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Lafayette Coney Island
Coney Dogs — no owner-published prices
Detroit's downtown coney institution since 1924, elbow-to-elbow with its American Coney rival. Here's the honest part: Lafayette has no website of its own — the “Lafayette Coney Island” sites you'll find in search are lookalike pages, not the restaurant — so there's no owner menu to price. Third-party menus put a chili-cheese-onion coney around $4, which would feed two under $20 with fries to spare, and the old cash-only rule has reportedly loosened to take cards. Bring cash anyway, or call (313) 964-8198.
📍 118 W Lafayette Blvd, downtown · ⏳ Open late — no owner site; call ahead
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Green Dot Stables
Six Sliders — $18.58
A Corktown slider bar where the owner menu prices every slider between $2.95 and $5.95 — classic cheeseburger to Korean to PB&J. Six sliders split two ways came to $18.58 on our August 2026 read of the board; the only trap is stacking the $5.95 Double Cheeseburger, the one outlier that breaks the math.
📍 2200 W Lafayette Blvd, Corktown · ⏳ Daily
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Supino Pizzeria
Happy-Hour Slices $3 · 12″ Cheese Pie $15
Eastern Market's thin-crust darling. Per its own 2026 menus, happy hour makes any slice on the board $3, Tue–Fri 2–5pm — four slices between two people is a $12 lunch — and a 12-inch cheese pie to split is $15 any time. Regular slice prices sit behind its ordering system, so the happy-hour window and the whole pie are the verified plays.
📍 2457 Russell St, Eastern Market · ⏳ Closed Mon · $3 slices Tue–Fri 2–5p
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New Yasmeen Bakery
Shawarma & Bakery Counter — call for prices
A Dearborn Lebanese bakery-restaurant since 1986 — shawarma, manakish, fatayer, and pita baked on site. We can't verify a number right now: its own website is dead (a parked server page) and its ordering system blocks price checks. Third-party menus put a chicken shawarma sandwich near $7.50, which is Warren Ave-typical, but call (313) 582-6035 before you count on it.
📍 13900 W Warren Ave, Dearborn · ⏳ Daily — call to confirm
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Polish Village Café
Polish Plate — $15.95 (shared, light)
A below-street Hamtramck institution. The owner menu prices the Polish Plate — a stuffed cabbage, one pierogi, kielbasa with kraut, mashed potatoes, and soup or salad — at $15.95, a dollar less than we had it. Shared, it's a real Polish dinner for two, but thinner than “feeds two” suggests: one cabbage roll, one pierogi. Adding even a half-order of pierogi lands the check at $22.95, past the line. Five pierogi à la carte are $11.50.
📍 2990 Yemans St, Hamtramck · ⏳ Lunch & dinner — call ahead
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Mexican Village
Six À La Carte Items — $19.50
Detroit's oldest Mexican restaurant, on Bagley since 1957. Per its own menu, à la carte tacos, enchiladas, tostadas, flautas, burritos, and tamales are $3.25 each — three apiece for two people is $19.50, just under the line. The combination platters run $13–15 a person, so à la carte is the play.
📍 2600 Bagley St, Mexicantown · ⏳ Daily 11a–9p
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Pie-Sci Pizza
BYO Pies — from $9 round / $11.50 square
A Woodbridge pizzeria on Trumbull — not Corktown, as we used to say — doing bold rotating pies with deep vegan and gluten-free benches. Its own menu starts a build-your-own at $9 for a round or $11.50 for a Detroit-style square, toppings $1–3.50 — a small square with two toppings splits two ways for about $14.50.
📍 5163 Trumbull Ave, Woodbridge · ⏳ Sun–Thu 11a–9p, Fri–Sat 11a–10p
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Taqueria Lupita's
Taco Plates — call for prices
A Mexicantown classic on Bagley. Its own online menu currently renders every price as $0.00 and its ordering page blocks checks, so we have no owner number to print — third-party menus put a taco lunch plate around $8, taqueria math that rarely hurts. Its cash-only reputation may be dated too (the site promotes delivery apps); bring cash to be safe or call (313) 843-1105.
📍 3443 Bagley St, Mexicantown · ⏳ Daily 10a–9p
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Taqueria El Rey
Tacos — menu “updating”; call first
A Mexicantown taqueria across Bagley from Lupita's, known for grilled-to-order meats. Its own menu page currently says “we are updating our menu — stay tuned,” so the fish-taco and Taco Tuesday prices we used to print are unsupported for now. Listings also show it closed Wednesdays, so call (313) 357-3094 before the trip. Don't confuse it with the same-name El Rey taco truck over on Vernor.
📍 3400 Bagley St, Mexicantown · ⏳ Likely closed Wed — call
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Taqueria Mi Pueblo
Al Pastor Tacos — call for current prices
A Southwest Detroit favorite on Dix for trompo-carved al pastor. Our old $3.75-a-taco figure isn't published anywhere the owner controls, so treat it as a ballpark and call (313) 841-3315. What the owner site does publish is hours — and it's closed Mondays, despite what half the listings (and our old card) said.
📍 7278 Dix Ave, Southwest · ⏳ Tue–Sat 10:30a–10p, Sun 10a–10p · closed Mon
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La Jalisciense
Birria — call for prices
A Southwest supermercado-taqueria on Vernor built around birria with consommé for dipping. We can't print a number: the restaurant's own site won't load and its ordering system blocks checks — and the similarly spelled lajaliscience.com that turns up in search belongs to a restaurant in Defiance, Ohio, not this one. Call (313) 551-0522 for today's birria prices.
