Budget-friendly dining establishments
New York City has a reputation for being one of the most expensive dining destinations in the world. Not me! And probably not you either. Because of that, New York City also has a variety of cheap eats, happy hours, and food deals that make it easy to eat in NYC on a budget.
This is definitely a place where you need to be in the know for a lot of these deals. There are thousands of restaurants in the city. How do you navigate them all? During the week, you can find countless oyster happy hours, which are one of the most popular things to do especially in the summer when you can sit outside.
Arrive early, as most restaurants fill up quickly and build up impossible wait times. My favorite and the best oyster happy hours in NYC are:. There are countless bottomless brunches, so it would be impossible to include them all here, but below are some of the most affordable and best value bunches in the city:.
NYC and pizza go together like white on rice. Below is a list of my favorite dollar-slice joints and a couple non-dollar slices just because they are that good :. Chinese dumplings are another one of the best value meals in the city because you can get huge plates of dumplings for literally just a few dollars and if you get them frozen for later, they are even cheaper.
This is the real deal here. Hot dog shops litter the street corners of New York. They might not be the healthiest meal but they are super cheap and make for a quick lunch. Though the hot dog has been around for centuries, the modern dog was popularized by Nathan Handwerker, a Jewish immigrant from Poland , living in NYC.
In , he worked at a hot dog stand at Coney Island. Here are the best hot dog shops in New York City:. They tend to be located near big parks like Central Park or Union Square, Midtown, or the big squares in the financial district.
Their cheap, quick eats are what we have for breakfast and lunch though many are around during the evening too. Sure, New York City has tons of delicious and expensive restaurants, but go to the supermarket, grab either a premade meal or ingredients to make your own, and head to one of the parks and eat outside.
Or back to your Airbnb to make your meal. Most supermarkets also have areas where you can eat inside too.
My favorite grocery stores in the city are:. Monday through Friday at lunch you get to choose a preset meal from thousands of restaurants. Think of it like a lunch menu at your fingertips. I love Manhattan. In other words, the bigger the group, the better. Montesacro has one of the nicest outdoor dining spaces in Williamsburg.
Even better, you can use it all year long as the big, plant-filled backyard is enclosed like a greenhouse during worse-than-LA weather. So no matter when you go, you can have a big outdoor pizza party a few steps from the Lorimer L stop. Although it'll actually be a pinsa party—Roman-style flatbreads with focaccia-like crust are the speciality here.
While we fully condone that, bringing a group to this Georgian spot in Chelsea will allow you to save enough room for a few plates of fist-sized Georgian dumplings as well.
We like Golden Unicorn and Jing Fong a lot, but we also know that we tend to lose our friends with short attention spans as soon as we walk through the door. For similarly excellent dim sum in a more low-key space, go to Dim Sum Go Go. Get one of the big round tables upstairs, and if you start to lose your easily distracted friends to the very long menu, just order a few samplers, which each have 10 types of dim sum, for the table.
Check out Ainslie, a three-floor beer garden serving pizzas, housemade pasta, and bar food in Williamsburg. Share a burger topped with prosciutto and a pizza with pancetta, or opt for the multi-course family-style dinner. Once you're done eating, get some drinks at one of the bars while a DJ plays until close.
Going to Urubamba, a Peruvian spot in Jackson Heights, with only one other person is like going to Easter Island and not seeing the giant heads. The caipirinhas are delicious, and they're worth feeling like the personification of the upside-down head emoji the next morning.
But no matter what you drink at this Brazilian spot in Astoria, a few things need to be on your table, like Brazilian-style beef jerky and moqueca packed with big pieces of tender fish.
During the week, this is a low-key place filled with dates and families, but on weekends, the space fills up with groups drinking giant towers of beer while live bossa nova plays in the corner. One of our favorite options in Manhattan is Peking Duck House.
Each portion will be grilled for you in the middle of the table and includes enough sweet and smoky meat for two people. It also comes with more than 10 types of banchan, from dried squid to sweet potato noodles, and as much rice as you want, all of which helps balance out the inexpensive bottles of soju and Korean beer.
The saucy, cheesy, doughy, Sicilian pies at this Gravesend institution are phenomenal. Upper West Side. We all have that one friend who always says yes to going out. This Upper West Side Mexican spot has palm trees covered in multicolored string lights, surfboards hanging on the walls, and a burrito called the Hang There are a lot of big bars that serve good burgers and wings, but few of them are as big or as good as Harlem Tavern.
Either way, order some food for the table, like build-your-own mac and cheese and a bacon cheeseburger topped with truffle aioli and avocado. Red Hook. Maybe you and your roommates just spent a couple hours at Ikea arguing about futons and shower curtain colors, or perhaps you were day drinking at a birthday party at Brooklyn Crab.
Get the tamales with mole and tacos packed with carnitas or lengua, and share some chips with spicy salsa and chorizo quesadillas. The menu at this Malaysian spot on Bowery is huge, but no matter what else you order, make sure to get the crispy, fried prawns with salted egg.
Considering all of the portions work for at least two people, you can eat a lot of fantastic food here for less than your average delivery order. Get the meat or vegan combo platter for the table, both of which come with unlimited injera—and don't forget about the kifto.
Dim Sum. Jing Fong's newer, single-floor space on Centre Street is much smaller than their previous seat banquet hall, but the dim sum is better than ever, and it remains one of the best destinations for all your dumpling-loving friends.
There are still roving carts with chicken feet, fried turnip cakes, and egg tarts, but none of these dishes ever seem like they've been sitting around for more than a few minutes. Trying to get into the downtown location of Han Dynasty with a group requires a long wait or impressive connections.
You can get the same great Sichuan food, including the phenomenal dan dan noodles, without the waits at their outpost on the Upper West Side. East Village. The two-floor Mexican spot in the East Village has margarita pitchers, inexpensive and enjoyable tacos and quesadillas, and most importantly, pitchers of very good and very strong margaritas.
Fortunately, the wait will be worth it, and there are plenty of bars nearby where you can hang out until your table is ready like Ramona for fancy cocktails or Brouwerij Lane for unusual beers. There needs to be more than one Hellboy on your table. We checked out these new restaurants—and loved them.
A fine-dining spot that feels like performance art, a Taiwanese dumpling destination, and more new restaurants to check out in the city's most populous borough.
The new restaurant openings you should know about. New York. What are you looking for? Perfect Fors. Subscribe Sign Up. let us help you make a decision. NYC Guide The Best Restaurants For Affordable Group Dinners Where to get dinner with a group when you want the food to be more memorable than the bill.
Team Infatuation July 11, THE SPOTS photo credit: Teddy Wolff ratings guide. Ugly Baby. Save to a list Website Phone Directions. Thai Carroll Gardens. Earn 3x points with your sapphire card. ratings guide. Michelada House II. Mexican Jackson Heights. photo credit: Emily Schindler. Save to a list Directions.
Palestinian Brooklyn Heights. photo credit: Adam Friedlander ratings guide. American Queens. Save to a list Website Directions. Korean Koreatown. Indian Astoria.
photo credit: Noah Devereaux. Peruvian Hell's Kitchen. RESERVE A TABLE POWERED BY. Island Shack. Save to a list Phone Directions. Caribbean Fort Greene. photo credit: Chris Stang. Bar Food Upper East Side.
photo credit: Ryan Muir ratings guide. Thai Woodside. photo credit: Teddy Wolff ratings guide. Ace's Perfect Pizza.
Pizza Williamsburg. American Brooklyn. Ayada Thai.
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