The expanded West Nashville favorite serves piping hot bowls of pho with round-eye steak starting at $6.95. After expanding, VN also started offering Asian sweet buns for sale daily — with flavors like taro moon cake, egg custard, and red bean for the taking any time of day.

Eat gussied up gourmet hot dogs or stick to the good old original, all priced from $6-$8. Add on tater tots or a Miller High Life for $3 more and make it a meal.

Pitmaster Pat Martin’s popular fast food spot now has four locations — and while they all don’t have a drive-thru and a playground — they do share the same menu. Choose from burgers, slaw dogs, or chile cheese fries and a shake, with nothing priced above $8.29.

With falafel pita wraps priced at $7.29 and lunch combos at $12.09, the little strip mall Greek joint offers much-needed relief for wallets in Green Hills.

There’s no place quite like Brown’s diner anymore in this town. Now under new ownership, the classic still rocks a solid cheeseburger, which costs $5.50. A local institution since 1927, this Hillsboro Village watering hole, boasting “Nashville’s oldest beer license,” draws patrons from all walks of life for their quintessential dive burgers and old Music City charm.

This fast-food drive-thru chain is a popular late-night decision among longtime locals. Find everything from corn dogs, quesadillas, burgers, and milkshakes all less than $5 a pop.

The small Salemtown space is a high-ranking destination among locals for breakfast and lunch — and for good reasons that pertain to both flavor and price. Opening at 6 a.m. during the week, he serves up classic morning meal items like pancakes, biscuits with gravy, and a big breakfast plate all priced below $8 plus lunch favorites like shrimp and grits, hot chicken, and fried pork chops.

Does it get any more Nashville than the recession special at one of Broadway’s old-school last stands? Yes, it’s certainly more bar than restaurant, but the fried bologna sandwich with an ice-cold PBR and chips (the “recession special” is priced at $6) has become an iconic Nashville meal. Most everything else on the menu runs less than $10 — a deal for anyone looking to stuff their face in the middle of a Broadway bar crawl.

At the Nashville-based favorite fast-casual Mexican spot in Berry Hill, burritos run around $6, and diners can also snag a basket of three tacos for six bucks and some change.

One of Nashville’s very first food trucks, Mas Tacos took its success and parlayed it into a wildly popular brick and mortar mainstay in East Nashville. The restaurant has been packing in crowds ever since with affordable taco creations and some of the best soups in the city.

A roasted pork bánh mì with double meat rings up for $4.81 at the favorite international market on Nolensville Pike.

East Nashville’s cute little vintage-VW-bus-turned-hotdog-stand churns out affordable prices in addition to festive hot dogs with inventive toppings. The mac and cheese topped weenie rings up at $4.75.

All items on the kitchen menu at this East Nashville dive bar range from $3 to $10, including a Porter Road cheesesteak and its take on hot chicken. Ten bucks buys a burger, fries, and a 7-ounce Miller High Life pony.

The Nolensville Road pupusa purveyor also offers $5 empanadas, $6 burritos, and $6 tortas filled with meat or beans, lettuce, and tomato. Namesake pupusas start at $2.25 a pop.

A barbecue sandwich at the longtime barbecue destination runs less than $5, and a “lite lunch” platter loaded up with sides rings up at $7.95.