The Best Cheap Food Around the World

The first tip to having a great local dining experience is to embrace street food. On city streets and rural farm stands, you will find tasty and cheap food that you will remember for years. Here are some of the best places in the world to find cheap, authentic, delicious food!

1. Guatemala

Visitors to Guatemala can experience central American cuisine at bargain prices. The focus here is on fresh seafood, tropical fruits and vegetables, and traditional Mayan ingredients. Cheap beach eats include chili dusted mangoes, Guatemala’s take on classic ceviche with bracing citrus flavors, habaneros and fresh shrimp.

And a trip to Guatemala City is only complete when you taste elote loco, which is barbecued corn on the cob with spices for less than a dollar.

2. Serbia

Cheap eats can be found all over Eastern Europe, especially in Croatia, Hungary (hungry?), and Serbia. Every country has its version of the street cart vendor — in the United States it’s the hot dog stand, Mexico has its taco trucks, and Japan is famous for yakitori. Similarly, in Serbia, street vendors hawk grilled cevapi, which is a casing-free sausage. Spread these sausages with spicy ajvar, a roasted red pepper condiment, and make sure to have lots of lepinja, or Serbian flatbread, as well. Prices are around $2-3 for a full meal at one of these stands.

3. Vietnam

The cuisine of Vietnam is steeped in tradition, including an amalgamation of Chinese and French cooking techniques applied to local ingredients. Although world-class dining is available throughout the country (especially in major cities), Vietnam’s culinary spirit is found on its street food scene. Vietnam practically invented street food, its ubiquitous beef and chicken satays served with a peanut sauce redolent of coconut and lemongrass. A more filling snack is the Bahn Mi sandwich, a preparation that can include pate, pickled vegetables, cilantro and sriracha on a crisp rice-enriched baguette. Oh, and the cost for this tasty meal in Saigon is about 50 cents.

4. The Philippines

Filipino cuisine is experiencing a major moment globally right now. Restaurants in New York City and Los Angeles have capitalized on this trend, charging diners exorbitant fees for delicious, but straightforward, rustic food. In Manila, the Philippine capital, favorites including pancit, which is a type of fried noodle; sisig, a sizzling meet concoction; and lumpia, which is kind of like a Filipino egg roll. A simple meal of rice adobo will only set you back a dollar, and all over the Philippines, travelers can cover their entire food costs for a day for as little as $10.

5. Portugal

Europe is home to many overly expensive dining options. Not so with Portugal. While the street food scene is not as lively as in other countries, sit-down meals at bargain prices abound. Specialties include caldo verde, a kale/potato/sausage soup, and lots of fresh seafood. In Lisbon, two-course meals can be enjoyed for about $6, and multi-course meals with wine are easy to find for $10-15. The cuisine is homey and familiar. Some of the restaurants might look rough on the outside, but Portugal is not focused on pretence, but flavor and conviviality. Try the bacalao, too — the national dish of salted cod that you can find everywhere.

For a sweet ending to your meal, try pasteis de nata, a sweet egg custard pie that goes well with porto and coffee.

6. Egypt

If you are looking for super cheap food, you can grab a filling authentic meal for as little as a dollar in Egypt. In Cairo’s bustling city streets, vendors sell everything from bags of dates at bottom dollar prices, to mombar mahshy, a type of sausage stuffed with spiced rice, for $0.50. Substantial meals include ful, a bean stew with rice, and Egypt’s own version of shawarma, a hearty middle-eastern meat and pickle sandwich wrapped in Arabian bread. If you want to splurge, $3 will get you a whole roasted chicken with side dishes.

Egypt also has a surprising variety of sweets, from basbousa, a semolina cake, to the baklava-like kanoufa. A plate of these sweets can be bought for a dollar as well.

