KQED News

You don’t need to sit down at one of the Bay Area’s posh and trendy temples of fine dining to know that eating out in the year 2026 is too damn expensive. These days, even the most generic fast food might cost $50 or $60 to feed a family of four, and buying groceries to cook at home is an increasingly fraught and overwhelming expense.

Thankfully, the high-end California cuisine restaurant isn’t the only hallmark of the Bay Area food scene — there’s also the neighborhood taco truck, noodle counter, bánh mì shop and casual takeout dim sum deli. In every city in the Bay, these essential restaurants are still feeding the people, often at a shockingly inexpensive price point. You just need to know which ones are actually delicious.

In this video, we explore the South Bay and three affordable restaurants where you can get a full and satisfying meal for cheap.

*Note: The prices for the restaurants featured may have changed since the filming of this video.

✍️: Luke Tsai 📹: Darren Tu 🎬: Darren Tu