With this location and another in Vanier, Lebanese bakery Aladdin focuses on no-nonsense savoury baked goods — pies and flatbreads topped or filled with herby zaatar, cheese, or kefte-adjacent meat.

Marysol Foucault’s Gatineau nook draws the Ottawa masses over to Gatineau for homey baked goods, creative sandwiches (on weekdays) and hearty brunches including a much-loved Dutch baby on weekends. Brunch in particular pushes the limits of the cheap eats category, but it’s worth it.

Various chip trucks around Ottawa offer serviceable poutines, but arguably the best in the area requires a provincial border crossing to the home province of the fries-curds-and-gravy dish. Expect a classic Québécois casse-croûte with squeaky cheese curds, fresh gravy that isn’t from a box, and piping hot fries.

This deli-grocery store near Little Italy is a favourite for bulky Italian sandwiches laden with prosciutto, soppressata, spicy capicollo, and the odd not-so-Italian filling like marbled cheese. A few baked treats like filled cannolis are on hand too.

In the heart of Chinatown is this temple to Vietnamese soup, offering warming broths and a veritable rainbow of beef cuts to put in that liquid. Even the biggest soups barely scrape over the $10 mark, and those ones are too big for the average appetite.

Ottawa’s Chinatown is actually better for Vietnamese food, but just five minutes over, Harmony does sweet and spicy Cantonese and Szechuan dishes with flair, around the $10 to $12 mark. Southern Chinese classics like chile oil beef or cumin lamb are the go-to items, but the menu is helpfully divided into “traditional Chinese” and “Canadian Chinese” for those in need of General Tao chicken and wonton soup.

The name may be a little silly, but it’s not wrong: this daytime-only spot downtown does creative breakfasts, sandwiches, and salads. The menu shuffles frequently but has included herby mushroom melts, spicy peanut beef sandwiches, and a vegan Buffalo cauliflower sandwich.

Tucked in a discreet basement is this excellent Korean nook — fried chicken (with sweet/spicy or soy glazes) is the go-to item (but the portion is enough for two, and is priced for a pair too), although there are solid noodle and rice dishes.

Right in the middle of the ByWard Market is this tasty spot for Mexican(-ish) food — Ottawa is hardly a taco city, but Corazon’s soft tortillas with tangy pico and cheesy quesadillas hit the spot at around $10 for a meal-sized serve.

Sometimes referred to as just “Bottega” or “Nicastro’s” is this Italian grocery store with a deli sandwich counter at the back. Pick a meat, bread, and cheese, and load it up with spicy eggplant, peppers, olives, and more, for mere dollars. There’s also an eat-in lunch counter with pizza and pasta for a little bit more.

This Lowertown Sri Lankan and south Indian restaurant does dosai pancakes, roti, and curry plates — get your money’s worth of spice for under ten bucks, or maybe a fraction more for a larger dinner.

While picking Ottawa’s best pho place is a tricky endeavour, it’s much easier for the city’s other go-to cheap eat, shawarma. Most agree that Shawarma Palace is the go-to — get chicken or beef shawarma or kafta kababs, wrapped up in pita sandwiches or on piled-high platters with rice, hummus, and potatoes.

This Hare Krishna-run buffet is a go-to for money-starved University of Ottawa students — load a plate up with warming daal or curry — there’s usually six to eight options, and the buffet costs seven dollars; note that you’ll need to take your shoes off and not be too loud.