Cheap churro waffles in the Bayview and Japanese noodles in the Financial District are here to prove the point for the naysayers in the back: this city can be affordable if you just search for it.

Try any of these 15 businesses to confirm the possibly shocking news for yourself. This Japanese noodle and takeaway sushi shop is little more than a tiny kitchen a few steps away from the heart of the Financial District. After nearly closing in April , the shop is back on its feet.

Stop by Monday through Friday from 9 a. This popular Russian Hill wing-slinger is a takeout- and delivery-only model, with a retail shop selling hot sauce. Fans love this Tenderloin shop for its cheap, loaded bánh mi sandwiches, including the pork combination of grilled pork and pate.

Already the store is littered with teenagers, boba in hand, looking for a relatively cheap sandwich and egg roll combo. It might be the best bang for your buck of any restaurant in the city. There are so many places to get affordable, excellent Mexican food in the Mission District. That said, newcomer Tacos del Barrio is sitting somewhere in the middle of the various price points.

Or, one could purchase a plethora of pupusas, a timeless cheap eat. The 14 Restaurants in San Francisco Changing the Narrative for Gluten-Free Diners. This friendly Bayview waffle and coffee house has stellar prices. The 11 San Francisco Legacy Businesses to Add to Your Eating and Drinking List.

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By choosing I Accept , you consent to our use of cookies and other tracking technologies. Cooking up sliders since , White Castle is often credited as the first fast-food burger chain. Now it can be found in 13 states, mostly in the Midwest. Named after the football huddle, Huddle House is a hour family restaurant that was founded in the s and is concentrated in the Southeast.

Spaghetti, lasagna, and garlic breadsticks are crowd-pleasers, so it's no surprise this Italian restaurant chain is a hit with families. Best known for its outlandish slogans, commercials, and having "all the meat," Arby's satisfies its customers with roast beef, curly fries, and fresh deli sandwiches.

Biscuit and fried chicken lovers adore this Southern fast-food chain that serves breakfast all day. You can add a swipe of creamy pimento cheese to any biscuit — and you should.

Looking for a healthier breakfast option? Check out these healthy fast-food breakfast items. With about locations, mostly in the Southern states, Zaxby's has carved a niche out of the fried chicken market, selling only tenders sometimes in sandwiches and wings. Cheapism may earn a commission if you buy through a link on our site.

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The casual concept from American Beauty. American Beauty is a steakhouse in Venice, and their trimmings go to making the burgers at Win-dow. When: Check the website for the hours for both locations. As mentioned in: My pandemic take-out issue.

A Hokkaido-style ramen stand in the Mitsuwa Marketplace in Mar Vista. When: The hours are in Japanese, I would check the Yelp page for the Mar Vista and Torrance locations. Mar Vista is amPM.

As mentioned in: Where to Eat in Mar Vista. A greasy spoon steps from Sony Studios. As mentioned in: Where to Eat in Downtown Culver City. Note: Great place to see celebrities since it is so close to Sony.

They take cash only. I talk about great places I have eaten every month on my Newsletter. An Italian restaurant and cafe in Downtown Culver City serving Neopolitan-style pizza. As Mentioned in : Where to Eat in Downtown Culver City. A New York-Style Pizza place steps from the Palms Expo Line Station.

As mentioned in: Five Things I Have Been Doing During Safer at Home: Exploring Palms. The place that started the food truck revolution in Los Angeles. Kogi serves a fusion of Mexican and Korean Food.

When: There are several locations and food trucks traveling around, check their website, linked above. When: Daily, but hours vary. Check out the hours on page two of this menu. As mentioned in: I was on a podcast. A neighborhood wine and cheese shop that just happens to have the best deli sandwiches in town.

There is a lot to choose from. Grab a half sandwich and chips and you are good to go. As mentioned in: Where to eat lunch in Hollywood. Los Angeles is well-known for its Southern Thai restaurants, but have you tried Northern Thai?

You definitely should, and this is the place to go. My favorite is their Khao Soi. A section of Sunset by Dodgers Stadium that is home to some of the best tacos in the city. Here you are trying tacos from Tijuana, Guadalajara, and Los Angeles by way of Mexican kitchens.

Read one here that also links to the other. They are known for their El Pastor. There are vegetarian options here. There are vegetarian and vegan tacos. Tip if you can. A Taiwanese counter-service place serving classics with local ingredients. When: Daily 8:amPM. The bun and cucumber salad is on the menu from amPM.

Bar Ama concentrates on his Tex-Mex roots.

