Twenty dollars still buys a real meal in Salt Lake City, and not a sad one: our pick for downtown's best banh mi runs $8.99, a 4.8-star Mexican kitchen sells chile rellenos for about ten, and a fish-taco combo that people drive canyons for costs $11.49. The catch is knowing which cheap is good cheap. Every price below came off a restaurant's own menu or its ordering page in July 2026, and nearly every kitchen carries the Google rating to back the recommendation; the two that don't earn their seats on the plate.
Key takeaways
Salt Lake City restaurants under $20: the list
Ratings are Google review averages, and prices are what each menu listed, as of July 2026. Delivery-app prices run a few dollars over the counter.
| The craving | Go to | The order | Rating | Closed |
|---|
| Banh mi downtown | Les Banh Mi (249 E 400 S) | House special, $8.99 | — | Never |
| Shawarma after dark | Shawarma Shack | Chicken wrap, $11.95 | 4.6★ | Never |
| Korean BBQ in a cup | Cupbop | Signature bowl | 4.7★ | Never |
| Momos in the Avenues | Cafe Shambala | Fried momos (or lamb curry) | 4.8★ | Mon |
| The fish taco | Lone Star Taqueria | Fish combo, $11.49 | 4.6★ | Sun |
| Tacos at midnight | Tacos Don Rafa | Asada by the handful, cash | 4.5★ | Never |
| The pastrami burger | Crown Burgers | Crown Burger + fries | 4.4★ | Sun |
| Rellenos worth crossing town | Nico's | Chile rellenos, ~$10 | 4.8★ | Sun |
| Vegan Vietnamese | All Chay | Chik'n banh mi | 4.8★ | Mon |
| Pho on a budget | Pho 33 | Pho tai from $12 | 4.5★ | Mon |
| Banh mi, the elder statesman | Oh Mai | Honey glazed pork | — | Sun |
What's the best cheap meal in downtown Salt Lake City?
An $8.99 banh mi. Les Banh Mi on 400 South bakes its own baguettes, prices its house special under nine dollars on its own menu, and stays open seven days with late Friday and Saturday hours; our Vietnamese guide called it one of two banh mi specialists worth knowing by name. Oh Mai, the shop most locals learned banh mi from, runs its State Street kitchen every day but Sunday; the honey glazed pork runs about $15 on its own ordering page and clears under $20 there with a Thai iced tea.
The rest of the downtown counter rotation: Shawarma Shack (4.6★) posts an $11.95 chicken wrap on its own menu, serves it halal, and keeps the doors open until midnight on weekends. Cupbop (4.7★) remains the fastest hot meal downtown, a Korean BBQ bowl around $13 at app pricing that clears under $16 with a drink even before counter savings. And for the after-hours version, the Tacos Don Rafa (4.5★) cart on State Street serves asada, quesadillas, and burritos deep into the night; bring cash and skip the math. It anchors our downtown Mexican rankings for a reason.
Our take: Les Banh Mi at lunch is the best nine dollars in the city center. Cupbop when you have eleven minutes; Don Rafa when it's late and you're honest about it.
Where does $20 go furthest on the west side?
Further than anywhere else in the city, at ratings the expensive rooms would envy. Nico's (4.8★) on North Temple sells chile rellenos for about ten dollars and adds barbacoa de borrego on Fridays and Saturdays only — the kind of weekend-special detail that tells you a kitchen cares. Its picnic tables also made our dog-friendly dining guide, if the budget lunch includes a leash.
All Chay (4.8★) in Fairpark is the west side's other 4.8, an all-vegan family kitchen, run by its second generation per the Salt Lake Tribune, whose chik'n banh mi converts carnivores; it keeps family-kitchen hours, closed Mondays with a midday pause most weekdays. Between those two and the taquerias our Mexican food guide championed, the west side is Salt Lake's best-value food neighborhood, full stop. The ranked version lives on our Fairpark Mexican page.
Our take: two of the city's three highest-rated budget kitchens share a zip-code prefix and a combined price tag under $25. That's the whole argument for crossing I-15.
Which cheap-eats institutions actually hold up?
The ones that never chased trends. Crown Burgers (4.4★) is still the pastrami-burger standard — the Crown Burger with fries lands mid-teens with a drink and the dining room still looks gloriously like 1982. Closed Sundays. Lone Star Taqueria (4.6★) posts its fish taco at $5.74 and the full combo with rice and beans at $11.49 on its own menu, and the sticker-covered shack on Fort Union remains the right pre-canyon stop; it pairs with our Cottonwoods eating guide if the day involves skis or a trailhead.
