The O2 has about thirty chain restaurants in one covered street, and on a sold-out night every one of them is full. The better answer is the 188 bus, which takes thirteen minutes from North Greenwich station to the middle of old Greenwich, where there is a market, a pie and mash shop from 1890 and four riverside pubs that are still serving when the arena kitchens have stopped.
North Greenwich, where The O2 is, and Greenwich, where the market and the old buildings are, are two different places about three kilometres apart. Almost every visitor arrives at the first and means to see the second, which is why this page treats them as one question.
Our guide to The O2 and London's big arenas covers tickets, bag rules and how long it takes to get out afterwards. This page is about what you can actually eat, at what time, and whether it is worth leaving the peninsula to do it.
Eating at The O2 and in Greenwich at a glance
- Inside The O2
- Around thirty restaurants and bars in the entertainment district; the venue's general hours are 10:00–22:00
- Getting to old Greenwich
- 188 bus from North Greenwich, about 13 minutes to Greenwich Church Street
- Greenwich Market
- Open daily 10:00–17:30, so a lunch answer, not a dinner one
- Cheapest proper meal
- A market plate or pie, mash and liquor, roughly £8–£12
- Best for a late meal
- The pubs on Royal Hill and by the river, which serve long after the market closes
- Worst 45 minutes
- The hour and a half before a sold-out arena show, when 20,000 people want the same tables
What is actually inside The O2, and what it costs
The entertainment district is the covered street you walk down between the Tube station and the arena doors. It holds about thirty places to eat and drink, almost all of them recognisable national or international names: burgers, Brazilian grill, Thai, hot pot, fried chicken, pizza, a large pub, a doner kebab counter and several coffee chains. More than a dozen of them are tagged halal in the venue's own directory, which is useful if that matters to you.
It is a good system on a quiet Tuesday and a poor one ninety minutes before a sold-out concert, because everybody arrives at once. Two things help. The first is booking: only a few of the restaurants there take bookings, and the venue's own directory marks which. The second is arriving early enough to eat before the crowd, which in practice means sitting down before 18:00 rather than after it.
Prices are what we would expect an adult main course to cost in September 2026 rather than quotations from menus: roughly £12 to £18 at the mid-range chains, less at the counters, more at the grill restaurants. Our guide to the British chains explains what each of these names actually serves.
Food bought in the district cannot go into the arena with you. Like most large venues, The O2 controls what comes through the doors, and the bag rules are published on its website and in our arena guide. Eat before you go in, or buy inside, where the arena has its own bars and counters at arena prices.
Photo: DiscoA340 · CC BY-SA 4.0 · Wikimedia Commons · resized
The 188 bus, which is the whole point of this page
One fact does more work than anything else on this page: a bus leaves from outside the station and reaches the middle of old Greenwich in about thirteen minutes. The 188 runs from North Greenwich to Greenwich Church Street, which is thirty seconds from the market and the Cutty Sark. The 129 does the same journey in about sixteen minutes and stops at Greenwich town centre.
That is a shorter trip than most people assume, and far shorter than the walk, which takes the better part of an hour along a road with little to look at. Both buses are covered by the daily contactless cap, and children under eleven travel free on London buses. Our page on getting to The O2 sets out every route to the peninsula, including the river.
The obvious alternative is Canary Wharf, one Jubilee line stop north, which has far more restaurants but empties when the offices do; our Canary Wharf guide explains what stays open in the evening. Greenwich is prettier, cheaper and open later.
Greenwich Market closes at 17:30, which changes your plan
Greenwich Market is a covered market under a glass roof in the middle of the old town, open seven days a week from 10:00 to 17:30, including bank holidays. It is closed on Christmas Day and on the first six Mondays of the year, when the traders take a break. Entry is free and the food stalls sell hot plates from several countries at roughly £8 to £12.
The important consequence is that the market is a lunch answer. If your concert starts at 20:00, the market will have packed up before you get there. Our guide to Greenwich Market covers the craft and antiques days; for eating, all you need to know is the closing time.
Outside, in Cutty Sark Gardens, the market also runs a separate street food market from Friday to Sunday, every weekend from March until 29 November 2026. It opens at 10:00 and closes at 17:30 on Fridays and 18:30 on Saturdays and Sundays, with stalls selling souvlaki, pizza, paella and Korean corn dogs beside the ship.
Pie and mash, and the oldest thing on the menu
Goddard's at Greenwich, at 22 King William Walk beside the market, has been a pie and mash family business since 1890 and opens from 10:00 every day. Pie, mash and liquor — a parsley sauce, not an alcoholic drink — costs less than most sandwiches in central London, and the shop also serves things that are not eels for people who would rather not. It holds a five-star hygiene rating from an inspection in January 2026.
