The 8 best cheap eats in Albany, ranked
Casual counter service restaurant in Albany serving inexpensive meals
Eight places to eat well in Albany for under $15, ranked by what you actually get on the plate for the money.
1. Cardona's Market (Delaware Avenue)
Cardona's on Delaware Avenue has been slicing prosciutto and stacking Italian sandwiches since 1948, and the eggplant parm sub at $10 is the single best value meal in the city. Order at the deli counter, wait 15 minutes, take it to Lincoln Park or back to your hotel — there's no dining room worth speaking of. The bread comes from Perreca's in Schenectady; the ricotta and mozzarella are made in-house. A large sub feeds two if you’re not both starving.
Cash gets you moved through the line faster than cards. Fridays at lunchtime the wait can push 30 minutes when the state workers show up en masse. Best Tuesday or Wednesday around 11:30 or 2. They close at 6pm and don’t open Sunday. Pair with a bottle of Italian wine from their retail shelves — the markup is minimal and the selection is stronger than any grocery store in the city. If you eat one cheap meal in Albany, this is where you eat it, and the eggplant parm outperforms every $25 version in a sit-down restaurant.
2. Ted's Fish Fry (multiple locations)
Ted's is a Capital Region institution — a fried fish sandwich chain founded in Troy in 1949, now with locations in Watervliet, Latham and elsewhere. The fish fry sandwich is $8, comes on a soft roll with tartar sauce, and the haddock piece hangs six inches past the bread on both sides. Add fries and a chocolate milkshake for $14 total. It's not fancy, it's not health food, it's exactly what it needs to be.
Fridays during Lent the lines stretch out the door in every location — go Tuesday or Wednesday. The Watervliet location on 19th Street is the closest to downtown Albany at 10 minutes by car. Drive-through works if you’re on a schedule. Order the fish fry, not the burgers — Ted's does one thing well and everything else is filler. The milkshakes are made with soft-serve and are better than they have any right to be. It's the Capital Region equivalent of a Massachusetts clam shack, and every visitor should eat here once.
3. Bombers Burrito Bar (Lark Street)
Bombers on Lark Street is a late-night burrito spot that started in Schenectady in 1998 and has kept its counter-service formula unchanged. The Big Bomb burrito at $11 is nearly the size of a two-litre bottle, stuffed with rice, beans, cheese, meat and vegetables to order. Best consumed on the outdoor patio in summer with a Mexican beer at $4. Open until 4am on weekends when Lark Street's bars empty out.
The food is not authentic Mexican and doesn’t claim to be — it's American burrito culture from the 1990s executed at scale. Skip the taco menu; the burritos are what to order. Vegetarians do well here with the tofu Bomb. Cash and card both work; ordering online for pickup skips the counter queue on Friday nights when the wait pushes 20 minutes. There's a second location in Schenectady and one in Troy. The Lark Street location fits into the Center Square walking circuit perfectly and it's the cheapest sit-down meal in the neighbourhood.
4. The Cuckoo's Nest (Madison Avenue)
The Cuckoo's Nest on Madison Avenue near the Park does a $12 lunch special with a sandwich, side and drink that outperforms anything in the price range. The Cuban sandwich is the order — proper pressed bread, real roast pork, house pickles. The dining room is small and gets loud at peak lunch, so grab a bar seat if the tables are full. Weekday lunches only for the special; dinner runs $18 to $25 mains.
It's not strictly a cheap-eats place — dinner isn’t budget — but the lunch deal earns the ranking. The bar makes real cocktails at $12 in the evening if you decide to stay past lunch. Combine with a walk across the street into Washington Park. They take reservations for dinner but not lunch. Closed Mondays. It's the closest thing Center Square has to a neighbourhood bistro at a lunch price point, and the Cuban is the best pressed sandwich in the city.
5. Emack & Bolio's / regional ice cream stops
Not a meal but a category. Kurver Kreme on Central Avenue is a seasonal soft-serve stand — open April to October — with cones at $5 and a walk-up window that hasn’t changed since 1952. Toll Gate in Slingerlands is the sit-down version with hard ice cream at $6 a scoop and a diner attached if you want a burger with it. Stewart's Shops, the regional convenience-store chain, sells house-made ice cream at $3 a scoop and is the cheapest option in the region.
