The best cheap eats in Miami for a budget-friendly meal out

What do President Obama and Guy Fieri have in common besides a silvery head of hair? They have both tried (and given a hearty thumbs up to) this famous frita. Ortelio Cardenas, aka El Mago, serves a ground-beef patty on a Cuban roll and piles it with shoestring fries, which are sliced so thin, they clump together and become a crunchy potato hash when fried.

The fact that the city’s best diner has a dish that’ll cost you just 10 bucks is downright shocking. The fact that it’s also one of the best breakfast plates in town, well that’s revolutionary. The plate is exactly what any hungry Miami chef would want before a shift: three eggs, herbs and white rice, all spiced with Sazon Completa, just like everyone’s abuela used to do.

The Sicilian-style square slices at Eleventh Street are big enough to fill a damn plate, with tons of ingredients crammed onto perfectly puffed dough. And the ingredients here are top-notch: This slice comes with organic Bianco DiNapoli tomatoes, mozzarella cheese, roasted red onion, Calabrian chili paste, hot honey and a generous dotting of pepperonis that have crisped up in the oven to become glorious, crunchy little cups.

Yes, you should save up your hard-earned cash to watch some of the best steak of your life cooked right in front of you at one of the hard-to-get tables at Cote. But we’re talking birthday or anniversary money. So in the meantime, hit the Michelin-starred Design District spot from 5-7pm for its Magic Hour menu, available daily at the bar. It includes sweet-tangy chicken nuggets, lobster fritters and Korean bacon with pickled jalapeno, all for $8.88. Best of all, select cocktails and wines will set you back no more than $8.88.

I’m tempted to simply recommend the entire menu at Enriqueta's, where not a thing clocks at two-digits, even the massive plates of Cuban food or the pressed sandwiches. But if forced to pick just one thing, let’s go with Wednesday’s special, a pile of rice and chicken that’ll feed a pack of truck drivers. 

Taquiza remains my favorite taco spot in Miami, despite inflation pushing the price of their tacos near the $20 mark. But luckily the quesadilla here are still just $8, even though it’s damn near perfect, made from earthy blue corn, crema, cotija spilling out and going crispy on the plancha, squash blossoms fanning out prettily. 

Your favorite downtown cocktail bar serves up a $10 sandwich that combines everything you loved about the classic sloppy joe and Cuban picadillo. Owner Randy Alonso dreamed it up by creating a meat stew of onion, green bell peppers, tomato sauce, green olives and seasoning, served on a potato roll. Yeah, you’re going to need some napkins.

Slightly drunk at 2am? Already starving by noon? Sandwicherie is the place to fill up on the cheap at all hours. Most of its regular subs clock in under $10, including the stellar combo of turkey and brie, dressed up however you want it. At La Sandwicherie, that includes just about any veggie you can imagine, right down to gherkin pickles and, of course, lots of magic sauce.

The pho and Vietnamese banh mi sandwiches are reason enough to come to Tran An, although they clock in just above our cheap-eats cutoff. Choose between broken rice, cold vermicelli noodles or hot mixed noodles.

Sanguich’s emphasis on fresh, house-made ingredients has earned this Little Havana spot a well-deserved reputation as the creator of some of this city’s tastiest sandwiches. The medianoche is basically a Cubano (city ham, lechon, swiss cheese, pickles and mustard), but sub in a sweet bread that gives it a depth to match all that richness.

A proper Chicago dog on Biscayne Boulevard? It exists! And it’s a delicious compromise if you don’t feel like wolfing down one of Dogma’s foot-long beef dogs (also well under $10). Keep in mind this place is outdoors during the hot summer months.

Few places feel more Miami than El Palacio, a mini-chain you’ll find around Dade where various food vendors come together to offer mostly traditional Cuban dishes. Most everything here won’t cost you much, but I’m a fan of the Croqueta Preparada, essentially just a Cuban with croquettes stuffed inside, adding a crispy and gooey texture to an already near-perfect sandwich.

Not all drunk food needs to be eaten at four in the morning; some late-night meals are good enough to scarf down during the light of day, like the El Peppe slice at Pizza Tropical, Gramps’ walk-up window serving New York-style slices and pies. Crispy and thin, the oversize slice is topped with ribbons of real, fresh basil and crunchy pepperoni discs. The handy meal is the kind of thing you can grab and eat in between exploring Wynwood’s vast graffiti landscape.

The dim sum stand inside the 1-800-LUCKY food hall has a whole lot of items worthy of this list, namely BBQ pork buns and chocolate wontons. But no single item says lazy Sunday dim sum quite like the soup dumplings, which come four to an order for just shy of nine bucks. Yes, you’ll try to wait, you’ll poke a hole and let the steam seep out, but you will still annihilate your mouth in the most delicious way. 

You can feed a small army with just one of Naomi’s meat and twos. The Haitian menu is made for first-timers trying the cuisine, laying out the classics and letting folks pair their proteins with the sides of their choosing. Goat is a popular choice but you can’t go wrong with the baked chicken. For less than $10, Naomi hooks you up a traditional combo with a half chicken, a mound of peace and rice and collard greens. It’s a satisfying meal with guaranteed leftovers to do it all over again the next day.

The locally bred mainstay that got its start on the-then mean streets of Wynwood has now spread out to five locations in South Florida and even internationally. But luckily two of Coyo’s Pollo al Carbon tacos are still just $9 and topped with queso mixto, pico de gallo, salsa fresca and cilantro. Come on Tuesdays and that pair of tacos are half priced, which means a double order might be a smart bet.

Tourists beeline to the Little Havana restaurant to taste it, and locals know to trust Versailles to make one of Miami’s best Cubanos. Built with superior-quality ingredients—sweet ham, roasted pork, Swiss cheese, pickles and just a squirt of yellow mustard—the traditional sandwich on Cuban bread is made fresh to order and served hot. Splurge on the special for an extra buck; it’s bigger and stuffed with more of the good stuff.

At a time when smash burgers are everywhere, including fancy sit-down restaurants, this Edgewater spot distinguishes theirs with never-frozen grass-fed beef patties. That adds up to a beefier burger dressed simply with onion, pickles, American cheese and “smash sauce.” This is a damn good burger for under eight bucks. 

Millennials took a lot of grief from boomers over spending mortgage money on putting avocado on toast. But the reason trust funds went empty due to this dish is that it’s good (also because it’s so damn photo-worthy). Carrot Express does a fine version for the kind of dough that won’t clear out your bank account, with smashed avocado, crumbled feta, and red pepper flakes on sourdough toasted until it’s crispy.