Don't Edit

In a world of $15 sandwiches, the $5 cheeseburger is king. If you find yourself hungry and downtown, and a food cart just doesn't seem right, we've sifted through our 2019 guide to Portland's best inexpensive restaurants to bring you the 10 best brick-and-mortar options downtown. Note: We took a few liberties with our definition of downtown to squeeze in a couple of great options just on the other side of the river. Depending on where you work, you should be able to reach both on your lunch break.

Don't Edit

Bless Your Heart

Don't Edit

Don't Edit

John Gorham knows burgers, with bistro creations at Toro Bravo and Tasty N Alder that have been topping best burger lists for more than a decade. So it makes sense that his burger-specific kiosk at Pine Street Market, Bless Your Heart Burgers, would be a winner, with quality fast-food-style burgers, McDonald-esque fries ($2.95 small) and a cola-friendly cocktail list. The namesake “Carolina burger” ($6.95) comes with a Duke’s mayo coleslaw, while the classic, either single ($6.95) or double ($9.95), has loose, crisp-edged patties sizzling under melted American cheese, shredded lettuce and house-made pickles.

126 S.W. Second Ave., 503-719-4221,

Don't Edit

Don't Edit

Checkerboard

Don't Edit

Don't Edit

When this Pine Street Market counter opened as Trifecta Annex in 2016, it was a convenient spot to pick up good bread and creative pastries from James Beard Award-winning cookbook author and baker Ken Forkish. Two years and a name change later, Checkerboard remains just that while also offering Portland’s best pizza by the slice. Forkish, who also owns Ken’s Artisan Pizza, serves a very New York-style pie in some six daily varieties, including a cheeseless marinara and a seasonal option or two (generally $3.50-$4). The plain ($3) shows off a thin, crunchy crust sturdy enough to hold the lightly applied sauce and cheese. The end crust tastes better than many local baguettes.

126 S.W. Second Ave., 503-299-2000,

Don't Edit

Darsalam Lazurdi

Don't Edit

Don't Edit

Don't Edit

Like the blue and gold mural of Babylon’s Ishtar Gate painted on its wall, this downtown Portland location of Portland’s sole brick-and-mortar Iraqi restaurant should be a gateway to this wonderful, underrepresented cuisine. Weekdays at lunch, Darsalam Lazurdi downtown offers a quality buffet with vegetarian stews, good hummus, yellow-spiced chicken, coconut shrimp (that would be shrimp in a mellow coconut sauce, not the deep-fried Applebee’s appetizer) and flatbread brought to order. It doesn’t touch the diversity and complexity you can find on the a la carte menu here or at its charming sister restaurant on Northeast Alberta Street, but it might be the most inexpensive sit-down Middle Eastern meal in the city.

320 S.W. Alder St., 503-444-7813,

Don't Edit

Dockside Saloon & Restaurant

Don't Edit

Don't Edit

Dockside, a nautically themed dive all but swallowed up by northwest-creeping Pearl District development, might be best known these days for its role in the downfall of Oregon figure skating legend Tonya Harding – garbage found dumped behind the restaurant indicated that Harding, despite earlier denials, knew of and helped plan the attack on her rival Nancy Kerrigan. Another claim to fame? The golden hashbrowns that come with half the meals on the bridge-themed menu. One thick buttermilk pancake and a pair of sausage links or bacon strips will set you back $5.95. For a few bucks more, corned beef hash ($11.95) features a flat slab of minced beef and shredded potato seared to a deep, crunchy brown with two eggs, choice of toast, biscuit or English muffin and a possibly redundant rectangle of crunchy potato hashbrowns.

2047 N.W. Front Ave., 503-241-6433,

Don't Edit

Frank's Noodle House

Don't Edit

Don't Edit

Don't Edit

Yes, these hand-pulled noodle specialists are just across the river. But anyone who has ever worked a temp job in a Lloyd Center tower knows this panhandle is really an extension of downtown. Plus, the food is excellent and crazy cheap, especially at lunch. Cabbage kimchi and cubed daikon radish will hit the table just as soon as you sit down. You're here for the noodles, either with pork belly or maybe squid, as spicy as you can handle. Order: At lunch, when spicy noodles with pork belly, squid or other meats drop to between $7 and $9. 822 N.E. Broadway, 503-288-1007, franksnoodlehousepdx.com

