Eating for under/around $10 in the Bay Area, it’s not as easy as you think.

SFGate: Food & Dining: Bargain Bites
It’s been 10 years of bargain eating, and man, are we full — of good tips, that is.

When the Chronicle Food and Wine staff published the first Bargain Bites a decade ago, we scoured the Bay Area, looking for great restaurants with entrees costing $10 or less. Now, 10 years later, we’re still standing our ground.

To even be considered for today’s list, 90 percent of the menu must be $10 or less. Two people should be able to get an appetizer and two entrees for about $30.

That’s the starting point. To make it into this year’s edition of Bargain Bites, the food had to be better than ever, because this year, after eating our way through more than 250 restaurants and 125 taquerias, we whittled down the guide to be more selective and user-friendly. Some old standbys might be missing because newer spots have taken their place, but those that have made the final cut are places we’d return to on our own, over and over.

In looking at today’s guide you’ll find pizzerias are generally out — most great pizzas aren’t bargains any more. We’ve grouped burger spots and most taquerias into separate lists, leaving us room to agonize over which places to include in our main listings.

Yet despite the number of newcomers as Bargain Bites enters its second decade, plenty of old favorites remain. Those that have made the list for at least five years we’ve designated as classics, and marked them with a sunburst hot dog logo. These include places such as Gourmet Carousel, which serves fresh Chinese food in low-key surroundings and has returned to the list after a few years’ absence; and Ti Couz, the creperie in the Mission District that remains a draw for its Breton crepes, French hard cider and outdoor seating.

Other longtime favorites, such as L’Osteria del Forno and Burma Superstar, both in San Francisco, have become too expensive to include. A trip through the Tandoori-loin showed signs of tired food, so it was out with many of the Indian- Pakistani places that made the list in the past.

There are plenty of spots to take their place — such as San Francisco’s Lahore Karahi, where the owner makes everything fresh on the spot, or Sushi Zone off Market Street, where the lines are long, but the sushi is cheap, fresh and deliciously creative.

In separate features, this year’s Bargain Bites also spotlights the great pockets of bargain dining along El Camino Real in Mountain View and Sunnyvale, and on International Boulevard in Oakland.

To help you plan your eating out, this year we’ve noted those places that serve beer and wine, or that have a full bar. We’ve also indicated where reservations — if they’re accepted — might come in handy.

Restaurants by Region

San Francisco
East Bay
Peninsula/South Bay
North Bay

Restaurants by Category

Burgers
Taquerías
International Boulevard
El Camino Real

Restaurants by Cuisine

Cuisine Index

African
American
Armenian
Asian
Burmese
Caribbean
Chinese
French
Indian-Pakistani
Italian
Japanese
Korean
Lao
Latin American
Mediterranean
Mexican
Middle Eastern
Moroccan
Puerto Rican
Salvadoran
Thai
Turkish
Vietnamese
World

Bargain Bites Back Issues

2004 | 2005

I am a cheap bastard… don’t know any other way to put it. I hate spending too much eating. There are some other choices I’d point out eating wise such as Buckhorns in the Napa Town Center, and El Portillas over on Third Street. But they did have some good choices for Napa. And a couple I didn’t even know.

Tags: Bay Area, Food and Drinking, Interesting, Local, Napa, Review