Cheap Eats Edinburgh: Where Locals Actually Eat on a Budget

• Edinburgh has a reputation for being expensive to eat in — and the fine-dining end genuinely is. But the cheap end is one of the best in Scotland, if you know where the locals go instead of where the guidebooks point.
• The best-value food clusters around the university, Leith Walk and the Old Town's side streets — canteen curries, Thai street food, chip-shop institutions and pizza by the slice, most of it well under a tenner.
• Lunch is where the real savings hide. Several sit-down restaurants that are dear at dinner run cheap lunch deals aimed squarely at students and office workers.
• Special occasion instead of a cheap one? See our honestly-rated guide to Scotland's Michelin restaurants for the other end of the scale.

Edinburgh gets called dear, and at the top end it is — the New Town tasting-menu rooms will empty your wallet as fast as anywhere in Britain. But that reputation does the city a disservice, because the cheap end of Edinburgh eating is genuinely excellent and, crucially, honest: canteens run by people who care, chippies that have been frying since the seventies, and street-food counters that would cost twice as much in London. This is a checked, opinionated list of where to eat well in Edinburgh without spending much — the places I'd actually send a mate to, grouped by what they do best.

Quick Answer: The best cheap eats in Edinburgh are the Mosque Kitchen on Nicolson Square (canteen curry-and-rice), Ting Thai Caravan on Teviot Place (Thai street food, no bookings), L'Alba D'Oro on Henderson Row (the city's most-awarded chippy), Civerinos Slice (New York pizza by the slice), Bross Bagels, Nile Valley on Leith Walk (Sudanese and Middle Eastern) and Chez Jules for a proper cheap lunch deal. Head for the university, the Old Town side streets and Leith Walk, and eat at lunchtime where you can.

Contents

• The canteen classics
• Street food and quick bites
• The chippy institution
• Pizza, bagels and grab-and-go
• The lunch-deal trick
• How locals eat cheap in Edinburgh
• Frequently asked questions

The canteen classics

The Mosque Kitchen (Nicolson Square) is the one every Edinburgh local eventually sends you to, and with good reason. It's a proper canteen next to the Central Mosque — you queue, you point, you get a tray of curry and rice for what a coffee-and-cake costs elsewhere, and you eat at communal tables. It has been going since 2003, it's busy at lunchtime for a reason, and the food is the opposite of fussy: big, generous, spiced properly. Don't confuse it with the various imitators that have borrowed the name over the years — the original on Nicolson Square is the one you want. It's the single best pound-for-pound feed in the city centre.

Nile Valley (Leith Walk end) has been quietly turning out cheap Sudanese and Middle Eastern food for the best part of two decades. Falafel and baba ganoush wraps, tagines, spiced lamb, tabbouleh — filling, honestly priced, and a world away from the identikit wrap chains. It's the kind of place that survives twenty years in a tough restaurant city precisely because it doesn't cut corners on the food to save on the frontage.

Street food and quick bites

Ting Thai Caravan (Teviot Place) started life as a Fringe pop-up and earned a permanent home off the back of the queues. It does proper Thai street food — the kind with real heat and real punch — in a scruffy, lively room with no bookings and a share-the-table policy. Expect to wait at peak times. The pad kra pao and the curries are the move, and the bill stays firmly in cheap-eat territory even after a couple of dishes. If you only try one place on this list, make it this one.

Shawarma and falafel counters are thick on the ground around the university and the Old Town, and they're where students have kept themselves fed cheaply for years. Nile Valley (above) does the sit-down version; for grab-and-go, the Middle Eastern counters clustered around Nicolson Street and Forrest Road are reliably good value and open late.

The chippy institution

L'Alba D'Oro (Henderson Row, Stockbridge edge of the New Town) is the most-awarded chip shop in Edinburgh and has been family-run since 1975. This is a chippy that takes the frying seriously — beautifully cooked fish, hand-cut chips, a proper range beyond the standard supper, and yes, the famous deep-fried pizza crunch if you're committing to the bit. It costs chip-shop money and delivers considerably more than chip-shop quality. For the wider national picture, our best fish and chips in Scotland guide puts it in context, but in Edinburgh this is the benchmark.

Pizza, bagels and grab-and-go

Civerinos Slice does New York-style pizza by the slice at several counters — the Old Town near the Royal Mile, Forrest Road and down by Portobello beach. A couple of slices is a genuinely cheap, genuinely good lunch, and the whole pies are still keen value if you're feeding a group. It's the antidote to the sit-down pizza restaurants charging three times as much for something that isn't three times better.

Bross Bagels does chunky, overfilled New York-style bagels across several sites in the city and Leith. A loaded bagel is a proper meal for grab-and-go money, and it's a step up from the supermarket-meal-deal default that most people fall back on. Good for eating on the hoof between sights rather than losing an hour to a sit-down lunch.

