Susie

Hi there. My boyfriend and I are travelling to NYC in August and have heard that food is extremely expensive. Is it possible to eat well on a budget or are we destined to dine on bagels and fruit? Can anyone recommend relatively cheap (but preferably not nasty) places to eat (and no McDonalds thanks!!) in Manhattan? Any help would be really appreciated!

Connie

Just how cheap are you looking for? NYC has restaurants of all price ranges, but you have to give us something to work with. Are you looking for a $5 dinner or a $15 dinner?

suzanne

Food is NOT extremely expensive in Manhattan - that is a myth. You can get a better meal here for $10 or $20 than you can in most areas of the US.

You'd have to be specific on type of cuisine, cost, and location if you want someone to recommend a restaurant, as there are over 10,000 restaurants in NYC.

xxx

You can eat cheaply easily in NYC.
Anywhere in Greenwich Village,Soho,Little Italy,CHinatown ,there are places that are good and not expensive.
Try doing a search,cheapeats in NYC.

Mike

Your best source of NYC restaurant info will be the message boards at chowhound.com but you'll have to tell them type of cusine, neighborhood and budget. NYC can be expensive but it also has a high desity of quality affordable restaurants.

Rachele

You can eat amazingly well in NYC on the cheap. For a weekend lunch, hit Little Italy -- most of the restaurants on Mulberry Street have outdoor dining and excellent dishes for $5 - $9. Chinatown is cheap all the time, for lunch or dinner --- try places on Mott or Pell Street. My husband and I often eat there for dinner for $25 for the two of us. We live in the East Village and there are tons of reasonably priced places to eat MaryAnn's for Mexican on 2nd Ave. and 5th St. or Bennie's Burritos (very inexpensive) on Ave. A at 6th St., Frank for Italian (not cheap - moderate and amazing food) also and 2nd Ave. and 5th St., great sushi at Sandobe on 11th St. between 1st and 2nd Aves., super cheap Indian on 6th St. between 1st and 2nd Aves., and lots of reasonable eastern european coffee shops (pierogis), falafel places, pizza places, etc... The Lower East Side (below Houston) has a lot of new, reasonable and interesting eateries too (try El Sombero on Stanton and Ludlow, but be careful of the margaritas -- they are powerful). Enjoy the most diverse (and really reasonable if you make the effort) restaurant town in the world. E-mail me if you have any other questions.

Diana

I just got back from 10 days in NYC and had a good and inexpensive restaurant at Cafe Espagnole on Bleecker St in Greenwich Village (around Thompson, I believe.) For $10 at lunch (I'm not sure if it's just during the week or on the weekends also) you get a glass of sangria, soup or salad (and we had a BIG bowl of delicious black bean soup), bread, flan with whipped cream, and ANY entree on the lunch menu that was priced under $10. You can eat indoors or outdoors.

Susie

Thanks for the help everyone, I was thinking of a budget of about $20 - $30 for the both of us, not fussy about type of cuisine as we will try anything once, and not fussy about location either as we intend to visit as many neighbourhoods as possible. I was just after some ideas such as Rachele's and Diana's and I will definitely look at chowhound.com as Mike suggested.

Thankyou!

C

Yes, some of the most expensive places to eat can be found in NYC, but there are thousnads of places (no joke).

Walk down Mulberry St in Little Italy on night, and you can get stuffed for $40 for two. Or jump into any place on McDougal St and eat. Or go to to the third ave in the 30's and there are tons of places. The list goes on and on, and on........

Feel free to ask for other places.

suzanne

Just topped an old thread for ya. Great suggestions.

Susie

What about Little Korea & Midtown, are there any reasonably priced eateries around there? And would we need reservations for most places?

Thanks again everyone.

JK -NYer

In MIDTOWN, if you want an Inexpensive Lunch/Brunch , I suggest BLOOM's on 41st and Lexington. Its Delicatessen style with Enormous sandwiches, good quality food, and very reasonable for the portions they serve. They also have great breakfast specials- No reservation necessary. Their dinners are only OK, nothing fancy-still cheap.

ALSO in Midtown: try JT's-Italian/American Grill on Madison & 41st. This is a Bar/Grill with "Italian" influences (i.e. pizza, pasta, etc.) - not too pricey at all, even for Dinner, no reservation necessary.
A bit south of Midtown, on 7th btw. 27th & 28th, there is the Ginger House which has halfway decent chinese cuisine and very nice decor for reosonable prices - but I would only go here for chinese food if you are in that area.
Gee, the list goes on....
JK

Hope

You can always to to Zabar's on Broadway and 81st to get some inexpensive yummies to go --knishes, bread, pastry, etc. Also, Ray's pizza is pretty good at $1.95 a slice.

Have a great time!

patty

There are lots of fairly inexpensive, and yet wonderful, places to eat on Ninth Avenue, between 57th Street and - I was going to say 42nd Street but these days you can go below 42nd. Many are ethnic - lots of Mexican, Vietnamese, Thai, Indonesian, Indian, etc. There's Island Burgers, Rachel's, Vynl, Sandwich Planet, etc.

Postal

My favorite deli near Times Square is Cranberry Gourmet on West 45th Street between Sixth and Seventh Aves. Breakfast, lunch, or dinner, we never spent more than $20 for both of us. Don't miss the great buffet they set up at lunchtime!

suzanne

I recommend Evergreen Shanghai for cheap eats...I occasionally go to the one on Broadway and 10th but there is also one in Midtown at 10 E. 38th St. (bet. 5th & Madison Aves.). My friends and I ate a gut-busting amount of dumplings, sushi rolls, cold noodles, and scallion pancakes (these are incredible here), and it only came to $15 per person. That included a round of beer AND a huge tip!

lisa

6th Street between 1st and 2nd Aves for delicious and ridiculously cheap Indian food. BYOB.

Susie

Wow, this is brilliant guys. Methinks now the only sightseeing we'll get to do is when we walk from food place to food place!!!

Kelly Rae

Le Bonne Soupe is fantasic and very inexpensive. It is off Broadway and 52nd? Not sure of the street but you can look it up on Citysearch.com You can get French soup, salad, bread, a glass of wine and dessert for around 14 dollars each. They also have excellent fondue.

Donna

If you watch carefully, you'll notice that many convenience-type stores have large buffets to go - sort of like a salad bar, but with a huge array of hot and cold offerings. We've found the food to be excellent and cheap. These are especially handy late at night, when you've had a late lunch, you're tired, and would just as soon head for your room with some really good food. Or, if it's a beautiful day and you're not far from one of the many beautiful parks. There are also "coffee shops" all over with inexpensive meals, especially good breakfasts.