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NYC Cheap Eats
31
items Every neighborhood in New York City has a secret cheap eats scene, and this list exists to map all of it. Hole-in-the-wall noodle spots, $1 oyster happy hours, taco counters, old-school delis, pizza by the slice, and sit-down restaurants with weekly ... whenever they feel like it.
Map
Sections
2
Kips Bay/Gramercy/ Murray Hill
East Village
Kips Bay/Gramercy/ Murray Hill
This no-frills Pakistani and Indian counter spot on Curry Row is the kind of place cab drivers eat at every day, which is always the right signal. Samosas start at $1.99, and if you want something more substantial, the combo platters with kabab, curr...
Haandi (113 Lexington Ave)
A classic NYC slice shop doing exactly what a slice shop should do: hot, cheesy, no-drama pizza at prices that make Manhattan feel manageable. Buy-1-get-1 deals run regularly, so check before you order. Salads and appetizers round out the menu if a s...
Garlic New York Pizza Bar - New York, NY - 629 2nd Ave - Hours, Menu, Order
Reviewers call the guacamole good and the tacos on point, which is genuinely all the endorsement a taco spot needs. A rare legit Mexican option in a neighborhood that could use more of them, priced the way tacos should be priced. Fast, satisfying, an...
Street Taco | Kips Bay
A casual spot known for fragrant biryanis (especially goat), haleem with stewed meat, and radioactively red chicken 65 from Chennai. The kitchen covers a big swath of Indian cooking fast, from chaat to Punjabi to Indo-Chinese. Many items under $10.
Hyderabadi Zaiqa (184 Lexington Ave)
Gramercy's go-to affordable pizza counter, and the hot Italian heroes deserve as much attention as the slices. A fully loaded sandwich for not a lot of money is genuinely useful to know about in this neighborhood. Two offers usually running at any gi...
Bravo Pizza | 257 Park Ave S
1915 Lanzhou Noodles
The spot for when one person wants pizza and another person wants pasta and nobody wants to compromise. Specialty pies, hot sandwiches, and pasta all at prices that stay reasonable; rare for this stretch of Murray Hill. Family-friendly and group-frie...
Libretto's Pizzeria
One of Yelp's top-10 cheap eats picks for Kips Bay in 2026, and the reviews back it up: fast, generous, and exactly what you want when you need a filling grab-and-go that won't disappoint. Classic Mediterranean done right, with the kind of roasted fl...
NYC Menu | Gyros, Bowls & Salads
Murray Hill finally got a great bagel shop in 2024 and it came from the legendary Whitestone original. Bagels made on-site: puffy, thin-shelled, subtly sweet with malt flavor. The smoked fish sandwiches are loaded in the best possible way and comfort...
Utopia Bagels | 120 E 34th St
$12 pasta at a sit-down Italian restaurant in Manhattan. That sentence should not be possible, and yet here we are. The deal runs at lunch daily and comes back for dinner on Mondays and Sundays, with options that include gluten-free. Happy hour runs ...
Fumo (415 3rd Ave, Kips Bay)
The $1 oysters alone are reason enough to know about this place. Happy hour runs Monday through Friday until 7pm and all of Sunday from 3pm to close, which is one of the longest windows in the neighborhood. Mondays get $10 all-day food and drink spec...
Sundays Well (360 3rd Ave, Kips Bay)
A modern Irish pub with a genuinely good happy hour: Monday through Friday 4-7pm with discounted draft beers, house wines, craft cocktail specials, and two shareable small plates for $18. The Spice Bag has been called the best in NYC by the Irish Dai...
Tara Rose | 384 3rd Ave, Murray Hill
Eight hours, every weekday, no asterisk: 11am to 7pm Monday through Friday, with $7 Stella, $8 Goose Island IPA, and $8 for an espresso martini, spicy margarita, or Aperol spritz. Those are cocktail prices from about 2015 and somehow still happening ...
The Crooked Knife | 540 2nd Ave
Pressed tin ceilings and wood beams in a proper saloon room, with $6 bottles, $7 hard seltzers, $8 drafts and wines, and $10 cocktails Monday through Friday 4-8pm. The weeknight deals get better: Monday is a Caesar, fries, and a martini for $25; Tues...
The Gem Saloon | 375 3rd Ave
$10 cocktails, $6 cans, $6 drafts from 3-8pm Monday and Tuesday, and from noon to 7pm Wednesday through Friday. Plus half-price bottles of wine starting at 4pm every day. That wine deal is genuinely buried and genuinely good. Vaulted arch ceilings, l...
