I truly adore a good cheap eat. It's lovely to have a fantastic meal out with my hubby and spend less than $20 for the two of us. When you can get great food at a good price from a locally owned restaurant, why ever visit a national chain? Thankfully, we have plenty of amazing, locally owned, cheap eats to take advantage of in Cleveland. This week we brunched, lunched and dined for <$20 each meal. Brunch Waking up late and eating a meal that soaks up the previous night's debauchery is a beautiful thing. Brunch always leaves me feeling warm and fuzzy inside just like this art at the Borderline Cafe in Lakewood.
Borderline Cafe is a fun little cheap eats brunch. They don't have a website/facebook/twitter page, but they do have a Google+ you can check out. They also only accept cash, but since you won't be spending much that's not such a big deal.
The front page of the menu has some real creative dishes. Some are closer to the $10 range, but there are plenty of things on the menu for <$6.
I tried the Breakfast Pizza. The tomato salsa was excellent. I expected a traditional salsa, but it was like a cross between a salsa and pizza sauce. Very well done dish for the price! I can see why they were packed.
My hubby ordered the Traditional - two eggs, toast, homefries with sausage. I usually require my homefries covered in ketchup and/or hot sauce, but these were spiced to perfection. They didn't need a thing.
Exceptional food at a great price! I even had a nice sized glass of chocolate milk and we still got out of there for less than $20.
Lunch Something about this being a tiny little place with a just a few outdoor tables off Bridge St. made Bogtrotters Doorstep highly appealing to me. Some of my favorite NYC eateries are little shops so I guess I've come to expect big flavors from little shops and Bogtrotters didn't disappoint!
They just serve au jus sandwiches, but that's all they need to serve because they do them very well. I got the Porkopolis, au jus on the side and crunch (chips) on the top. Their sandwiches have meat for days and the greens were very well done. The sandwich was $9 and left me full for hours.
My husband got the Clevelander, which he never even shared a bite of! Those onions looked amazing.
The most impressive part of the sandwich was the bread. This baguette can handle au jus! Even when soaked it still kept form and had flavor. No wonder Momocho Chef Eric once had a two-a-day habit.
Dinner Getting dinner for 2 for under $20 can be a harder find, especially when you enjoy dessert with your dinner as much as I do. Thankfully, we discovered Sweetie Fry and their hand-crafted ice cream and impossibly good fries.
Fries for dinner works! Impossibly good fries is a fitting description. We shared a large order of the Bacon Cheddar Melt Fries. They are every bit as good as they look and I am more than ready to go back and try more. It was plenty of food for the two of us for dinner.
Since we got just a one scoop cone they gave us the kids price of $2.50 and you still get the little scoop on top with it too! We tried the French Toast ice cream with a little scoop of the strawberries and sour cream on top. The French Toast was excellent. Very bold flavors! I couldn't imagine eating more than just one scoop.
A little bit of money goes a long way at these awesome Cleveland restaurants. It was my first time trying each one and they all hit it out of the park so I'm ready to go out and find some more Cleveland Cheap Eats for part II!