Best meal deals in the UK
We all have our go-to meal deals, but which shop has the best selection? And where can you get the most value? We've scoured the best meal deals to bring you the answers.
Credit: urbanbuzz (crisps), gowithstock (sandwich), DenisMArt (smoothie), Serge Cornu (background) – Shutterstock
Although we'd never recommend them as the most economical choice, there's no denying that the convenience, variety and flavour offered by a meal deal are sometimes hard to beat.
At over £3 a pop, though, it's important to get the best bang for your buck. To help you max out your meal deal, we've rated the selection on offer at each shop, plus the most expensive combinations possible. We've also put together some meal deal alternatives to stop you from spending upwards of £20 a week on lunch.
And if you think you've found a better value meal deal than us, drop us a DM on Instagram – we'd love to see it!
What's in this guide?
Best lunch meal deals
These are the best and cheapest meal deals in the UK:
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Tesco meal deal
- Tesco meal deal price – £3.85 with a Clubcard, or £4.25 without (£5.50 deal also available)
- Meal deal features – A main, a snack and a drink
- Best value Tesco meal deal – £7.95: Korean-style chicken dragon roll (£3.30), a vegetable samosa (£1.75) and a 300ml Naked Smoothie (£2.90).
Tesco and meal deals go together like... well, a main, a snack and a drink.
But 2022 was an eventful year for the Tesco meal deal. The first shockwave came when, after 10 years of charging £3 across the board, Tesco introduced a new system. Suddenly, only Clubcard holders could get it at the usual price – everyone else had to pay £3.50.
And as if that wasn't enough, in October 2022, Tesco hiked prices even more, followed by an increase in August 2025. Now, a meal deal will set you back £3.85 if you have a Clubcard, or £4.25 if you don't. Clearly, even the humble meal deal isn't immune to the effects of inflation.
Let's not dwell on the bad news, though, as Tesco's meal deal selection is one of the most extensive out there.
Depending on what your local branch stocks, your choice of mains could include sushi, microwavable toasties, and even warm pastries or bakes, like sausage rolls. And if you're not a fan of sausage, bacon and egg sandwiches, there are plenty of other options for the same price.
And, despite the price rise, you can still get a good deal. Given that most of the smoothies cost north of £2, there are countless combinations that would otherwise cost far more than £3.85 – or even £4.25!
Tesco's £5.50 meal deal
It's not exactly cheap, but Tesco also offers a more premium £5.50 meal deal for Clubcard holders (£6 for those without).
If you don't mind spending a little extra, you can opt for delicious sushi, burrito bowls or Tesco Finest sandwiches and wraps. When it comes to snacks and drinks, most are also included in the £3.85 meal deal.
Without the meal deal, you can expect to spend up to £5 for some mains. This means you bag quite the savings when picking up the priciest drink and snack, too.
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Co-op meal deal
- Co-op meal deal price – £3.50 for Co-op members, or £4 for non-members
- Meal deal features – A main, a side and a drink
- Best value Co-op meal deal – £8.65: a tomato basil and chicken pasta (£3.45), a millionaire shortbread (£2.45) and a 300ml bottle of Innocent Super Smoothie Energise (£2.75).
Like Tesco, Co-op has a two-tier system for meal deal pricing. Co-op members pay £3.50, while non-members have to stump up £4 – as good a reason as any to sign up for a loyalty card.
While it's not the cheapest for non-members, we're big fans of the meal deal selection at Co-op. As well as the typical meal deal snacks, you can grab tasty baked goods like croissants and cinnamon swirls. Not too bad for £3.50, we reckon.
And if you don't fancy the tomato basil and chicken pasta, there are other pasta bowls available for the same price.
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Sainsbury's meal deal
- Sainsbury's meal deal price – £3.95 (£5.50 deal also available)
- Meal deal features – A main, a snack and a drink
- Best value Sainsbury's meal deal – £8.95: a picnic triple sandwich (£3.55), The Curators original beef biltong (£2.50) and a 300ml Naked Smoothie (£2.90).
While the meal deal at Sainsbury's is marginally more expensive than at Tesco, the price is the same for everyone. That means there's no need to be a Nectar member, so you'll pay £3.95 whether you have a loyalty card or not (although we'd recommend getting one anyway).
As you can see, there's huge potential for savings here too. We managed to find a combination that, outside of the offer, would have cost over double the price of a meal deal.
Looking at the snacks, the selection doesn't disappoint either. The individual pieces of fresh fruit don't make for the savviest of financial choices in a meal deal context, but they're a refreshingly healthy alternative.
Sainsbury's £5.50 meal deal
It's hardly a bargain, but it's worth knowing that Sainsbury's offers a £5 meal deal too.
The £5 format is exactly the same (i.e. a main, a snack and a drink), and the drinks and snacks included in the deal are identical too.
The only difference is that, with the £5 meal deal, the selection of mains is replaced with a whole host of more expensive options. Some are from Sainsbury's Taste the Difference range, so we're talking premium salads, sandwiches and wraps. However, you can also get mains from brands like YO! Sushi, Huel and Coco di Mama.
Some of these mains cost as much as £4.75. So, combined with the most expensive drink and snack (which we picked above), you could get £10.15's worth of food for just £5.50. Far from cheap, but an impressive saving nonetheless.
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Morrisons meal deal
- Morrisons meal deal price – £4
- Meal deal features – A main, a snack and a drink
- Best value Morrisons meal deal – £7.90: a chicken caesar wrap (£3.25), vegetable gyozas (£1.75) and a Naked Super Smoothie (£2.90).
