One of the reasons GasBuddy took off was that it wasn't just based on community reports; there was an incentive for gas stations themselves to accurately report their prices and keep them up to date.
It seems like you're trying to discourage businesses from participating (e.g. by not accepting sponsored placements), and that will have implications for your growth rate. I think you should look for ways to give businesses an active role, without eroding user trust in the recommendations, of course.
Think of the possibilities:
- Business can add coupons to its listing, making cheap food even cheaper
- Business can confirm a reported deal, adding to its credibility
- Business can provide full menu and a link to order takeout
I don't think any of those features would make users feel like the business is "buying" a listing it didn't earn.
Wow, thank you for this suggestion. This might be most sustainable way to update prices, as long as I set boundaries correctly. I will research how GasBuddy set up their data pipeline this week to see if we can benchmark.
I could be wrong but I think you’ll want to consider changing the name. The parent post is on point, but companies won’t be attracted by the “cheap food” moniker. Even “budget food” is more palatable for a restaurant to associate with.
This was our biggest concern as well. I already talked to few owners and negative connotation was making them reluctant to be on the site.. We thought about different name like "under10" "dimedrop" "Fooglemap" but none of them stuck. (We did like the name Fooglemap, but similarity to Google map will create risk of cease and decease letter if it ever becomes major.. so decided not to do it.)
Still torn on name change.. We want cool / memorable name.
Yes, I like this name too. But they will get us if we go major.
I liked Fooglemap (Googlemap + Food) and Slickmeals (like slickdeals) all very dangerous down the road if we ever become major. They will send cease and decease letter through their lawyer
The word "cheap" while by definition means low quality is used in place of "inexpensive" most of the time in casual language, at least in the United States, and understood to mean low cost not low quality. I for one read the URL to mean inexpensive. Not that there aren't more appropriate URLs.
But this is just a map of the lower-priced items, which are available everywhere. You can find a cheap sandwich, bowl of soup, slice of pizza, or taco virtually anywhere. There is no corresponding standard point of comparison (no "gallon").
The unit should be a Meal. Not just an appetizer, a full meal. (Does it include drink? In US, many places give free tap water, but not others. Is it okay if it’s only lunch, or should it be available for dinner too? What about tipping?)
It's a little different, instead of maximizing gas/price they're maximizing community rating subject to 10$ limit. I have often wanted to query google reviews in this way. I think yelp might have let you do this back in the day. If this data is already being scraped continuously what I'd really like is a query interface.
Could see this being useful for people who are on the road for a living, or regularly operating in areas where they’re not familiar with the offerings. Truck drivers, salespeople, etc.
That said, kneejerk after using it is: price is a challenging anchor, because food is not uniform. I’d be curious if users are more interested in “under $10, ignoring all else” or “a better deal than comparable” - though, there’s a lot of subjectivity in that.
Gasbuddy works because 1 gallon of gas = 1 gallon of gas, so price is a useful anchor.
$5 for sushi at one place could be a bad deal, while a great deal at another place.
An $8 steak would be cheap. An $8 hot dog would be a ripoff.
I’d be skeptical of restaurants luring people with a single cheap item, or about quality/portion changes.
All this said, Ikea is known for designing furniture _around_ the price their target customer thinks a table should cost. Restaurants are likely (hopefully!) aware of where these price thresholds are for their customers … and your site could be an interesting way of sending them a different type of customer than they’d historically targeted. Or, allow them to refine an offering to maximize profit at the $10 price point.
As others have said, engage restaurants and make them part of the equation. They’re not your adversary.
In short: cool! Do lots of experiments and research!
You know, my dream is to have some kind of movement where people rally to fight inflation and tipflation. Last few years, we seen some crazy food price increases and it seems like its gonna get worse.
If enough people find value in affortable prices, and people go to those restaurants that offer good deals, either as lunch special or weekly promotion, more restaurant will try to offer these kind of deals. Win for customers, win for restuarant.
Might be getting a head of myself there.. but that's the vision. (If you check "About" page, I put another dream which is to make this website turn non-profit later down the road if we make money lol)
To really stop inflation, the fed would have to ramp up interest rates, stop printing money, and Congress would have to cut spending and raise taxes. It's worth it to reward businesses who offer cheap prices, but inflation is inevitable without severe austerity measures.
Sam's Club Cafe sells $1 hot dogs and $2.50 pizza slices with a drink, and it doesn't not require a membership to visit.
Larger families (4+ kids) shop at Warehouse clubs because they need items in bulk, but they are also often cost sensitive because they have a higher multiplier. You might see a family of 8 eating for under $20. Talk to that family, and they will tell you all the other places in town that they can afford to take their family to. They will also know other families who would be interested in your site.
Awesome suggestion. Marketing was biggest huddle during this launch. I have been asking on facebook groups, since head of families are there, might be a good out reach?
Facebook groups are good if you can get access. Be careful when cold calling on facebook, you can get permanently banned, but if you can sustain your access, you can also find other cost sensitive people in local "buy nothing" groups.
For homeschool groups specifically, many areas will have a homeschool cooperative or resource group with a website and contact info for a real human. They're mainly there to help onboard parents who are new to homeschooling, but if you have a polite elevator pitch, they're guaranteed to at least know someone who is very frugal.
My favorite college food hack was the 1/4 lb Big Bite at 7 Eleven. The one near my house sold them for $1 and had an extensive bar of vegetables in addition to the machine that secreted warm nacho cheese and chili (!!!) out of a bag. My usual setup was onions, tomatoes, sauerkraut, mustard, and a pinch of the cheese and some cilantro if they had any hanging around.
If I had to feed a family on the cheap I'd make lentil or barley stew. Saute a mirepoix and brown whatever protein is on sale, deglaze with whatever wine is appropriate, brown some tomato paste, then chuck the rest of the veggies and starches in with some spice mix and cook for 30-40 minutes. Once you've dialed in whatever time is appropriate for your ingredients it's the best meal prep hack there is. Gym bros slathering chicken breast and white rice in mystery sauce need not apply.
O man.. Mine was similar except it was nachos.. It was similar $1 (1999) and I loaded up with jalopenos, onions, chillies and cheeze... that was a good cheap meal
I love the idea, but a quick glance (randomly at SF) reveals entries that aren't "meals" (IMO, anyway) but rather snacks - like two spring rolls for $8, or a slice of pizza for $5.53. Also, the days of a $1 slice may have (long) gone, but $5.33 for a slice seems median at best, not "cheap".
Have you thought about either some guidance, or even a filter, for meal size?
Depends what you mean by meal, the parent didn’t like pizza slices but I believe one of the thick granny slices at Outta Sight pizza is still under $10, I’d consider that a lunch.
It’s a fair point that generally it’s focused on single items rather than say a main, side, and drink for $10.
You're right, and it's on me — I seeded SF from published menus to bootstrap the map, and some entries are snacks, not meals. Seeded rows are labeled "Posted on [date]" vs "Price verified [date]" for ones a human actually confirmed, but the meal/snack line needs to be a rule.. This week: pruning the non-meals and adding submission guidance
thats really good point. I should put more guidance on the submission.
Basic rules were no franchise, actual meals only. I was filtering manually in DFW area for now, but should actually add more features and guidance in general.
This is actually critical point. Thank you for pointing that out.
$10 isn't $10 everywhere. There are still places in the country where $10 feels expensive. You may want to add a filter for even cheaper meals.
On the other end, increasingly, even fast food combos are more than $10. It would be helpful to highlight franchise meals that are actually affordable. Just don't let people add dollar menus or non-combos.
Posts should somehow only admit whole meals. If someone says their local taco truck sells a single street taco for $6.99, that's means a meal is more like $20.
This is a great idea I fully commend. An additional option for meals under $10 is cooking them oneself too.
I know this might appear to be obvious, but is still a viable option IMHO. A used copy of the "Joy of Cooking" book and some creative shopping can go a long way.
A full service restaurant where you are directed to a table, someone takes your order, then brings food to you, and then you pay would require a tip, because that is considered service.
A counter service restaurant or cafe where you walk up to a counter, give your order, pay, then pick up your food and find your own table would not require a tip.
True. Still showing 10$ when it is actually 11.75$ because there is a random tax is really, really insane. I truly wonder why the US does this when the rest of the world does not.
The leaderboard with acorns is a smart touch. gamification might actually solve your price freshness problem better than anything else. If updating a price earned acorns too, your top contributors would keep the data current for you. Nice project, and the 10% to food banks commitment on the about page is a good look.
