10 Denver meals you can still get for $15 or less

I would eat out every night if my bank account allowed it.

I can cook, but I would much rather try food made by someone who knows what they are doing than stare down another dinner I made myself. The problem is that eating out in Denver has gotten expensive enough that even casual meals can make me reconsider the decision.

Being a 26-year-old graduate student who lives just outside of Denver, I am always looking for good eats at a relatively low price. What I have noticed around town is that there are a plethora of options, but many are shockingly expensive.

A steak dinner can easily run past $25 even at a place like Texas Roadhouse. Order a pizza for delivery from Papa John’s, and the food, fees and tip can push the total well beyond $20. Somewhere along the way, finding a satisfying meal for $15 started feeling like a challenge. 

So I decided to test whether it was still possible. On Nov. 1, I posted a simple question to Denver’s Reddit community: Where can you still get a good meal for $15 or less?

I expected a handful of recommendations. Instead, the post went semi-viral, quickly racking up over 150,000 views and 300+ comments, sending me down a rabbit hole of burritos, bánh mì, burgers and lunch specials.

Apparently, I am not the only person tired of watching a quick meal turn into a $25 expense.

Finding value in an expensive city

The responses also reminded me that restaurants are dealing with many of the same rising costs. Lisa Wolkerstorfer, a Denver resident and business owner, pointed to rent, wages and ingredient costs as reasons menu prices keep climbing.

“When you go out to eat, you have all the staff you have to pay,” Wolkerstorfer said. “As a business owner myself, you have yearly rent increases, so everything adds into the cost of the food.”

She has responded by looking for alternatives that still give her the convenience of prepared food. One is My Fit Foods, a health food store, where she buys premade meals instead of eating out. Even food trucks no longer feel like the bargain they once did.

“Two tacos and just the side of beans was almost $15,” Wolkerstorfer said. “It used to be like $12 a couple summers ago. The food trucks used to be more affordable, but even them, they’re getting costly.”

Robert Persiphitte has another solution: the prepared-food section at Whole Foods.

“I use the little self-serve area, and it depends on how hungry I am,” Persiphitte said. “Usually, it’s like eight bucks for quite a bit of food. I definitely don’t associate Whole Foods with value typically. It’s just geographically; that’s the cheap one for me.”

That may have been the biggest lesson from my Reddit experiment. Eating cheaply in Denver does not necessarily mean cooking every meal or surviving on fast food. You just have to know where to look.

Reddit gave me a new dining list

Some recommendations appeared again and again. Tacos Selene Denver was one of the most popular suggestions. Reddit users pointed to inexpensive tacos and filling burritos, while the restaurant’s Santa Fe Drive location remains known for its self-serve salsa bar.

Nearby, Santiago’s Mexican Restaurant came up repeatedly for breakfast burritos and inexpensive Mexican food. One commenter said a chile relleno plate, plus a 20% tip, still came in around $15. Vinh Xuong Bakery was another favorite, particularly for bánh mì sandwiches that still sell for less than many chain deli sandwiches. 

Then there were the chains. Chili’s Grill & Bar surprised me because its 3 For Me deal starts at $10.99 for a drink, appetizer and entrée. And yes, sometimes the simplest answer is a burger. In-N-Out Burger remains one of the easier ways to get a full meal without pushing far beyond the $15 mark.

10 Denver spots to try for $15 or less

The longer I read, the longer my list became. These are the 10 most popular places that came up in my search and that I’m adding to my own list:

1. In-N-Out Burger, 4597 Central Park Blvd.
2. Tacos Selene Denver, 1001 Santa Fe Drive.
3. Santiago’s Mexican Restaurant, 571 Santa Fe Drive.
4. Chili’s Grill & Bar, where the 3 For Me deal starts at $10.99.
5. Vinh Xuong Bakery, 2370 W. Alameda Ave.
6. Bourbon Grill, 571 E. Colfax Ave.
7. Crown Burgers, 2192 S. Colorado Blvd., where a burger, fries and drink special is currently listed at $9.99.
8. La Abeja Restaurant, 508 E. Colfax Ave.
9. Pepper Asian Bistro II, 3759 Lipan St., which offers weekday lunch specials until 3 p.m.
10. The Butcher Block Cafe, where several breakfast and lunch options remain under $15.

Prices change, so I will still check the menu before heading out. But after hundreds of Denverites weighed in, I no longer buy the idea that an affordable meal has disappeared completely. I just needed other hungry people to tell me where to look.