Good Cheap Family Meals in Dallas

We have a family of four, and we love eating out. It saves us time from cooking and cleaning, allowing us to relax and enjoy each other's company. However, we also care about the quality of our food. Finding both healthy and affordable restaurants can be challenging.

In this article, I will share a list of places we have found to be both cheap and healthy. Some of the deals are not well known, but if you know them, they can save you a lot of money!

(I will keep updating this list as we find more!)

Contents

• Schlotzsky's (Multiple Locations)
• Lee's Sandwiches (Garland, TX)
• Taqueria El Paso, aka. Antique Crazy Tacos (Plano, TX)
• Agoza Gebya (Dallas, TX)

Schlotzsky's (Multiple Locations)

Schlotzsky's is a franchise chain of restaurants that originated in Austin, Texas. They offer sandwiches and pizzas.

They are not the traditional American fast food. Their food is not greasy or fried, and the ingredients are fresh.

Our favorite dish is the California Chicken Avocado Flatbread, which is a flatbread full of chicken, bacon, avocado, cilantro, and chipotle.

Schlotzsky's California Chicken Avocado Flatbread

Something that not many people know about Schlotzsky's is they offer a buy one, get one free deal for sandwiches and pizzas on Wednesdays (as of May 2024). We discovered this one Wednesday and thought our bill was mistakenly cut in half.

For us, 4 sandwiches/pizzas on a Wednesday cost less than $30.

They have many locations in Dallas. Just Google it.

Lee's Sandwiches (Garland, TX)

In another post about food courts, I mentioned Saigon Mall in Garland, Texas. Inside the mall, there's a Vietnamese sandwich (bánh mì) shop called Lee's Sandwiches.

Lee's Sandwiches specializes in bánh mì, "European-style" baguette sandwiches, Vietnamese iced coffee, and the Vietnamese dessert chè.

Bánh mì is made with a choice of meat, fresh cucumber slices, cilantro (leaves of the coriander plant), and pickled carrots and white radishes in shredded form, all inside crispy bread. It's fresh, healthy, and filling.

Bánh mì at Lee's Sandwiches

You can get one bánh mì for $5 or $6. They also offer a wonderful deal where you can buy 4 and get one free at the Garland location.

Address: 3212 N Jupiter Rd #101, Garland, TX 75044

Taqueria El Paso, aka. Antique Crazy Tacos (Plano, TX)

How would you know which Chinese restaurants are good and reasonably priced? You check who are eating there. If they are all Chinese people, and they even only speak Mandarin there, you know this food is good and should not be over priced. We apply the same wisdom to the other cuisines as well. We stumbled upon the Antique Crazy Tacos, and we only found Mexican people eating inside and people running the restaurants didn't speak English very well, and we were the only Asians.

The tacos and sopes here are amazing. They also have my favorite Mexican dishes: tostadas de camarón, menudo (only on weekends), and caldo de camarón (only on weekends).

Taco Plate at Crazy Tacos, $8.75 at the time of our latest visit

My only complaints are the service is very slow, and they don't update their prices on the menu. Occasionally, you may be surprised when they tell you a different total price for the bill. They seem completely swamped every time when we visit. I really hope they can improve the experience, so more people can recognize how great their food is.

Address: 4101 E Park Blvd, Plano, TX 75074

Agoza Gebya (Dallas, TX)

We love Ethiopian food, so we are so happy to find one restaurant in Dallas.

We found this place purely by accident. This is a small mom-and-pop Ethiopian grocery store, very small, with only a few tables to sit down for food. They offer the famous Ethiopian staple: injera. For our family of four, we often order the vegetarian combination (a huge plate with split lentils, collard greens, split peas, and cabbage served with injera) and a tibse meat dish, either lamb or beef.

The Veggie Combo with A Tibse dish at Agoza Gebya

When we ordered there for the first time, we could not believe the price. The veggie combo is $16, and the tibbs is $18, totaling around $40, and we have enough leftovers for another meal!

This is a gem in Dallas. I selfishly don't want to tell the rest of the world because I love their price. But I feel I need to support this small business, so I'm letting everyone know how great their food is.

Address: 5528 Alpha Rd, Suite 105, Dallas, TX 75240