Thank you! Yes, updating prices give you acorn and badge as well. I might expand more incentives to update prices, like suggestion from comments, for restaurants.
Food bank commitment is built in from start. I plan to display transparent donation amount if we ever make money. (fingers crossed!)
I don't like giving my location, zip code should be good enough. I think if I tap List it kind of works but not really. I'm in SoCal for what it's worth.
The first thing I did was zoom way out and drag it all the way to Australia. You can get a user's approximate location by looking up their IP against a geolocation service and center their map on there in case they deny permission.
I think there might also be ways to look up purchasing power, for what the equivalent of "under $10" (i.e. a cheap meal) is relative to the local currency.
How do you vet 'a meal'? Manually? I ask because some places will have say fries, or sides or $1 oysters or others will have $2 wings but with a minimum purchase of 6.
UX report: On desktop chromium, clicked on a "14 restaurants nearby" restaurant item, and... nothing changed on the map. Little idea where it is. Got address from popup and... map wasn't showing that street name. Zoom in, pan around, repeat. Struggle. Apparently cluster markers (like "(2)") don't visually indicate selection at all. And the unclustered restaurant marker selection indication was subtle enough for me to miss, at least when getting started. Especially given the draws-the-eye distraction of the popup, so the indication transition itself wasn't noticed.
Also on the "restaurants nearby" list, every card said "New York, NY". Unhelpful ink. I wished it was showing the address line, at least when all the city lines were the same.
A relieved word of thanks for not using the frustrating Google Maps "Search this area" yes-really-please button.
I saw someplace interesting, then realized, "oh yeah, I tried to go there, but they don't open until <after my window>". Also, "that looks interesting... I wonder when they're open?", then checked GMaps via button, which didn't have hours but did have popular times (it's a truck).
Fwiw. Has given me a couple of places to try - thanks!
The average check price in NYC Chinatown can easily be under $10 if you get the right combination of appetizers/snacks.
Furthermore there are places where you can get food by the pound. Technically you can get a prepared meal at Whole Foods ($12.99/lb salad bar) if you get it just under 0.76 lbs. If you're light eater, then every Whole Foods in the country qualifies as cheap eats. Then the map will be saturated.
I don't understand the $10 part. Today's $10 is 2027's $12. You mentioned inflation.
It should be value for value, or pegged to a state's minimum wage or something, but then you lose the $10 marketing angle.
Sucks about getting laid off (been there, still there), but I don't see this as an ongoing concern if you are targeting consumers. If I am hungry, $10 is not my criteria. It could be $5, it could be $10.59 depending on fast I can get that protein in. Do I drive, does it get delivered, or do I just go downstairs to a taco stand.
OTOH, as others suggested, you could have businesses and franchises fight for foot traffic with coupons/promos.
FYI: When looking around my favorite spots for decent, cheap food in the small towns in Ohio where I hang out, it's easy to find plenty of them with a score of at least 4.2 on Google.
But it's somewhat difficult to find some that have over 500 reviews, even for places that have been there for quite a long time.
I agree that barriers are necessary, but might there be a way to soften them?
As it is, it looks like my choices will remain pretty limited even if the website does gain popularity, unless I'm willing to drive further out to a "real" city where places have more traffic. (And by that point: It's not cheap anymore.)
Dude, I don't exactly live out in the middle of nowhere but I don't think any restaurants in my area have 500+ reviews. You're only allowing big cities with that requirement.
EDIT: I spot checked and the only places with over 500 reviews are two places that have been open since the 70s. My favorite locations all have less.
No problem, it was only for my initial seed data. I just set hard requirement so I don't have any "bad" recommandation for users coming in. There are no limit for user submission at this time =)
This might be the better application. Some of us from outside the US do not want to eat ANY American food unless it has come from the actual ground or a tree, seen actual daylight and not been processed in special American ways.
So all that artificial food is off the menu, yet Americans consider this stuff to be food. Nothing in any of those fast food places is food to anyone from the old world, unless they are under five.
Hence an 'actual food map' would be useful, not least to people not from the U.S. and wanting more than this nonsense Americans call 'food'. In short, a cheap burger is of no use to my nutritional needs and is neither 'food' nor 'cheap', just a waste of money on a non-food item.
It could be just a filter, along with dietary requirements. In this way the one webpage can be made to work for everyone.
Honestly, although fast food is normalised in America, there are lots of people that would never be seen dead, chomping into an American burger with fluorescent beverage, to consider it 'food'. Do they even have vegetables in these places?
Also, cooking is not what some Americans do, whereas some people outside America cook from scratch every day. These visitors need to know dining options, which can mean eating out or finding somewhere with ingredients that are not overly American.
America developed differently to the rest of the world regarding food, an app is needed to help tourists find something vaguely edible rather than utterly soul destroying.
Vegetables, salads are usually more expensive compare to burgers and pizzas in US. I think people gotten used to this fact. I can see why people outside can get shocked by how things are here. Don't blame you for a bit.
When I travel abroad, I am usually shocked how good food are compare to how much it cost, especially in Asian Countries. European countries, I get shocked at both good food quality and price haha
I’d like to see something similar to Spain’s menú del día. Also, please indicate whether guilt-inducing tipping is required.
In Dallas, you can eat affordably at any 99 Ranch supermarket hot deli—think Panda Express, but with larger portions and lower cost. You can also get low-cost dim sum items at 99 Ranch.
Many Dallas food halls, such as Legacy Hall, are fairly overpriced, so I’d avoid them. The cost at mall food courts varies.
Some fast-casual restaurants offer a free kid’s meal one day a week or with the purchase of an adult entrée. But usually, an Asian supermarket’s hot deli offers the best value, especially if it’s located in the heart of an Asian neighborhood. Avoid any asian food located in downtown as that tend towards high prices.
Thank you!! Currently, only restaurant was allowed, but I think we need to change it so that groceries are allowed. (like Ranch 99 chinese specials and Ranchero Market 99 cent taco deals.)
I also live in Dallas and had a feeling Fuel City would be #1 or close to it. Apparently, there's a taco place a few miles away in Bishop Arts that is 2 cents cheaper, but I bet they don't have outdoor block parties with live DJs, longhorns on site, a swimming pool with a statue of a velociraptor, or a huge neon sign over a gas station saying "Where Dreams Come True." I'm sticking with Fuel City. There are downsides hard to account for with price alone, though. Riverfront Blvd has been under construction for 7 years and hasn't had usable sidewalks in longer than I can remember, so you have no choice but to drive there. Plenty of other places I can walk to, so in practice, that's usually what I do.
Good to see you! I justed added Fuel City as part of the list. I will actually go there to try them myself and shoot a video as well. I have been eating out and filming everyday and posting it on Instagram and Tiktok as promotion, best food deals in Dallas. Check it out if you are interested =) (@cheapfoodmap)
I checked and will stat from positive that it looks cool although it feels confusing seeing so much things on map. can it be like remove all other things than road . just keep road so only visible thing would be path and the food address. also I tried with email login but magic link never sent to email. also it would be great if you integrate with food delivery people and also show there rates od delivery . because they keep it hidden and than at the end of bill or invoice as customer I get annoyed to see much charges by them.
Thank you! You are the second person who said email would not come.. can you share what email service you used so I can check it myself as well? (I tried twice using my alias emails, and it worked both times)
Food delivery option and fees will be added to dev que!
This would also work amazingly with https://beliapp.com which is a tool for - only - sharing restaurant reviews with your contacts to serve as a personal graph of trust.
Or you could also implement your own on-site equivalent of it, if people are sharing their reviews anyway.
It's also excellent for vlogger content, if you want to get the word out, although influencers aren't historically known for tenacious attribution and credit in their content. :)
Wow, I didn't know about this app and you are right. This is perfectly in line with what we are trying to do. We do have same share feature, but should add that more clearly. Love their design on mobile device, few things I can learn from them. Thank you for sharing!
Am I the only one who knows people who always eagerly suggest places to eat when you visit but they have an absolute track record of suggesting expensive crappy restaurants? We almost always never go anywhere they suggest and instead go where they say they don't like and enjoy it immensely. These are the type to take you out when you visit and they also regret going anywhere they recommend.
> It's inspired by 거지맵 (Beggar's Map) a Korean crowdsourced map students use to find cheap eats.
