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Food

Fast food & snack set isolated on white background: burger, dessert, pizza, coffee, chicken, wok, beef etc. Hand drawn sketch style, chalkboard drawing.

Cheap Fast Eats

We know. While we love living in SoCal, it can take quite a toll out of your pocket book, time and energy. That’s why we created Cheap Fast Eats — to give you a friend-in-the-know shortcut to finding tasty food you can grab quickly for $10-$15.We’ve been scouting out places for a couple of years now, and have gone as far afield as Santa Ana and the Valley, from Culver City to Pico Union. So check out our new fall edition — a curated list of places we think you’ll like for cool temps.

Cheap Fast Eats: 5 new meals to try for around $10 that are worth the trip

A Honduran baleada on a white plate, filled with mashed beans, sprinkled cheese, and topped with bright pickled red onions, all wrapped in a warm flour tortilla.

Cheap Fast Eats heads to North Hollywood for tasty food around $10

A toasted Guatemalan torta sandwich filled with shredded meat, lettuce, tomatoes, and guacamole, served on parchment paper with a side garnish of parsley and tomato. A small toothpick flag with “Muchá! Comida Chapina” is placed beside it.

Inventive, affordable bites in OC: Cheap Fast Eats visits Santa Ana

Smashburger meal served on a tray lined with classic black-and-white checkered paper, paired with a tall serving of golden fries in a playful Chinese takeout-style box

Cheap Fast Eats visits Pico-Union for globetrotting bites around $10

A plate with roasted chicken, potatoes, a salad, pita bread, and three different sauce containers against a pale blue tiled surface.

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Food Friday

Food

Your guide to why a 'ghost kitchen' may have made that takeout from your favorite restaurant

A look inside the ghost kitchens popping up all around Los Angeles, making food delivery apps even more efficient - and automated.
Food

Yes, Mercado is a hit, but the rest of OC’s extensive food hall scene is also worth your attention

A comprehensive listing of OC’s food halls to use when Mercado Gonzalez is too crowded (or at any time, really).
Food

LAist hype check: We tried the viral birria ramen at Del Taco

Del Taco’s birria ramen is back on the menu due to popular demand, but only for a limited time. Food editor Gab Chabrán and LAist Senior Editor George Kiriyama finally got to try it.

More Stories

(Nearly) every restaurant that's open late in LA, by neighborhood

Yes, you can get late night food in this town: in Koreatown, the Valley, Hollywood, downtown and elsewhere. You just have to know where to go.
On the Eastside, chicken coops are easing the pain of egg prices

Amid a nationwide egg shortage, families in Boyle Heights and Lincoln Heights are turning to backyard farming to support their communities.
Hollywood career pivot: production design to designing empanadas

After the Hollywood strikes left them with little work, two longtime production designers opened Fuegos, an Argentine restaurant in South L.A. inspired by their roots.

Listen 12:49
Go beyond the beefsteak: Tomato-maniac shares 6 varieties you should plant this year

Spring's here, which means it's time to plant some tomatoes.
The tradition of iftar is thriving in SoCal during Ramadan. Here's what it's like to be at the table

Two LAist colleagues attend iftar to break the Ramadan fast together with a Palestinian family in Rowland Heights.
Watch a live taping of the Splendid Table in LA

The beloved public radio show about food and cooking comes to LA for a live taping.
Can’t get to Tokyo to watch the Dodgers next week? Here’s how to eat like a Japanese fan

The L.A. Dodgers will face the Chicago Cubs in a historic matchup at the Tokyo Dome, live at 3 a.m. on Tuesday morning. What should be on your opening day menu?
These 7 LA restaurants just made the prestigious Michelin Guide for the first time

These LA-area restaurants could also receive a Bib Gourmand affordable dining award or even a star at the awards event in August.
Vegan steak, food upcycling and mushroom microbes: what we learned at the Super Bowl of healthy snacking

The future of food is on display at the Expo West trade show in Anaheim.
As LA restaurants reel from egg prices, a cafe owner wants the government to step in

Richard Williams, co-owner of Atwater's Village Bakery and Cafe, says the recent billion-dollar bird flu package won’t help quickly enough.