Least expensive fast casual restaurant for family dinner

[Anonymous]

Sprouts may still have their $5 sandwich deal.

Too good to go app

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I feel like there is no such thing as inexpensive fast casual anymore. I just picked up Five Guys for my family (a single burger each plus shared fries, no drinks) and it was over $60!

Are you needing to eat on the go between activities or is it just that you need the occasional night off from cooking?

Okay, but how many people are in your family? Did you all share one order of fries? I can't gauge how egregious this is without more information.

Five guys is about 20 bucks a head. My family of five bumps up on 100 dollars. That's why I haven't patronized them in over 6 years. F%%k Five Guys.

[Anonymous]

Someone else mentioned Mezeh. Portions are huge and you can always pick things your kid likes and split.

Portions are also huge at our local mom & pop Chinese place. 2 entrees more than feeds myself and 3 DDs.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:We love Moby Dick's. Sometimes on Door Dash they have a buy one get one for a few of their meals. We do pick up to not pay delivery fees. It

Moby Dicks is very good but the pricing is insane.

[Anonymous]

Reddit has a lot of threads on this. I suspect most of the posters are starving young men with big appetites, small savings accounts,and limited ability to cook, so they are experts

https://www.reddit.com/r/nova/comments/1j3lesk/whats_your_cheap_eat_recommendations/

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Order two chinese/thai/indian/whatever lunch specials at lunch time and save for dinner that night. Usually lunch speciL includes rice/eggroll/naan whatever sides appropriate but dinner does not

I agree with this or go to Happy Hour specials. Pinstripes has daily deals...often 2 for 1.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:We are a family of 3 (one teenager). In Bethesda, we go to Don Pollo or Moby Dick and get a family meal. Both are around $50 but the food provides 2 dinners plus 1 lunch so it's roughly $7 a meal and I think that is reasonable.

We can also do roughly as well by ordering Chinese food or pizza.

I think the best strategy is ordering the larger portions/meals and then breaking them up to stretch them over several days. Cost savings is tied to volume.

This! There are so many foods that keep and reheat well. We almost always order enough for multiple meals.

[Anonymous]

Chipotle, or Fish Taco if you’re in the DC area (small kids plates - small burrito, taco platter, rice/beans etc- for $4-8).

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Someone above mentioned Noodles & Company.

'

All of their sauces which you'd think would be olive oil are actually soybean or canola oil. Garbage.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Chipotle. A bowl is 2 servings, so you can either split one or make two last two nights. They're as heathy as you make them - load with cheese, sour cream, and high sodium beef = not healthy. Stick with lots of veggies, beans, and guac = the best you're going to get for filling and healthy fast casual. Going with veggie/beans only means means free guac and is cheaper. It'll be ~$11 for one bowl. You can add chips or tortillas on the side if you want to stretch further.

DP. And use the brown rice instead of the white.

Makes zero difference.

If you prefer to add rice, request half the serving instead of the full. Interestingly, the brown rice at Chipotle does not seem to have much more of a nutritional advantage than the white rice. It has the same amount of calories as the white rice (210 for 4 ounces), higher total fat (5.5 g compared to the 4 g the white rice contains) and higher calories from fat (50 compared to 38). It does have a lower amount of carbohydrates, though. The brown rice has 36 g of carbohydrates compared to the white rice, which contains 40 g.

The brown rice probably has slightly more protein but a lot more fiber. Fiber is important as high fiber foods help your gut create a healthy biome which is super important for brain health and fighting disease. It’s not really about the calories.

Isn't brown rice full of pesticides or something like that? White rice is cleaner in that regard.

[Anonymous]

If you only need to do fast casual or take out one night per week, suggest doing the same place most weeks and utilizing the rewards program or app for that restaurant. You will begin to accrue rewards quickly by being a repeat customer which will keep costs down over the longer term, and it may become something to look forward to every week.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:If you do a bowl at Cava it’s enough for 2 ppl

CAVA is disgusting.

???

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:If you buy a few extra tortilla wraps (I think only $1 each) at chipotle in addition to the bowl, easy to extend to 3-4 meals in one bowl.

If near Bethesda, chicken on the run is good too. We also like to get Indian food and then cook a bunch of rice ourselves to stretch the curry/etc across 2-4 meals. Can also get extra naan to make the meal stretch too.

Splitting a bowl at Chipotle, I can understand. 4 people? No.

[Anonymous]

Wendy’s. Chili with baked potato - cheap and satisfying. And yes, high in sodium, but pretty much every fast casual meal will be high in sodium. If sodium is a problem, you cook at home.

[Anonymous]

Halal Guys. A regular size platter with seasoned rice, a lettuce salad, and your choice of protein is about $13/14 — and is easily enough for two good sized meals. Everything that I’ve tried there has been delicious.


Not what you asked, but don’t forget about Trader Joe’s. Get a bag of salad mix and add protein (I use mandarin chicken without the sauce or the fresh salmon with their salmon seasoning) for a quick dinner. I also like the spanakopita — with veggies and/or protein.

I’m not sure if Maggianno’s still has this, but they used to have a section of the menu where you could get 2 entrees for the price of one — and each entree was a good sized serving. So while the overall price isn’t low, it’s reasonable for what could be 4 servings of a main course. Add a bag of salad mix or heat up some frozen vegetables and add fruit or sorbet for dessert.


I also do things like add veggies to a protein rich entree from my nearby Chinese restaurant — which quickly turns one entree into 2-3 servings. So the entree might not be cheap, but one entree, including rice, plus veggies for 2 servings works out to a cost per serving that’s less than fast food options.