Where to Eat for Cheap at Hudson Yards

Hudson Yards, NYC’s newest neighborhood, is a high-rent district, filled with fancy designer boutiques and restaurants. But you can find cheap eats here, too, if you know where to go.

We do, and we are sharing.

Here is where to eat for cheap in Hudson Yards without taking out a second mortgage.

Everything on this list is $16 or less, and some are as little as just $3, including offerings from celebrity chef and humanitarian Jose Andres.

Some require searching, since they are tucked away in hallways and areas away from the high-priced eats.

The motto of NYCOTC is get more New York City for less money.

These inexpensive eats at Hudson Yards help you do just that.

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Belcampo

Skip the promoted $16 lamb burger at the counter-service area. Instead, grab the $11 flame-grilled, nitrate-free kielbasa, with a garlicky, peppery bite along with a nice snap when you bite into it.

It’s served in a bun with toppings include mild sauerkraut and red piquillo peppers. A side of fries will set you back another $4.

There’s only minimal seating in the restaurant area, so you’ll have to find a place to eat in the hallway.

Ham-scented beans at Peach Mart

Peach Mart

Very likely this is the best meal deal or snack at Hudson Yards, depending on your appetite, this ham-scented bowl of beans is just $3.

It’s probably too heavy for a hot summer day, but sure to be a headliner hit come the cold winter months, when you can get something to stick to your ribs for just $3.

NYC on the Cheap just loves $3 cheap eats.

The beans are heavenly, slicked with chicken fat and scented with tasso ham, and you can also get them at Fuku (see below), but for 50 cents more.

There’s plenty of comfortable seating clustered around the escalators, as a reward for trekking this far into the hinterlands of the mall.

Mercado Little Spain

This sprawling 35,000 square foot Euro-style outpost is from celebrity chef and humanitarian Jose Andres, who fed hundreds of thousands of hurricane victims in Puerto Rico and elsewhere with his World Central Kitchen project.

This Spanish-style pie is loaded with potatoes and onions, more like a French quiche than the tortillas most New Yorkers know as tortillas.

At the counter called Tortilla de Patatas, warm tortillas are sliced into quarters and served with a piece of bread, for just $5. They’re creamy, eggy, and taste powerfully of onions, making a fortifying snack.

Two portions are enough for a full meal, which means a $10 entree. That’s a good meal deal anywhere.

See additional suggestions in this review of Mercado Little Spain in the NYTimes

Rainbow cake and cheesecake at William Greenberg Desserts

William Greenberg Desserts

William Greenberg Desserts is one of New York City’s best known and favorite pastry and dessert shops, serving tasty sweets since 1940.

It specializes in such quintisential NYC treats as black-and-white cookies, along with fruit tarts, and the European-style cinnamon buns called schnecken.

Their cream cheese cheesecake is another a NYC treat, spectacularly good, although a bit pricey at $6.50. Ditto a slab of rainbow cake, at $8.

Spanish Diner

Callos con garbanzos, morcilla, y chorizo at Spanish Diner ($16):

This classic stew of old Madrid features lots of tripe, lots of chickpeas, and smaller amounts of chorizo and blood sausage. Make sure you ask for plenty of bread to go along with it, to soak up the sauce.

Spanish Diner in Mercado Little Spain is probably the best place so far in Hudson Yards to get a good meal in the $20 to $40 range.

Since the entrance is outside of the complex, it also means you don’t have to go up multiple escalators in different locations. That’s an added bonus.

Bouchon Bakery’s roasted chicken sandwichBouchon Bakery is the budget branch of a great American restaurant empire. Think of it as a downscale Per Se or TAK Room, and the pastries and sandwiches keep pace.This $10.95 roasted chicken sandwich comes on an unusual Dutch crunch roll, made of rice flour and therefore **gluten free**.
The chicken is moist, and paved with goat cheese and an artichoke aioli.Ask for them to warm it up for you, since it tastes so much better when not ice cold.

Mercado Little Spain

This cold Andalusian soup is one of three gazpacho style choices presented on ice at Mercado Little Spain’s Frutas & Verduras counter, which also offers a selection of raw fruits and vegetables for retail purchase.

The soup is cold and creamy, and the counter attendant garnishes it with olive oil, sea salt, and chopped aromatics before tossing on two small breadsticks, which float on the surface of a tomato-colored lake.

It’s enough for lunch if you are a light eater, and most certainly as a snack. Or, turn it into an appetizer for another cheap selection at Hudson Yards, such as the egg tortilla at Mercado Little Spain mentioned above.

Cheap coffee, snacks and sweets at Hudson Yards

Pour-over at Blue Bottle ($4):

Of nearly a dozen places to get a quick cup of coffee in Hudson Yards, Blue Bottle should be your choice. It’s situated near the main entrance to the complex at the top of the escalator, and occupies a corner where tables and chairs flank big, sunny windows. You can sit there and dream you’re not in Hudson Yards. Via San Francisco-based Blue Bottle Coffee Company, the joe will satisfy nearly any connoisseur.

Chocolate pretzel at Lilac Chocolates (85 cents each): Though both milk chocolate and dark chocolate are available, my personal preference is for dark. But either of these crunchy, salty treats are richly satisfying, and you don’t have to eat more than two or three to feel pleasantly full.

Chocolate pretzel at Lilac Chocolates (85 cents each):

Though both milk chocolate and dark chocolate are available, my personal preference is for dark. But either of these crunchy, salty treats are richly satisfying, and you don’t have to eat more than two or three to feel pleasantly full.

Corn dog bites at Peach Mart ($4):

Corn dogs are a Midwest thing. These bites are a New York Thing. The hot dog bites at Peach Mart are orbs the size of shooter marbles that get coated with a cornmeal breading and then deep-fried, making them like the cute offspring of a corn dog family.

Huevos rotos con chistorra at Spanish Diner ($17):

The Spanish Diner lists several breakfast menu choices, the best of which may be this one, two long and piquant sausages, with craggy and delicious french fries and two gloriously runny fried eggs.

Six churros at Mercado Little Spain ($5):

The warm, crisp, sugar-dusted churros, hot out of the fat, are a real treat at the orange truck parked near the entrance to the food court. And a half dozen are about as many as you’d want to eat. Alas, chocolate is $4 extra, and probably worth it.

Thanks to Eater NY for taste-testing and compiling this list, which NYC on the Cheap Publisher/Editor Evelyn Kanter adapted with additional research and personal experience for this article.

Photos courtesy of Eater NY.