This sounds great; really hoping it takes off. I'm curious: would Beggar's Map work pretty much as-is in other countries, or if not, why not?
I'd suggest making whatever price cutoff you decide on the price for a meal, not a dish. One dish, like a great bowl of tofu stew, can be a meal in itself, but let submitters decide.
Students in college towns are an obvious audience, and I can imagine plenty of low-cost ways to reach out to them and get them to seed the site. Be sure to include Berkeley in your outreach!
Thakn you! Beggar map > even their url is korean only and does not have English URL. (beggarmap.com is owned.. by me actually, I offered it to transfer to Korean website owner for free, sent him an email)
Yes! College kids are my first audience. Reason behind having mascot like chipmunk was to target younger audiences. I will make sure to our reach Berkeley area!!!
O yes, I am definitely adding filter and option to trigger meal vs single item/appentizer
I like it. I built a chrome plugin for rating the best dish at a restaurant, this definitely reminds me of that.
Added a couple spots in Seattle (where it's exceptionally hard to get any food below $10)
No suggestions, just happy to see something that's NOT an AI tool. Even happier that I'll get some use out of this. Maybe add somewhere on the site/app where I can input suggestions if I were to have any later?
Noticing all of the Costco hot dog listings on the map reminds me: There's also an incentive for businesses to pose as users and misreport prices of competitors. My local Costco gas station constantly has a set of users misreporting the price of fuel, reporting the price as several cents higher than in actuality, seemingly in order to prevent consumers from refueling there. Something to watch out for.
Wow, thank you. Yes, we do have data validation and limit amount of update new users can do, but I should definitely think ahead to set some healthy boudaries.
That's very very nifty. The midwest is devoid of users, or cheap food, or both?
1. I can't add a thing, says address incorrect. Confirmed via google maps entry.
2. Drag and drop image upload expected by the dashed outlines but doesn't exist.
3. It should be possible to choose/save a location from a map after a search instead of entering it from blank fields. (see #1)
it'd be nice to be able to actually just click on a restaurant listing in the map rather than having to search for it.
also, happy hour options might make sense -- maybe some way to filter out (or see) results that are only available during a happy hour. Users could check "happy hour item" and enter the times for the happy hour.
finally, if people enter cheap items that aren't large enough to be a "meal" (like one taco for $3.50) this might become less useful.
Oh, I see, it's filtering by business type. A lot of the best places for cheap food around here are in a multi-purpose business, like a gas station or a tienda that have an awesome taqueria or panderia or something like that as a part of their store, often with their own separate entrance and eating area but no separate Google listing.
Would love a gluten-free / dietary restriction filter, or at least a filter where gluten/wheat is not an ingredient (separate from cross-contamination). Unfortunately, cheap-ish food is harder to find with dietary restrictions. Even filtering by Asian, Mexican, Italian, Mediterranean, etc., would be helpful.
Also, a way to verify or link to the menu item, hours, etc., at a place would also be helpful.
We added direct link to Google maps since many would be preferred way to get full detail about the restaurants. (You can either click google review or dedicated Google Maps button)
One thing I’d recommend is somehow separating a la carte versus full meal type items if theres a way to separate them on the data side. You should see this in Texas where you might have a taco place with a $4 taco or Vietnamese with a $9 banh mi, the latter being substantially more food.
Also the map viewport does’t restore when click back from a restaurant/menu item page and it throws me back to Texas.
I like that I can filter by a specific area, but I wonder if people would be better served to get down to regions instead of a city. Dallas is pretty big, and I don't want to drive from Love Field all the way to Lakeside for lunch...
At the bottom of the lists, after you've scrolled through and clicked on some restaurants, you should have a "I'll do it myself" button that uses some llm to create a $10 meal recipe using the restaurants you clicked as inspiration.
Like you can create similar meal yourself? That might actually help get more engagement from users.. not sure how much it will cost me though, AI API costs a lot these days T-T
There's only so many different ways to build a single item like a hamburger, or a chicken salad sandwich.
Eventually, ~all of the necessary recipes will be created naturally just by using the thing, and these results can be cached forever and categorized with keywords.
After that: Subsequent hits look to the cache for a good match rate on keywords, and present an already-existing recipe if it exists.
Would you mind sharing where you got this food data? I wanted to create maps labeling free parking areas, yet I can’t get access to the required geospatial data.
I used Google API / Yelp API to get top food reviewed places (4.2 star and 500+ reviews) and let used Claude API to review individual listing and menus twice. Google API has free API offered when you first start ($300) so you can try it out!
I just tried to add a place in Rahat, Israel, but the site seems US only. Go ahead and open it up internationally. I only know two places with under-$10 USD meals, but I love them both.
Thank you for checking it out! Yes, we just launched and mostly in USA, especially Dallas area. After today's suggestions, definitely modivated to go international!
I guess we are trying to remove couple of steps. single $ sign mostly gives you fastfood chain restuarants. You wouldn't be able to find killer lunch special deals or local hidden gem menues. You can still find them, but it take efforts through trial and errors. I felt difficult finding killer deals, and having a website that shows these killer deals can bring value. But this is just me.. maybe this is my hopeful thinking?
Thank you! Next.JS + TypeScript + Tailwind on Vercel.
1. Tailwind with a deliberately tiny palette. One accent color, system-ish fonts, defaults for almost everything else.
2. A mascot covers a multitude of sins. Chip the chipmunk shows up everywhere — badges, avatars, empty states, link preview cards.
3. I iterate UI with Claude Code in a tight loop: describe what feels off, look at the render, adjust, repeat. My job is judging the result, not pixel-pushing.
4. Steal layouts shamelessly from apps you already like. For utility apps, original layout is a liability — users want familiar.
I tried to add some spots in Berlin, but when I'm looking at the spot on the map and then click "Drop a spot" and type the restaurant name it's not finding it.
Currently it is limited to US spots only. (In US, restuarant and places auto populate for you) I see this will be userful in Europe as well, so we will get to work!!
NodeJS + React + TypeScript + Tailwind on vercel, locations are cached, and we are using google maps api and data. It is expensive.. but I think its most polished and familiar with useres (better user experience)
Great idea here, you got my click right away when I read the title.
I added a good spot in Tyson's Corner, VA - Falafel Inc. $5 for a sandwich
I also clicked around some more and noticed that there are some chains on there but only one is tagged per chain. Maybe some automation around finding the other locations of chains at data entry time. Some examples - Taco Bamba is a staple here and can be cheap, multiple locations all over the place. Andy's pizza is another one, although as another user pointed out, $5 is not a screaming deal for a slice, but it is under $10. When I typed in Falafel Inc, I saw the other locations there already, so maybe as simple as a multiselect or select all.
I like the google auth integration without forcing the use of my identity for the username. Probably worth adding a google logo as I read right past that initially as an option for auth.
I also love some of the other ideas for expansion and offering advertising options for restaurants that want it. That could be a good way to support your efforts. Maybe you could even incentivize users to tell the restaurants about this in some way.
Minor issue - When I liked my own drop, it took a few seconds to update in the UI.
As for price freshness model, I'm not exactly clear on how well that will work until there is more data there. If I could click and check out the menu real quick, that's enough for me to commit to trying it out. Looks like you are going with the upvote/downvote model, which I think could work. It might also be possible to hook into some of the online ordering apis to get the live data (ie. Slice - https://slice.com/ and others)
Thank you for your thoughful and thorough suggestions. Really appreciate it, to be honest last 24 hours has been just overwhelmingly blissful with thankfulness. I was working on this for 3 month after layoff and this is first real traction I got on this website, so it means a lot.
Thank you for adding the spot, and I hope if more people start using the app, people will update prices naturally and also encourage restaurant owners to update by themselve as well.
I looked into API update method, but a lot of API pricing are based on delivery app prices.. which are higher than their regular menu price, so decided not to use them for now. Maybe there is another API we can utilize down the road?
> The map couldn't load. This usually means an ad blocker or privacy extension is blocking Google Maps...
> Try disabling blockers for cheapfoodmap.com,
Try disabling your goofy expections that I'll spend a minute to learn if your page is worth it.
yes, beggar map, I thought about using beggarmap.com but didn't sound right in English. I plan to give that domain name back to Korean founder. (I sent him an email already offering free transfer)
I do for Dallas area, which is our launch city.
I will add filter to remove all the appentizers and snacks, and only post proper "meals" adding guidance as well. This community gave me so many good advices!