Up in the Avenues, Cafe Shambala (4.8★) has spent years proving Tibetan food is comfort food: fried momos under nine dollars, lamb curry with rice around twelve fifty, closed Mondays. And Pho 33 (4.5★) in South Salt Lake lists pho tai from $12 on its own ordering menu — with a Thai iced tea you're out the door around sixteen dollars.
Our take: Lone Star's fish combo is the best under-$12 plate in the valley. Order it, sit outside, and feel briefly like the canyon was the errand.
Know before you spend
- Sundays and Mondays split this list. Crown Burgers, Lone Star, Nico's, and Oh Mai take Sundays off; Pho 33, Cafe Shambala, and All Chay rest Mondays. The seven-day fallbacks are Les Banh Mi, Shawarma Shack, Cupbop, and the Don Rafa cart.
- Cash still matters at the low end. The Don Rafa cart is cash-first, and several small kitchens prefer it; a twenty in your pocket is the whole budget anyway.
- Delivery apps quietly add dollars. Where we could only see app menus, the real counter price runs lower — the under-$20 math above holds either way.
- Prices drift. Everything here is July 2026; small kitchens reprint menus without press releases. If a number matters to you, the linked pages stay closer to current than any listicle.
Salt Lake City cheap eats FAQ
What's the best cheap restaurant in Salt Lake City?
By rating it's a three-way tie at 4.8★ as of July 2026: Nico's (Mexican, west side), All Chay (vegan Vietnamese, Fairpark), and Cafe Shambala (Tibetan, the Avenues). Downtown, Les Banh Mi's $8.99 house special is the best pure price-to-quality ratio we found.
Where can I eat in Salt Lake City for under $10?
Les Banh Mi's house special ($8.99, own menu, July 2026), Cafe Shambala's fried momos (under $9 even on the delivery menu), a fish taco at Lone Star ($5.74), and a cash handful at the Tacos Don Rafa cart all come in under ten before a drink.
What's open late for cheap food in Salt Lake City?
Shawarma Shack runs to midnight on Fridays and Saturdays, and the Tacos Don Rafa cart on State Street serves deep into the night, most nights to around midnight. Les Banh Mi holds 11 p.m. closes on Fridays and Saturdays too — rare hours for a sandwich shop.
Is Crown Burgers really worth it?
For the pastrami burger, yes: it's the dish Utah claims as its own, Crown Burgers is widely credited with defining it, the downtown dining room is a time capsule, and a full tray stays in the mid-teens. Just remember it's closed Sundays, like half of this list.
The bottom line
Cheap in Salt Lake City doesn't mean settling; the best ratings in this article belong to kitchens where dinner costs less than downtown parking. Keep the table above for the cravings, mind the Sunday-Monday closures, and let our running under-$20 collection carry the list as prices and menus move. The twenty in your pocket is enough. It might even cover two.
Sources: Les Banh Mi, Food Menu (house special $8.99; steak $10.99; pho $10.99; daily hours), retrieved 2026-07-24, https://lesbanhmislc.com/food-menu · Shawarma Shack, Menu (chicken wrap $11.95; platter $13.95; halal; hours), retrieved 2026-07-24, https://shawarmashack.co/ · Lone Star Taqueria, Menu (fish taco $5.74; fish combo $11.49; closed Sunday), retrieved 2026-07-24, https://lstaq.com/ · Pho 33, Online Menu (pho tai from $12; tofu pho from $11.75; drinks), retrieved 2026-07-24, http://pho33.tavlo.co/menu · Oh Mai Sandwich Kitchen, Online Ordering (honey glazed pork banh mi; closed Sundays), retrieved 2026-07-24, https://order.online/en-US/store/-157383 · Cupbop, Menu (signature bowls; delivery pricing cross-checked), retrieved 2026-07-24, https://www.allmenus.com/ut/salt-lake-city/633208-cupbop-salt-lake-city/menu/ · Nico's Restaurant, Menu (chiles rellenos $9.99; barbacoa Fri–Sat), retrieved 2026-07-24, https://www.allmenus.com/ut/salt-lake-city/649473-nicos-restaurant/menu/ · Cafe Shambala, Delivery Menu (fried momos $8.75; lamb curry $12.50; closed Monday), retrieved 2026-07-24, https://www.getgodelivery.com/r/605/restaurants/delivery/Vegetarian/Cafe-Shambala-Salt-Lake-City · Salt Lake Tribune, A new generation takes over All Chay (family kitchen, second generation), retrieved 2026-07-24, https://www.sltrib.com/artsliving/food/2022/03/24/new-generation-takes-over/