The lunch-deal trick

Chez Jules is the clearest example in the city of Edinburgh's best budget hack: a restaurant that's a normal spend at dinner but runs a cheap set lunch that students and office workers have quietly relied on for years. You get a couple of courses of honest French bistro cooking — steak frites, onion soup, the classics — for close to takeaway money, with bread, salad and pâté thrown in. It's not fine dining and doesn't pretend to be; it's proof that "sit-down restaurant" and "cheap" aren't mutually exclusive if you go at the right time of day.

That principle holds across the city. Plenty of Edinburgh restaurants that look out of budget-eater range at 8pm run a set lunch or early-evening menu that brings them right down. The kitchen is the same; the bill isn't.

How locals eat cheap in Edinburgh

After years of eating around this city, the patterns are consistent:

• Follow the students. The best cheap food clusters around the university — Nicolson Square, Teviot Place, Forrest Road, Bristo. Where there are skint students, there is good cheap food, because nothing overpriced survives there.
• Lunch, not dinner. The single biggest lever. Set-lunch and pre-theatre menus can halve the price of the same kitchen's cooking. If you want a sit-down meal cheaply, go before 6pm.
• Leith Walk is the value corridor. The stretch from the top of the Walk down towards Leith is full of long-running independents — Sudanese, Italian, Polish bakeries, pie shops — that charge Leith prices, not city-centre ones.
• Canteens over restaurants. The Mosque Kitchen model — queue, tray, communal table — strips out the service and frontage costs and passes the saving straight to you. It's the cheapest way to eat a proper cooked meal in the centre.
• Fringe is the exception, not the rule. In August the city-centre casual spots get slammed and some flex their prices. If you're here for the festival, eat a little further out — Leith, Stockbridge, the southside — and you'll eat better for less.

If you're weighing Edinburgh against the other side of the country, our Glasgow cheap eats guide makes the case for the west — and the honest answer is that Glasgow shades it on value, though Edinburgh's cheap end is closer than its reputation suggests.

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Frequently asked questions

Where is the cheapest place to eat in Edinburgh?

For a proper cooked meal, the Mosque Kitchen on Nicolson Square is about as cheap as a sit-down feed gets in the city centre — a tray of curry and rice for canteen money. For grab-and-go, the falafel and shawarma counters around the university and pizza by the slice at Civerinos are hard to beat.

Where do students eat cheaply in Edinburgh?

Around the university: Nicolson Square (the Mosque Kitchen), Teviot Place (Ting Thai Caravan), Forrest Road (Civerinos Slice) and the Middle Eastern counters clustered nearby. Chez Jules is the go-to for a cheap sit-down lunch deal, and Nile Valley on Leith Walk for filling Sudanese and Middle Eastern food.

Is Edinburgh expensive for food?

At the top end, yes — the fine-dining and New Town restaurant scene is genuinely dear. But the budget end is strong: canteens, chippies, street food and lunch deals will feed you well for very little if you avoid the obvious tourist strips around the Royal Mile and the castle.

What's the best cheap lunch deal in Edinburgh?

Chez Jules is the classic — a couple of courses of French bistro cooking for close to takeaway money, with bread and salad included. More widely, many Edinburgh restaurants that are pricey at dinner run set-lunch or pre-theatre menus that bring the same kitchen right down; going before 6pm is the single best budget move in the city.

Where should I eat cheaply during the Edinburgh Fringe?

Eat away from the packed city centre. Leith Walk, Stockbridge and the southside stay better value in August when the central casual spots get slammed. The canteens and chippies — the Mosque Kitchen, L'Alba D'Oro — hold their prices and their quality through the festival better than the tourist-facing venues.

Is Edinburgh or Glasgow cheaper for eating out?

Glasgow generally edges it on value — it has a deeper bench of BYOB restaurants and neighbourhood independents at the cheap end. But Edinburgh's budget scene is closer than its expensive reputation suggests, and its student-area canteens and street food match anything in the west. See our Glasgow cheap eats guide for the comparison.

Related articles

• Cheap Eats Glasgow: Where Locals Actually Eat on a Budget
• Where to Eat and Shop for Food in Glasgow: A Local's Guide
• Michelin Star Restaurants Scotland 2026, Honestly Rated
• Best Fish and Chips in Scotland
• What to Eat in Scotland Right Now

Sources

• The best cheap eats in Edinburgh: a local's guide — Time Out Edinburgh (accessed 12 July 2026)
• The Mosque Kitchen, Edinburgh — venue site, Nicolson Square (confirmed trading, accessed 12 July 2026)
• Ting Thai Caravan, Teviot Place — venue site (confirmed trading, accessed 12 July 2026)
• Civerinos Slice locations — venue site (confirmed trading, accessed 12 July 2026)
• Cheap Food Edinburgh: best budget eats — Edinburgh Tourism (accessed 12 July 2026; used to cross-check L'Alba D'Oro, Bross Bagels, Nile Valley, Chez Jules)
• The 18 best cheap eats in Edinburgh — Edinburgh Evening News (accessed 12 July 2026)