Don't Edit

Fuller's Coffee Shop

Don't Edit

Don't Edit

Praise Fuller's, the best of Portland's classic diners, with its neon clock and meandering counter and plain silverware laid out on paper napkins. From its corner perch at the Pearl District's southeastern border, Fuller's serves an all-day breakfast with French toast on housemade bread ($8), cheesy omelets with hashbrowns and toast ($9.75) and hearty plates of corned beef hash ($10.75) or country fried steak ($10.75), each large enough, if you pace yourself, to leave you with leftovers. At lunch, regulars perch on low, swiveling stools, hands clasped around double decker cheeseburgers (a hard-to-beat $5.50) that drip melted American cheese from their sesame seed buns. Note: Fuller's switched things up a little bit this year -- they now take credit cards. 136 N.W. Ninth Ave., 503-222-5608

Don't Edit

Don't Edit

Giraffe

Don't Edit

Don't Edit

Another just-across-the-river option, this Japanese market and deli from a pair of Biwa vets is found inside Southeast Portland’s eclectic Cargo store. If all it did was make it easier for Portlanders to pick up bread and pastries from Beaverton’s excellent Oyatsupan bakery, it would still feel essential. But Giraffe goes further, with onigiri, bento boxes and leveled-up Japanese convenience store-style egg salad and pork katsu sandwiches ($5-$6) built on Oyatsupan’s fluffy milk bread. Does it fill the hole left when Portland’s beloved, century-old Japanese market Anzen closed in 2014? Not quite, but it’s a start.

81 S.E. Yamhill St., 503-449-8346,

Don't Edit

Justa Pasta

Don't Edit

Don't Edit

Don't Edit

Given the streamlined dining room filled with a Portland dressy clientele, this might not look the part of an affordable restaurant. Yet as we learned when researching our guide to Portland’s best pasta in 2017, Justa Pasta is just-a that, particularly at lunch, when the build-your-own menu includes a dozen or more good, inexpensive pasta options. More elaborate specials can stretch from $11 into the $17 range, but a three-cheese ravioli in fresh pesto is $12, tagliatelle in garlic chile oil is $9 and a simple spinach bucatini in marinara sauce can be had for $8. Scope out the low, semi-hidden fridge to the left of the ordering counter for sauces and fresh pasta to-go to make an even more affordable meal at home.

1326 N.W. 19th Ave., 503-243-2249,

Don't Edit

Love Belizean

Don't Edit

Don't Edit

For those looking to eat well on a budget anywhere near Portland State University, knowing about Love Belizean is like a secret password. Tiffany Love's restaurant, which started life as a food cart, specializes in this garlic- and achiote-rubbed chicken roasted until the meat turns tender and the skin turns a gorgeous shade of brown. Each beautiful piece ($8) comes with beans, coconut rice, Caribbean salsa, arugula salad, fresh lime and your pick from a rainbow of Marie Sharp's Belizean hot sauces. Obsessed with the chicken, I was slow to find the tri tip ($10) or the beer-braised pork ($12), but now each is firmly in the rotation. 1503 S.W. Broadway, 503-421-5599

Don't Edit

Nong's Khao Man Gai

Don't Edit

Don't Edit

Don't Edit

What more needs to be said about Nong’s Khao Man Gai? The restaurant, which closed its destination food cart last year to make way for -- what else -- a boutique hotel, specializes in a sort of ideal version of poached chicken and jasmine rice ($11), a dish credited to the southern Chinese island of Hainan but popular throughout the region, including in owner Nong Poonsukwattana’s native Thailand. If you only visit one of the two remaining brick-and-mortar restaurants, make it the the Southeast shop, which offers cocktails and desserts, including a lemongrass- and pandan-flavored coconut milk soft serve that you can order dipped in roast coconut shavings or as an affogato drowned in Stumptown coffee or Thai iced tea.

609 S.E. Ankeny St., 503-740-2907; 417 S.W. 13th Ave., 503-208-2402;

Don't Edit

Read more

Don't Edit

Don't Edit

This list was culled from our recent guide to the best inexpensive restaurants in the city. Check that out, then take a look at our guide to Portland's 40 best restaurants, period.

Don't Edit