Great Meals in New York for Under $20

The price of a regular New York dinner has quietly become a small car payment. A $20 meal is no longer the default; it is a skill. You find it at counters run by people who have made one thing for twenty years, in trucks parked under the 7 train, in basement kitchens with a steam table and a line of cab drivers.

This list is those places. Every entry lets one person eat properly, not snack, for under $20 before tip, and most leave change. We have left off the pizza, bagels and dumplings on purpose, because those have their own guides (see the best pizza slices, the best bagels and the best dumplings). What remains is a map of the city's real cheap cooking: tacos and tortas, hand-pulled noodles, roti and doubles, Thai curries, Ethiopian platters, Jamaican patties and one very serious vegetarian burger.

Prices change. Where we list a number, it comes from a current menu or recent reporting. Where we don't, the meal still clears the $20 bar comfortably.

Manhattan

Los Tacos No. 1

Chelsea · Chelsea Market, 75 9th Ave (plus several other Manhattan locations) · $

The Chelsea Market original is still the one to beat, a standing-room counter where the line looks terrible and moves fast. The adobada is the order: marinated pork shaved off the trompo onto a fresh corn tortilla, with a slice of pineapple if you ask. At $5.65 a taco on the current menu, three tacos and an agua fresca land right around $20. Get the corn tortillas, not flour, and skip the chips.

Go for: two adobada, one carne asada. Know before you go: the Times Square and Grand Central outposts are faster at lunch.

Xi'an Famous Foods

Various neighborhoods · Locations across Manhattan, Brooklyn and Queens · $

The chain that taught New York what hand-ripped noodles and Sichuan peppercorn could do. It started in a basement food court in Flushing and now has storefronts all over the city, which is either a success story or a warning depending on your mood. The spicy cumin lamb with hand-ripped noodles (N1 on the menu) is the reason it exists: wide, chewy, belt-like noodles, cumin, chili oil and enough lamb to matter. Pair it with the cumin lamb burger if you are hungry, and you are still under $20 at most locations.

Go for: N1, spicy. Know before you go: order online and pick up, since the dining rooms are small and turn fast.

Superiority Burger

East Village · 119 Avenue A · $$

Across from Tompkins Square Park, the vegetarian diner that moved into the old Odessa space in 2023 has become one of the most cheerful rooms in the neighborhood. The namesake burger is a veggie patty that tastes like it was engineered by someone who loves hamburgers, and it comes in under $20 on its own. The dinner menu gets more ambitious and more expensive; lunch at the counter is where the value lives.

Go for: the Superiority Burger and a scoop of whatever gelato or sorbet is on. Know before you go: reservations on Resy for dinner, walk-in for lunch. Our East Village guide has where to go after.

Punjabi Grocery & Deli

East Village · 114 E 1st St · $

For three decades this tiny vegetarian deli near Houston and First Avenue fed taxi drivers on their breaks around the clock. It went quiet for a few weeks in January 2026 and the neighborhood panicked. It is back, now open roughly 8 a.m. to 10 p.m. The move is a big container of rice with three vegetable dishes (dal, chana masala, saag, whatever is in the steam table) for under $10, eaten standing or on the bench outside. It is the best-value meal in lower Manhattan, full stop.

Go for: rice plus three, with a samosa. Know before you go: it is no longer 24 hours, so don't count on it at 3 a.m.

Veselka

East Village · 144 2nd Ave · $

The Ukrainian diner has been on this corner since 1954, and it went back to running around the clock on Fridays and Saturdays in April 2026. Pierogi are still made by hand, and a plate of four runs about $12, which leaves room for a cup of borscht and still clears the bar. Mix fillings: potato, short rib, farmer's cheese, sauerkraut and mushroom. Boiled or fried is a personal question; fried with caramelized onions is the right answer.

Go for: four pierogi, fried, with a cup of borscht. Know before you go: eight pierogi breaks $20, so stick to four and add soup.

B & H Dairy

East Village · 127 2nd Ave · $

A narrow old-school dairy lunch counter with a handful of stools, a menu older than most of the people eating from it, and soup that tastes like someone's grandmother is in the back. Challah French toast, blintzes, pierogi and borscht are all fair game. The Saturday tuna melt and soup special runs $18 and is the correct order if the calendar allows it.