Here are the best restaurant deals we know of for the upcoming week. Plan your meals out for the best day of the week for a discount. Invite a friend along for The meal has to be right around $5. 2. We're looking for the best food the joint offers on a budget. It's not about the most food you can get From biryani to dumplings, dine well on the cheap with these dishes under $15 from our favorite L.A. restaurants

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Budget-friendly dining deals - $5 Duo with two wraps or burgers · $6 Chicken Fries and large fries · $5 double cheeseburger and small fries · $9 double Whopper and small fries Here are the best restaurant deals we know of for the upcoming week. Plan your meals out for the best day of the week for a discount. Invite a friend along for The meal has to be right around $5. 2. We're looking for the best food the joint offers on a budget. It's not about the most food you can get From biryani to dumplings, dine well on the cheap with these dishes under $15 from our favorite L.A. restaurants

Transform a can of pumpkin purée into a near-instant pasta sauce—no slow cookers here— that delivers major fall feels. Bonus: Leftovers will keep in an airtight container in the refrigerator for two to three days. With a generous layer of caramelized onions and plenty of sharp Gruyère cheese, this tart packs the depth of French onion soup into every bite.

The tofu in this cheap recipe absorbs all of the flavors in the sauce—and there are a lot of them: shallots, ginger, garlic, cumin, red chile, turmeric, coconut cream , and peanut butter.

It all becomes a sauce you have to make and see to believe. Crunchy fried onions transform a simple cabbage salad into a sensorial delight: hot and cold, crisp and soft, sweet and spicy.

Make sure to assemble it just before eating in order to capture those different textures. When the coffers are dry and so is the bread on the counter, this is the one.

This cheap meal requires just a few other ingredients, most of which are already in your kitchen. A garlicky mixture of ginger, soy sauce, brown sugar, and maple syrup cooks down until almost sticky in this riff on a Chinese-American classic sesame chicken.

An untraditional but logical addition to the sauce: tahini. You might be surprised by just how flavorful a combination of chicken stock, celery, and chickpeas can be. Garlic, red chiles, lemon, and fresh cilantro contribute to making it so—while still keeping it feeling clean.

If you can swing it, add a big pinch of asafetida for an extra savory note. Quick-cooking, budget-friendly, and pretty hard to screw up that dark meat is automatically juicier , chicken thighs are our default weeknight dinner—and this is our simplest way to prepare them.

These battered, oven-baked florets come out crackly before getting bathed in a sticky-sweet gochujang glaze. It means you have croutons. Ground turkey is a lean protein that, when simmered with white beans, seasonings, and chipotle chiles in adobo and topped with Greek yogurt, delivers major body and richness.

The key to stress-free stir-frying is in the prep work. Be sure to chop, slice, and grate everything before even thinking about turning on the stove.

Once you do, it comes together in 15 minutes. A little bit of flour and butter, garlic, lemon juice, and capers , and you've got a super savory supper.

Say that three times fast. This cheap recipe leaves out the smoked pork or turkey, which is typical in the American South, and goes heavy on garlic for flavor.

This all-star easy dinner recipe will work long after corn has gone out of season. In the winter, just sub in shaved cauliflower or torn kale. This soup packs in all the ingredients that would make your doctor happy—lentils, sweet potatoes, leafy greens—but the fiery Thai green curry paste keeps things interesting.

This Haitian meal consists of sos pwa nwa, black bean sauce enriched with coconut milk, served alongside mayi moulen, a creamy cornmeal porridge flavored with garlic and herbs. Nothing is cozier. This family-friendly weeknight dinner takes a cue from Japanese grilled chicken meatballs called tsukune as well as the glossy, sweet-and-sour sauce that comes with them.

A classic Italian pesto , this is not. Spinach, cilantro, and miso come together for this uber-green sauce, which dresses, of course, springy ramen noodles.

In this brothy beans recipe, caramelizing fennel, shallots, and lemon builds a base layer that is sweet, tangy, and bright. Tinned sardines add protein and a briny flavor. A beloved Hong Kong dish with approximately one billion variations, this soup—which relies heavily on fridge and pantry staples—is meant to be a little sweet and a touch sharp.

Its silky texture comes from blended potatoes and broccoli stalks rather than heavy cream. Well, this is the salad version, with noodles in addition to pink radishes , orange carrots, purple cabbage, and green cucumbers.

One head of cabbage goes a long way. This recipe, where wedges are bathed in turmeric-accented coconut milk until meltingly tender and sweet, uses just half of one to feed four.

The soul of this recipe comes from the ginger and tamari marinade that gives crispy tofu a sweet and savory glaze. We like to turn leftover tofu into tacos, for some Japanese-Mexican fusion. Toss roasted sweet potato wedges in a sweet and nutty tahini dressing for this quick vegetarian weeknight dinner.

And no, it will not break the bank. This budget meal is about turning leftover side dishes into something totally new. Nearly any roasted vegetable or cooked grain could be worked into a frittata using this method.