It may not have the biggest meal deal selection, but Morrisons' offer still represents a solid option if you're ever near one of its stores.
The mains consist of wraps, sandwiches and pasta, while the drinks selection features smoothies, juice, and some coffees. Nothing remarkable, but a meal deal nonetheless.
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ASDA meal deal
- ASDA meal deal price – £3.74
- Meal deal features – A main, a snack and a drink
- Best value ASDA meal deal – £7.48: YO! rainbow salmon poke (£3.22), chicken pakoras and mango chutney dip (£1.48) and a 330ml Starbucks grande cup of caramel macchiato (£2.78).
For a while, ASDA's meal deal was a little different to your traditional setup. Until September 2025, you could pick any three eligible items and get the cheapest one for free.
However, they've since changed things up to offer a main, snack and drink for just £3.74. This means ASDA now offers one of the cheapest meal deals on this list. Amazingly, you'll save 50% by buying the above suggestions as part of the meal deal. And, you don't even need a loyalty card.
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Greggs meal deal
- Greggs meal deal price – From £4
- Meal deal features – A cold sandwich and a drink
- Best value Greggs meal deal – £6.40: a roast chicken and bacon club baguette (£3.60) and a hot chocolate (£2.80).
Not to be outdone by its supermarket rivals, Greggs also offers a meal deal. In fact, Greggs actually offers meal deals, plural.
In addition to the sandwich and salad deals, there are several other offers for things like bakes, savoury rolls, sweet treats and pizza, all of which come with a drink. But we'll stick to just reviewing the salad and sandwich combos here.
All of your favourite Greggs sandwiches are included in the meal deal, as are the salads (if indeed anyone actually gets a salad from Greggs). As for the drinks, you have your choice of a bottled cold drink or a regular-sized hot beverage.
Now, you might be thinking that, at £4 for just a main and a drink, Greggs' meal deal is poor value compared to the other options on this list. And that's possibly a fair argument – unless you're a student.
Why? Because Greggs' student discount gets you a free sausage roll, vegan roll, cheese and onion bake or sweet treat whenever you buy a cold sandwich meal deal.
If you factor that in, it's still quite expensive, but it's a much better value for money than it initially sounds. Easy to see why it's one of our favourite Greggs hacks, isn't it?
Best alternatives to meal deals
Even when you're saving a few quid on the cost of the individual components, it's hard to describe meal deals as a genuinely cheap lunch. Here are some cheaper meal deal alternatives:
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Follow our meal plan
If you thought £3.50 was good value for lunch, think again. Our student meal plan will get you your breakfast, lunch, dinner and snacks for around the same price.
Among the lunches in the plan are recipes for a bean salad, cheese and onion rosti and even a pasta dish. Almost all of them are cheaper than £1 a portion, with most costing far less. And, you get two other tasty, nutritious meals every day (plus snacks), for a similar price.
But what if you're absolutely desperate for a sandwich? Well, even then, a meal deal can still be beaten...
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Make your own cheap sandwich
Credit: VelP – Shutterstock
We get it: a homemade sandwich can seem a little bland compared to the selection in the shops. But it doesn't need to be this way.
Our list of cheap but tasty sandwich fillers is packed full of ideas that'll give you the mouth-watering lunch you've been craving. And, more importantly, they should all cost less per portion than what you'd get in a meal deal.
If none of our ideas quite tickles your fancy, that's okay too. The main takeaway here is to think beyond 'ham and cheese' and try making some more exciting sandwiches at home.
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Try making your own soup
No matter how cheap the meal deal is, it'll still be more expensive than making your own soup at home.
We have a handful of simple soup recipes that even the most unaccomplished chef can knock together. All of them cost well under £1 a portion, and our mixed vegetable soup recipe in particular is super cheap and easy to make.
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Get cheap food from TooGoodToGo
We've been big fans of anti-food waste apps for a while now, and TooGoodToGo is one of the best for a lunchtime haul.
This app allows shops, restaurants and cafes to sell excess stock at a reduced price. Sign up, and you'll be able to see all the places in your local area that use it, including what they normally sell and for how much.
Plenty of big chains use TooGoodToGo, such as Greggs, Pret and Costa. When it comes to these types of places, you'll usually be able to buy a mystery bag of items with a selection of sandwiches, cakes and other freshly prepared foods.
The exact contents will vary depending on what's left over at the end of the day, but you'll almost certainly end up with lunch for at least a couple of days, typically for less than £5.
Just note that, as you're buying stock that's left over at the end of the day, most pickup times are long after lunchtime. So, you'll need to be thinking ahead to the rest of the week when you're using this tip.
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Check out the reduced section
Again, this trick is best used at the end of the day, as that's when supermarkets really start to fill their reduced sections.
As you'll know, the stock will vary daily depending on what happens to be going out of date. However, a lot of foods are safe to eat after their best-before date.
Best-before dates refer to food quality (i.e. when foods are likely to reduce in quality). They are not the same as use-by dates, which refer to food safety. You can eat foods after their best-before dates if they're still in good enough condition, but don't eat foods after the use-by date as there's a risk you'll become ill.
While there are often a few ready meals to be found, the real lunchtime win comes if any of the meal deal mains have found their way into the yellow sticker realm.
You won't get a snack and a drink for your troubles, but if the main is reduced by enough, you can always use the savings to buy them separately.
If you can resist the draw of the meal deal, read our guide to getting free food and keep yourself fed without spending a penny.
