Anonymous
Favorite Answer
Lunch generally costs less than dinner, so you can save money by having your big meal at lunch rather than dinner. You can get some delicious food for $6 in Chinatown for lunch.
Great hotdogs at Gray's Papaya - several locations - Greenwich Village on the corner of Sixth Avenue and 8th Street, and one on the Upper West Side on the corner of Broadway and 72nd Street. For $2.99 you get two delicious hotdogs and a fresh tropical juice drink - one hotdog is $1. It's self-service, so you save money on a tip (if you go to self-service restaurants or get take-out you don't have to tip.) If you are going with someone else, go to Katz's Deli on the Lower East Side - sandwiches are huge - big enough to share (again, sit in the self service section - the uptown delis will charge you for sharing.) Try a Cuban sandwich - roast pork, ham, cheese, pickles on pressed, toasted Cuban bread (Chelsea-Havana on Eighth Avenue and 20th Street makes a great Cuban - $4 for the small one and $5 for the big one). Try a Vietnamese hero sandwich called a bahn mi - Nicky's Sandwich Shop in the East Village on East 2nd Street and Avenue A -$4 or $5. The East Village has so many really inexpensive ethnic restaurants - you can eat lunch for $5 at one of the Philippine restaurants. There are several small places called Tortilla Fresca - you can get something very tasty for $2.
If you stay in a hotel with a fridge and a microwave, you get large take-out orders that will feed you for a few meals - big savings. Don't eat at places like McDonald's - there are much better and cheaper places to eat in New York. Eat pizza - it's cheap, filling and good. You can get a great burger for $5 at the Burger Place in Le Parker Meridian Hotel on 57th near Sixth Avenue (small, crowded self-service - all they have is burgers, fries, shakes). When you are in the East Village, get an order of fries (that's all they sell) at Pommes Frites on Second Avenue and 7th Street - you'll recognize it, by the giant paper cone of fries outside. These are really good - you can choose different toppings. A bowl of chili is filling and cheap. You can get a huge bowl of soup at Bos, a Chinese noodle shop on Eighth Avenue and 55th Street.
You can eat very well in New York on a budget.
Kitiany
There lots of inexpensive restaurants. For example, if you plan to go the Metropolitan Museum of Art, 3 blocks east, is Lexington Ave. Lots of delis and bakeries and coffee shops. If you go to the American Natural History Museum, one block west on Amsterdam Avenue, you also get many local restaurants.
Don't cheat yourself out of going to really nice cool places like the New York Public Library in Mid-Manhattan (the place with the lion statues) or Columbus Circle after seeing a Broadway play. Just have a cup of coffee and people-watch.
In New York City, it seems every block has a restaurant. The futher away from tourist places the less expensive it gets. You can go to a deli and get sandwiches or muffins or bagels and take it with you someplace else.
Food in Chinatown is usually cheap.
But remember, you are there to see a SMALL portion of NYC. I say that because it takes months to see a moderate portion of the city. Every neighborhood is unique. Bag a lunch to save money. For dinner, you can also buy food from a market or take the subway to Chinatown.
New York is also a great place to savor the finest cuisine in the world. I kid you not. New York's Chinese is better than Beijing or Hong Kong. Italian food in NYC can be exquisite. If you like Mediteranian food, there are some really good ones. Japanese food can be awesome (but not to the caliber as Tokyo or Kyoto). Pastries, go to Venieros in Greenwich Village -- have a chocolate Napolean and a cup of cappuchino.
Tell us where you want to go, and I will try to give the names of inexpensive good restaurants nearby. Also provide what does "inexpensive" mean to you -- dollar amount for lunch and amount for dinner.
Anonymous
My favorite is Tasty Dumpling on Mulberry Street in Chinatown. Very small place, but it has been written up in numerous magazines and newspaper articles. It's just north of Worth Street and has a wide variety of dumplings all for very, very inexpensive prices.
There is also Carmine's on 44th Street between 7th-8th Avenues, right in the middle of Times Square. Prices for this restaurant's Italian food are great & you great huge plates worth of food.
And last & certainly not least is Cabo Rojo on 10th Avenue between 24th-25th Streets. A little off the beaten path, but this restaurant has been rated by the New York Times. A wonderful restaurant specializing in Puerto Rican dishes. Norma and her staff will treat you like family.
Anonymous
McDonalds
Lynda
Subway Sandwiches - we plan to try that when we visit in June.