Riverside Herb Centre, Hathersage

This garden centre and gift/food shop (which sells pleasant quiches, cheeses and the like), also comprises a busy daytime cafe. It's a pretty spot, overlooking adjacent fields and the River Derwent or Noe, depending on who you talk to. Twitchers will want to grab a window seat, in order to watch the birdlife attracted to the centre's large feeding platform. The food is at the pricier end of the budget eats spectrum: you'll pay £6 for soup, £7.95 for fish pie or chicken curry.

However, portions are big and – judging by a plate of field mushrooms on thick rustic toast, topped with salsa and grilled cheese, and partnered with what at this level constitutes an unusually full, colourful salad – the open kitchen is sourcing good products and doing reasonably effective things with them. That salad's balsamic dressing tasted a bit 90s and the cooked salsa was a touch too sweet, but it was nonetheless a bright, tasty, filling lunch.
• Baking items from £1.65, sandwiches and hot meals £6-£7.95. Castleton Road, Hathersage, 01433 651055

Village Green, Eyam

This newish cafe is doing the right thing (working hard; cooking and baking daily with real ingredients), but keeping prices keen and the atmosphere unpretentious. With its retro-modern cottage style – all flowery, oilskin tablecloths and decorative shelves of chutneys – Village Green looks pretty enough, but this is not solely a stage-set for tourists. It's a working cafe. You can take away a breakfast butty for £2.70, and, as I left, two local builders were ordering lunch.

Outside of its standard sandwiches, pies and jacket potatoes, the daily specials might run to goat's cheese tart with salad, a ham, cheese and plum toastie, or a chilli with good garnishes (jalapenos, cheese, sour cream), given an unusual, but winning new flavour dimension with the addition of a few pungent cardamom pods. One criticism, though: while the Green's coffee is strong, and a generously dosed espresso machine is a small victory in itself, a sample flat white (£2.10) was a little thin. It was more a short latte than genuinely creamy flat. The staff are natural, friendly and very good with children.
• Sandwiches from £2.60, specials £3.95-£6.95. The Square, Eyam, 01433 631293, cafevillagegreen.com

Colemans Deli, Hathersage

Don't be put off by that deli tag. It sells the usual Patchwork pates, Pipers crisps and posh bars of chocolate, but this centre of Hathersage life is more bustling cafe/sandwich shop, than it is gourmet food store. Which is not to say they don't make an effort with the food. They do. In fact, Colemans USA (pastrami, mustard mayo, rocket, dill pickle, gently melted cheese) is an object lesson in how, if you get the details right – the thick-cut bread, for instance, is exceptionally fresh granary, soft but with a proper chew at the crust – you can elevate the humble butty into something special. Fillings, such as crayfish, rocket and lemon mayo, and goat's cheese, parma ham and fig relish, further illustrate how Colemans is a distinct cut above.
• Sandwiches £3.90-£4.75, take away. The Square, Main Road, Hathersage, 01433 650505, colemansdeli.com

Devonshire Arms, Beeley

A swanky pub on the Chatsworth Estate may not strike you as a "budget eats" destination. But chef Alan Hill reaches out to all wallets. For lunch (12-6pm), in the bar, there are upmarket sandwich meals with chips that come in under £10 with fillings such as local beetroot, parmesan, mayo and rocket, and honey-roast ham from the estate. But the real bargains here are the smaller – trust me, it's a relative term – versions of the pub classics which the Devonshire serves all day.

Fish and chips, seafood cocktail, ham, egg and chips are the sort of dishes you can expect. For £6.95, the sausage and mash comprises two herby sausages, a good pile of smooth, dense, serious mash and very good gravy indeed. Wash it down with a half of crisp, spicy Jaipur, from the local Thornbridge brewery (£1.85), and you still won't break £9. The pub's makeover, designer bucket seats and thick carpets with the Duke of Devonshire's ducal crown woven in, hasn't entirely obliterated the pub's 18th-century origins. There are open fires, exposed stone and old beams to admire and the bar area remains a cosy bolthole.
• Bar meals £6.95 to £9.95. Devonshire Square, Beeley, 01629 733259, devonshirebeeley.co.uk

