About Cheap Eats

Cheap eats are fairly easy to find; fast food, gas stations, pizza buffets. Finding cheap eats that could be considered real cuisine is more of a challenge. However, good food does not have to mean expensive food. Try one of these five options for finding the tastiest cheap eats in the local area.

Culinary Schools

Culinary schools offer exquisite and modern cuisine at an incredibly discounted price tag. For the ultimate in cheap eats, a culinary school is the way to go. Students prepare all the meals so there are no employee costs that are passed on to the consumer and the meals are from professionally trained chefs so the quality is almost always excellent. Meals typically cost slightly above food costs to help support the school in addition to covering food costs.

Grocery Stores

Many grocery stores now boast impressive deli areas that reach far beyond the cheeses and cold cuts of yesteryear. Modern grocery stores frequently provide fresh and quality foods like dolmas, sushi and a variety of salads. Most of these grocery stores also sell several hot food options that are surprisingly tasty. The best part is that they are incredibly cheap eats. Check out several grocery stores in the area to find these great cheap eats.

Lunch Menu

Lunch menus are like the matinee of the restaurant world; same experience, earlier in the day, for a fraction of the price. Most restaurants offer the same food on the lunch menu as they do on the dinner menu. The portion sizes of the lunch menu are typically a bit smaller than dinner but the prices are cut in half. This cheap eats option is best if a certain restaurant is intriguing but you are unsure if their dinner menu is worth the lofty prices they are asking.

Cafes

Cafes and bistros provide fresh and seasonal meals that are typically the best foods in a local area. Many of these cafes and bistros purchase produce food directly from local farmers and ranchers. Food costs are kept low by keeping limited supplies on hand to ensure that the food stock is continually kept fresh. Thanks to their food model, the prices are also kept low making many cafes and bistros tasty cheap eats.

Finding Local Cheap Eats

Often there are a few precious gems in the local area that offer delicious cheap eats. Discovering these cheap eats is the trick. Ask friends and co-workers if they are aware of any great deals. Check the local newspaper for telling ads. Often restaurants will place a small teaser menu to entice customers. Lastly, if a restaurant looks intriguing, just walk in the door and ask to look at a menu. If it looks good and the price is right, then you may have just stumbled upon another tasty cheap eats.

Internet Resources

When looking for cheap eats while traveling, seek out the advice of the locals and fellow travelers. Websites like Yelp allow a traveler to read restaurant reviews from many major cities. Additionally, each city's restaurant review page ranks the top cheap eats of that city. AOL also features, "City's Best Cheap Eats," for 40 major United States' cities. Using Internet resources to find the best cheap eats is a great way to ensure that the dining experience will be supreme (see Resources below).

Resources

• Check out Cheap Eats on Yelp
• Review AOL city's best