Man, this has been story for me lately, eating out.. so hopely greater group intelligence by crowdsourcing can find hidden gems that are actually good??
But seriously, this is great, and has already given me some new spots to try for lunch. Hopefully it takes off! I’d imagine it’ll be easiest to get a good engagement loop going in the big cities, so maybe worth focusing on them at the outset? ~80 places in NYC is a good start, but it’s the tip of the iceberg.
Edit: oh yeah I know we all love the web, but this would be nice as an app
cool concept, seems like also a good way to avoid touristy places :)
how do you verify the prices btw? even yesterday I'd check a place that had their own website with menu and when I arrived there the prices were ~10-15% higher. noped out of there real quick.
I have used Google API / Yelp AP and filtered them rigorously.. Most of them I personally found and updated by researching. AND prices is always increasing.. like almost every month. That's the season we are living in, constant inflation T-T
So that is my biggest task, how to keep the prices fresh. So many good suggestions made from this forum which is super helpful =)
See also, Too Good To Go, which has full meals at the end of the day and often comes under 10 dollars. I use this quite a lot as you basically get the same food, you just can't choose what you want, they just give you whatever, but it's supposed to be 3x worth the sticker price ie an 8 dollar TGTG meal must be worth 24 bucks retail.
It's a service for restaurants not one itself, it allows restaurants to give away uneaten food at the end of the day so as to reduce food waste and make some marginal income.
I tried to add Corti bros in Sacramento but it’s not considered a restaurant. It’s a grocery store with a sandwich shop and deli inside. 8.50 for a big sandwich.
This feels like GasBuddy, but for food.
One of the reasons GasBuddy took off was that it wasn't just based on community reports; there was an incentive for gas stations themselves to accurately report their prices and keep them up to date.
It seems like you're trying to discourage businesses from participating (e.g. by not accepting sponsored placements), and that will have implications for your growth rate. I think you should look for ways to give businesses an active role, without eroding user trust in the recommendations, of course.
Think of the possibilities:
- Business can add coupons to its listing, making cheap food even cheaper
- Business can confirm a reported deal, adding to its credibility
- Business can provide full menu and a link to order takeout
I don't think any of those features would make users feel like the business is "buying" a listing it didn't earn.
Wow, thank you for this suggestion. This might be most sustainable way to update prices, as long as I set boundaries correctly. I will research how GasBuddy set up their data pipeline this week to see if we can benchmark.
I could be wrong but I think you’ll want to consider changing the name. The parent post is on point, but companies won’t be attracted by the “cheap food” moniker. Even “budget food” is more palatable for a restaurant to associate with.
This was our biggest concern as well. I already talked to few owners and negative connotation was making them reluctant to be on the site.. We thought about different name like "under10" "dimedrop" "Fooglemap" but none of them stuck. (We did like the name Fooglemap, but similarity to Google map will create risk of cease and decease letter if it ever becomes major.. so decided not to do it.)
Still torn on name change.. We want cool / memorable name.
> cease and decease letter
I don’t know if it was an accident or a pun, but I love it.
May I suggest MealOnADime ? Dine n' Save Find your meal
I'd say to avoid the under 10 branding because of inflation.
Meal on a dime sounds good, checking namecheap right now =)
FoodGaloreMap. Focuses on the abundance without the negative miser association. Or FoodMiser works too, just lean into it as a beautiful brand.
Because good and plentiful food for cheap is abundance, and good food for relatively cheap is miser's dream.
mealdeal.com
lunch4less
lunch4me
luchprice
foodfinder
fooddeal
foodranger
foodgetter
grub4less
chow4less
Man, i would love a voting for favorite name at this time. no voting feature here right?
You'd have to buy all the domains before starting the poll
I have... like 10 now haha
valuefoodie
greatmealdeal (or permutations)
both available.
You can also make the chimpmunk into your foodie mascot for branding.
valuefoodie sounds good!
http://youtube.com/post/UgkxbTEYFKBiPTHYewKpDuYOI1J29DPai2zQ...
FoodBuddy
LunchBuddy
This one is good; however I wonder if GasBuddy would have an issue with it.. otherwise I think it rings nice.
Yes, I like this name too. But they will get us if we go major.
I liked Fooglemap (Googlemap + Food) and Slickmeals (like slickdeals) all very dangerous down the road if we ever become major. They will send cease and decease letter through their lawyer
Munch4Less.
fwiw, I like cheapfoodmap. I like cheap food. Already registered and posted a spot. The site is fun and slick. Good work!
Thank you! I like the name too, but it has some negative connotation so businesses might not like them.. but thats the part I like about the name.
I like <3
taken ><
FroogalMap?
Cool idea. I hope this helps people.
The word "cheap" while by definition means low quality is used in place of "inexpensive" most of the time in casual language, at least in the United States, and understood to mean low cost not low quality. I for one read the URL to mean inexpensive. Not that there aren't more appropriate URLs.
Thank you! I like the name too, but it has slight negative connotation so businesses might not like them.. but thats the part I like about the it
The problem isn't the word cheap, it's just that'd you've attached it to the food, and not the diner.
Food4thecheap Good food on the cheap Cheapo's meal map Bums' Guides
Man.. I feel like I owe you lunch for making this suggestions. Noted and definitely taking this to heart
Also good for time-based deals (for example, happy hour specials) where businesses really do want to get more customers in the door at certain times.
Yes, rather than relying 100% on customers. Business will be better at updating correct cadence.
Not really.
GasBuddy has a standard: price per gallon
But this is just a map of the lower-priced items, which are available everywhere. You can find a cheap sandwich, bowl of soup, slice of pizza, or taco virtually anywhere. There is no corresponding standard point of comparison (no "gallon").
There's the calorie. Not always a good metric of health, but it's still a signal.
$/cal varies meaningfully between home cooking, Costco, Chipotle, fast casual, sit-down, frozen meals, etc.
Actually I'd love to see this metric.
New Project for me!(I'm laid off, so I got time)
The unit should be a Meal. Not just an appetizer, a full meal. (Does it include drink? In US, many places give free tap water, but not others. Is it okay if it’s only lunch, or should it be available for dinner too? What about tipping?)
No tips ever for take out and remember that tips are no longer taxed so the made up percentages from before are no longer relevant.
Yes, adding this as default recommandation from now on, adding filter so user can filter out single item like taco and appentizer
> What about tipping?
Please find a way to punish restaurants that don’t pay living wages and force staff to live from the tips. This is just wrong.
It's a little different, instead of maximizing gas/price they're maximizing community rating subject to 10$ limit. I have often wanted to query google reviews in this way. I think yelp might have let you do this back in the day. If this data is already being scraped continuously what I'd really like is a query interface.
Could see this being useful for people who are on the road for a living, or regularly operating in areas where they’re not familiar with the offerings. Truck drivers, salespeople, etc.
That said, kneejerk after using it is: price is a challenging anchor, because food is not uniform. I’d be curious if users are more interested in “under $10, ignoring all else” or “a better deal than comparable” - though, there’s a lot of subjectivity in that.
Gasbuddy works because 1 gallon of gas = 1 gallon of gas, so price is a useful anchor.
$5 for sushi at one place could be a bad deal, while a great deal at another place.
An $8 steak would be cheap. An $8 hot dog would be a ripoff.
I’d be skeptical of restaurants luring people with a single cheap item, or about quality/portion changes.
All this said, Ikea is known for designing furniture _around_ the price their target customer thinks a table should cost. Restaurants are likely (hopefully!) aware of where these price thresholds are for their customers … and your site could be an interesting way of sending them a different type of customer than they’d historically targeted. Or, allow them to refine an offering to maximize profit at the $10 price point.
As others have said, engage restaurants and make them part of the equation. They’re not your adversary.
In short: cool! Do lots of experiments and research!
Thank you so much gffrd.
You know, my dream is to have some kind of movement where people rally to fight inflation and tipflation. Last few years, we seen some crazy food price increases and it seems like its gonna get worse.
If enough people find value in affortable prices, and people go to those restaurants that offer good deals, either as lunch special or weekly promotion, more restaurant will try to offer these kind of deals. Win for customers, win for restuarant.
Might be getting a head of myself there.. but that's the vision. (If you check "About" page, I put another dream which is to make this website turn non-profit later down the road if we make money lol)
To really stop inflation, the fed would have to ramp up interest rates, stop printing money, and Congress would have to cut spending and raise taxes. It's worth it to reward businesses who offer cheap prices, but inflation is inevitable without severe austerity measures.
