Looking to get food in Vegas without breaking the bank
March 5, 2019 2:02 PM Subscribe
I'm spending a few days in Vegas later this week and I'd love food recommendations!
My budget is ideally $7-10 an entree at most (I only drink water and I'm good without appetizers.) I can do a few meals that are more expensive, but above $20 is pushing it. I'm much more interested in grab-and-go type eating than sit-down service with a waiter, and searches for cheap eats turn up the latter, which is what brings me here.
I'm not a foodie and I'm just as happy eating 7/10 food as I am eating 9/10 food.
I've heard buffets are great but I haven't heard any specific recommendations and I suspect they're in the more expensive bracket.
Local is best, but regional is exciting too (I'm from the Midwest so West Coast chains are going to be new to me!)
I'm going to spend a day on Fremont and a day on the strip, so recs for both are good.
Thanks so much!
I'm not a foodie and I'm just as happy eating 7/10 food as I am eating 9/10 food.
I've heard buffets are great but I haven't heard any specific recommendations and I suspect they're in the more expensive bracket.
Local is best, but regional is exciting too (I'm from the Midwest so West Coast chains are going to be new to me!)
I'm going to spend a day on Fremont and a day on the strip, so recs for both are good.
Thanks so much!
Best answer: Three came to mind.
Off the Strip: PublicUs, a hipster joint that had nice brunch and lunch options. More than $10 but definitely less than $20.
On the Strip: Secret Pizza at The Cosmopolitan. Not a secret in the least, just purposefully hidden out of view. It's only place on the Strip that I know that's sub-$10 and still caters to my secret desire to be hip in Vegas. And just remembered at the last second, Tacos el Gordo has a location in Vegas.
posted by galleta monster at 2:16 PM on March 5, 2019 [1 favorite]
Off the Strip: PublicUs, a hipster joint that had nice brunch and lunch options. More than $10 but definitely less than $20.
On the Strip: Secret Pizza at The Cosmopolitan. Not a secret in the least, just purposefully hidden out of view. It's only place on the Strip that I know that's sub-$10 and still caters to my secret desire to be hip in Vegas. And just remembered at the last second, Tacos el Gordo has a location in Vegas.
posted by galleta monster at 2:16 PM on March 5, 2019 [1 favorite]
Best answer: On the strip, the LINQ Promenade has a bunch of places I go to when looking for some combination of convenient, fast, and relatively affordable. I'm particularly fond of Flour & Barley-Brick Oven Pizza. There's an In-N-Out Burger there if you want to try the west coast obsession (overrated in my opinion), but it's in your budget and to-go mindset. Avoid it at peak mealtimes unless you want to stand in line for a while.
If you're fine with meal salads, some of the drug stores along the strip have them and they're good bang for the buck. If you have a mini-fridge, you can grab breakfast stuff there too and reallocate breakfast funds to a nicer dinner. You're going to be hard pressed to hit $7/meal otherwise other than fast food, but you can do fairly well at $15 if you do takeout and avoid a tip by doing so.
If you go off-strip, some of the Taiwanese delis will stuff you for not very much money but then you have to factor in transit cost if you don't have a car.
Secret Pizza is good is good but can be slow.
New York, New York used to have a few places in it that were good and cheap, but I've not been there for a decade so that may have changed.
posted by Candleman at 2:22 PM on March 5, 2019
If you're fine with meal salads, some of the drug stores along the strip have them and they're good bang for the buck. If you have a mini-fridge, you can grab breakfast stuff there too and reallocate breakfast funds to a nicer dinner. You're going to be hard pressed to hit $7/meal otherwise other than fast food, but you can do fairly well at $15 if you do takeout and avoid a tip by doing so.
If you go off-strip, some of the Taiwanese delis will stuff you for not very much money but then you have to factor in transit cost if you don't have a car.
Secret Pizza is good is good but can be slow.
New York, New York used to have a few places in it that were good and cheap, but I've not been there for a decade so that may have changed.
posted by Candleman at 2:22 PM on March 5, 2019
There is an In-N-Out Burger on the Strip now; that ticks all your boxes (Cheap! 10/10! Regional! Take out!).
posted by Homeboy Trouble at 2:23 PM on March 5, 2019 [4 favorites]
posted by Homeboy Trouble at 2:23 PM on March 5, 2019 [4 favorites]
Best answer: On the Strip, Shake Shack at NYNY is really good (miles better than In n Out, don't @ me). Inside the Cosmopolitan, in the Block 16 food court, there's both a Lardo and a Pok Pok Wing, both of which are reasonably priced and fantastic (disclosure: I live in Portland where both restaurants are based, and thus am biased).
