Cheap Food in New York City

Obviously, New York is not known for being a cheap city. Of course, every city, no matter how expensive, has places you can eat on a small budget. Here are a few of my favorite, super cheap meals I had in NYC.

Street Meat

The term “street meat” is used to describe a variety of meat dishes sold from food carts around the city. Items include things such as gyros, meat and rice, hot dogs, and whatever other kind of meat you can buy from a cart.

The carts all look the same. In fact, most of them use the same stock photos on their trucks, so you’ve got to look at other factors to decide if its worth eating. A long line is always a good sign, but in my case, I based my decision solely on smell. When I walked past this cart, my tummy just rumbled. I was on my way to The Beast, so I couldn’t stop just then, but I found that even hours later, when we passed it again, I still craved it. Pedro and I went ahead and ordered a lamb gyro for him and a chicken and rice meal for me. The prices were slightly higher than some carts (I believe the total was around $14 with a knish and 2 sodas tossed in) but the portions were large and the food was quite tasty. You can find a meal similar to this basically anywhere in the city, and you can fill up for around $5-10 bucks.

Pizza

This is obvious, but it’s still worth noting. You can find pizza for as little as 99 cents a slice. Generally, you might want to fork out an extra 50 cents to a dollar for a more quality slice, but the dirt-cheap option is probably still pretty good. A lot of places also have combos that allow you to get 1 or 2 slices of cheese with a soda for a discounted price. My first New York City pizza experience resulted in two absolutely massive slices of pizza and a soda for $2.50.

The dumplings, oh my God, the dumplings

Really, any chinese is going to be pretty cheap, and if you get it in China Town, it’s going to be extra good. I fell absolutely in love with a place called Tasty Dumpling, which was a part of a NYC Food Tour I went on. We loved the perfectly pan-fried pork and chive dumpling so much, that we went back for lunch on another day. Pedro and I split 15 dumplings and two sodas for $6.75. You read that correctly, a delicious meal of 15 freshly cooked dumplings and 2 beverages and all we shelled out was a mere $6.75. If I lived in New York, I’d probably eat at this place once a week.

You can find this place on 54 Mulberry Street in China Town. It’s hidden away under an old building with cool fire escapes. It’s tiny, and generally packed, but it is not to be missed.

And if my ravings didn’t convince you, maybe their price list will:

So if you are broke and hungry in New York, you now know you have plenty of tasty options.