Cheap Lunch Restaurants Near the Loop in Chicago

For workers and visitors who lunch in the downtown and near Loop areas of Chicago, you win a few, you lose a few. These restaurants and take-outs should put you on a winning streak for a while. They all offer good lunchtime food at very cheap prices. Manny's $9.95 corned beef sandwich made the list because it's so huge it really takes two to eat it for lunch.

Included are restaurant specialties, where they're located, what you can expect to pay for lunch, something about the atmosphere, and where possible, links to their menus.

Chicken Planet --- 21 W. Jackson Blvd. between State St. and Wabash Ave., right by the Chicago Art Institute. Category: American, roasted grilled chicken, and chicken pita sandwiches. Chicken Planet is a cheap lunch eat near the Loop. It's a small place place. The menu is simple-- quarter, half, or whole chicken, regular or white meat only, your choice of side and either BBQ sauce or salsa. A 1/2 chicken all white meat with a side of rice and drink, including tax is about $6.50. There are less expensive options. The chicken's grilled right in front of you and all the sides are good too. It's crazy crowded at lunchtime with long lines and only a few seats in the back, but the service is extremely fast and the prices are great. The rice is super tasty and the chicken is moist and juicy. You just have to decide what kind and size of chicken you want and which side you want with it. They also include half a piece of grilled pita bread with the chicken. The sauces are both great and they're homemade daily. View their menu at www.chicago.menupages.com.

Lao Sze Chuan --- 2172 S. Archer Ave. at Archer and Wentworth Ave. about 2 miles southwest of the Loop in Chinatown. Lao Sze Chuan, is a short L train ride away from downtown (Red Line - Cermak stop). Category: Chinese. It's cheap, tasty and walking in unannounced even with a large group isn't a problem. Lao Sze Chuan looks plain from the outside but inside they offer over 500 dishes and they're all very authentic Cantonese. Try the Three Chili Chicken. You get a hot crisp juicy chicken thigh with fresh jalapeno, pan toasted dried red chili pods and red pepper. And it all somehow has the faintest note of sweetness to it. The lunch special at Lao Sze Chuan's brings downtown Chicago workers in. Monday - Friday, ends at 3:30 p.m.. It's all you can eat for $5.00 - $6.00 making Lao Sze Chuan a really cheap Chicago lunch restaurant. The food's authentic so a lot of it is plenty spicy but your sure to find something you like in the huge buffet. If you get take out be sure to ask for the number of soy sauce, mustard, and sweet and sour packets you want. www.laoszechuan.com.
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Manny's - 1141 S Jefferson St.. Category: Jewish-Italian Deli. Manny's is one of the best Jewish deli's in Chicago and it's a great place to eat lunch. Their corned beef and pastrami sandwiches are huge and thick. They're bigger than huge. For $9.95 you get a gigantic corned beef sandwich and it's something of a bargain because you'll wind up saving 1/2 of it for later. Add a 1st potato pancake (which are delicious), on the side for $1. Roast beef and Pastrami's are also $9.95. Even if you can't handle corned beef, Manny's has an extensive lunch menu with multiple specials each day of the week. Right now on Monday's two are stuffed green pepper ($8.25) and corned beef hash ($7.50) and the portions are very generous. It's cafeteria style. You order what you like and pick up the check at the end of the line, then you pay on your way out. It gets crowded. Monday is their slowest lunch day . The lunch rush is over at about 1:30 weekdays.
www.mannysdeli.com

Al's No. 1 Italian Beef - The Taylor St. location at 1079 W. Taylor St.. Category: Italian beef sandwiches. They have the best giardiniera, they twice fry their french fries, and they use real charcoal to cook their Italian sausage. Al's is a cheap restaurant with great sandwiches and right across the street from Mario's Italian Ice which is another favorite. The double-fry makes their fries taste like you want more, (small $1.39, large $1.99). This is the original Al's. There are spin offs but each one is different. The original Al's on Taylor has food besides Italian beef. The Tamale Boat which is two tamales smothered in chili and topped with sharp cheddar cheese and fresh chopped onions, ($4), cold wraps, gourmet salads, char-grilled burgers and chicken. The Italian Burger with olive relish, roasted sweet peppers, provolone cheese and lettuce, ($3.39). But, as it says on the menu the reason your here at Al's is the sandwich. The sandwich is great. Tender and juicy beef with the soaked bun, gardineira, and a couple of grilled sweet pepper strips. In three sizes- $3.29, $4.29, and $5.99. You can view Al's menu at www.chicago.menupages.com.

Podhalanka - 1549 W Division. Category: Polish blue-collar. The soups are enormous. A meal in themselves. A bowl of soup, a plate of three different salads, for instance lettuce, cabbage and beat, an entree, and bread all for less than $10. A cheap near Loop Chicago restaurant with good food. They offer 10 kinds of soup, ($2.80). Polish sausage, chicken, beef, and pork sandwiches, ($3.25 - $3.75), and 15 different homemade polish dishes all $8.50 or less that come with soup and salad. Drinks, ($1). You can view Podhalanka's menu at www.chicago.menupages.com.