Banc Cafe | 431 3rd Ave
Open since 1959, making it the oldest Mexican restaurant in New York, with a rotating Cocktail Hour Tuesday through Sunday from 4-6pm. Specials post to their Instagram story rather than a fixed menu, so prices vary — but chips and salsa land before y...instagram.com/ElParadorCafe
El Parador Cafe
$6 select drafts and domestic bottles, $9 wine, $10 wells, and a $15 cheeseburger or buffalo chicken with steak fries and a beer. The food deal alone makes this worth knowing. The bonus: behind a bookcase in the back is an emerald-walled speakeasy wi...
Happy Hour Menu | Ernie O'Malley's
No happy hour needed: $7 pints and $21 pitchers all day, every day, open 11am to 4am. Taco Tuesday is three tacos and a Tecate for $15. Game day is 16 wings and fries for $25. A permanently fair price beats a temporarily good one, and this is the bes...
Fitzgerald's Pub | 336 3rd Ave
The self-described "In-N-Out of the East Coast" and honestly the comparison holds up. A single cheeseburger is 100% fresh beef, American cheese, grilled onions, pickles, and house sauce on a Martin's potato bun. $10, no drama, no gimmicks. Double it ... burger meat chopped over fries with cheese and house sauce for $10. Fair warning: the Kips Bay location is tiny with just a small counter, so most people grab and go.
7th Street Burger
Happy hour until 8pm every weekday and until 3am on Sundays, which is either the most generous or the most dangerous policy in Kips Bay depending on your self-control. The Factory 380 does a different weekly deal every night: $25 all-day food and dri...
The Factory 380: Best Happy Hour in Midtown NYC | Drink & Food Specials
Sophra Grill at 535 3rd Ave is the kind of place that makes you feel like you discovered something. Turkish and Mediterranean done with real care: cold mezze like hummus and babaganoush from $8.75, gyro sandwiches on house-baked bread from $13.50, br...
Sophra Grill
A $12 burger, fries, and a soda. A $14 burger, fries, and a free beer. Both available Monday through Friday until 7pm at The Globe Bar, 158 E 23rd St, which might be the best lunch deal in Gramercy that nobody talks about enough. Beyond the specials ...
The Globe Bar
The $13 weekday lunch special at Blue Haven East might be the most underrated deal on 3rd Ave. Monday through Friday 11am-3pm, dine-in only: a full BH Burger, buffalo chicken sandwich, veggie burger, BLTA, caesar salad, cobb salad, disco fries, butte...
Blue Haven East
East Village
Every taco is $5, every cut is pork cooked low and slow in lard, and you pick your piece — maciza (the classic mix), costilla (rib), or buche if you're feeling adventurous. Three tacos and a Mexican Coke is a full dinner for under $20 in one of the p...
Carnitas Ramirez | 210 E 3rd St
Specializes in California burritos — the kind with French fries inside, which is either a revelation or a scandal depending on who you ask. One of the most affordable dining options in the East Village, with most burritos comfortably under $15. Ask a...
Electric Burrito | 81 St Marks Pl
Not a budget dinner spot, but one of the East Village's best-kept happy hour secrets: $3 quesadillas and $5 beers at the bar on weekdays. If you've been doing a lot of walking-and-eating and want an actual seat with something cold in your hand, this ...
Rosie's | 29 E 2nd St
Founded by Davis Ngo, who grew up working in his family's Chinatown banh mi shop for nearly three decades, Xe May brings serious sandwich craft to St. Marks. The Hog: grilled pork, scallion oil, fried shallots, this is the one reviewers keep coming b...
Xe May Sandwich Shop | 96 St Marks Pl
The walk-up window on the corner of 7th and 1st that launched a 19-location mini-chain; and the original is still the one worth the wait. A single cheeseburger is $6.50: thin-smashed beef, griddled onions, pickles, house sauce, Martin's potato bun. D...
7th Street Burger | 91 E 7th St (the original)
Operating since 1971, which makes it older than most of the East Village "institutions" people talk about. The falafel sandwich: crunchy chickpea falafel, hummus, lettuce, tomato, tahini in a pita; runs around $6-7 and has been the same reliable orde...
Mamoun's Falafel | 30 St Marks Pl
Hand-rolled, kettle-boiled, baked fresh on wood planks daily since 2011; watch them do it through the open kitchen. The menu runs over 40 house-made cream cheese flavors, from cucumber dill and scallion to birthday cake and dulce de leche, which is e...
Tompkins Square Bagels | 165 Ave A (flagship)
Open 24 hours, seven days, since 1974; Anthony Bourdain called the egg cream "superb," which is still the best endorsement a candy store has ever received. The egg cream (milk, seltzer, chocolate syrup, no shortcuts) is the reason it's a landmark. Th...
Ray's Candy Store | 113 Ave A