Interest rate is killing me at restaurant, grocery and my my retirement accout T-T
Could cut demand instead, if we're imagining things.
> $8 steak
Is gristly piece of roadkill.
But there are certain dishes which are traditional,
American:
Mexican: Central American: Peruvian:Sam's Club Cafe sells $1 hot dogs and $2.50 pizza slices with a drink, and it doesn't not require a membership to visit.
Larger families (4+ kids) shop at Warehouse clubs because they need items in bulk, but they are also often cost sensitive because they have a higher multiplier. You might see a family of 8 eating for under $20. Talk to that family, and they will tell you all the other places in town that they can afford to take their family to. They will also know other families who would be interested in your site.
Awesome suggestion. Marketing was biggest huddle during this launch. I have been asking on facebook groups, since head of families are there, might be a good out reach?
Facebook groups are good if you can get access. Be careful when cold calling on facebook, you can get permanently banned, but if you can sustain your access, you can also find other cost sensitive people in local "buy nothing" groups.
For homeschool groups specifically, many areas will have a homeschool cooperative or resource group with a website and contact info for a real human. They're mainly there to help onboard parents who are new to homeschooling, but if you have a polite elevator pitch, they're guaranteed to at least know someone who is very frugal.
My favorite college food hack was the 1/4 lb Big Bite at 7 Eleven. The one near my house sold them for $1 and had an extensive bar of vegetables in addition to the machine that secreted warm nacho cheese and chili (!!!) out of a bag. My usual setup was onions, tomatoes, sauerkraut, mustard, and a pinch of the cheese and some cilantro if they had any hanging around.
If I had to feed a family on the cheap I'd make lentil or barley stew. Saute a mirepoix and brown whatever protein is on sale, deglaze with whatever wine is appropriate, brown some tomato paste, then chuck the rest of the veggies and starches in with some spice mix and cook for 30-40 minutes. Once you've dialed in whatever time is appropriate for your ingredients it's the best meal prep hack there is. Gym bros slathering chicken breast and white rice in mystery sauce need not apply.
O man.. Mine was similar except it was nachos.. It was similar $1 (1999) and I loaded up with jalopenos, onions, chillies and cheeze... that was a good cheap meal
I love the idea, but a quick glance (randomly at SF) reveals entries that aren't "meals" (IMO, anyway) but rather snacks - like two spring rolls for $8, or a slice of pizza for $5.53. Also, the days of a $1 slice may have (long) gone, but $5.33 for a slice seems median at best, not "cheap".
Have you thought about either some guidance, or even a filter, for meal size?
Too Good To Go has full meals under 10 dollars, but you can't choose what you're gonna get.
Ah.. i thought Too Good To Go was a restaurant, couldnt post it.
maybe, the calories for that item, and a lower limit that counts as a full meal?
I can sell you a nice spoonful of old vegetable oil for less than $1 and topping the chart calorie-wise :D
Extra virgin olive oil from Italy?
Used extra virgin oil from Italy.
Yeah a quick glance and none of the ones I saw around my office are meals. I'm honestly not sure a $10 meal exists in SF anymore...
Depends what you mean by meal, the parent didn’t like pizza slices but I believe one of the thick granny slices at Outta Sight pizza is still under $10, I’d consider that a lunch.
It’s a fair point that generally it’s focused on single items rather than say a main, side, and drink for $10.
Two egg rolls is also a meal by calorie content.
Depends on the size of those egg rolls
Yeah, it varies a lot - The huge egg rolls that were sold at the bodega near my house when I was a kid were meal sized.
It is becoming harder to find them. Just few lunch specials and hidden gems.
I hope this app can help share these hidden gems.
Maybe I should just delete bad data and just put few legit places only?
El farolito is 9.75 for a big burrito
Saigon sandwich is $5.50 for Bahn mi
if only farolito was good
Do you have any suggestions
You're right, and it's on me — I seeded SF from published menus to bootstrap the map, and some entries are snacks, not meals. Seeded rows are labeled "Posted on [date]" vs "Price verified [date]" for ones a human actually confirmed, but the meal/snack line needs to be a rule.. This week: pruning the non-meals and adding submission guidance
Thank you again for suggestion!
thats really good point. I should put more guidance on the submission.
Basic rules were no franchise, actual meals only. I was filtering manually in DFW area for now, but should actually add more features and guidance in general.
This is actually critical point. Thank you for pointing that out.
$10 isn't $10 everywhere. There are still places in the country where $10 feels expensive. You may want to add a filter for even cheaper meals.
On the other end, increasingly, even fast food combos are more than $10. It would be helpful to highlight franchise meals that are actually affordable. Just don't let people add dollar menus or non-combos.
Posts should somehow only admit whole meals. If someone says their local taco truck sells a single street taco for $6.99, that's means a meal is more like $20.
Yes on all three points.
Added the $ filter, first action item this week is to add a filter to encourage only "real meal" not a single item like taco to be added as "meal"
Maybe I should have named it cheapmealmap.com (I own this name as well.)
This is a great idea I fully commend. An additional option for meals under $10 is cooking them oneself too.
I know this might appear to be obvious, but is still a viable option IMHO. A used copy of the "Joy of Cooking" book and some creative shopping can go a long way.
This is great idea. Auto populate recipe and link to fill in shopping list on Amazon Fresh.
Or just find an appetizing dish in the book, jot down the ingredients, and visit a local market.
This strategy also enables alternate use-case discovery by interacting with subject-matter experts.
so many options!
When visiting the US, I lerned that a meal that costs 10$ is actually 10$ + some random tax + a tip = 20$
Yes, tip use to be around 15%, but now default close to 20%. We call it tipflation.
We added tip + tax calculation on the page so you know what you are getting into as well =)
It depends on the type of establishment.
A full service restaurant where you are directed to a table, someone takes your order, then brings food to you, and then you pay would require a tip, because that is considered service.
A counter service restaurant or cafe where you walk up to a counter, give your order, pay, then pick up your food and find your own table would not require a tip.
True. Still showing 10$ when it is actually 11.75$ because there is a random tax is really, really insane. I truly wonder why the US does this when the rest of the world does not.
Because sales tax is hyper-localized in America there is not a rule saying you can advertise the pre-tax price.
It's even worse now as restaurants have been adding random fees and surcharges (not taxes) instead of increasing their menu prices.
The random fees are really getting out of hand.
Yes, it might be just me, but sometime I feel like I am strongly encourage to tip, even on a togo order these days..
The leaderboard with acorns is a smart touch. gamification might actually solve your price freshness problem better than anything else. If updating a price earned acorns too, your top contributors would keep the data current for you. Nice project, and the 10% to food banks commitment on the about page is a good look.
Thank you! Yes, updating prices give you acorn and badge as well. I might expand more incentives to update prices, like suggestion from comments, for restaurants.
Food bank commitment is built in from start. I plan to display transparent donation amount if we ever make money. (fingers crossed!)
Smart, the transparency on donations will build trust fast. Good luck with the 100 days!
Thank you... I am documenting this on YouTube as well. Uploading one video everyday for 100 Days straight. https://www.youtube.com/@firedupman
Neat idea.
I don't like giving my location, zip code should be good enough. I think if I tap List it kind of works but not really. I'm in SoCal for what it's worth.
Yes, I should make that easier for people. You can enter zip code or city name on search box and it should take you there. (Under List in mobile)
You can, but it gives me New Mexico and NorCal.
I'd prefer to sort by location or filter more closely.
Great suggestion, I will add that feature to this week's to do list. Thank you boss!
I like the idea. It would be nice a worldwide map. I mean, not only across the US.
Or at least make it clear from the get-go that it's US-only.
Wow, I am surprised to see so many recommandation for global app. We will definitely work on this soon.
The first thing I did was zoom way out and drag it all the way to Australia. You can get a user's approximate location by looking up their IP against a geolocation service and center their map on there in case they deny permission.
I think there might also be ways to look up purchasing power, for what the equivalent of "under $10" (i.e. a cheap meal) is relative to the local currency.
+1 wanted to add some for Germany (would require additional currency)
Let me try to add it tonight's dev session =)
How do you vet 'a meal'? Manually? I ask because some places will have say fries, or sides or $1 oysters or others will have $2 wings but with a minimum purchase of 6.
