14 Best Cheap Eats in Edinburgh (2026)

A hog roast in a window on Edinburgh's most colourful street. The concept is simple: a whole pig is slow-roasted every morning, then carved to order into soft rolls with sage and onion stuffing, apple sauce, or crackling. You can add haggis as a topping, because this is Edinburgh and of course you can. A roll costs about £5 to £6, and it's enough food to keep you going until dinner.

The queue at peak times can be 15 to 20 minutes, which tells you everything about how good this is for the price. The staff are friendly and let you taste the meat before you order. The seating situation is essentially nonexistent; you eat standing on Victoria Street, which is fine because the street itself is worth looking at. There's also a branch on the Canongate if the Victoria Street queue is too long. If you only eat one budget meal on the Royal Mile, make it this one.

A basement French bistro on Hanover Street that does a three-course lunch for £12.90. That's starter, main, and dessert, in a proper restaurant with tablecloths and French waiters, for less than most Edinburgh pubs charge for a burger and a pint. The steak frites is the best-value pick. The French onion soup is reliable. The escargots are there if you want them. The coq au vin is comfort food in the way that only French bistros manage.

The catch is that you need to arrive early or book, because everyone in Edinburgh knows about this deal and the room isn't huge. The basement location means no natural light, but the atmosphere is cozy rather than claustrophobic, like a Parisian side street transported underground. Dinner is more expensive (still reasonable by Edinburgh standards), but the lunch deal is the reason Chez Jules has survived and thrived for years in a neighbourhood full of restaurants that come and go.

Indian street food on Holyrood Road, halfway between the Royal Mile and Dynamic Earth. The Pakora Bar does Punjabi street food with a distinctly Scottish twist: haggis pakoras are on the menu and they work surprisingly well. The lamb samosas, aloo tikki, and chicken pakora wraps are all good and all cheap. The mango lassi pale ale is the kind of crossover drink that shouldn't work but does.

Service is fast and friendly, the portions are generous, and the prices are low enough that you can try several things without the bill getting scary. It's a 4.7 on Google with a price level of 1, which in Edinburgh is the combination you're looking for. The room is bright and modern rather than traditional curry house, and it's one of the few places near the Royal Mile where you can eat a proper meal for under £10 without feeling like you're making compromises.

Another Edinburgh police box turned food stall, this time on Lauriston Place near the art college. Tupiniquim serves Brazilian crepes (tapioca-based, naturally gluten-free) with savoury fillings like spicy ratatouille, butternut squash with spinach, or cheese and ham. Sweet crepes too. The whole operation is run by passionate staff who care about dietary requirements without making a fuss about it: gluten-free, egg-free, and vegan options are all standard.

A crepe costs around £7, which for a filled meal near the city centre is genuine value. The queue moves quickly. Like most police box food stalls in Edinburgh, there's no seating; you eat on the nearby benches or take it to the Meadows park. On a warm day, a Tupiniquim crepe eaten on the Meadows grass is one of Edinburgh's best cheap lunch experiences. On a wet day, you stand in the rain eating a crepe, which is still a pretty good lunch by most standards.

Edinburgh has a lot of chip shops. Most of them are fine. This one, on Broughton Street, is actually good. Spencer uses fresh fish (not frozen), makes the batter from scratch, and cuts the chips thick. The result is fish and chips that taste the way fish and chips are supposed to taste, which is a surprisingly rare thing. The deep-fried haggis is excellent. The black pudding fritters are an indulgence. The mushy peas are made properly.

It's on Broughton Street, which is Edinburgh's quieter alternative to the Royal Mile: independent shops, good food, no tourist buses. The prices are chip shop prices, which means you're eating a full meal for under £10. It gets busy on Friday and Saturday evenings, so order in advance if you can. The only downside is that the seating is limited, so takeaway and eat-in-the-park is the default option. Broughton Street has benches. Use them.

Across the road from Greyfriars Bobby (the dog statue, not the graveyard, though it's near both). Bobby's is a small sandwich shop that does exactly what you'd hope: fresh sandwiches with good fillings, made while you wait, at prices that feel honest. The Moroccan lentil soup is the thing that keeps regulars coming back, which says something about a place called a sandwich bar. The sandwiches themselves are properly filled, none of that one-slice-of-ham-and-too-much-lettuce approach.

It's useful for a quick, cheap lunch in the Old Town without resorting to the chain cafes on the Royal Mile. The location near the university means it gets a lunchtime rush, so off-peak is better. Nothing about Bobby's will change your life, but that's not what cheap eats are for. They're for eating well, quickly, without spending money you'd rather save for Edinburgh's best bars later that evening.

On South Clerk Street in Newington, the Himalaya Centre is run by a single owner who does everything: cooks, serves, clears tables, and chats to regulars between courses. The momos (Tibetan dumplings) are the headline dish and they sell out, so arrive earlier rather than later. The Mega Thali is the best value on the menu: a large plate of lentils, rice, vegetables, and bread for a price that makes you question the economics of running a restaurant.