Silver Spoon - 710 N Rush St. one block west of Michigan Avenue at the 700 block. Category: Sushi, Thai food. The place looks like another hole in the wall except it's got a Zagat's sticker in the window. They have a $6.95 three piece lunch special and it's good. Try the Miso soup, crab wantons, and spicy basil chicken for an entree. They also have a sushi entree for a $1 more. The sushi options include mango maki, summer rolls with tuna, yellowtail, green pepper, and avocado. It's a fun place with oriental music played in the background. It's small and intimate. It's hard to find a cozy cheap Thai restaurant in that area. Lunch can be very crowded but after 1 p.m. it's not so crowded. The food is great, the service is good. You can view their menu at www.chicago.menupages.com.

Oasis Cafe - 21 N Wabash Ave. Category: Middle Eastern. Located In the back of one of the Jeweler's malls on Wabash St., is a group of tables in a sort of food court and a middle eastern lunch-counter. An Oasis is not the first thing that will come to mind. That said, the food and the prices more than make up for it. The falafel might be the best in downtown Chicago. The chicken shwarma pita sandwiches are excellent and perfectly moist. Their falafel sandwich ($4.99) is hefty, chock full of falafel and it comes comes with lettuce, cucumbers, and tomatoes. For only $1 more they'll add hummus too. They take credit cards, and the service is usually nice and fast. There's nothing on the menu over $6. Usually it's not crowded for lunch. It's one of the strangest food courts you'll ever be in but it's a very cheap and good downtown place for Middle Eastern food for lunch. You can view their menu at www.chicago.menupages.com.

Trotter's To Go Express - 200 West Monroe Street in the Equinox Fitness Center. Category: Soup. The fitness center is a members only place but Trotter's Express is open to the public. Believe it or not you can fill up there for under $5 at lunch if a very large and filling soup will do it for you. A large soup is $4 plus tax. The soups are freshly made with fresh ingredients and have interesting combinations of flavors. They offer a soup of the day. The Curry Cauliflower is tasty, with the curry not being overpowering. Right now the soups Monday through Thursday are, Curried Sweet Potato, Tomato Basil, Chicken Noodle, and Wild Mushroom. The soups are not listed on their menu on line. They will usually have a vegan option and a cream/chicken stock option. They have a have Clam Chowder on Fridays, but it sells out fast. You can get your soup with some ciabatta or pretzel bread for around $5.25. Sandwiches are cheaper than Manny's at $7.95 but not nearly as hefty. You can view their menu at www.chicago.menupages.com.

Ginza - 19 E. Ohio between State St. and Wabash Ave. above the Tokyo Hotel. Category: Japanese traditional and sushi. Described as dingy and low rent by some who have eaten there, you could also describe it as small and cozy. It is small, about four tables in the front and eight to ten seats in the rear at the sushi bar and a few tables in the back. Not as small as Chicken Planet though. But the food, prices, and service both get way above average marks. One of the the big draws is their lunch special. You can't get a better piece of saba shioyaki for the price. At the lunch special ($7.95), you pick two items. On the list are foods like sashimi salad, Japanese fried chicken, and gomae. Their lunch menu offerings are not on line.

Atino's Pizza - 570 W. Roosevelt Rd. right across the street from Manny's Deli. Category: Pizza. Atino's lunch special is an 18" X 25" piece of pizza that's actually very good and it comes with a can of cold pop, ($3.79). This is not actually a restaurant. It's take out and delivery only, but it's cheap and tasty.

Allspice Cafe - 201 E. Huron inside of Northwestern Memorial Hospital off Michigan Ave. on the second floor of the hospital next to Au Bon Pain. Category: American Cafe/Cafeteria. There is a huge 640 seat cafeteria here (also a great cafe, Au Bon Pain), that is open to the public. They've got a great selection of all kinds of cafeteria foods, mac and cheese, several different kinds of fried and unfried potatoes, burgers, dogs, chilis, sandwiches, slaw, salads, fruit, vegetables, hot meals, beverages, snacks, desserts, the works. There are two deli stations; a food station with a rotisserie; and often there are Asian or Mexican offerings. It also has a double salad bar and an Italian station with pasta and pizza. There's desserts and a coffee island. 8 cash registers help very much to keep lunchers on time. Everything they sell also has a sign giving you the nutritional value of what your buying. A full lunch meal of two vegetable sides, and an Entree, about ($7). www.nmh.org.

The writer has eaten at all the establishments on the list
and the selections are the writers'.
The following sources were of great help
in writing this article and were used as reference.

www.yelp.com
www.chicagofoodies.com
www.foodieview.com
www.lthforum.com
www.chicago.menupages.com
www.rrippe.com (for Allspice Cafe)