Best cheap eats in San Francisco to get more bang for your buck

A visit to The Argentum Project is a transporting experience. Charming Katerina and Dimitrios Kalessis welcome you with Greek hospitality and homemade sandwiches stuffed with souvlaki, grilled Greek cheese, roast chicken or prosciutto and fig jam and Greek salads, all around $10. Massive slabs of moussaka and pastichio are over a pound each and easily serve two, a bargain for $15. Be sure to try their savory pastries like hortopita or spanikopita, stuffed with cheese and greens. Seating is limited so it’s a particularly good spot for grab and go.

Newly opened on Valencia Street, this outpost is being warmly welcomed by fans of the Señor Sisig food trucks. The menu expands on the Filipino meets Mexican fare with five additional items, including the crunchwrap, a kind of crispy tostada inside a grilled tortilla and the sisig nacho-rrones made of pork rinds served nacho style. Most gut busting burritos hover around $11 and include Filipino style proteins such as pork, chicken or tofu. 

This small Northern Chinese dumpling shop in the Sunset fills with locals who can’t resist a beef noodle soup, jian bing crepes and stuffed, savory beef pancakes. An order of 16 Chinese cabbage-and-pork dumplings is a ridiculous bargain at under $9. It’s so much food you may end up taking some home. The restaurant also does a brisk business selling frozen dumplings and deli items such as marinated beef shank, cabbage and potato noodles, boiled peanuts and pig ears.

In addition to bargain priced Southern fried or Nashville hot chicken sandwiches for $11, Wes Burger has recently added smash burgers, $6.50 for a single patty and $9.50 for a double patty. These crusty, flavorful burgers are served fast food style, topped with a slice of American cheese, pickles and onions on a Martin’s potato roll. For another $5 you can get an order of his housemade tots. For little appetites or big ones, it’s a delicious deal, either way.

You don’t have to order your Japanese curry served over rice “volcano” hot, there’s also hot, medium or mild. While the basic “e-z” version comes with just vegetables, there’s also fried katsu chicken or one of the specials like ginger pork or fried oysters. At $10.50 rich curry with big chunks of potato and carrot is as comforting as a warm hug. This Richmond spot also offers bowls of noodles with beef, chicken or veggie curry, all for under $11.

HRD's self-proclaimed “global fusion food” is heavy on Korean-Mexican-Japanese mashups like the massive kimchee katsu burritos drowning in Japanese curry. There are also bahn mi wraps, sandwiches (get the bulgogi beef), salads and rice bowls—most hovering around $12 and large enough to take home leftovers.

Open for lunch only, Bini is famous for her scrumptious dumplings in turkey, vegetable or lamb, but at this spot you can also dine on Nepalese main dishes like Gurkha chicken and pork Chhoila for just $7. Bigger appetites will be satisfied with a $12 combination plate of a main dish, four momo dumplings and rice. Bini’s latest outpost is a bright and colorful corner space with plenty of seating.

This new family run spot offers a myriad of choices—start with a bowl and pick white, brown or sticky rice, garlic noodles or salad, then top with freshly grilled chicken, pork, short ribs or garlic tofu. Another option is their ingenious “sticky rice burger” on a bun made from compressed rice. Spicy mayo, tamarind and cilantro sauces and fresh greens make these bowls and burgers particularly noteworthy. Portions are large, the food is fresh and the prices, ranging from $7.75 for a pork or chicken burger to $12.95 for a short rib bowl are low.

Filipino food is known for being meaty but not at Nick’s. Here you’ll find Reina Montenegro’s vegan versions of classic dishes for breakfast and lunch including generous portions of lumpia, sisig, kaldereta and pancit for $10. Soy and wheat gluten versions of meat show up in breakfast silog dishes with scrambled tofu and garlic rice for $12. There’s a communal picnic table for dining on site. Montenegro encourages diners to bring their own reusable containers.

An affordable lunch downtown!? At Heyday, choose any small salad, soup or half-sandwich for $6.50 or two items or a toasty hot sandwich for $11.25. Dishes range from Moroccan chickpea quinoa salad to smoked rainbow trout over roasted eggplant puree on ACME toast. For a perfect break downtown, grab healthy, fresh salads or sandwiches and a can of wine, then head to Salesforce Park to lounge in the sun.