Otherwise, great job. I like it.
Thank you, This is biggest take away from everyone's feedback today. I will add filters and option to define if item is a "meal" or "snack/appetizer"
It is really amazing to get such a great response and feedback from this group.
UX report: On desktop chromium, clicked on a "14 restaurants nearby" restaurant item, and... nothing changed on the map. Little idea where it is. Got address from popup and... map wasn't showing that street name. Zoom in, pan around, repeat. Struggle. Apparently cluster markers (like "(2)") don't visually indicate selection at all. And the unclustered restaurant marker selection indication was subtle enough for me to miss, at least when getting started. Especially given the draws-the-eye distraction of the popup, so the indication transition itself wasn't noticed.
Also on the "restaurants nearby" list, every card said "New York, NY". Unhelpful ink. I wished it was showing the address line, at least when all the city lines were the same.
A relieved word of thanks for not using the frustrating Google Maps "Search this area" yes-really-please button.
I saw someplace interesting, then realized, "oh yeah, I tried to go there, but they don't open until <after my window>". Also, "that looks interesting... I wonder when they're open?", then checked GMaps via button, which didn't have hours but did have popular times (it's a truck).
Fwiw. Has given me a couple of places to try - thanks!
Wow, this is really helpful user experience issue that I did NOT know about!
Thank you thank you thank you!
Meal is a bit hard to define.
Here are some cases:
You can get food for under $10 at many casual NYC restaurants -- if you just order an appetizer.
Also a snack is not a meal. For instance, I noticed a Salted Egg Yolk Bun in NYC for $1.50. But that's not really a meal (unless you get 4 of them). https://cheapfoodmap.com/spot/golden-steamer-new-york-ny
The average check price in NYC Chinatown can easily be under $10 if you get the right combination of appetizers/snacks.
Furthermore there are places where you can get food by the pound. Technically you can get a prepared meal at Whole Foods ($12.99/lb salad bar) if you get it just under 0.76 lbs. If you're light eater, then every Whole Foods in the country qualifies as cheap eats. Then the map will be saturated.
Yes, this is #1 homework this week to solve. How do we define equal standard for all food types?
I don't understand the $10 part. Today's $10 is 2027's $12. You mentioned inflation.
It should be value for value, or pegged to a state's minimum wage or something, but then you lose the $10 marketing angle.
Sucks about getting laid off (been there, still there), but I don't see this as an ongoing concern if you are targeting consumers. If I am hungry, $10 is not my criteria. It could be $5, it could be $10.59 depending on fast I can get that protein in. Do I drive, does it get delivered, or do I just go downstairs to a taco stand.
OTOH, as others suggested, you could have businesses and franchises fight for foot traffic with coupons/promos.
Define "good" and "meal"
Good question! Good : Google Review 4.2 with 500+ reviews Meal : Proper meal that can qualify as lunch or dinner
But honestly... not fulfilling all the requirement just yet >_<
FYI: When looking around my favorite spots for decent, cheap food in the small towns in Ohio where I hang out, it's easy to find plenty of them with a score of at least 4.2 on Google.
But it's somewhat difficult to find some that have over 500 reviews, even for places that have been there for quite a long time.
I agree that barriers are necessary, but might there be a way to soften them?
As it is, it looks like my choices will remain pretty limited even if the website does gain popularity, unless I'm willing to drive further out to a "real" city where places have more traffic. (And by that point: It's not cheap anymore.)
Dude, I don't exactly live out in the middle of nowhere but I don't think any restaurants in my area have 500+ reviews. You're only allowing big cities with that requirement.
EDIT: I spot checked and the only places with over 500 reviews are two places that have been open since the 70s. My favorite locations all have less.
No problem, it was only for my initial seed data. I just set hard requirement so I don't have any "bad" recommandation for users coming in. There are no limit for user submission at this time =)
now do French Laundry and glyphosate
Error 406 Not Acceptable: FrenchLaundry exceeds MaxBudgetLimit
curl errordodge/budget/glyphosate
glyphosate throws a fatal ToxicityException. Please check your inputs :)
Succulent... Chi... Meal?
What is the charge! Eating a meal?
This might be the better application. Some of us from outside the US do not want to eat ANY American food unless it has come from the actual ground or a tree, seen actual daylight and not been processed in special American ways.
So all that artificial food is off the menu, yet Americans consider this stuff to be food. Nothing in any of those fast food places is food to anyone from the old world, unless they are under five.
Hence an 'actual food map' would be useful, not least to people not from the U.S. and wanting more than this nonsense Americans call 'food'. In short, a cheap burger is of no use to my nutritional needs and is neither 'food' nor 'cheap', just a waste of money on a non-food item.
Oh, you are giving me another idea for a webpage called "RealFoodMap" or "GoodFoodMap"? Health / Nutrient scored map?
It could be just a filter, along with dietary requirements. In this way the one webpage can be made to work for everyone.
Honestly, although fast food is normalised in America, there are lots of people that would never be seen dead, chomping into an American burger with fluorescent beverage, to consider it 'food'. Do they even have vegetables in these places?
Also, cooking is not what some Americans do, whereas some people outside America cook from scratch every day. These visitors need to know dining options, which can mean eating out or finding somewhere with ingredients that are not overly American.
America developed differently to the rest of the world regarding food, an app is needed to help tourists find something vaguely edible rather than utterly soul destroying.
Vegetables, salads are usually more expensive compare to burgers and pizzas in US. I think people gotten used to this fact. I can see why people outside can get shocked by how things are here. Don't blame you for a bit.
When I travel abroad, I am usually shocked how good food are compare to how much it cost, especially in Asian Countries. European countries, I get shocked at both good food quality and price haha
I’d like to see something similar to Spain’s menú del día. Also, please indicate whether guilt-inducing tipping is required.
In Dallas, you can eat affordably at any 99 Ranch supermarket hot deli—think Panda Express, but with larger portions and lower cost. You can also get low-cost dim sum items at 99 Ranch.
Many Dallas food halls, such as Legacy Hall, are fairly overpriced, so I’d avoid them. The cost at mall food courts varies.
Some fast-casual restaurants offer a free kid’s meal one day a week or with the purchase of an adult entrée. But usually, an Asian supermarket’s hot deli offers the best value, especially if it’s located in the heart of an Asian neighborhood. Avoid any asian food located in downtown as that tend towards high prices.
website name: eat2live, dailyeats, affordableeats, weeat, eatdaily,
Thank you!! Currently, only restaurant was allowed, but I think we need to change it so that groceries are allowed. (like Ranch 99 chinese specials and Ranchero Market 99 cent taco deals.)
weeat! I like that name!
taken ><
I also live in Dallas and had a feeling Fuel City would be #1 or close to it. Apparently, there's a taco place a few miles away in Bishop Arts that is 2 cents cheaper, but I bet they don't have outdoor block parties with live DJs, longhorns on site, a swimming pool with a statue of a velociraptor, or a huge neon sign over a gas station saying "Where Dreams Come True." I'm sticking with Fuel City. There are downsides hard to account for with price alone, though. Riverfront Blvd has been under construction for 7 years and hasn't had usable sidewalks in longer than I can remember, so you have no choice but to drive there. Plenty of other places I can walk to, so in practice, that's usually what I do.
Good to see you! I justed added Fuel City as part of the list. I will actually go there to try them myself and shoot a video as well. I have been eating out and filming everyday and posting it on Instagram and Tiktok as promotion, best food deals in Dallas. Check it out if you are interested =) (@cheapfoodmap)
I checked and will stat from positive that it looks cool although it feels confusing seeing so much things on map. can it be like remove all other things than road . just keep road so only visible thing would be path and the food address. also I tried with email login but magic link never sent to email. also it would be great if you integrate with food delivery people and also show there rates od delivery . because they keep it hidden and than at the end of bill or invoice as customer I get annoyed to see much charges by them.
Thank you! You are the second person who said email would not come.. can you share what email service you used so I can check it myself as well? (I tried twice using my alias emails, and it worked both times)
Food delivery option and fees will be added to dev que!
buquzu@denipl.net
This would also work amazingly with https://beliapp.com which is a tool for - only - sharing restaurant reviews with your contacts to serve as a personal graph of trust.
Or you could also implement your own on-site equivalent of it, if people are sharing their reviews anyway.
