Assuming you've done your Christmas shopping this year — and even if you haven't — it's safe to say many of us are a little tapped out right now. Gifts, travel, expensive sequined outfits we'll wear to one holiday party and then never again — Christmas cheer doesn't come cheap. Balance the scales by checking out one of these above-average (and below-budget) DFW restaurants.
Pho Pasteur 2
Tucked into an unassuming Carrollton strip mall near a Cici’s Pizza and a Colombian restaurant, Pho Pasteur 2 serves stellar pho, bun and banh mi. With $5.50 Vietnamese spring rolls, $4 banh mi and $8.25 bowls of pho, two people can easily have lunch and spend less than $20. An added bonus: This place works fast, and you'll be back in holiday traffic gridlock before your café sua da buzz wears off.
Corn tortilla with melted cheese, cotija crumbles, sour cream and chicharron prensado at Aca Las Tortas
Nick Rallo
This East Dallas taco and torta spot serves from-scratch food at fast-food prices. For $8, fill up on flautas and a soda and be reminded that there is still great, inexpensive food in this city.
This massive chicken tikka wrap will only set you back $7.50.
Nick Rallo
Pardeep Sharma knows the audience at his McKinney Avenue restaurant Roti Grill. “Young people live in that area, and they’re on a budget. They cannot spend $20 on lunch,” Sharma says, chuckling. And that's why, even in the age of $35 pho, you can get a massive chicken tikka wrap for just $7.50.
A simple, unadorned lamb and beef gyro and a must-have side of fattoush salad are less than 10 bucks.
Nick Rallo
Is there anything better than fresh, delicious, cheap food that's also healthy enough to justify seconds? There is not, and the friendly Palestinian family that owns Food From Galilee knows that. At this Snider Plaza restaurant, you can get a lamb and beef gyro and a side of fattoush for less than 10 bucks.
