Cheap eats challenge

Our challenge: finding 50 delicious, filling dishes for less than $10 each (mission accomplished). Your challenge: having the guts, and the hunger, to scarf down all of them. (Great prizes are at stake—see details below.) Can’t stomach all 50? Get into fighting shape with our six mini contests, from a corps of $5 cocktails to a team of decadent desserts for $6 or less. Time to don your elastic-waisted pants.

Photographs by Damien Thompson Food styling by Lisa Kuehl Illustrations by Peter Bollinger

Cheap Eats challenge

Can you eat all 50 dishes in our Cheap Eats issue?

Mini challenge: $5 cocktails

We find bars for drinkers on a budget.

Mini challenge: Seven days of dining discounts

Get cheap food every day of the week.

Mini challenge: Plated desserts

We find restaurant desserts that don’t cost more than the appetizers.

Mini challenge: Cheap beachfront food

Find lunch or a snack for small change along Chicago’s lakefront.

Mini challenge: $1 dishes

Savor these alternatives to a fast-food value menu.

Mini challenge: Cheap Asian noodle dishes

From pho to la mian, we find Chicago’s best—and least expensive—noodle dishes.

Take the ultimate cheap eats challenge