It's also excellent for vlogger content, if you want to get the word out, although influencers aren't historically known for tenacious attribution and credit in their content. :)
Wow, I didn't know about this app and you are right. This is perfectly in line with what we are trying to do. We do have same share feature, but should add that more clearly. Love their design on mobile device, few things I can learn from them. Thank you for sharing!
Am I the only one who knows people who always eagerly suggest places to eat when you visit but they have an absolute track record of suggesting expensive crappy restaurants? We almost always never go anywhere they suggest and instead go where they say they don't like and enjoy it immensely. These are the type to take you out when you visit and they also regret going anywhere they recommend.
> It's inspired by 거지맵 (Beggar's Map) a Korean crowdsourced map students use to find cheap eats.
This sounds great; really hoping it takes off. I'm curious: would Beggar's Map work pretty much as-is in other countries, or if not, why not?
I'd suggest making whatever price cutoff you decide on the price for a meal, not a dish. One dish, like a great bowl of tofu stew, can be a meal in itself, but let submitters decide.
Students in college towns are an obvious audience, and I can imagine plenty of low-cost ways to reach out to them and get them to seed the site. Be sure to include Berkeley in your outreach!
Thakn you! Beggar map > even their url is korean only and does not have English URL. (beggarmap.com is owned.. by me actually, I offered it to transfer to Korean website owner for free, sent him an email)
Yes! College kids are my first audience. Reason behind having mascot like chipmunk was to target younger audiences. I will make sure to our reach Berkeley area!!!
O yes, I am definitely adding filter and option to trigger meal vs single item/appentizer
I like it. I built a chrome plugin for rating the best dish at a restaurant, this definitely reminds me of that.
Added a couple spots in Seattle (where it's exceptionally hard to get any food below $10)
No suggestions, just happy to see something that's NOT an AI tool. Even happier that I'll get some use out of this. Maybe add somewhere on the site/app where I can input suggestions if I were to have any later?
Thank you! Yes, I have link for feedback in community tab! I respond within a day =)
Noticing all of the Costco hot dog listings on the map reminds me: There's also an incentive for businesses to pose as users and misreport prices of competitors. My local Costco gas station constantly has a set of users misreporting the price of fuel, reporting the price as several cents higher than in actuality, seemingly in order to prevent consumers from refueling there. Something to watch out for.
Wow, thank you. Yes, we do have data validation and limit amount of update new users can do, but I should definitely think ahead to set some healthy boudaries.
That's very very nifty. The midwest is devoid of users, or cheap food, or both?
1. I can't add a thing, says address incorrect. Confirmed via google maps entry. 2. Drag and drop image upload expected by the dashed outlines but doesn't exist. 3. It should be possible to choose/save a location from a map after a search instead of entering it from blank fields. (see #1)
Thank you so much for trying it out. I will add drag and drop on desktop browser and choose sticky zone on map.
For issue #1, did you try to search by restaurant name? If it is not resturant name or address.. it will not popualte.
it's not working for me. probably just slammed.
it'd be nice to be able to actually just click on a restaurant listing in the map rather than having to search for it.
also, happy hour options might make sense -- maybe some way to filter out (or see) results that are only available during a happy hour. Users could check "happy hour item" and enter the times for the happy hour.
finally, if people enter cheap items that aren't large enough to be a "meal" (like one taco for $3.50) this might become less useful.
Man, that is brilliant idea. Adding "Meal" or "Snack" as mandatory field should help solve noise submission out.
Happy Hour filter option will be added soon! Thank you for your suggestion!
It should work now, so many people trying this out, never had this much traffic since we started haha
Upgraded server so it should work now
Still having issues here - maybe with the address lookup API?
It works on my end, still not good?
(I upgraded both server + Google API allowance)
Oh, I see, it's filtering by business type. A lot of the best places for cheap food around here are in a multi-purpose business, like a gas station or a tienda that have an awesome taqueria or panderia or something like that as a part of their store, often with their own separate entrance and eating area but no separate Google listing.
give it a minute, it will load. I am sure it is slammed right now. That's what I had to do.
Yes, just upgraded my server so it should be able to handle it haha
I would be interested in adding some slovenian spots for the love of the game if you are looking for a europe branching :)
Thank you =) will do!
Would love a gluten-free / dietary restriction filter, or at least a filter where gluten/wheat is not an ingredient (separate from cross-contamination). Unfortunately, cheap-ish food is harder to find with dietary restrictions. Even filtering by Asian, Mexican, Italian, Mediterranean, etc., would be helpful.
Also, a way to verify or link to the menu item, hours, etc., at a place would also be helpful.
We added direct link to Google maps since many would be preferred way to get full detail about the restaurants. (You can either click google review or dedicated Google Maps button)
We will add more filters this week!
One thing I’d recommend is somehow separating a la carte versus full meal type items if theres a way to separate them on the data side. You should see this in Texas where you might have a taco place with a $4 taco or Vietnamese with a $9 banh mi, the latter being substantially more food.
Also the map viewport does’t restore when click back from a restaurant/menu item page and it throws me back to Texas.
Wow, that is a genuine error. I will add that fix on next release for sure!
Would love to see restaurants in Canada included
O man, I would love to expand to other countries! Once we polish the website, Canada will be the first global launch for sure!
+1. Came here to say exactly this.
Poutines! Here we come!
I like that I can filter by a specific area, but I wonder if people would be better served to get down to regions instead of a city. Dallas is pretty big, and I don't want to drive from Love Field all the way to Lakeside for lunch...
It would be great to somehow either
- Get to the map from a city list
- refine the city to a neighborhood level
We have "Cities" section that support DFW area and divide it into more neighborhoods. https://cheapfoodmap.com/cities will this work?
“$9.50” with a bowl of ramen emoji. I click it and it’s coffee. Is the $9.50 for coffee? What is $9.50
Edit: I’m in SF near Union Square maybe that’s why. Looks a lot better in Dallas with photos of the menus
That was wrong detail set as vietnamese, because this coffee shop sells vietnamese sandwitches. Fixed it to "Sandwitch"!
I see taxes and tips, but not whether a drink is included or if you have to drink water to keep it under $10.
(Only one place with a drink can give you a small lunch around $10 here, because no tip.)
Yap, most are just with water unless specifiied. (like 2 pizza + drink = $6.99
I really liked the user experience and how easy it was to use.
At the bottom of the lists, after you've scrolled through and clicked on some restaurants, you should have a "I'll do it myself" button that uses some llm to create a $10 meal recipe using the restaurants you clicked as inspiration.
Like you can create similar meal yourself? That might actually help get more engagement from users.. not sure how much it will cost me though, AI API costs a lot these days T-T
Clever caching?
There's only so many different ways to build a single item like a hamburger, or a chicken salad sandwich.
Eventually, ~all of the necessary recipes will be created naturally just by using the thing, and these results can be cached forever and categorized with keywords.
After that: Subsequent hits look to the cache for a good match rate on keywords, and present an already-existing recipe if it exists.
o man you are on to something here! Noted down!
Would you mind sharing where you got this food data? I wanted to create maps labeling free parking areas, yet I can’t get access to the required geospatial data.
I used Google API / Yelp API to get top food reviewed places (4.2 star and 500+ reviews) and let used Claude API to review individual listing and menus twice. Google API has free API offered when you first start ($300) so you can try it out!
Thanks for your reply! I’ve already tried it out. The interface looks great, and the features are really practical.
I just tried to add a place in Rahat, Israel, but the site seems US only. Go ahead and open it up internationally. I only know two places with under-$10 USD meals, but I love them both.
Thank you for checking it out! Yes, we just launched and mostly in USA, especially Dallas area. After today's suggestions, definitely modivated to go international!
Why wouldn't you just use Google Maps with a single-$ price filter?
I guess we are trying to remove couple of steps. single $ sign mostly gives you fastfood chain restuarants. You wouldn't be able to find killer lunch special deals or local hidden gem menues. You can still find them, but it take efforts through trial and errors. I felt difficult finding killer deals, and having a website that shows these killer deals can bring value. But this is just me.. maybe this is my hopeful thinking?
I like how cute the design is! What tech stack did you use and how did you design the website?
Signed, Backend dev struggling to have good designs for a mobile app I’m making
Thank you! Next.JS + TypeScript + Tailwind on Vercel.
1. Tailwind with a deliberately tiny palette. One accent color, system-ish fonts, defaults for almost everything else.
2. A mascot covers a multitude of sins. Chip the chipmunk shows up everywhere — badges, avatars, empty states, link preview cards.
