Photo by sarah ov.

Like unicorns or free parking downtown, a weekday lunch for less than $7 often seems like a figment of the imagination. A salad or sandwich from chains like Au Bon Pain, Cosi or Chop’t can easily run into the double digits, especially if you throw in a drink or a side. Eat out all week and you could be dropping $40 for some crappy sandwiches. And while packing your lunch is a good way to save money (and usually calories), there are going to be days when even the most diligent brown bagger forgets his or her lunch.

So we’ve rounded up a list of relatively inexpensive yet tasty lunch options around town. And for folks on the Hill, we’ve got a cheap lunch post just for you guys right here. Let us know if we missed one of your favorites in the comments.

District Taco
1309 F Street NW
Neighborhood: Metro Center
Price Range: $4.50-6.75

This food cart turned brick-and-mortar storefront is packed at lunchtime, and for a good reason. At only $2.25 a pop, these tacos—filled with moist meat and your choice of toppings such as pico de gallo, beans, and avocado—are a steal. Two or three tacos are enough to fill you up without putting a hole in your wallet.

Julia’s Empanadas
1221 Connecticut Avenue NW
Neighborhood: Dupont Circle (additional locations in Adams Morgan, Brightwood and Columbia Heights)
Price range: $3.49-6.37

While the Dupont Circle outpost of Julia’s Empanadas is a popular spot for a late-night drunk snack, the take-away storefront also offers some great meal deals. (And, unlike Jumbo Slice, these still taste good sober.) A single empanada is large enough for lunch and will only set you back $3.60, or less if you opt for the daily vegetarian special. If you’re feeling a bit more peckish, try the Good Meal Deal, one regular empanada, one fruit empanada, and a drink for $5.91, or the Health Meal Deal, an empanada, soup, and a salad for $6.37.

The Korean Food Cart at 14th and K
K Street NW between 14th Street and Vermont Avenue
Neighborhood: McPherson Square
Price range: $5-7

This nameless mom-and-pop cart is easy to miss from afar, but you can always find it parked on the same stretch of K Street. The menu is simple—beef bulgogi, spicy pork, spicy chicken, and teriyaki chicken—served with rice and salad or atop bibimbap. Sesame oil adds a little extra special something to the bibimbap, and the service is speedy and incredibly polite. Get there early to snag an order of kimbap before it runs out.

Muncheez Mania
1071 Wisconsin Avenue NW
Neighborhood: Georgetown
Price range: $5-6

For the unlucky soul who works in Georgetown, there are precious few affordable dining options. While the name might sound like a late night snacking bender, Muncheez Mania actually serves up a nice selection of freshly baked Middle Eastern inspired flatbreads. The earthy Wild Thyme or tangy Labne flatbreads are good (and cheap) enough to forgive the stupid restaurant name.

Pedro and Vinny’s Burrito Cart
1500 K Street NW
Neighborhood: McPherson Square
Price range: $4.50-5.50, plus extra for certain toppings

Pedro and Vinny’s cart is a neighborhood staple, slinging hefty burritos loaded with beans, rice, and cheese. The burritos come in three generous sizes, including your choice of a dizzing array of hot sauces and type of tortilla. Guacamole and now chicken can also be added for a heartier meal.

SUNdeVICHFood Truck
Various locations
Follow the truck on Twitter
Price range: $6

A mobile version of the Shaw sandwich shop, the SUNdeVICH truck serves many of the same sandwiches, but for half the price. The truck sandwiches are also smaller, all the better to prevent you from slipping into a food coma at your desk. The truck offers eight sandwiches, including four with egg. Get there early if you want a taste of the Kingston, a riot of jerk chicken and pineapple slaw, or the Havana, SUNdeVICH’s take on a classic Cuban sandwich.

Safeway
Various locations
Price range: $3.99

As the City Paper wrote earlier this year, your local Safeway will have an affordable lunch option in the form of its prepared soups.

Staff Picks

New Course Restaurant and Catering
500 Third Street NW
Neighborhood: Judiciary Square
Price range: $4.50-5.75

New Course Restaurant and Catering is an inexpensive place to grab a quick and delicious lunch, while also supporting the restaurant’s mission of offering jobs and training to the homeless and unemployed. Their deli sandwiches and specialty sandwiches are all excellent and quite a deal. A fresh roast beef or turkey breast sandwich is $5.25 each; The Mamamia (ham, salami, provolone, roasted peppers, with Italian dressing on a roll) is $5.75; The Vegetarian (hummus, roasted peppers, alfalfa sprouts, sliced onions, swiss cheese, tomatoes/lettuce on a flour tortilla) is $4.75; and The Meatball Sub is $4.50, to name just a few of the more than a dozen options. If you’re in the mood for a hot entree, they prepare made-to-order pasta dishes and have specials, like fried chicken, that change daily.
-Elisabeth Grant

City Place Cafe
1101 17th St NW
Neighborhood: Farragut
Price range: $4.99-7.50

City Place Cafe is a family-owned deli on 17th Street, one block from Farragut North metro. Their basic “Cafe Sandwiches” (single meat, chicken or tuna salad, or BLT plus lettuce, tomato, onions, peppers, and condiments on a choice of breads) are $5.89, and the egg salad is only $4.99. Their soups and chili are house-made. Everything I’ve had there has been fresh and very tasty. They also serve breakfast from 7-10:30 am. Finally, the guys that own it are there every day and remember faces and often names.
-Jenny Holm

Pleasant Pops Farmhouse Market and Cafe
1781 Florida Avenue NW
Neighborhood: Adams Morgan/U Street
Price range: $6

The new brick-and-mortar Kickstarter-funded cafe from the duo behind popsicle purveyors Pleasant Pops offers only two sandwiches—a caprese or a Mediterranean—but they’re tasty, filling and relatively inexpensive. And if you’ve got some spare change after eating lunch, the popsicles—duh!—and dessert options aren’t to be missed.
-Martin Austermuhle

Lime Fresh Mexican Grill
3100 14th Street NW
Neighborhood: Columbia Heights
Price range: $3.50 and up

OK, so it’s not tough to bust through $7 at this recently opened outlet of the Tennessee-based Tex-Mex chain, but even a single taco ($3.50 before tax) can be a decent bite for those on the go. And yeah, while it’s easy to mock chain Mexican—and the menus here do define a burrito as the “Mexican version of a wrap” (sigh)—Lime Fresh offers a larger menu and less self-loathing than its neighbor across the street, Chipotle. And it’s around the corner from Panera, where staff writers for The Atlantic Wire can often be found lining up for the same-old, not-hip salad. But Lime Fresh opened with a tizzy, even drawing out Mayor Vince Gray for a ribbon-cutting ceremony last month. And it’s opening a second D.C. location next year when it replaces the Potbelly at 726 Seventh Street NW. In the mean time, if you’ve got a few bucks left for dessert, try the key lime pie. According to The Washington Post’s Tim Craig, it’s “Mega-Whooozersss.”
-Benjamin R. Freed