The best cheap eats under $15 in Los Angeles

One of the long-standing heroes of the old-school taco trucks (a.k.a. loncheros), Mariscos Jalisco has earned a deservedly loyal and devoted following. Their signature tacos dorado de camarón, or shrimp tacos ($2.50), are far from a secret, but they live up to the hype with flavorful and fresh shrimp folded into a corn tortilla that is then fried to a golden brown and topped with thick slices of avocado and a vibrant and complex salsa roja. Other dishes, such as the towering, seafood-packed Poseidon tostada ($9.50), are also worth an order, but who can resist filling up on those crispy shrimp beauties? Note: These trucks are cash-only.

There are countless affordable taco trucks in L.A.—hell, that’s pretty much what we live on—but $2.25 al pastor taco at Leo’s is a classic budget meal at its best. The small tortillas come with pork carved straight off the trompo along with a sliver of pineapple, and if you stop by the trucks after dark, you’ll also be getting dinner and a show for that price while the taqueros slice and toss pork and pineapple into their tortilla-packed palms. One won’t be enough, but even with four or five tacos, you won’t break $15—and with 11 different truck locations to choose from, chances are there’s a Leo’s near you.

It’s easy to get caught up in the flashier new restaurants and pop-ups in Chinatown, but the neighborhood is rife with decades-old classics—many of which offer affordable and delicious meals at all hours. My Dung is one such spot, a Vietnamese sandwich shop at the intersection of Broadway and Ord with crates of also-affordable fruits and vegetables in a rainbow of colors to supplement their bánh mì in a range of options. The sandwiches are sizable and only $6 apiece, with fillings such as grilled pork (sausage), chicken, pâté, or pork with skin, and they all involve cilantro, jalapeño, shredded carrot and pickled radish on a crusty French loaf. Make it a meal by adding a bottle of fresh locally made soy milk ($1.50) or some fresh fruit and you’ll still find yourself below $10. Just note: This spot is cash-only.

“Budget-friendly” describes every item at chef Vivian Ku’s Highland Park staple, where Taiwanese noodle bowls, scallion-bread sandwiches and wontons all ring in at around $9 apiece. It’s impossible to go wrong with anything here, but the thousand-layer sandwich is undeniably one of the restaurant’s best—and at $9 for the works, it’s a deal. It starts at $6 for plain, but you can add cheese for $7, and at $8 you can fill it with egg. For $9 it comes fully loaded with egg, cheese and purple basil, which mingle with hot sauce at the center while a warm thousand-layer pancake folds around them for a handheld lunch or dinner that’s filling, nostalgic and totally unique.

Noree Pla and Fern Kaewtathip, the chefs behind one of L.A.’s best restaurants, have pulled off another feat of Thai gastronomy in the form of this cafeteria-style steam table concept located a few doors down from their original, critically acclaimed Hollywood restaurant. Look beyond the no-frills interior for flavorful curries, meat dishes and hard-to-find specialties you aren’t likely to find at your average Thai restaurant. To keep things interesting, the exact selection rotates on a weekly basis, though certain items like Phuket-style soy-braised pork belly and an excellent Thai-style iced tea, sold by the bottle, are always available. On my visit, I particularly enjoyed the fried hard-boiled eggs in tamarind sauce and yellow sour bamboo and fish curry.  Just be aware Luv2eat Express doesn’t play around with spice levels, so grab some napkins before you dig in; you’ll very likely need to blow your nose after your meal.

While everything at this Chinese American café in Koreatown is relatively inexpensive, it’s the braised pork belly rice that offers a wealth of flavors for well under $20. The mound of white rice underneath will fill you up, while the fatty soy-braised pieces of pork pack maximum umami flavor into each hearty bowl. Throw in a Hong Kong milk tea (hot for $4, iced for $4.50) and you’re still shy of the $15 mark. With the pastry case and weekend-only French toast, however, we personally tend to go overboard a little here—but you’d walk away quite happily with any of the tea drinks and a simple rice bowl at Liu’s.

Everything—truly everything—is flavor-filled and worth an order at Thai Town's Northern Thai Food Club, but the restaurant’s khao soi is the platonic ideal of this curry noodle dish, and at only $13 with all the bells and whistles, it’s a great deal. Choose between chicken drumstick or beef, then slurp your way through a creamy coconut curry soup laden with flat, perfectly chewy egg noodles. Dress it up with the side of lime wedge, sour mustard, shallots and crispy noodles to add acidity and even more texture. While you’re there, don’t neglect the Northern Thai spicy pork sausage—also priced at $13—brimming with fresh herbs.