This is the one dish in Greenwich that is genuinely local rather than imported, and our explanation of pie and mash covers what liquor is, why the eels are there and how to order without confusion.
Four old pubs by the river, and what each is for
Four old pubs sit within fifteen minutes of the market, and they are the reason to be in Greenwich in the evening rather than the afternoon. All four were inspected in the last two years and hold five-star hygiene ratings.
- The Trafalgar Tavern, Park Row. The grand one, built in the 1830s, with tall windows straight onto the Thames and a large dining room. Main courses in the region of £18 to £26. Book at weekends.
- The Cutty Sark Tavern, Ballast Quay. Eight minutes' walk downstream along the river path, with a bow window over the water and fewer visitors because of the walk. Pub food at around £16 to £22.
- The Plume of Feathers, Park Vista. A small local behind the park with a garden, away from the river frontage, and the one where you are most likely to get a table without booking.
- The Old Brewery, in the Pepys Building at the Old Royal Naval College. A large room inside the college grounds, useful because it is between the river and the park and has space for groups.
For the wider picture, our round-up of riverside pubs on the Thames puts these in order along the river, and the Royal Observatory and Cutty Sark page explains what to see between meals. Note that the Observatory closes for works from 2 November 2026 until summer 2027, which changes what a daytime visit to Greenwich is for.
Royal Hill: where Greenwich eats when the visitors have gone
Five minutes uphill from the market, Royal Hill is a short residential street with a butcher, a greengrocer, a cheese shop and two pubs, and it is where the town eats on an ordinary evening. The Richard I at 52–54 is a plain two-bar pub with a long garden at the back, five stars from an inspection in February 2026. Royal Teas at 76 is a small vegetarian-leaning cafe, five stars, inspected June 2026.
Nelson Road and College Approach, either side of the market, carry the familiar names: a Thai cafe, a sushi restaurant, a burger room, a bakery. Tai Won Mein on Greenwich Church Street is the long-standing cheap noodle option, and Pop n Pier does fish and chips a few doors along.
Two adults and two children can eat in Greenwich for about a third of what the peninsula charges. Four market plates or four portions of pie and mash come to roughly £35 to £45 in September 2026, against £70 to £90 for four mid-range chain mains at The O2. The bus each way costs nothing extra once the daily cap is reached, and the children ride free.
Working out the timings around a show
| Your show starts | What works | Leave Greenwich by |
|---|---|---|
| Matinee or afternoon event | Greenwich Market stalls, Goddard's, the street food market at weekends | Allow 25 minutes door to door |
| 19:00 | Early dinner in Greenwich from 17:00, or a table in the district booked for 17:30 | 18:15 |
| 20:00 | Greenwich pubs or restaurants from 17:30; the market will be shut | 19:00 |
| After the show | The peninsula's kitchens are winding down; Greenwich pubs serve drinks later but food stops earlier than you think | – |
If you are staying the night nearby, our guide to using Greenwich as a base explains the late transport back, and Greenwich Park is the obvious place to spend the afternoon before an evening show. For the same question at the other big venue, see where to eat near Wembley Stadium.
Frequently asked questions
Can you eat at Greenwich Market before a concert at The O2?
Only if the concert is early. The market and its food stalls close at 17:30 every day, and the weekend street food market beside the Cutty Sark closes at 18:30 on Saturdays and Sundays. For a show starting at 20:00 you need a pub or a restaurant, not the market.
How do you get from The O2 to Greenwich?
The 188 bus from outside North Greenwich station reaches Greenwich Church Street in about thirteen minutes, and the 129 takes about sixteen. Both are ordinary London buses covered by the contactless daily cap. Walking takes close to an hour and is not a pleasant route.
Is the food at The O2 expensive?
It is priced like any large venue: we would expect £12 to £18 for a main course at the mid-range chains in September 2026, with counters cheaper and the grill restaurants higher. The bigger cost is time, because the whole audience eats in the same ninety minutes.
Where can you eat alone near The O2?
The counter-service places in the entertainment district are straightforward on your own, and so is a bar seat in any Greenwich pub. Our guide to eating alone in London covers the rooms that are genuinely built for one person.
Is there a Sunday roast in Greenwich?
Yes, and it is one of the better reasons to come. All four of the old pubs listed above serve one on Sundays, and they book up by the middle of the week in winter. Our guide to the Sunday roast explains what arrives on the plate.
Sources
- The O2 - Restaurants and bars directory (checked September 2026)
- The O2 - Opening times (checked September 2026)
- Greenwich Market - Visit us and opening times (checked September 2026)
- Transport for London - Bus route 188 (checked September 2026)
- Food Standards Agency - Food hygiene ratings (checked September 2026)
- Royal Museums Greenwich - Royal Observatory (checked September 2026)