This looks like something that took hours in a crockpot to make, but in reality, the black-eyed peas soak up the flavors of an onion- and tomato-based gravy in under 30 minutes. Tuna salad deserves to be considered a dinner dish, not just a sandwich filling.

Let the pan-fried chickpeas and red endive in this recipe convince you. Pan-crisped and glazed sweet potatoes.

With hearty, almost meaty lentils. And pistachios. Purchase lasagna noodles, mushrooms, mozzarella, and Parmesan. The rest of the ingredients for this cheap dinner recipe are already in your fridge or pantry.

One style of cheap meals: recipes chosen with their leftovers in mind , making two meals out of one. For example, these ground beef meatballs and their tomato sauce make for a great hoagie filling the next day.

If you've already got miso in your fridge and don't want to spend on something new, you could use that in this stew recipe instead of gochujang.

It will be a whole different vibe, but a vibe nonetheless. Serve it with a poached egg and a slice of bread for a good cheap meal. Easy homemade tomato soup is an upgrade to the canned stuff, but we don't judge. Try pouring the soup directly over the sliced sandwich for an irresistible comfort food.

Consider this roast chicken your Sunday dinner. And then your Monday lunch, too. You can turn the leftover meat into pulled chicken sandwiches or a chicken noodle salad. Do not underestimate the potential of the often underrated legume, the lentil, a key ingredient when it comes to filling but cheap meals.

Our creamy, almost Alfredo pasta -looking stovetop mac and cheese is about as easy as opening one of those little boxes of shells and powdered sauce —but a lot more delicious.

Freeze half of these burgers to pull out during those times when you get the craving for fast food. Just add heat; you already paid. Mar Vista is amPM. As mentioned in: Where to Eat in Mar Vista. A greasy spoon steps from Sony Studios. As mentioned in: Where to Eat in Downtown Culver City.

Note: Great place to see celebrities since it is so close to Sony. They take cash only. I talk about great places I have eaten every month on my Newsletter. An Italian restaurant and cafe in Downtown Culver City serving Neopolitan-style pizza. As Mentioned in : Where to Eat in Downtown Culver City.

A New York-Style Pizza place steps from the Palms Expo Line Station. As mentioned in: Five Things I Have Been Doing During Safer at Home: Exploring Palms.

The place that started the food truck revolution in Los Angeles. Kogi serves a fusion of Mexican and Korean Food. When: There are several locations and food trucks traveling around, check their website, linked above.

When: Daily, but hours vary. Check out the hours on page two of this menu. As mentioned in: I was on a podcast. A neighborhood wine and cheese shop that just happens to have the best deli sandwiches in town.

There is a lot to choose from. Grab a half sandwich and chips and you are good to go. As mentioned in: Where to eat lunch in Hollywood. Los Angeles is well-known for its Southern Thai restaurants, but have you tried Northern Thai?

You definitely should, and this is the place to go. My favorite is their Khao Soi. A section of Sunset by Dodgers Stadium that is home to some of the best tacos in the city. Here you are trying tacos from Tijuana, Guadalajara, and Los Angeles by way of Mexican kitchens.

Read one here that also links to the other. They are known for their El Pastor. There are vegetarian options here. There are vegetarian and vegan tacos. Tip if you can. A Taiwanese counter-service place serving classics with local ingredients.

When: Daily 8:amPM. The bun and cucumber salad is on the menu from amPM. Bar Ama concentrates on his Tex-Mex roots. When: Super Nacho Happy hour is 5:PMPM Tuesday-Saturday and 4:PMPM on Sunday. The Grand Central Market has fed Los Angeles since It was a food hall before food halls were cool.

They have a wide range of vendors from all over Los Angeles serving dishes worldwide. When: The Grand Central Market is open a. to a. Check the website for times when these vendors are open. Smorgasburg is a weekly food festival in the Row in DTLA.

This is one of my favorite events in Los Angeles, but it can be expensive. Los Cochinitos — What is it? They specialize in pork tacos using all parts of the animal.

Correa Mariscos — What is it? Seafood tacos. The deep-fried ones are the ones they are known for. Smorgasburg also has promotional deals. Not an affiliate, just telling you extra ways to save money. It is his burger joint in Chinatown. Classic refers to the burger patty.

Note: I mentioned this burger being on my last meal list in my newsletter. It is also in my burger rankings. If you love food, you should subscribe to my newsletter. I talk about my favorite bites over the last month and create food related itineraries.

A Lebanese and Mexican mash-up by brothers from Oaxaca that cooked in Lebanese restaurants in Los Angeles. The best Pho I have had in Los Angeles. The menu is surprisingly huge. First, I want to say how sad I am that Elite had a fire; they were my favorite all-around dim sum in the city.