Even on weekdays, a line of would-be diners can form well before opening time at this longtime Temple City mainstay. Red 99 specializes in Shanghainese cuisine but executes Sichuan, Cantonese and even Hunan-style dishes with surprising speed and technical finesse. The $12 all-day special includes Shanghai’s famous red braised pork belly, listed on the menu as “braised pork in brown sauce,” and includes rice and miso soup. Just be sure to steel yourself for a wait if you can’t arrive early; the restaurant opens at 11:30am for lunch and 5pm for dinner.

After a year of street vending next to Radna Silom, Malai Data’s amazing boat noodle soup pop-up has found a permanent home just five minutes’ walk from its original location. Step into the bare-bones space for $8.49 bowls of the best boat noodle soup we’ve ever had. Bits of carefully prepared green onions, pork cracklings, bean sprouts, meatballs and your choice of mixed pork or beef offal arrive in each traditionally small bowl. There’s also larger $16 bowls of tom yum noodle soup if you're feeling extra hungry, plus an expanded menu that includes pad thai, krapow and housemade Isaan-style sour sausage. For dessert, order the kanom tuay; the delicate steamed pandan-coconut custards are the perfect way to cap off an affordable meal here.

Though it easily breaks the $15 threshold with toppings, we still think Shin-Sen-Gumi’s original noodle bowl belongs on our list. Ramen often starts as an inexpensive dish, but when the usual egg and chashu get added, plus extra noodles the price can climb well toward $20. At Shin-Sen-Gumi, the Hakata ramen starts at $12.50 and already includes the best accoutrements: chashu, green onions, sesame and red ginger in a rich pork broth, enough for a complete meal on its own. Add-ons start at $1.75, so even if you tack on extra noodles, some corn or some wakame, you still won’t break the bank.

With tax and tip, this dish sends you over the $15 mark, but the huge portions and flavorful blend of spices, meat and basmati rice at Zam Zam Market in Hawthorne earn this family-run Pakistani eatery’s fiery chicken biryani a top spot on our best of the best cheap eats list. One order can easily feed two or three people, and comes peppered with whole spices and bone-in pieces of chicken (caution: eat with care). Each dish also contains a large piece of boiled potato—an ingredient distinctive to Karachi and India’s Lucknow and Hyderabad. After a few bites, you might feel like your mouth is on fire—so make sure you use some of the tangy cilantro and mint-inflected raita that comes on the side.

In the narrow, high-turnover spaces that line the ground floor of Sawtelle’s One Westside shopping center, the newest player to enter the ring is Tigawok, a Chinese fast-casual concept powered by automated woks, a.k.a. “robot chefs.” (In reality, they look more like washing machines.) Each tiny, snack-size bowl costs between $3 and $6, with 18 unique entrées to choose from. As of writing, lines already form early and last throughout the day, with diners happy to line up for fairly well-executed, affordable Chinese cuisine. On my visit, I tried every single item on the menu (a feat that requires only about $85), and while not every dish won me over, I would recommend Hunan spicy beef, “Tiga cola” chicken and any of the vegetable sides, as well as the soy-braised Wagyu rice bowl and astonishingly good soup dumplings. Where Tigawok does distinguish itself, however, is on cost—and at a time when dining out is more expensive than ever, I’m more than happy to come back. For those in the Valley: A second location in Burbank is opening in the near future.

This modern-looking Glendale eatery specializes in its namesake, an oiled Armenian flatbread filled with over a dozen different herbs that’s a regional specialty in Artsakh, a politically contested Armenia-Azerbaijan border region also known as Nagorno-Karabakh. Without butter, the dish is entirely vegan. With or without, however, the zhengyalov hatz are light and delicious; each bite tastes like spring. The shop’s minimalist menu also offers one other item: paxlava, a regional iteration of baklava. Drinks-wise, among other beverages, you can also order Armenian coffee, glass teapots filled with spiced and herbal tea and their housemade okroshka, a tangy yogurt drink packed to the brim with dill and cucumber.