On Fremont St., Pizza Rock (a block off the Fremont St Experience) does pretty good slices, and I can't remember the name of it but there's a Mexican restaurant right by the entrance to Slotzilla that is pretty solid as well.
posted by pdb at 2:39 PM on March 5, 2019 [1 favorite]
On Fremont St., Pizza Rock (a block off the Fremont St Experience) does pretty good slices, and I can't remember the name of it but there's a Mexican restaurant right by the entrance to Slotzilla that is pretty solid as well.
posted by pdb at 2:39 PM on March 5, 2019 [1 favorite]
Best answer: In Fremont, both great vegan options but likely still delicious to omnivores, albeit with casual table service: the vegan menu at Nacho Daddy was excellent (I am still dreaming about the Vegan Loaded Nachos), as was the food at VegeNation. We also stopped by the local food coop (which I cannot for the life of me find the name of online right now) near Fremont Street and Vegenation, and they had a bunch of hot and cold salad bar/deli options that you could grab and take to go.
posted by stellaluna at 2:55 PM on March 5, 2019
posted by stellaluna at 2:55 PM on March 5, 2019
Best answer: Ocean One ticks your boxes, though it’s sit down.
posted by OneSmartMonkey at 3:10 PM on March 5, 2019
posted by OneSmartMonkey at 3:10 PM on March 5, 2019
Best answer: If you like Mexican food, there are three Tacos el Gordo locations in Vegas, including one off of Fremont. They are counter-service tacquerias putting out truly excellent food, though there is often a line. Very worth looking into if tacos are your thing.
posted by lhputtgrass at 3:27 PM on March 5, 2019
posted by lhputtgrass at 3:27 PM on March 5, 2019
I'm going to second Nacho Daddy. It was one of the better -- and cheaper! -- meals I had on the Strip (and yeah, they have other locations). I am glad I went there.
I personally found most of the food in Vegas, especially along the Strip to be ... mostly adequate. Nothing I had was bad but nothing was extraordinary, especially for the cost (I'm used to DC-area prices which ... are not the cheapest). I don't eat meat, though, so it may be different if you do.
posted by darksong at 4:30 PM on March 5, 2019
I personally found most of the food in Vegas, especially along the Strip to be ... mostly adequate. Nothing I had was bad but nothing was extraordinary, especially for the cost (I'm used to DC-area prices which ... are not the cheapest). I don't eat meat, though, so it may be different if you do.
posted by darksong at 4:30 PM on March 5, 2019
Las Vegas has a lot of great Hawaiian food. Just go on Yelp and find someplace convenient to you that looks decent and not too fancy. Expect a low-key atmosphere and a massive plate of meat-and-starch deliciousness for under $15—some places under $10.
posted by musicinmybrain at 9:02 PM on March 5, 2019
posted by musicinmybrain at 9:02 PM on March 5, 2019
Container Park has a few restaurants/take out spots with prices in your range (mains/sandwiches $8 - $15, mostly above $10 though). I've only been to Simply Pure, which I liked (it's vegan and mostly raw, so may not be up everyone's alley), but there are lots of other places.
posted by snaw at 4:16 AM on March 6, 2019
posted by snaw at 4:16 AM on March 6, 2019
Flock and Fowl is legit. They have a 1/2 price app happy hour.
posted by RobotVoodooPower at 7:11 AM on March 6, 2019
posted by RobotVoodooPower at 7:11 AM on March 6, 2019
IIRC, there is a really delicious and affordable little soup / sandwich / pastry place at The Paris. JJs Boulangerie, I do believe.
posted by Jacob G at 10:59 AM on March 6, 2019
posted by Jacob G at 10:59 AM on March 6, 2019
This thread is closed to new comments.
The buffet at Excalibur is not expensive and has medium quality food, but it may have inched over $20. If you usually pay for breakfast, you can do a brunch buffet on a weekday and knock out two meals for one price.
posted by soelo at 2:16 PM on March 5, 2019 [1 favorite]