Did I Just Say Beverly Hills?

As a matter of fact, I did. Cheap eats in Beverly Hills. I didn’t think it was possible, but I feed my family of five (ok, four, the baby didn’t eat the food) for about $20 in Beverly Hills. Do you want to find out where?

On a warm California evening we found ourselves at the Beverly Hilton (don’t worry, it was free-thank you Hilton HHonors credit cards!). Not wanting to pay $25 plus tip plus service charge for a hamburger from room service, I went down to the lobby and did the unthinkable at a hotel of this caliber-I asked about cheap fast food joints nearby. To my surprise, at the end of Rodeo Dr, only a block from the stores that are so high class if they knew I wrote this blog they wouldn’t let me walk by, are several fast food places. WIth a map from the front desk in hand I hit the street!

I walked, and walked, and walked and wished I had taken the nice lady’s offer of the free van ride. I strolled past restaurants where the people in Armani suits spilled out onto the sidewalk along with smooth sound of live jazz. I gazed into windows of jewlery stores where one item was easily worth more than I could hope to earn in a decade. Then, there it was, like the sale rack at Sacks-The Beverly Hills Diner.

Instead of men in tailored suits and women in form fitting evening gowns there were a couple of guys in old t-shirts enjoying an overstuffed burger. It was late and all the tourists were gone. I grabbed a menu, ordered a couple burgers, plus an unadvertised kids meal, and watched as it was cooked fresh right in front of me. The sizzle made me forget I was in high-class heaven because the sounds and smells brought me back to the greasy hamburger joint in the small city I grew up in. The burgers were served hot and wrapped up tight. As an added bonus they came with fries! All told for 4 hamburgers and two super-sized servings of fries, about $20.

I made it back to the Beverly Hilton-finally-and unwrapped my gift to my hungry family.

Maybe it was because we were starved. Maybe it was because I was able to feed a family of five for $20 in Beverly Hills. Maybe the burgers were just that good.

We ate well that night.

472 N. Beverly Dr, Beverly Hills, CA 90210, 11am-9pm, 7 days a week, 310.271.2227

Chattanooga Cheap Eats, Part 2

Day 2 in Chattanooga found us at Rock City. Yes, we “saw Rock City.” No, we didn’t see all seven states. We did however see lots of gnomes. If anyone from Amazing Race frequents this blog here is a challenge idea for you: send the teams to Rock Cityand have them find a Travelocity gnome hidden amongst all the other gnomes. Then, you could have them drive to Nashville and I could be the guy standing by Phil that says, “Welcome to Nashville!” But I digress. . . .
After making our way through all the tunnels, caves and “Fat Man” passes, we had worked up an appetite so we decided

Chattanooga Cheap Eats, Part 1

I was in Chattanooga for a couple days recently and that means I finally have a chance to try out some new cheap eats!

Our first night there I wanted to hit Bea’s on Dodd’s Ave. for dinner, unfortunately it closed at 8 and it was already 7:30 when we got directions from our hotel. Not this night. But don’t worry, we will make it there!

Going back to the drawing board I found

Hunting for Cheap Eats in Huntsville

To celebrate Labor Day, or the fact that our whole family had a day off together, we ventured south from Nashville to Huntsville. While the main reason was to see the U.S. Space & Rocket Museum, we were also on the the trail of some new cheap eats. After a laborious online search, I found

The Gumbo Shop Surprise

It’s a couple of months after Mardi Gras, but in honor of New Orleans cuisine, Dave’s Cheap Eats will take you to our neighbor to the south for some wonderfully delicious, and cheap, Cajun style food. No, I’m not talking about New Orleans, I’m talking about the southern city of Rock Hill and The Gumbo Shop.

This little piece of suburbia is an ethnic diners delight with

St. Louis Battle – Pizza: Thin Crust vs. Deep Dish

If you spend much time exploring the local pizza establishments in the River City you will munch your way through many of those cracker crust pizza’s loving called “St. Louis Style” thin crust. But this is not just a town of thin crust. In fact, the pizza tendencies of St. Louis’ northern suburb (Chicago, IL) has crept into the pizza scene with its deep dish delicacies. In deference to this, today Dave’s Cheap Eats will host a battle of epic proportions between St. Louis thin crust and St. Louis deep dish.Let me introduce our competitors. On the traditional St. Louis thin crust we have

Adriana’s (on the Hill)

Guess what, I actually did make it to Adriana’s for lunch. I mentioned it on this previous post. I even found it on the first try! Fortunately the reviews were a little out of date. First, they do take credit cards (yeah!). Second, there was no line out the door, even during the lunch rush. However, the reviews I read were right about one thing-this place has great cheap Italian food, though it does take a little work.

First you have to make your way to the order window. This is no small task. This corner restaurant is stuffed full of

The Cheap List (and that’s not a good thing!)

In my travels I have taken some chances and come across a few really bad places with cheap food. Below, in no particular order, are cheap and bad restaurants that, in my humble opinion, are not worthy of any thing but a smile and a wave (you should always be polite, right?). I’ll update this as time permits or as I have nightmares from previous experiences but today we’ll start with three.

 

Hodak’s – St. Louis

Guess what? Today was the first day I’ve gone out to eat since I started this blog. Amazing. When I was living in San Diego just a few weeks ago we were eating out every couple days.  Not so anymore. However, since starting Dave’s Cheap Eats I’ve become inspired. Inspired not just to eat out but to make every dining experience a “Dave’s Cheap Eat’s” experience. That is great food at a cheap price.

Today we were looking for some comfort food, nothing too fancy, too complex, or too trendy - just down home good food. I found out about a place called Hodak’s in South St. Louis that was famous for

Dottie’s True Blue Cafe

San Francisco. A foodies dream. So many cultures, so many great restaurants, and so much money to spend! But that’s not what we do here is it? We don’t spend lots of money on good food. We find excellent restaurants with prices that anyone can afford. With that in mind I headed to a place called Dottie’s True Blue Cafe. It was right down the street from my hotel near Union Square and it had a great right up in my guidebook.

Somehow we missed it on our first pass down Jones St. and ended up deep in the Tenderloin District-not a place for the