Atlanta Magazine :: Cheap Eats

If ever there was a time to celebrate Atlanta's bounty of thrilling and affordable dining options, this is it. From marvelously gloppy burgers and sublime roast chicken to crisp Indian crepes and a Mexican variation on pizza, we've compiled a guide to bargain bites in thirteen neighborhoods and metro-area towns—so you can save money on driving as well as on meals. In addition, check out our tour of Buford Highway's exotic delicacies, an ode to two meat-and-threes, smart strategies for dining out with kids, and proud declarations of love for seven fast-food joints.

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5/1/2009 Eat Cheap! 76 discoveries from Duluth to Decatur DOWNTOWN Hall of Fame: Rosa’s Pizza Rosa’s midday scene is one of the truest urban eating experiences in Atlanta: Fall in line with the quickly moving trail of office workers, call out your order to a cook as you pass the pizza ovens, and scarf down your cheese slice ($2) or meatball sub ($5.75) in the scruffy, congested, and energizing dining room. 62 Broad Street, 404-521-2596, rosaspizza.net. New Classic: Calypso Cafe Brown stew chicken ($8.50), correctly braised and revealing a swarthy depth of flavor, says volumes about the care with which this kitchen cooks Jamaican standards. For a lighter take ... Read more
5/1/2009 Her Way on the Highway Chistiane Lauterbach reveals ten favorite Buford Highway morsels Traveling up and down Buford Highway with a few dollars in my pocket is a pleasure I can still afford. My obsession with ethnic dining didn’t start out of economic necessity, but in these tough times, it is great to know that sandwiches, snacks, French pastries, and even sushi will cost me a fraction of what I would have to pay in tonier neighborhoods. I know that not everyone is as comfortable as I am with unfamiliar food, but this handy cheat sheet will tell you what’s what on the street and help you discover untold treasures at rock-bottom prices.... Read more
5/1/2009 Happy Meals Thrifty dining with tots in tow Dining out with a family of young children requires strategy to curtail cost and avoid chaos. Consider the following six tactics. As a mother of two (with a third on the way), I draw on restaurant examples not far from my own Oak Grove vicinity, so use these spots as jumping-off ideas for destinations in your own community. » For persnickety eaters, head to the local pasta joint. With more than a dozen pasta shapes and as many sauces, Figo—with four outposts around the metro area—is flexible and safe. If someone doesn’t want pasta, try a chicken panini. Motivate your ... Read more
5/1/2009 Two's Company Among the meat-and-three crowd, a pair to celebrate (and squabble over) Among the many possible romantic musings about Southern food, the phrase “meat-and-three” can evoke an especially placid meditation. It conjures endearingly spare dining rooms—some with a cafeteria line in the foreground, others providing brisk table service. Their menus may rotate specialties by days of the week, or be fixed unalterably, but they act as the custodians of fortifying, regional dishes—fried and/or smothered chicken, red-sauce-slicked meatloaf, black-eyed peas, turnip greens, and pie or cobbler for dessert. Sweet tea is compulsory. As a believer in this genre, I fervently hope that meat-and-threes survive the realities of the marketplace. However, I must also ... Read more
5/1/2009 Eight Under $8 Think of Douceur de France’s tourte au poulet as a comforting Gallic potpie: Chicken, mushrooms, Swiss cheese, and a creamy béchamel-based sauce are encased in light, tawny phyllo. $7.25. 367 Glover Street, Marietta, 770-425-5050, douceurdefrance.com. Choosing from among the zany, brainy conceptions at Richard Blais’s Flip Burger Boutique, we keep it local with the Southern burger—a deep-fried patty spread with pimento cheese and green tomato ketchup. $8. 1587 Howell Mill Road, 404-352-3547, flipburgerboutique.com. You can order Jamal’s Buffalo Wings by the dozens for a game-night crowd, but a ten-piece order of crunchy nibbles doused in hot sauce quells the munchies ... Read more
5/1/2009 Fast-Food Confessions A sizable number of quick-service chains make Atlanta their corporate home. And who among us doesn’t have a predilection, whether secret or overt, for some sort of fast-food indulgence? We asked area chefs as well as Atlanta magazine staffers to confess some of their locally based favorites. Three Takes on a Landmark I have been going to The Varsity since I was a boy with my grandfather and dad. I have taken my kids down there to experience the same thing. Four generations of my family have eaten there. For some reason Coca-Cola seems to taste better there. It must ... Read more