Tideswell

Tiny Tideswell is well known for two things: its outsized village church, the Cathedral of the Peak, and, increasingly, great food. If it's takeaway sandwiches, soups and daily hot specials you're after, you can toggle between cottage-kitchen the Cherry Tree (Cherry Tree Square, Queen Street, 01298 873065, cherrytreetideswell.co.uk) and Tindalls deli (Commercial Road, 01298 871351). Each has its strong points. The Cherry Tree supplies its brilliant cakes and tray bakes to tea rooms and cafes across the Peak District and, still warm from the oven, its savoury lines are just as good. Try the porky sausage rolls with built-in apple sauce (£1.30), or the Tree's ploughman's pasty, a buttery, flaky triple-cheese number, lifted by a little fruity chutney (£2.20).

Tindalls, meanwhile, is renowned for its traditional Derbyshire biscuits, "wakes cakes" – fruit biscuits given a Turkish Delight twist by the addition of rose essence (£1.50), and chewy, oaty ginger biscuits. Its handmade pork pie (from £1.30) recipe is over 60 years old.

The Vanilla Kitchen cafe was closed on the day I visited (hot meals, £3.75-£7.50, Queen Street, 01298 871519, vanillakitchen.co.uk), but is also well-regarded by Peak regulars. Its lemon and cardamom biscuits have won a Great Taste Award while, outside of panini and snacks, its scratch-cooked daily menu runs to seasonal soups, quiches and tarts, and gussied-up takes on populist dishes such as a burger or sausage and mash.

Hassop Station Cafe, Hassop, near Bakewell

A refuelling point on the Monsal Trail, a route for cyclists and walkers along a stretch of disused railway line, this book shop and large, airy cafe majors on Peak District ingredients (meats from Bakewell butcher Critchlows; beers and wild boar from Thornbridge Hall; Hope Valley ice-cream, etc) and affordable, modish food. A bowl of tomato and white bean stew served with a terrific blob of fresh pesto and grilled, garlicky sourdough – one of the day's specials – had much flavour, even if the beans were slightly undercooked.

Elsewhere on the menu, you'll find meat and fish platters to pick at, seasonal soups, toasties, salads, quiches and various burgers which the menu claims, wildly, "are the best you will ever taste". Less impressive was the functional, if not slightly off-hand, service. This is a busy place and it felt like a conveyer belt.
• Breakfast £1.50-£7.95, all-day menu £4.50-£9.25. Roundabout, B6001/ A6020, near Bakewell, 01629 815668, hassopstation.co.uk

Red Lion, Stone Edge

As a pub, the Red Lion encapsulates the pros and cons of modernisation. Billed as a 17th-century inn, you may struggle to discern its historic charm beneath its contemporary wallpapers, leather armchairs and outsized candelabra. On the upside, the kitchen is committed to sourcing from Derbyshire, grows its own vegetables and herbs, and serves an affordable menu all afternoon, midday until 6pm. The sandwich meals (Gloucester Old Spot and apple sauce; smoked salmon with capers) are the budget traveller's best bet.

A sample ham and coleslaw number was excellent, the homemade, freshly baked sage-seasoned bread fantastic. The chips (triple-cooked, at a guess) were also exemplary. Achieving a glassy exterior crunch is one thing; keeping the interior not just fluffy, but moist, is the difference between a decent chip and a great one. And these were great chips. The affectation of serving them in a miniature frying basket, however, is daft. Douse them liberally in vinegar and you will find it runs out everywhere. If you can stretch the budget a little, the Red Lion also serves a two-course afternoon "market menu" (£12.95).
• Sandwiches, £5.95. Darley Road, Stone Edge, Chesterfield, 01246 566142, redlionbarandbistro.com

