There was a day, no so long ago, when ten dollars would get you lunch almost anywhere in town. The ten-dollar lunch is now an endangered species for two main reason. First, restaurant costs — and thus prices — have gone way up in the past few years, and $15 sandwiches or $22 lunch mains are now commonplace at sit-down spots. Second, a lot of local restaurants have given up the lunch business and its thinner margins. There are fewer choices than there once were.
Thankfully, there’s still fierce and delicious competition in the ten-dollar lunch category, all over Hampshire County. I limit my coverage to places where ten dollars (before tax and tip) gets you a big, hearty, delicious sit-down lunch — not a hot dog or a bowl of chowder, but the kind of meal that will leave you with leftovers and the need for a siesta. Consider this your cheap-lunch cheat sheet.
Filos, in downtown Northampton, is a Greek restaurant that provides some of the most fundamentally satisfying food for your dollar anywhere in the area. It’s just a lunch counter with a few tables, but the whimsical décor goes above and beyond with Greek-myth cartoon heroes strutting across walls painted in a rainbow of deep blues, reds and yellows. There’s even a faux grape arbor.
The craziest value here is a generously sized side order of gyro meat for $4.50. Add a $1.50 side of tzatziki, and you’ve got a sensational six-dollar keto-friendly lunch that will more than fill you up. Tzatziki-drizzled gyro pizza (slices or pies) and “Greco-Korean” gyro-kimchi fries also hit the spot. My favorite dish on the menu, although it costs more than ten bucks, is lahanodolomathes: ground-beef-stuffed cabbage rolls in a rich, silky lemon-egg sauce and a sprinkle of mint.
Antonio’s Pizza is a legendary slice joint in downtown Amherst (with an outpost in Easthampton) that has nourished generations of tipsy college kids into the wee hours for just over three decades. In the late-night food desert of post-COVID Massachusetts, the Amherst branch of Antonio’s is a candle in the dark, staying open until 2am on Thursdays, Fridays and Saturdays.
Nobody gets weirder with pizza toppings than Antonio’s. Their vast assortment of gargantuan slices on a given day might include steak burrito, quesadilla, pesto tortellini and potato. Perennial standouts include thin fried eggplant slices with roasted red pepper, and tangy buffalo chicken with blue cheese. The house specialty, almost always available by the slice, is deep-dish (“Sicilian”) BBQ chicken bacon ranch pizza. It’s a study in textural counterpoints, with flavor oozing out a buttery crust that’s fluffy on top and crispy beneath.
Pinocchio’s is a longstanding slice institution on Northampton’s Main Street that’s also known for its wide variety of creative toppings. I’ve been a customer since high school. Pinocchio’s pizza is a great version of the big, thin, floppy New York style, with a yeasty crust that’s got more flavor than most. The meat-lover’s slice is a monster, with ground sausage almost fully covering its bed of pepperoni and cheese. Other winning slice choices include BBQ chicken, eggplant, and spinach-and-cheese stuffed pizza. Calzones and steak-and-cheese subs are both easily the best in town.
Pho Boston is a hidden gem in an area of Florence without many restaurants. Prices just cross the $10 threshold, but the value is excellent. You’ll be attended to by a friendly staff in a simple but handsome dining room, with black-and-white checked floors and cheery light wood. Pho is the specialty here — best is the classic pho tai (rare beef noodle soup), with a rich broth and fresh vegetables piled on top. Cha gio (egg rolls) are expertly fried, and I also like the grilled BBQ pork chop over rice and the vermicelli dishes.
There are lots of falafel and gyro joints around, but Pita Pockets might be the most creative with the accoutrements that nestle next to the protein in your pita. They practically dump a whole salad bar in there — there’s no stopping the toppings. The gyro equivalent here is shawarma, and it’s just as good as the falafel. The flagship location is on Main Street in Northampton; there’s also an Easthampton branch, but it’s temporarily closed due to staffing shortages.
India Palace, where I tasted my first irresistible bites of chicken tikkamasala as a kid, offers a wide variety of bargain lunch specials, including tikkamasala, saagpaneer, and a simple, well-made chicken curry with homemade yogurt. They ring in at under ten dollars including rice and an appetizer of either vegetable fritters or mulligatawny soup.
T. ROOTS, a Taiwanese (and pan-Asian) lunch counter in downtown Northampton, has authentic island fare. My favorite hard-to-find regional specialty in the $10-and-under bracket here is the oyster omelette, made with tapioca flour, which adds heft and elasticity. Popcorn chicken does justice to Taiwan’s reputation for fried-chicken expertise: the breast pieces are breaded with potato flour, crisped to golden, and well seasoned with salt, spices and fried basil.
Taipei & Tokyo is a solid pan-Asian standby with some of Northampton’s very cheapest lunch specials, including Szechuan-style pork and stir-fried noodle-and-meat dishes for less than seven dollars, and a sushi or sashimi lunch priced at a highly anachronistic $8.95.
The beloved Silver Spoon, in Easthampton, is your quintessential folksy breakfast-and-lunch nook that caters to a very local crowd. The interior has a simple country feel. Who could possibly resist ordering the “crow’s nest,” a hollandaise-drenched poached egg over corned-beef hash? What makes this already affordable restaurant an even better value is that they offer half portions of this and the Benedicts.
And a few of the rest … The rest of your cheat sheet comes in rapid-fire style. Please note that many of these places were covered in my previous Best Bites columns this year, which disqualified them for a full review in this column. Here, in no particular order, are 14 more outstanding cheap lunches: The clam strip roll at the Williamsburg Snack Bar ($7.99). Thai curries at Thai Garden in Northampton ($8.99). The pork bahn mi (Vietnamese baguette sandwich) at OmiOmy in Amherst ($7.99). The French onion soup au gratin at Fitzwilly’sin Northampton ($9). The 8-inch eggplant parmigiana grinder at Pizza Amore in Northampton ($7.43). Enfrijoladas (fried corn tortillas with black beans and sour cream) at La Veracruzana in Northampton and Amherst ($9.75). A mini order of fried clam strips plus soup or side salad at Miss Florence Diner ($8.49). The RouJia Mo pork burger at Lili’s in Amherst ($9). Shredded pork with wild chili pepper lunch special, including soup and rice, at Oriental Taste in Northampton ($9.35). Ma po tofu lunch special, including soup and rice, at Oriental Flavor in Amherst ($9.25). Hamburger at Local Burger in Northampton ($7.99). Sauteed fried chicken with dried red chilies lunch special ($8.50) at Formosa in Amherst. The Reuben sandwich at Scotti’s, in Leeds ($5.95). Daily special lunch burritos at El Comalito in Hadley and Easthampton ($7.99–8.99).
I’m sure I’ve missed hundreds more. Write me with your favorites!
Robin Goldstein is the author of “The Menu: Restaurant Guide to Northampton, Amherst, and the Five-College Area.” He serves remotely on the agricultural economics faculty of the University of California, Davis. He can be reached at rgoldstein@ucdavis.edu.