7. Indonesia

If there’s any further need to cement southeast Asia as the cheap dining capital of the world, Indonesia’s Thousand Islands each have their own low-cost dining options. One of the world’s most magnificent breakfasts, second possibly only to the bacon egg and cheese sandwich of New York City bodegas, is nasi lemak. Technically this dish hails from nearby Malaysia, but Indonesian variants, which often include a rich rendang meat stew, pervade the islands. The dish starts with sweet coconut rice that has been cooked with the fragrant pandan leaves, pickled onion, chili mixture, sliced fresh cucumbers, and hard-boiled egg. Add a big piece of toasted bread with palm sugar and butter and a mug of Indonesian coffee and you have the best way to start your Food is a big part of any vacation, so if you’re looking for an exotic place and don’t mind saving a few bucks filling yourself up, these options will be kind to both your appetite and your wallet.

Anyone who would consider themselves a lover of food knows the difficulties that come with trying to balance a monthly budget while still trying to enjoy as many different types and styles of food and flavors as possible. Thankfully, there are some countries around the world where food is both delectable and cheap on your wallet. Of course, it does mean some traveling will be required, but some people won’t mind that. Food is tasty, especially when it is new and foreign to the adventurous eater in all of us. Here are ten countries with the cheapest food.

8 .Sri Lanka

Sri Lanka, a small island country within the Indian Ocean, is known for its cheap food. A three-course meal for 2 people in an upscale restaurant will set you back just $14.

9. Vietnam

Vietnam, a unique country located in Southeast Asia, is mostly famous for its beaches and Buddhism. However, you can enjoy three-course restaurant-style meals for just $13, including bread rolls, fresh vegetables, noodles, and rice.

9. Philippines

In the Philippines, a three-course restaurant meal for just two people is only a bit over $12. Such meals include plenty of fresh seafood, tropical fruits, and more for real cheap.

10. Malaysia

In Malaysia, tourists can get a wonderful three-course meal for you and a friend, complete with interesting spices, fresh vegetables, and seafood, for just $12.

11. Indonesia

Indonesia has full three-course restaurants that offer everyday foods and fresh chicken, vegetables, and rice, for just $11 for two people.

12. Bangladesh

Bangladesh is the biggest rice producer in the entire world, so it makes sense rice is their main food. Because of the plentiful supply of rice, chicken, fish, and spicy vegetables, you can get a two-person, three-course meal for just $11.50.

13. Moldova

Moldova has long been rich in animals and plants, so they use a lot of fruits, nuts, mushrooms, and berries while cooking. For two people in a nice, upscale restaurant, a meal will cost just $12.50.

14. India

India has a habit of making their food quite spicy. They often use alligator and turtle meat in their stews, alongside various plants and herbs. A nice restaurant should cost you and your significant other just $7.50.

Whenever we’re planning a trip to India, we also plan to be vegetarian for the entire time we’re there because there are so many incredible vegetarian and vegan meals in India that you really don’t have to eat meat.
India easily makes this list of the countries with the best food because it’s easily one of the most internationally eaten and best cuisines in the world.

Few other ethnic foods have infiltrated the prized spot of a national dish in another country, but the Chicken Tikka Masala (although not strictly Indian) has found that honour in England. But there’s much more to Indian cuisine than tandoori chicken and tomato-based curries.
Flaky paratha bread, fluffy pav baji buns with curry, fragrant biryanis, spicy rogan josh, crispy panipuri and a seemingly infinite array of sweets, Indian cuisine is a neverending journey into the history, culture, traditions and religion of one the most fascinating countries for travellers.

One of the best parts of Indian food is the price.If you’ve had it in your home country, you’d be forgiven for questioning this statement. In the west, Indian food can be as pricy as a steak meal, but in India, it’s not. In India, you can entire meals on the street for under 50 cents.You can sit down for an all-you-can-eat thali for less than $1.50. You enjoy delicious fresh-squeezed lime juice and belly soothing lassis (yoghurt milkshakes) for as little as 25 cents. India is also one of the cheapest countries you can travel to.

15. Pakistan

Pakistani food may not be famous across the world, but it is quite cheap and very rich. You can receive a three-course meal for two, which includes various meats and vegetables, for just $9.50.

16. Nepal

In the mountain country of Nepal, food tends to combine a variety of different flavors from surrounding countries. It is simply, and not quite as spicy as, say, India. However, a three-course meal for two is just $5.70.