Eating in NYC does not have to be expensive. I love the food from small, mom-and-pop Italian delis. For instance, Dom's on Lafayette (closest subway stop is Prince Street??) sells excellent sandwiches. It's a lot better than Dean and Deluca which is 1.5 blocks away. I think there are other excellent small delis in Broolyn, the Bronx, Queens, and even in NJ.

I'm back and wondering where I'll get the newest cart food rage--Halal! It's chopped chicken with spices served with rice and a salad for $4.25 to 4.99. The best halal can be found at either Sammy's Halal or Rafiqui's. There are carts all over the place. I found mine walking along Broadway between Macy's and the Village.

Halal is not chicken. Well, it is chicken, but is also any (non-pork) meat that satisfies Islamic law's permissible standards for food. Think of it as kosher for Muslims. Since many of the NYC food vendors are Muslim, they often use halal meat.

I've been addicted to vietnamese sandwiches, which can't go wrong for $3 a pop. Unfortunately, pretty much the only places you can get them are downtown in the LES and Chinatown. I find myself occassionally running there from midtown during lunch hour!

The halal cart in front of the Hilton (6th & 53 st) is supposed to be very good.
http://www.chowhound.com/topics/409165

In Fodor's New York City 2008 (out August 28th) we named these cheap eats:

City Bakery
Financier Patisserie
MarieBelle
Nha Trang

Been to any of them?

I personally love Hampton Chutney in Soho.

Mooncake Foods is AMAZING!! It's a small Asian-inspired restaurant in the bottom of Soho that I order from at least 1-2 nights a week. Much of the menu is under $10, and they also serve interesting wine and beer. Great grilled salmon salad, spring rools, chopped steak sandwich, and wings.

Cheap eats in Manhattan are a thing of the past.

Just read Veselka, if you want to be full you will need to drop $10. not really cheap eats in my book.

I love City Bakery but they charge $5 for a cup of hot chocolate, $3.5+ for a cookie, again not really cheap eats. Don't miss it but most people with a bakery at home will not find them cheap. I spend a quick $12 for breakfast at their buffet.

McLaurie-The halal cart by the Hilton really must have a good reputation. I stayed at the NY Hilton a couple of weeks ago for a convention. The line at that cart was always long especially at night. My co-worker and I were walking back from a show one evening around 10:30 pm and the line must have had 30 people in it. It was one of those nights where a thunderstorm came up quickly. Right as we got close to the hotel, it started to pour. Those poor people in that line had nowhere to go but I am sure they still enjoyed there halal. The line at that cart was long every night.

As far as the Marketplace buffet in the NY Hilton, I will have to say that the food was better than alot of hotel restaurants. But I would never consider $18.75 for lunch cheap even when my company is paying for it.

I have to agree with the above recommendation of Chipotle. I'm not a fan of fast food -- stand in line and pick a table to sit at -- restaurants, but these places serve the BEST food, and so far seem so well run and spotlessly clean despite the constant rush and turnover.

Katie_H, I wouldn't consider <i>any</i> of the first three places cheap eats!! (Haven't been to Nha Trang.) They're all pretty expensive for their category. (Who writes these things? LOL)

City Bakery near Union Square and Financier Patisserie in the Wall Street area are both places I've gone for a &quot;splurge&quot; afternoon treat when I've worked in those areas. MarieBelle has some of the best - and priciest - chocolates in the city, and there are definitely less expensive options, even in SoHo.

Maybe these would be considered &quot;cheap&quot; to some at a certain income level - but not to your average NYer!

Another thing I like about Chipotle (besides the awesome-andidontthrowthatwordaround-food) is that they serve beer. Feels a lot less like fast food when you can a nice beer with your dinner.

I don't find the Financier to be cheap.

There's a place called Zeytuna on Maiden Lane that has great food. If you go in downstairs you can get anything you want from hot/cold buffet choices to sushi to a carving station. There's a large seating area where you can sit and eat your &quot;to go&quot; food.

For halal (aka street meat), the cart on Pearl Street near Wall has not killed me or anyone I work with yet.

&quot;. . .has not killed me or anyone I work with yet.&quot;

Wow, there's a statement that makes me want to rush right out and eat there.
LOL

I guess the term &quot;cheap&quot; is always in the mind of the person speaking, but to me &quot;cheap&quot; means under $10 a person totally inclusive. I realize that's pretty limiting, but otherwise I'd term it &quot;inexpensive&quot; not &quot;cheap&quot;. I just looked through my journal for my month in New York and Chipotle is the only one I found we ate at (twice) that came in under $20 for the two of us -- complete.

I'm kind of sad that so many of the suggestions people have given are of the franchised cheap eats variety. I love Chipotle and Cosi and the like as much as the next person, but there is so much other stuff out there in NY! I definitely think cheap eats in NYC are still alive.

I'm on a low budget, and I too generally define cheap eats as under $10, all inclusive. I'll put Veselka in the low-moderate category, since as someone said - you really have to spend $10+. There are a TON of Asian restaurants (chinese, malaysian, thai, vietnamese) where you can eat quite a bit of food (entree + app) for $10 inclusive. And I know a place that does korean-japanese all you can eat for $10. There's also Mamoun's Falafel, as someone said, halal food on the streets (my bro swears by 53rd/6th), places that do 3 glasses of wine and unlimited antipasto for $15 (cheap for what it is), the Shake Shack....

Cheap Italian: Il Corallo Trattoria (Soho)
also, Cucina Di Pesce (E. Village) - this used to have a $9.95 prix fix dinner, but I don't know if they still do.
Several cheap Indian in Little India (6th st between 1st &amp; 2nd Av)
Middle Eastern: Moustache (a few locations in the downtown area)
German: Lederhosen (greenwich Village)
Mexican: El Sombrero (lower east side, there are some similar in the this area as well)

I guess I too would welcome more suggestions that fit the bill and aren't &quot;chains&quot;, but when a chain does things so beautifully I have no reason to apologize for going there. I think the sad truth is that sometimes a chain (Chipotle) for example can offer a better end product simply because they are a chain. I'm not going to avoid it in favor of a mom and pop place that may cost more and not be as good.

The thing with many of the places that &quot;seem&quot; to be about $10, is that if they are sit down and tip places, you are immediately up to $30 for two by adding even a coke or iced tea, never mind alcohol.

By the way we went to Rice and Beans on 9th and 50th, often recommended as super &quot;cheap eats&quot;. By the time we came out &quot;dripping wet, by the way as there was no AC&quot; we had spent $40 for lunch, and had no alcohol. I don't think it fit the category I think of as cheap.

Just thought of 1 more. Ialian: Bella Vita (w. 43rd st) - they have individual and family size portions.

menus for most of these places can be viewed on menupages.com.

Agree City Bakery is a splurge for me too and I can never find anything I really like in there besides the sweets.

Spice on 8th ave -they have a good thai lunch special.

Eisenberg's Sandwhich Shop on 5th and 22nd is super cheap and they always have yummy pickles.

Rickshaw on 23rd has cheap dumplings.