Kurver Kreme wins on nostalgia and the specific texture of proper Capital Region soft-serve, which locals will tell you is different from anywhere else. Toll Gate wins on selection — 40+ flavours of hard ice cream. Stewart's wins on ubiquity: there are 20 locations within Albany city limits. If you’re eating a proper meal from another entry on this list, add a Stewart's stop after. If dessert is the meal, go to Kurver Kreme and eat on the picnic tables out front.
6. Ali Baba (Central Avenue)
Ali Baba on Central Avenue does Turkish and Middle Eastern food at prices that haven’t caught up to inflation. The chicken shawarma plate at $12 comes with rice, salad, hummus and pita, and it's a proper meal for one large appetite or two moderate ones. The dining room is bright and clean without being decorated; it's a functional restaurant that puts everything into the food. BYOB.
Best at lunch when the state office crowd hits between noon and 1 — go before or after that window. The lamb kebabs are more expensive but worth the upgrade if you’re stretching to $18. Vegetarian options are strong: falafel plate, mujadara, stuffed grape leaves. Central Avenue is not a walking district — you’re driving here or taking a bus. Parking is free on the street. It's the best value Middle Eastern in the Capital Region and the shawarma is the specific order every time.
7. Andy's Sub Shop (Delaware Avenue)
Andy's is the neighbourhood sub shop on Delaware Avenue that locals argue about vs. Cardona's, and it's a legitimate argument. The Italian sub at $9 has the same DNA — good bread, real meats, proper oil-and-vinegar — but Andy's runs slightly cheaper and slightly faster through the line. No dining room; it's take-away. Cash or card, no reservations, no complications.
The difference between Andy's and Cardona's is essentially preference on bread density and meat-to-bread ratio. Cardona's runs softer bread and heavier fillings; Andy's runs crustier and more balanced. Either is a legitimate top-three sandwich in the region. Andy's closes at 4pm most days, so it's a lunch-only option. Combine with a walk in Lincoln Park across Delaware Avenue. If Cardona's has a line you don’t want to wait in, walk five minutes to Andy's and eat as well for a dollar less.
8. Ala Shanghai (Colonie)
Ala Shanghai on Wolf Road in Colonie is a 20-minute drive from downtown and it does the best value Chinese in the region — proper Shanghai-style soup dumplings at $10 for eight, hand-pulled noodles at $12, mapo tofu at $11. It's not cheap-eats in the sub-$10 sense, but the plates land near $12 to $14 and feed one hungry person or two sharing. The dining room is basic; the food is why you drive out.
Best on weekday nights when Wolf Road traffic dies down. Weekend lunches for dim sum-adjacent items get busy — reservations help. The soup dumplings are the specific order that justifies the trip; they’re better than anything within 100 miles in any direction. Parking is free in the strip mall lot. Combine with shopping at Crossgates Mall five minutes away if you need indoor space on a bad-weather day. It's the highest-quality cheap-adjacent meal on this list and the drive is short enough to not count against it.
Before you book
What people ask before booking Downtown Albany.
The eggplant parm sub at Cardona's Market for $10, which feeds two if you’re not both ravenous. Second cheapest with equal quality: Andy's Italian sub at $9 five minutes further south on Delaware Avenue. Both are take-away only, both are cash-preferred, both close by early evening and neither opens Sunday.
Yes, once. It's a Capital Region cultural marker — a fried haddock sandwich chain since 1949 with locations across the region. The $8 fish fry and $6 milkshake combo is $14 total and every visitor should eat it once for the specifically upstate experience. Skip the burgers; Ted's does fish and shakes.
Bombers Burrito Bar on Lark Street stays open until 4am on Friday and Saturday nights, with burritos under $12. It's the primary post-bar option in Center Square. Otherwise most cheap-eats spots close by 8 or 9pm, and late-night options in Albany are thin outside the Lark Street corridor.
Most do, but Cardona's and Andy's move faster with cash and prefer it. Ted's, Bombers, Cuckoo's Nest, Ali Baba and Ala Shanghai all take cards without issue. Stewart's Shops take everything including mobile pay. Bring cash for the two Italian sub shops on Delaware Avenue and you’ll skip a few minutes of line.