The mango lassi is good. The portions are generous enough that most people can't finish the thali. The reviews are mixed on some dishes (the curry can be inconsistent), but the momos are consistently praised and the overall warmth of the place makes up for any rough edges. It's a one-person operation in a student neighbourhood, priced accordingly, and the food reflects a cuisine that Edinburgh doesn't have many options for. If you're near the Southside, it's worth the detour.

Korean street food in the Grassmarket. Seoul Nibbles has a perfect 5.0 Google rating, which for a street food stall in Edinburgh's most competitive tourist area is a statement. The menu is focused: Korean fried chicken, bibimbap, and tteokbokki (spiced rice cakes), all served quickly and priced at student level. It's the kind of food that tastes better than it costs, which is the whole point of this guide.

The Grassmarket is one of Edinburgh's best squares for eating outdoors, with views up to the Castle and enough bench seating that you don't have to stand. Seoul Nibbles is at the western end. Combine it with a walk up to Victoria Street (where Oink is) for a two-stop cheap food crawl that covers the best of Old Town budget eating.

On Nicolson Street, in the thick of the university neighbourhood, CrispyQ has a perfect Google rating and does Asian fusion at prices that would be cheap even for a city that wasn't Edinburgh. The menu covers Chinese, Thai, and Korean influences, and the portions are big. It's the kind of place where students eat three times a week and where the owner knows what "value" actually means.

Nicolson Street is one of the best streets in Edinburgh for cheap eating. Within a 5-minute walk, you'll find Himalaya Centre, Picnic Basket, and several other affordable options. CrispyQ fits into a Southside food crawl well if you're spending a day around the university area or heading to Arthur's Seat.

Pizza by the slice, but bigger and better than that phrase usually implies. Civerinos started as a street food stall and now has multiple locations; the Forrest Road branch is the original and still the best for a quick, cheap meal. The slices are large. The toppings are creative: buttermilk fried chicken, Italian sausage, nduja. The giant mozzarella sticks and mac and cheese balls on the side menu are the kind of thing you order once "just to try" and then order every time.

It's a student-area pizza place, so the atmosphere is casual and the prices are low. The Forrest Road location is near the Meadows and the university, which makes it a good lunch stop if you're walking between the Old Town and the Southside. Takeaway is often smarter than dining in during busy periods, because the queue for a table can be longer than the queue for a box. Late-night opening means it's also the post-pub pizza option for half of Edinburgh.

Wood-fired pizza from a small restaurant near St James Quarter. Wanderers Kneaded does proper Neapolitan-style pizza with a charred, blistered crust and creative toppings. The Gorgonzola with spicy sausage is the combination that regulars recommend. The staff are chatty and genuinely enthusiastic about their dough, which is the kind of detail you notice when you're eating it.

They also run a takeaway window near the Meadows on weekends, which is a different experience: buy a pizza, walk into the park, eat it on the grass. For a weekend lunch in Edinburgh on a budget, a Wanderers pizza in the Meadows is hard to beat. The restaurant location on Little King Street is small and books up, so walk-ins are easier at the weekend window.

Near Waverley Station, Snax is a proper greasy spoon. Not the trendy kind that puts truffle oil on things and calls it a "fry-up experience." The actual kind, where the menu is on the wall, the tea comes in a mug, and the haggis roll costs what a haggis roll should cost. The full Scottish breakfast is the thing most people order, and it's filling enough to replace both breakfast and lunch.

It's small, with limited seating, and it gets a mixed crowd: builders, students, tourists who've wandered off the Royal Mile and found themselves somewhere real. The service is fast. The food is honest. The coffee is not specialty. This is the cheapest breakfast in central Edinburgh, and it does exactly what it says. If you need fuel before a day of walking around Edinburgh's museums, this is where you start.

Thai street food from co-owners Ting and Ae Tapparat, who started their Edinburgh journey at a food stall during the Fringe Festival and now have two permanent restaurants. The Teviot Place location is near the university and priced for students, which means you're eating well for under £10. The nua yam talay (rump steak with spicy lime) and sea bass maeklong (pan-fried with lemongrass) are the dishes reviewers mention most. The pad Thai is reliable. The curries are generous.

The reviews are mixed on consistency. Some visits are excellent, others are average, and spice levels seem to vary depending on the chef's mood. But the prices are honest, the portions are big, and on a good day the food is genuinely impressive for what you're paying. The Lothian Road branch has the same menu if this one is full.

On West Nicolson Street, a short walk from the National Museum of Scotland, Picnic Basket does sandwiches that are properly filled and properly priced. The "Hot and Cool" is the signature order: a warm sandwich with a combination of hot and cold fillings that works better than it sounds. The shop is small, the service is quick, and the lunchtime queue is a reliable indicator that people who eat in this neighbourhood regularly have chosen to eat here.

It's nothing fancy. The menu is sandwiches, a few sides, and drinks. But when you're walking between Edinburgh's museums and you need to eat something good without spending 45 minutes and £15 in a sit-down restaurant, Picnic Basket is exactly the right kind of place.