This St. Johns food cart is one of the more underrated Mexican spots in the neighborhood, stuffing burritos with tangy adobo-marinated pork and whole chiles rellenos. Burritos live in the $9 to $11 range, while most tacos are $2; the cart even offers breakfast options like $12 chilaquiles and huevos rancheros. The cart is home to an indoor seating area, for those who want to dine there.

Spitz is a bit of a lesser-known Mediterranean food empire in Portland, franchised with locations throughout the West Coast. Offering a modern take on the cuisine, Spitz’s only Portland branch on Killingsworth stuffs wraps and gyros with crunchy veggies, smoky doner kebab, and zesty sauces for $13.50 and $10.25, respectively. Sides like the stacked street cart fries and Doquitos (“think Mediterranean taquitos, but better”) could easily serve small groups, and the bowls often end up becoming leftovers thanks to the healthy portions. Although Spitz is a popular takeout destination for locals, it also has a full bar onsite, making it a cheap place to grab a drink, as well.

From the team behind Afuri Ramen, this casual katsu sandwich shop serves crispy-fried meats and burgers on house-made shokupan milk bread. The grab-and-go nature of Tanaka’s counter service makes it easy to choose your own adventure (and budget); options range from savory vegetable curry buns and pork sausage croissants from the pastry case or stacked $13 pork cutlet sandwiches. If you’re especially hungry, you might benefit from the combo option, which tacks on savory sides like togarashi-seasoned Brussels sprouts and a fountain drink for an extra 6 bucks when you order any breakfast item, sandwich, burger, or nuggets. If you go for the katsu nuggets as a combo, you’ll stay under $15.

The local Mexican restaurant group started as a food cart on 50th and Division, and now has five locations across Portland, including food carts and restaurants. Every Gorditos location is casual and counter-service, and none of them break the bank, serving dishes like a $10 tinga burrito stuffed with chicken and grilled onions. It’s not just for meat eaters, though — Los Gorditos also has a sizable vegan menu at each spot with a variety of protein options to satisfy all diets.

One of the city’s most lauded smash burgers may also be one of its least expensive. This mini-chain of food carts smashes its Painted Hills beef patties with a cast-iron press for ultimate char, slathered with sauce and American cheese; a single burger clocks in at $6, with a $4 “junior” option. Add fries for $4 and stay at $10 or less for lunch; the cart also offers similarly inexpensive things like $6 rockfish sandwiches and $5 chicken nuggets.

KPub Grill complements its neighboring pod Park the Carts well, offering equally low prices for stacked servings of killer Korean dishes. KPub has barely changed its prices since 2019, serving chicken bulgogi with rice, banchan, and house-made kimchi for just under $11. Bibimbap sports the same price, along with most of the appetizers. For something even less expensive, hearty portions of pajeon (scallion pancake) and mandu (dumplings) are less than $10. 

This Northeast Couch Chinese restaurant specializes, of course, in bao, fluffy steamed buns stuffed with curried chicken, sweetened red bean, and juicy pork. One $3.50 bao is filling enough for a snack or light lunch, but a steamer basket of three is only $10. For something even heartier, the zha jiang mian noodles, wonton soup, and congee all clock in under $12.

The number of conveyor belt sushi restaurants in Portland is frustratingly small, especially in an era of COVID-influenced dining. Sushi Ohana, however, has maintained the integrity of this dine-in-centric style of cuisine, offering stacks of rotating California rolls, nigiri, and tempura. Thanks to the classic five-tier pricing style, it’s easy to spend less than $12 while dining in, since even the “priciest” plates of higher-quality fish remain less than $5. During the busier lunch and dinner rushes, the trays are loaded, making it possible to get a meal in less than 30 minutes.

This micro counter-service restaurant in the hip, industrial Zipper complex serves a mammoth fried-chicken sandwich for $11; the crispy behemoth is one of the best versions of the quintessential sandwich in Multnomah County. For those who want some spice in their lives, the Nashville-style hot chicken comes decently close to the real thing, served searingly hot on a thick slice of white bread with pickles, also for $11. Vegetarians will save a buck with the fried tofu sandwich, a honey brioche bun layered with crispy tofu, cabbage slaw, and buttermilk sauce.

This Vietnamese coffee shop from roaster Kimberly Dam generated serious buzz when it opened in April 2021, slinging cà phê sữa đá, ube and cardamom-flavored lattes, and inventive pastries. Like other restaurants on this map, the move here is sandwiches, in this case bánh mì. Provided by Dam’s mother’s House of Bánh Mì, the sandwiches are just $9, with several grilled meat options and a tofu option available for vegetarians. The bánh mì come slathered with rich egg butter, pickled vegetables, cucumbers, and soy sauce — refreshing on a hot day. Add a cold brew, and you’ll only end up spending $13.50. The cafe also operates a Northeast Portland location.

Alberta’s burrito stalwart offers options as cheap as $7 with beans and rice — carnitas and chicken burritos still under $10.25. For those willing to spring for the extra dollar, the restaurant’s tender suadero may be the best item on the menu. Other cash-conscious dishes include tacos with house-made tortillas, poblano tamales, and carnitas quesadillas.

This sweet Hollywood Korean restaurant may have some of the lowest prices in town, without sacrificing quality. Meals of silky soondubu jjigae (tofu stew), colorful bibimbap, and kimchi jjigae all clock in under $10 for dinner and under $8 for lunch, while Korean barbecue-style meats — bulgogi beef, kalbi short rib — appear in combination meals with rice, salad, mandu, and a four-piece California roll for only $12.95. The best deal in the restaurant, however, is the rotating daily lunch special, which comes with rice, mandu, and a salad for just under $7.

This cramped, family-owned bakery packs its shelves with all sorts of baked goods, from Thai green tea cakes and Chinese almond cookies to steamed bao and fluffy wrapped hot dogs. The show-stealer is the bánh mì sandwich on fluffy house-baked bread, which is one of the city’s best. Options like Vietnamese ham, barbecue pork, and pâté will satisfy those who eat meat, while a few vegetarian options round it out for those who don’t; none of them are over $6.

A cozy, busy little diner just past 82nd Avenue on Southeast Powell, Kenny’s Noodle House is all about the soups — steaming bowls of wontons, noodles, pork bits, and bok choy, not to mention the dozens of other varieties of noodle soups. Basically everything here clocks in between $10 and $13, even the “large” size bowls which are more than enough for the average diner. There’s also customizable congee, making Kenny’s an easy place to fill up.

It may be physically impossible to leave this Centennial birria cart hungry. With a foundation of tender, methodically spiced birria, the menu of this cart ranges from crunch wraps with hot Cheetos, to traditional quesabirria oozing with cheese, to ramen made with the braised beef’s consomé. Three birria tacos is less than $10, a cheesy beef-filled burrito is under $11, and the gargantuan crunchwrap is under $12; however, it’s hard to beat the classic quesabirria, which clocks in at $8.