Cheap eats in Charlotte: eating well under $15

Fifteen dollars doesn’t buy what it used to, and a lot of “cheap eats” lists are really “eighteen dollars plus tip” lists. So here’s the rule for this one: a full meal, not a snack, for under $15 before tip, based on what these places charged when we last ate there. Menus move, so check before you count on it. Every place is in the directory, and facts about each one come from its own listing or site. Our read on price is exactly that: our read.

Sandwiches

Sully’s Steamers on Jetton Street in Davidson steams its sandwiches, which sounds like a gimmick until you eat one: the bread goes soft and the cheese goes everywhere. It calls them ridiculously delicious and takes online orders. The Depot Deli in Concord makes sandwiches from scratch with what it calls a friendly neighborhood vibe, and caters. Piedmont Delicatessen in downtown Gastonia stacks subs and lets you build your own. A deli sandwich is the most reliable under-$15 meal in the metro, and these three are the ones locals name.

Chicken

Viva Chicken is a fast-casual charcoal rotisserie doing Peruvian pollo a la brasa, the street chicken of Lima, and it’s a Charlotte-born chain that grew because the quarter-chicken plate is one of the best-value meals in the city. Order the green sauce. Order extra green sauce. For the drive-through version, the two Concord Chick-fil-A locations are on the list because they’re in the directory and because, in Charlotte, it’s dishonest to leave them out.

Tacos, burritos and bowls

Carrburritos in Davidson is a family-run California-style taqueria that makes everything on site daily and serves what its site calls generous portions with a funky vibe. Generous is accurate; one burrito is dinner and half of tomorrow’s lunch. Dank Burrito in Rock Hill does chef-driven burritos, tacos and bowls with pickup and delivery. Both are firmly under the line for a single order.

The drive-in

Dairi-O in Harrisburg serves hand-pressed burgers, hot dogs, wraps and salads the chain has offered for more than 75 years, plus 30-plus flavors of ice cream, under the motto Real Food, Made Simple. A burger, fries and a cone for the price of a single entrée elsewhere. It’s the Friday-night answer for a family of four on the east side.

The neighborhood joint

Pita Wheel in Gastonia started as a food truck in 2014 and grew into what it calls a funky, fun full-service casual restaurant where all the locals eat. Food-truck pricing survived the move indoors. Big Guy’s Pizza in Mint Hill claims the best pizza in town, and two slices and a drink is a lunch. Cuzzo’s Cuisine in Charlotte does wings, fish, tenders and shrimp for pickup and delivery; the wings plate is the value order.

The food hall

Monarch Market is a modern food hall in Charlotte built, per its site, for quick bites between meetings as much as for parties. Food halls are the cheap-eats loophole: a dozen kitchens, counter service, no tip pressure, and at least a few stalls where a real lunch lands under $15. It’s the Uptown pick, and Uptown is the hardest place in the metro to eat cheaply.

Breakfast and sweets

Breakfast is the easiest meal to keep under the line. Famous Toastery in Mooresville does scratch breakfast all day; Grounds & Vine in Kannapolis does coffee and made-to-order breakfast. For dessert on a budget, The Donut Shack in Monroe sells hot mini donuts by the bag, and Downstairs Ice Cream in Gastonia scoops small-batch ice cream Tuesday through Saturday.

Pizza by the slice

Pizza deserves its own line, because the by-the-slice lunch is the original cheap eat and Charlotte’s New York-style places still do it. Hawthorne’s NY Pizza & Bar, open since 2004 with locations on Rea Road, Carmel Road and in Huntersville, and Brooklyn South Pizzeria in Cornelius, family-owned since 1998, both sell slices at lunch. Two slices and a fountain drink is the benchmark lunch for this whole guide, and it’s under the line at both.

The steamed sandwich, explained

Since Sully’s is the first entry and people ask: a steamed sandwich is assembled cold, then put in a steam cabinet for a minute or two until the bread softens and the cheese melts through everything. It’s a Cincinnati and Richmond thing that arrived in Davidson and stuck. It’s messier than a pressed sandwich and, for the money, more food than it looks like. Order it, eat it over the wrapper, don’t wear white.

How to eat cheap in Charlotte

The pattern in this list is geography. Almost nothing under $15 is in South End or SouthPark; the value is in Davidson, Concord, Gastonia, Harrisburg, Mint Hill and Rock Hill, and Uptown only through the food hall. Lunch specials run weekdays at most of the sit-down places in the restaurants directory, and a lunch special is the cheapest way to eat at a restaurant that’s otherwise over the line. Counter service saves the tip. Water saves four dollars. And the one rule that never fails: the busier the parking lot at noon on a Tuesday, the better the value inside.

One more category that beats the line every time: the church fish fry, the fire-department barbecue and the high-school booster plate sale. They’re not in any directory and never will be, but the signs go up on Friday along every two-lane road in Union, Gaston and Cabarrus counties, and a plate is usually ten dollars. If you see a hand-painted sign that says “plates,” pull over.

Found a plate under $15 we missed? Send it. This is the guide we most want to keep current.