Good, Pleasant and Cheap; Places to Eat When You're a Student

Hi!

As the good Erasmus student that I am, I am always looking for places to eat that are cheap but fill me up with good food. So I am going to tell you about five places that you can go to for £10 or less and conquer Edinburgh.

#5 Shamoli: Indian Buffet

If you like this type of exotic and spicy flavours, you should go to Shamoli. It is at 105 High Street, which is on the Royal Mile, and for £9. 95 you can fill your boots with a delicious buffet; from freshly made naan bread to tikka massala or green curry. The restaurant is elegant, big, clean and fresh. It also has views of the Royal Mile. Another great thing about this restaurant is the opening hours; it opens over lunch from 12pm-4pm (and believe me, those opening hours are much appreciated).

#4 Burrito n' Shake: Mexican Food

As a lover of cream tacos and guacamole, this is a restaurant that I like to go to for its quick service, reasonable price and amount of ingredients used in the dishes. A chicken burrito full of ingredients of your choice (there is a display where you can choose the chilli ingredients, meat and my precious guacamole) for around £7. It's not bad at all! I also recommend the nachos for around £4-5 which will fill you up Mexican-style. The restaurant isn't very fancy but it is by South Bridge near the university so get yourself there and try an amazing burrito (as well as other things). And if that's not enough, it stays open until 3 am, perfect for refuelling after a night of dancing!

#3 Burger: A good, pleasant and cheap restaurant!

Perhaps it's not the most well-decorated, but it's cheap and definitely tasty. This bargain restaurant, "Burger", is at the heart of the student area by the University of Edinburgh. Take out the coins that you have in your pocket and if you have four gold coins, bingo! You have a burger! For only £4 between Monday and Friday (and £5 at the weekend) you can buy any hamburger on the menu. I recommend the Cheese & Bacon burger, or the Haggis burger if you are daring enough to try it. The restaurant is simple with a young atmosphere, it has views of the Old College and the burgers are really good. I also recommend trying the fries with poutine which is basically fries with gravy and cheese. It's amazing!

#2 Standing Order: you will fall in love.

This is the restaurant that I would take my parents, cousins and friends to if I wanted to take them out for dinner at a really nice place. Don't worry, you won't have to ask for another grant from the university. For £6. 75 per person you can have a really nice meal. The hamburgers (I'm a big meat-eater) are exquisite and there are more than 10 different ones, all served with chips, sauce and onion rings, and if that wasn't enough, it also includes a drink. Yes, you read that right! Another reason you'll ask yourself "why have I not been here before? " is because the site it is built on used to be a bank, so the main dining room emulates a big English bank, and the smaller rooms (which I ate in) resemble libraries; all the rooms are fabulous. The SuFish and Chipses dishes are delicious and are served with pea purée.

#1 Oink: for you I came and for you I'll stay.

I hope you find this useful and above all you visit the restaurants. They're a good price for students like me. And if this doesn't convince you, you can always go to the Welcome Week on 12th September which is organised by the uni where you can get free Domino's pizza.

Carpe Diem, Cynthia.