdin's cave of colourful bric-a-brac, it is probably the only place, in the world, in which a cuddly Nemo, ornate Oriental umbrellas and disco lights share wall space with CND stickers and newspaper cuttings about arms fair protests. And, no, despite that painting of Christ's crucifixion on one wall, no one tried to convert me.

Food-wise, the cafe serves fairly simple, home-cooked stuff: salads, sandwiches, breakfasts, homemade bread pudding and, on Fridays, that East End classic, pie, mash and liquor. A breakfast sausage sandwich (£3) certainly hit the spot, the good quality, almost florally herby sausages sandwiched between thick, crusty slices of daisy fresh bread. I washed it down with a mug of rust-coloured tea that cost just 80p. What better way to start the day, than with a bargain like that, in a unique venue like this?
• Breakfast, sandwiches and meals £1.50-£5. 7 Cundy Road E16, 020-7474 5257, ascensioncommunity.org.uk

Nutrilicious 4 Life @ The Place, Canning Town

Two stops on the DLR or a 20-minute walk from the ExCeL, the Place (opposite Canning Town station) is a work placement centre and community information hub for local residents. It is also home to Nutritious 4 Life, an admirable, affordable daytime cafe. The space feels a little municipal but, as you chow on effervescent sandwiches, home-baked cakes, puddings and meals (£4.50) freshly prepared by owner, cook and chief bottle-washer Jenny Oli, you will hardly notice.

From a short list of daily hot specials, which included fish and chips and tandoori chicken, a portion of jerk chicken with salad, vegetables and moreish, earthy rice and peas was huge and hugely tasty. The two chicken thighs, marinated and basted in a hot, fruity but not overpowering sauce, were falling-apart tender and full of flavour. Oli clearly takes huge pride in her work.
• Sandwiches and meals £1.30-£5. The Place, 2 Silvertown Way E16, 07956 012997, no website

Torto, Canning Town

Also in Canning Town, this lively Brazilian-Portuguese cafe, bar and food store is worth hunting out. Unlike the guys chugging on Sagres and nattering across the tables, I was too chicken for the gizzards (from a menu of meals that also includes steaks, roasted chourico, feijoada bean stew etc) and, while enjoyable, I found Torto's pastel de nata custard tarts a shade thick in their filling and pastry.

But the coxinha – palm-sized, deep-fried croquettes which sat in a pie warmer on the counter, and just £1 each – were sensational. A Brazilian snack consisting of moist braised shredded chicken encased in soft mashed potato, in a crisp shell – what's not to like? They may look like huge tear drops, but in their tapered shape, a guy at the bar tells me, coxinha are meant to look like a shapely woman's thigh, or coxa in Portuguese. Less exotically, most sources insist that the shape and name actually refer to the fact that coxinha are made with thigh meat.
• Snacks and meals £1-£10. 137 Barking Road E16, 020-7474 2233, no website

The Grapes, Limehouse

Charles Dickens was once a regular at this historic Limehouse boozer (now owned by the actor, Sir Ian McKellen) and it hasn't changed much since. With its wood panelling, handsome floorboards and oil paintings, the Grapes is a forgotten, tiny fragment of Victorian London hidden in the shadows of Canary Wharf's ominous skyscrapers. The restaurant is too pricey for the budget traveller, but the bar menu includes dishes such as fish and chips, bangers and mash and snackier items such as devilled whitebait and that day's soup served with artisan bread from a local bakery.

I sampled a decent bowl of cauliflower and roast potato. At lunch, the Grapes also serves panini and sandwiches, one of which uses Foreman's acclaimed smoked salmon. On this visit, the range of real ales was a little brown and boring for my taste (Adnams, Landlord, Marston's Pedigree, pint £3.60), but the Brain's SA was agreeably spiky. The Grapes gets rammed at lunch, so arrive early if you want to bag a table, particularly one on the tiny terrace overlooking the Thames.
• Sandwiches £3.95-£4.95, meals £4.25-£8.75. 76 Narrow Street, Limehouse E14, 020-7987 4396, thegrapes.co.uk

Canary Wharf

With its endless glitzy shops and towering office blocks, security guards and swarms of scurrying suits, Canary Wharf is a pretty grim place to hang out. It feels like the final victory of late capitalism, a shiny, self-contained world in which man has been reduced to two functions: work and consumption. But if there is one thing that capitalism does well, it's food. Moreover, the frenzy of competition in Canary Wharf – a convenient transit point between the ExCeL and the Olympic venues in Greenwich – means that prices are often surprisingly keen. So, swallow hard, ride the alienation, and sock it to The Man by, erm, eating some of his food.