Some of my earliest San Gabriel Valley dining memories date back to this local chain (Monterey Park, Rowland Heights, San Gabriel and Oak Park), beloved by the Chinese diaspora across Los Angeles for its tantalizing counter full of cold items, which includes chilled seaweed, smashed cucumbers, pork kidneys, pork ears, chicken feet, wood ear mushrooms and more. You can choose up to three generously portioned items per plate for  takeout or eating right on the spot, and even if you choose three meat items the total will set you back just $15.42 once you factor in sales tax.

Pull up a tray because you’re going to want a little bit of everything at Marugame Udon, the cafeteria-style Japanese udon emporium that’s popping up all over L.A., including Downtown, Sawtelle and Glendale. The fresh noodles get pulled to order and made before your very eyes, then slid into your choice of broth. Regular portions start as low as $5.95, with the most expensive large portion of nikutama (thinly sliced beef) topping out at $15.95, but the real gems here are the fried tempura bites hovering around the dollar amount, with a half-dozen or so options hitting the fryer at any given time. Pick your noodle bowl, then add à la carte tempura, eggs, meats and chilled accoutrements to build your perfect meal.

Made with rich ghee instead of oil or margarine, the flaky Judeo-Spanish treats at this Sherman Oaks kosher takeout window are worth coming from out of the way. Open every day but Saturday, chef Uzi Wizman and his wife Gal Ben-goya lovingly churn out these oblong pastries and fill them with your choice of feta and spinach, mushroom and truffles, ricotta and za’atar or brown butter potatoes, plus a $10 powdered sugar and chocolate option for dessert. Served with pickles, eggs, tomato pulp and red zhoug (hot sauce), one order of boureka makes for a hearty meal for one or a lighter snack shared among two. Tip: Skip the line and order ahead by calling 818-688-4588—you’ll breeze past everyone else waiting for their food, especially on Sundays.

When you want tasty handmade and inexpensive dumplings, Mama Lu’s Dumpling House is the go-to. The Shanghainese mini-chain with locations in Chinatown, Monterey Park and Rowland Heights is beloved for its pan-fried dumplings and its beef rolls, but the most prized option of them all is the xiaolongbao, or soup dumpling. Here you can get 10 plump, meaty dumplings for $13; with skin tender but sturdy enough to contain the ground pork and broth, it’s a solid example of the style and a delicious and filling deal. The eight-piece pan fried pork dumplings are also a steal at $10.50.

For roast chicken purists, there’s no better place in Los Angeles than this Peruvian rotisserie specialist at 8th and Western, where the Maekawa family has served wood-fired birds for nearly three decades. The skin is always crisp and smoky, the green aji sauce delivers the perfect amount of heat and the budget-friendly prices ensure a delectable chicken meal is never too far in the future. Over the years, the chicken at Pollo a La Brasa has won over several local chefs, including Mozza’s Nancy Silverton and Jar’s Suzanne Tracht. Not convinced? Just look at the lines that form daily of Angelenos hungry for chicken, perhaps with a side of salad and fries.

Where else can you eat some of L.A.’s freshest seafood with a view of the ocean for under $15? A local icon since its launch in 1972, Malibu Seafood is one of PCH’s top meal meccas for locals and visitors alike. Half market, half restaurant, the tiny shack serves steamed, grilled and deep-fried shellfish, salmon, squid and more, and you can always expect stellar quality (it is owned by commercial fishermen, after all). You can snag fried oyster, shrimp or fish sandwiches for only $9.95, but our order will always be the crispy, rectangular battered-and-fried white fish on a bed of thick fries—at $11.95 for a one-piece meal and $16.95 for two pieces—with a seat on the top deck for the best view in the house.

Sometimes you have to pick a side, but when it comes to all-around cost efficiency, we have to give it to Philippe’s over Cole’s in the French dip war. The iconic sandwich shop has been selling beautiful, meaty French dips at its current location since 1951, where you can still snag the iconic roast beef served on a French roll dipped in au jus. The roast beef is the classic, but for $11.50 you could also have your pick of roast pork, turkey or ham. (If you want to splurge, the pastrami will run you $12.95.) Adding your choice of cheese only costs somewhere between 50 cents and a $1, exact pick depending, but your meal still makes the under $15 cut if you’re going classic. Of course we wouldn’t fault you for going over budget with a slice of their famous pie, either, and we definitely recommend bringing home a bottle of their famous spicy mustard ($5.95).