Go for: a bowl of soup with buttered challah. Know before you go: it seats very few; come off-peak or take it to go.

Mamoun's Falafel

Greenwich Village · 119 MacDougal St · $

Open since 1971 and still the most reliable cheap meal on a block built for NYU students and people leaving comedy shows. The falafel sandwich is crisp, green inside, and costs well under $10, which leaves room for a shawarma or a second sandwich. Hit the hot sauce with some restraint; it is not decorative.

Go for: falafel sandwich, extra tahini. Know before you go: this location has been cash only, and it is open late, which makes it a strong move after a dive bar.

Spicy Village

Chinatown · 68 Forsyth St · $

A cramped Henan-style counter on Forsyth Street with a line out the door at lunch. The spicy big tray chicken is the order: bone-in chicken and potatoes stewed with Sichuan peppercorn and star anise, with wide hand-pulled hui mei noodles added underneath to soak up the sauce. It is built to share, and split between two people it stays well under $20 each. Add a scallion pancake for dragging through the bottom of the tray.

Go for: big tray chicken with noodles. Know before you go: closed Sundays. More nearby in our Chinatown guide.

Great NY Noodletown

Chinatown · 28 Bowery · $

A bright, loud Cantonese room at the bottom of the Bowery that has been feeding the city late into the night for decades. The three meat combo over rice ($11.50) gets you roast pork, soy chicken and crackly roast duck on a plate that could feed two. Order a bowl of wonton noodle soup on the side if you are with someone and you still leave under $20 apiece.

Go for: three meat combo, with ginger scallion sauce. Know before you go: shared tables are normal, and service is efficient rather than warm.

Beto's Carnitas & Guisados

Lower East Side · 69 Clinton St · $

A small, specific Mexican counter doing carnitas and slow-cooked guisados (stews) the way a family kitchen would. The carnitas torta ($13) is the one to get: crisp and tender pork piled into a soft roll, heavy enough to count as dinner. If you would rather eat tacos, the guisados rotate, so ask what's in the pot.

Go for: carnitas torta. Know before you go: it is a quick stop, not a hangout. For the rest of the neighborhood, see our Lower East Side guide.

Lechonera La Isla

East Harlem · 254 E 125th St · $

Puerto Rican roast pork done the way El Barrio has always done it: pernil with crackling skin, chopped to order and served over arroz con gandules. A full plate runs about $16, and it is the kind of portion that turns into tomorrow's lunch. Add a side of tostones and a bottle of malta.

Go for: pernil with arroz con gandules. Know before you go: mostly takeout; the best pork goes early on weekends.

Brooklyn

Taqueria Ramirez

Greenpoint · 94 Franklin St · $

A Mexico City-style taqueria with a short menu, a busy salsa bar and a trompo that never stops turning. The suadero is braised for hours in fat and spices until it basically dissolves, and the campechano (suadero plus longaniza) is the best single taco on this list. Three tacos and a drink stay under $20.

Go for: campechano, suadero, al pastor. Know before you go: after about 8 p.m. the suadero, campechano and tripa can sell out. Pair it with a walk through our Greenpoint guide.

Ali's Trinidad Roti Shop

Bedford-Stuyvesant · 1267 Fulton St · $

A Fulton Street takeout counter that has been making Trinidadian roti for more than thirty years and landed on the New York Times list of the city's 100 best restaurants. The roti skin is soft and flaky, wrapped around curried goat, chicken or shrimp with potato and chickpeas, and one is a full meal. Start with doubles, curried chickpeas between two pieces of fried bara, ordered with tamarind and a little pepper.

Go for: goat roti and a doubles. Know before you go: cash only (there is an ATM), takeout only, closed Sunday and Monday.

Defonte's Sandwich Shop

Red Hook · 379 Columbia St · $

Open near the Red Hook waterfront since 1922, originally feeding dockworkers, and it still makes sandwiches like the shift is about to start. Heroes are stacked with ham, salami, provolone, roast beef, fresh mozzarella and fried eggplant in combinations that make structural engineers nervous. A whole hero is easily two meals, so split one with a friend and each of you eats for well under $20.