📍 3923 W Vernor Hwy, Southwest · ⏳ Call ahead
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Al-Ameer
Two Chicken Shawarma Sandwiches — $17.00
The James Beard America's Classic of Dearborn's shawarma corridor. Its own 2026 menu prices the chicken shawarma sandwich at $8.50 — two for $17.00 — or step up to shawarma on saj at $9.99 and still clear the line as a pair.
📍 12710 W Warren Ave, Dearborn · ⏳ Daily 10a–10p
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Hamido
Two Chicken Shawarma Sandwiches — $16.00
Dearborn's beloved Lebanese grill, and now the cheapest verified shawarma on this page: the owner menu prices the chicken shawarma sandwich at $8.00 flat, so two are $16.00 with room left for extra garlic paste. Note the hours — 11 to 9 daily, a shorter day than we used to print.
📍 13251 W Warren Ave, Dearborn · ⏳ Daily 11a–9p
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Niki's Pizza
Wednesday: All Large Pizzas ½ Off
A Greektown pizzeria since 1980. The deal its own site confirms is Wednesday — every large pizza half off, which should land a large for two comfortably under $20, though base prices aren't posted, so confirm when you order. It also lists $10 gyro, salad, and wrap specials, but two of those ring $20.00 flat — at our line, not under it. The “$7.95 slice special” floating around the internet lives only on lookalike sites, so we dropped it.
📍 735 Beaubien St, Greektown · ⏳ To 10p Sun–Tue · late Wed–Sat
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Pho Lucky
Two Bánh Mì — $13.90 (ask if available)
A Midtown Vietnamese standby on Woodward. Its own Detroit menu prices bánh mì at $6.95 — two for $13.90 — but flags the sandwich “ask if available,” so have a backup plan. A regular pho is $15.50, which means a bowl each breaks the line; the sandwiches are the budget play. Hours aren't published anywhere the owner controls — the “closed Tuesdays” we used to print included — so call (313) 338-3895.
📍 3111 Woodward Ave, Midtown · ⏳ Hours not posted — call
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Amar Pizza
Square Deep-Dish — from $9.99
A Hamtramck Bangladeshi-American pizzeria doing halal Detroit-style squares with a serious hot-pepper streak. Its own ordering storefront starts a basic square deep dish at $9.99 and a round cheese at $8.99 — better than the $14.99 we had — and even the Tandoori Chicken, Ghost Pepper, and Naga specialty squares at $16.99 split two ways under $20.
📍 12195 Joseph Campau Ave, Hamtramck · ⏳ Daily to ~10p — call to confirm
Bigger than one storefront, smaller than the home-page national list — regional chains with real Detroit addresses.
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White Castle
Sliders À La Carte · Breakfast Combos — prices vary by castle
The 1921-born slider empire keeps castles all over Detroit — the Corktown store at 1930 Michigan Ave is confirmed on the chain's own locator. Our 2026 cart read at the chain's Las Vegas castle sets the pattern, not the local price: Original Sliders $1.39 à la carte (ten built one by one is $13.90), the Breakfast Bun combo $7.97 — two breakfasts for $15.94 — and the Crispy Chicken Combo $9.56, two for $19.12, while beef combos run past the line. Prices shift castle to castle, so run the same math on your store's menu in the app before you order.
📍 Detroit, MI — incl. 1930 Michigan Ave, Corktown · ⏳ Many open late — check your castle
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Jet's Pizza
$5 Off Any Specialty Pizza Online — prices vary by store
This is the hometown pizza — Jet's was born in Sterling Heights in 1978, and the chain's own store pages confirm exactly three stores in Detroit proper (E Jefferson Ave, Anthony Wayne Dr, E 7 Mile) plus Hamtramck on Joseph Campau. The play is the $5 Off Any Specialty Pizzas deal built into its online ordering menu: on our August 2026 read at the chain's Denver store, a $22.87 medium All Meaty rang up $17.87 with the deal applied — and a medium is eight big slices, plenty for two. It's a deals-menu item so it can rotate, and don't bank on the texting fallback here: the E Jefferson flagship's own page says it isn't set up for text ordering yet. Prices vary by store, so run the math at yours before checkout.
📍 3 Detroit stores + Hamtramck · ⏳ Online ordering deal · limited time
These chain deals work anywhere in the country, including Detroit.
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Buffalo Wild Wings
Pick 6 Meal for Two — from $19.99, dine-in
The Pick 6 builds a shared meal for two — two entrées, two sides, and two drinks (not six wings-and-sides picks, as we once wrote) — from $19.99 per the chain's own announcement. Drinks included makes it a better deal than it sounds. The fine print matters: it's a rotating promo at participating locations, dine-in is the format, the base price is one cent under our cap, and any upgrade clears $20 — so ask before you sit down.
📍 Nationwide — metro Detroit stores · ⏳ Rotating promo · dine-in
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Applebee's
Two $9.99 Really Big Meal Deals — $19.98
Each $9.99 Really Big Meal Deal pairs an entrée — Classic Bacon Cheeseburger, Big Cluckin' Chicken Sandwich, or Big Bangin' Burger — with endless fries and a fountain drink. Two ring $19.98, two cents under the line, dine-in. The chain's own locator confirms the downtown store inside the Millender Center at 333 E Jefferson Ave, plus a second on 8 Mile Rd.
📍 333 E Jefferson Ave (Millender Center), downtown · ⏳ Limited time · dine-in