Bakewell

Is it a genuine controversy or good PR? Famously, Bakewell is a town at loggerheads over its eponymous dessert. One retailer claims that the shortcrust Bakewell tart is the original creation. Other town bakers make the case for the puff-pastry Bakewell pudding while, simultaneously, staking rival claims to the historical accuracy and supremacy of their "secret" 19th-century recipes. But which is the best? Whizz around town and, paying £1.90 to £3.99 a pop, you can buy a Bakewell from each and settle this matter, once and for all. It's a fun game for all the family if, perhaps, an eye-opener in terms of quality, or the lack thereof. Personally, I'd skip the Bakewell Tart Shop altogether (Matlock Street, 01629 814692, bakewelltartshop.co.uk). Not for reasons of authenticity, but because – judging by this sample – its overbearingly sweet tarts, produced by a third-party baker in Chesterfield, taste cheap and greasy (the pastry and the filling are made with margarine), and feature almost none of the advertised raspberry jam. Maybe it's an acquired taste, but not one I want to acquire.

Bloomers' locally baked puddings (Water Street, 01629 814844) were better, but odd. The almond filling had a strangely thick texture, like curdled egg custard. Its recipe dates to 1889. By the taste of things, it needs updating. The Old Original Pudding Shop's version was wrapped in good, thin waves of pastry (The Square, 01629 812193, bakewellpuddingshop.co.uk), but the filling, while moist, oily even, was too sweet.

Ironically, the Bakewell Pudding Parlour (Wye House, Water Street, 01629 815107, postapudding.com), a relatively newcomer unable to bang on about its supposedly romantic origins, bakes by far the best pudding (£2.25). It doesn't look much, the pastry looks too thick, the jam a mere screed, but the nicely-browned filling has a clean almond flavour and the jam reticence is clever, keeping it as a quiet, sweetly reconciled back note. Pop around the corner and pick up a rugged, regional champion pork pie (large half, £1.75) from the New Close Farm Shop (Granby Croft, Granby Road, 01629 813121, newclosefarm.com), and you can put a great Bakewell picnic lunch together for under a fiver. New Close also do sausage rolls, pasties and, on Mondays, hot roast pork sandwiches (£3).

The Loaf, Matlock and Crich

Just across the national park border, this artisan bakery runs two deli-cafes. The smaller Matlock branch is deceptive. It looks like a typical small, town centre cafe, until you get inside and see those snazzy breads and taste the menu (its goat's cheese and butternut squash soup, served with a nutty Loaf brown roll, was all fresh, forthright flavours).

A fairly predictable sandwich and toastie menu is augmented by a few gourmet fillings, such as Cropwell Bishop stilton, apple and homemade chutney, as well as items like salads and the Loaf's own pork pie. All of which can be made into full meals if you choose to eat-in. High-quality ingredients stand out, from Lincolnshire Poacher cheese to breakfast bangers from Loaf's traditional butcher in Crich.
• Takeaway sandwiches from £2.20, eat-in snacks from £1.60, meals £2.60-£6.75. 30b Matlock Green, Matlock, 01629 583332, theloaf.co.uk

Old Hall Inn, Whitehough, Chinley

Perhaps best known for its real ales (eight hand pumps featuring local breweries, such as Bollington and Hornbeam, plus several big beer festivals each year), this 16th-century country pub also does a creditable line in good, honest, locally sourced pub food. You can eat in the friendly bar, dogs are welcome, too, or in the Minstrels' Gallery dining room, part of the adjoining Whitehough Hall, an Elizabethan manor house. There are a few mains at £10, such as the Old Hall burger and its deli platter, and at lunch the pub serves posh sandwiches (homemade fish fingers; ham and smoked cheese; Derbyshire steak and caramelised onions) with chips for £5-£6.

But to get the most bang for your buck, order weekdays, between 5pm and 6.30pm, when a selection of mains are just £8. You get a lot for your money, too. A sound plate of sausage and mash (note: they like a herby banger in this part of the world), came with a large side of well-worked, creamy carrot and swede, tasty roast parsnips and cauliflower. Washed down with half of Thornbridge's Juvenia, a hoppy porter – a decent match for the food, if under-powered by Thornbridge standards (£1.65) – it was £9.65 very well spent.
• Early bird mains £8, otherwise £8 - £14. Whitehough, Chinley, 01663 750529, old-hall-inn.co.uk