3. I iterate UI with Claude Code in a tight loop: describe what feels off, look at the render, adjust, repeat. My job is judging the result, not pixel-pushing.
4. Steal layouts shamelessly from apps you already like. For utility apps, original layout is a liability — users want familiar.
I tried to add some spots in Berlin, but when I'm looking at the spot on the map and then click "Drop a spot" and type the restaurant name it's not finding it.
Currently it is limited to US spots only. (In US, restuarant and places auto populate for you) I see this will be userful in Europe as well, so we will get to work!!
What about just linking their Google Business instead of filling out a submission and uploading photos? That actually helps the business rank more.
Google API costs way too much to scale. (photos and location info cannot be cached per their rules, so you need to fetch it every month)
What tech did you use? Are you caching the locations? Are you using google data but openstreetmap?
NodeJS + React + TypeScript + Tailwind on vercel, locations are cached, and we are using google maps api and data. It is expensive.. but I think its most polished and familiar with useres (better user experience)
Tried to add a spot in New Zealand and couldn't select the address.
Bahn Bi at Miss Saigon in BNZ Centre, Christchurch if anyone is looking!
You mean the baguette? It should be "banh mi" :)
Banh Mi seems like universal good "cheap" food globally
O man, I should really aim internationally
Nice! I've always wanted something like this clubbed with Coupons, Offers and combos that can be a steal deal sometimes.
Yes! Food and saving money is two of my favorite things so this project is fun =)
A lot of things aren't healthy like pizza and fried chicken.
They should add the cost of future open heart surgery to the cheap meal.
Man cannot live on lettuce alone.
That's why God gave us friend chicken and bacons :)
LMAO, hey might be still worth it for $6.99 =D
Great idea here, you got my click right away when I read the title.
I added a good spot in Tyson's Corner, VA - Falafel Inc. $5 for a sandwich
I also clicked around some more and noticed that there are some chains on there but only one is tagged per chain. Maybe some automation around finding the other locations of chains at data entry time. Some examples - Taco Bamba is a staple here and can be cheap, multiple locations all over the place. Andy's pizza is another one, although as another user pointed out, $5 is not a screaming deal for a slice, but it is under $10. When I typed in Falafel Inc, I saw the other locations there already, so maybe as simple as a multiselect or select all.
I like the google auth integration without forcing the use of my identity for the username. Probably worth adding a google logo as I read right past that initially as an option for auth.
I also love some of the other ideas for expansion and offering advertising options for restaurants that want it. That could be a good way to support your efforts. Maybe you could even incentivize users to tell the restaurants about this in some way.
Minor issue - When I liked my own drop, it took a few seconds to update in the UI.
As for price freshness model, I'm not exactly clear on how well that will work until there is more data there. If I could click and check out the menu real quick, that's enough for me to commit to trying it out. Looks like you are going with the upvote/downvote model, which I think could work. It might also be possible to hook into some of the online ordering apis to get the live data (ie. Slice - https://slice.com/ and others)
Thank you for your thoughful and thorough suggestions. Really appreciate it, to be honest last 24 hours has been just overwhelmingly blissful with thankfulness. I was working on this for 3 month after layoff and this is first real traction I got on this website, so it means a lot.
Thank you for adding the spot, and I hope if more people start using the app, people will update prices naturally and also encourage restaurant owners to update by themselve as well.
I looked into API update method, but a lot of API pricing are based on delivery app prices.. which are higher than their regular menu price, so decided not to use them for now. Maybe there is another API we can utilize down the road?
Can you give us negative filters? Literally nothing but Mexican food listings in my area.
ok! multi select and negative filter will be added by end of this week!
I wish this had existed when I was a student. Please support non-US locations as well.
For sure! Coming soon!
Dropped a couple spots in my area. I like seeing the deals in the community section.
Thank you! We are trying to share best deals on there =)
> The map couldn't load. This usually means an ad blocker or privacy extension is blocking Google Maps... > Try disabling blockers for cheapfoodmap.com,
Try disabling your goofy expections that I'll spend a minute to learn if your page is worth it.
Wow Thank you, but I don't have any ads running on my page, that's really weird... Let me know if you see any issues!
No results in my particular metro area, but I love the idea!
Thank you, which metro area? We need to expand
Wow! I like it even if Im living in South Korea.
안녕하세요^^ 감사합니다^^
거지맵 meaning beggar is a generous translation of the word
There aren't that many interesting ways to translate 거지. I suppose you could use bum, vagrant, lowlife, but beggar is close enough.
Yes, we had 100 different name for this project, but nothing really stuck. cheapfoodmap is as close I can get =)
yes, beggar map, I thought about using beggarmap.com but didn't sound right in English. I plan to give that domain name back to Korean founder. (I sent him an email already offering free transfer)
Australia support, please! AUD15 limit?
O this is the tricky part, each region have different currency standards.. we need to really think this thorough
its supported!
Love this. Great idea.
It would be cool to drop a bounding box.
NOTED! thank you for pointing it out!
Great app. Not a great sign for global economy.
It's crazy how expensive things gotten last few years...
neat site. just added a spot for Savannah, GA. I submitted my email for a magic link, but nothing arrived (yet) fyi.
I see someone just posted a spot in GA! Thank you =)
Do you filter out snacks/appetizers?
I do for Dallas area, which is our launch city. I will add filter to remove all the appentizers and snacks, and only post proper "meals" adding guidance as well. This community gave me so many good advices!
For places like Fuel City in Dallas you may want to add an icon for "don't go alone after dark" ;)
LMAO same goes to Deep Elllum on the weekend after midnight
I love it, but I want EU support!
YES! Would love to expand internationally! If you visit, look for good lunch on the map =)
(US only)
Yes, I should have specified this sorry
It will end up like this:
- $9.99 (slob food that much cheaper if you bought it from any grocery store)
- $5.99 delivery
- $7.99 tip
- $2.99 service fee
- sales tax on all that
Total: ~$30.
I may be an outlier, but: It has been years since the last time I had food delivered.
It always seems better, cheaper, faster, and more definite to just go get it myself.
Man, this has been story for me lately, eating out.. so hopely greater group intelligence by crowdsourcing can find hidden gems that are actually good??
any plans on expanding it internationally?
I was excited to be the first pin in Berlin
now you can!
brb gotta add literally every pizza place in NYC
But seriously, this is great, and has already given me some new spots to try for lunch. Hopefully it takes off! I’d imagine it’ll be easiest to get a good engagement loop going in the big cities, so maybe worth focusing on them at the outset? ~80 places in NYC is a good start, but it’s the tip of the iceberg.
Edit: oh yeah I know we all love the web, but this would be nice as an app
Yes! I just have it as PWA icon, android is coming soon, Apple app will take bit longer to make.
Thank you so much for adding favorite spots!! Vote for your good spots if you see something you like =)
cool concept, seems like also a good way to avoid touristy places :)
how do you verify the prices btw? even yesterday I'd check a place that had their own website with menu and when I arrived there the prices were ~10-15% higher. noped out of there real quick.
I have used Google API / Yelp AP and filtered them rigorously.. Most of them I personally found and updated by researching. AND prices is always increasing.. like almost every month. That's the season we are living in, constant inflation T-T
So that is my biggest task, how to keep the prices fresh. So many good suggestions made from this forum which is super helpful =)
eat2live dot info
man, hope this was .com
One taco and one slice of pizza.
I mean, technically correct but...
yes, we need some standard for even comparison purposes.
See also, Too Good To Go, which has full meals at the end of the day and often comes under 10 dollars. I use this quite a lot as you basically get the same food, you just can't choose what you want, they just give you whatever, but it's supposed to be 3x worth the sticker price ie an 8 dollar TGTG meal must be worth 24 bucks retail.
o man, this is in San Francisco? I will add that to the spot =)
It's a service for restaurants not one itself, it allows restaurants to give away uneaten food at the end of the day so as to reduce food waste and make some marginal income.
That's really cool idea.. I wonder if they have something like that here in Texas
Yes they're nationwide in the US as well as other countries.
gotta give it a shot!
I tried to add Corti bros in Sacramento but it’s not considered a restaurant. It’s a grocery store with a sandwich shop and deli inside. 8.50 for a big sandwich.
https://orderonlinemenu.com/CortiBrothers
Yes, I will change logic so grocery stores are allowed. Some of the best deals seems to be at grocery shops