Canary Wharf's best bargain is the £10 two-course "classics" menu, available at Canteen every day between 3pm and 7pm. It includes the likes of macaroni cheese, a pie of the day, a beetroot, chard and horseradish salad and bread pudding with caramel ice-cream. Open from 7am, Canteen is also a sound option for breakfast before a full day of judo or table tennis (Breakfast £1.75-£10.50, from 8am. The Park Pavilion, 40 Canada Square, 0845 686 1122, canteen.co.uk) Despite it being a chain, Byron has a good reputation for its burgers (from £6.75. Second Floor, Cabot Place East, 020-7715 9360, byronhamburgers.com), while, if you can afford to spend just over a tenner-a-head, Jamie's Italian (Unit 17, 2 Churchill Place, 020-3002 5252; jamieoliver.com) continues to defy the usual drop-off in quality that mars most fast-expanding multiples. There are better burritos in London, but Wahaca's takeaway "shack" does a credible job. My chicken sampler was tasty, the seasoned rice excellent, although the meat, black beans and cheese had merged somewhat to give the burrito a rather gloopy texture (£5.70-£6.20. The Park Pavilion, Canada Square, 020-7516 9145, wahaca.co.uk).

Vijay's Chawalla, Upton Park

If you're keen to explore London's East End, you could walk the couple of miles from the ExCeL, north to Upton Park. Otherwise, jump on the DLR/tube, via West Ham station. In cheap food terms, the West Ham-East Ham-Plaistow triangle certainly has much to recommend it. With its tropical fish tanks and TVs showing Bollywood hits, busy Vijay's (near Upton Park tube) is one of the swankier vegetarian curry cafes on lively, noisy Green Street. But the prices remain startlingly low. Its sub-£10 set meal thalis are a good option, if you need to fill up but also want to give the menu a thorough going over. At lunch, a snack such as the unusual dabeli (a toasted roll filled with spiced potato, peanuts and pomegranate) or the idli and sambar (three fragrant ground-rice patties and a slightly thin but majestically flavour-packed lentil and veg curry) would probably be enough to satisfy the curious, cash-strapped traveller.
• Takeaway: snacks £2.25-£5.25, meals £4.75-£9.25. 268-270 Green Street E7, 020-8470 3535, vijayschawalla.co.uk

Nathan's, East Ham

Nathan's is one of a dying breed of pie, mash and jellied eel shops that were once emblematic of the East End. For good or bad, they are impervious to fashion. "Everything made on the premises fresh daily," announces a sign. That may make a modern foodie's antennae twitch, but remember, Nathan's has been cooking like that for decades. With little reason to change. Consequently, this is plain, unflashy food that, rather than pandering to modern foodie mores, harks back to a post-war Britain where putting a luxurious dollop of butter in your mash just wasn't an option.

The meat in my pie has good flavour (the pastry is a shade dry) and the mash is smooth enough, but it only really comes together as a plate of food (takeaway, £4.25) when I liberally douse it all in the accompanying clean, fresh parsley liquor. For anybody who went to primary school in Britain in the 1970s, that parsley sauce is positively Proustian. Indeed, Nathan's is as much about atmosphere and preserved retro style as it is food. It was established in 1927, but looks every immaculate inch the archetypal 1960s English high street cafe. Right down to the staff's mint green crimplene pinnies and its wood veneer walls, it is a museum piece, one almost beautiful in its artless, spotless minimalist simplicity.
• Snacks and meals £1.95-£4.95. 51 Barking Road E6, 020-8472 3910, no website

Black Lion, Plaistow

With its honest homemade food and guest beers, this Camra-approved East End pub is keeping it real. On a sunny Friday evening, both the olde-worlde beamed-interior and its large beer garden were packed. The friendly locals like to chat and you may well end up chewing over West Ham United transfer rumours with your fellow drinkers. The menu is a litany of British pub classics: fish and chips, cottage pie, ploughman's-style platters, as well as sandwiches and jacket potatoes, all served in very generous portions.

A sample slab of steak and ale pie (beautiful tender beef in a rich gravy, beneath buttery sheets of filo) was accompanied by a fine harvest of al dente sprouts, spring greens, cabbage and carrots. My pint of Maldon Gold (£3.30) was in a good condition, too. The Black Lion is home to the West Ham Boys' Amateur Boxing Club, which may be of interest if you are in town for the Olympic bouts. Nearest Tube: Plaistow.
• Sandwiches £2.50, meals £4.20-£7.10. 59-61 High Street E13, 020-8472 2351, blacklionplaistow.co.uk

Suvai Chettinaad, East Ham

As long as you don't mind the chipped tables and tired decor, this super-basic south Indian cafe (its focus, the Chettinad region of Tamil Nadu) serves knockout food at crazily low prices. A chana masala (chickpea curry), just £2.50, is a big pot of restorative goodness in a rich, spicy, flavourful gravy. A sample dosa (£2.75) is incredibly light, thin and crisp, the masala filling, while not cooked to quite the melting perfection of some, has, at its edges, an almost sour, fruity note, which adds to its freshness. The accompanying chutneys are good, the sambar is a fathoms-deep flavour bomb. Suvai is directly opposite East Ham Tube station.
• Soups, snacks and dosa 50p-£4.15, curry with rice, around £3-£5. 207 High Street North E6, 020-8471 5777, suvai.co.uk

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