Go for: a hot roast beef hero with fried eggplant and mozzarella. Know before you go: it opens at 6 a.m. and closes at 4 p.m., Monday through Saturday.

Bunna Cafe

Bushwick · 1084 Flushing Ave · $$

The best vegan restaurant in the city that never announces itself as one. Bunna serves Ethiopian food on injera, and the vegan-ness disappears into the berbere and the misir wot. For a solo meal under $20, the five-scoop platter ($19) lets you pick five dishes, with enough injera to mop it all. Groups should go for the larger feasts and share.

Go for: five scoops, including the misir wot and gomen. Know before you go: no reservations for small groups, and the coffee ceremony runs Friday to Sunday at 5 p.m. More in our Bushwick guide.

Queens

Birria-Landia

Jackson Heights · Roosevelt Ave at 78th St · $

The truck that made beef birria tacos a citywide obsession. Tacos are dunked in the red consommé, griddled and handed over with a cup of broth for dipping, starting at $3.50 each. Four tacos and a consommé is a complete dinner for well under $20. The truck under the 7 train is the original, and it runs until 1 or 2 a.m. depending on the night.

Go for: four birria tacos and a consommé. Know before you go: the line is long on weekends after 10 p.m. See our late-night food guide for what else is open when you get out.

Arepa Lady

Jackson Heights · 77-17 37th Ave · $

What began as a late-night street cart under the 7 train is now a small family-run counter, with a second outpost in an Astoria food hall. The arepa de queso is thick and fluffy with melted cheese inside, and the arepa de choclo is the sweet corn version, thin and buttery, folded over salty white cheese or your choice of meat. One of each, plus an empanada, is a proper meal for under $20.

Go for: arepa de choclo with queso. Know before you go: it pairs well with a birria stop a few blocks away.

Sripraphai

Woodside · 64-13 39th Ave · $$

The Queens Thai restaurant that set the standard for the city decades ago and still does. The menu is enormous, the heat is real if you ask for it, and most noodle dishes and curries land under $20 on their own. Go for the crispy watercress salad to share, then a green curry or drunken noodles with rice.

Go for: crispy watercress salad and a curry. Know before you go: closed Wednesdays, and weekend dinner means a wait.

Caravan Chicken

Astoria · 3501 Broadway · $

A counter built around grilled chicken, well-seasoned and smoky, served with rice and salad. The half chicken with rice and salad is about $13.50, which in Astoria in 2026 is a small miracle. It is the kind of place that turns into a weekly habit if you live nearby.

Go for: half chicken, extra garlic sauce. Know before you go: fast counter service, best for takeout.

The Bronx

Kingston Tropical Bakery

Wakefield · 4000 White Plains Rd · $

A Jamaican bakery along the 2 and 5 trains on White Plains Road, doing beef patties with flaky, turmeric-gold crust. The move is a patty stuffed inside a slab of soft, slightly sweet coco bread, about $6 for the pair. You can eat two for lunch and still come in under $15. Hard dough bread and bun to take home are worth the trip too, as our bakeries guide would agree.

Go for: beef patty in coco bread. Know before you go: it is a bakery counter, not a sit-down spot.

Claudy's Kitchen

Kingsbridge · 5981 Broadway · $

A chicken spot at the northern edge of the city with a Peruvian streak, the kind of place where the half chicken is the whole point. A half chicken with an aji de gallina empanada runs about $15. It is worth the trip up Broadway if you are anywhere near Van Cortlandt Park.

Go for: the half chicken and an aji de gallina empanada. Know before you go: plenty of families on weekends; takeout moves fastest.

How to use this list

Cheap eating in New York works best as a route, not a single stop. Pair two places close together: Taqueria Ramirez then a drink in Greenpoint, Spicy Village then Great NY Noodletown on a hungry night, Birria-Landia after anything in Jackson Heights. Carry cash. Go at off-hours, when the best stuff hasn't sold out and the lines are shorter. And accept that $20 is now the budget for a whole meal, not an entree. The places on this list still respect that number. Spend what you save on a nicer bottle at one of our natural wine bars.