$7 at The Kitchen Soul Food

Photo by Robb Walsh

What $7 gets you: A bowl of chicken and homemade dumplings in a peppery gravy with a huge hunk of sweet cornbread on the side. The steam table also features melt-in-your-mouth oxtails, fork tender smothered pork chops, a falling-apart pepper steak, and Creole meatloaf, all served with two vegetables for $8 to $10. There's also chicken gumbo and ham hocks with butter beans.

Recommended? This place is a dump, but the cooking is stellar. The wise move is to get your food packed up to go and enjoy it at home.

Bonus points: The Kitchen Soul Food does lots of catering and its easy to see why. You can feed a big crowd some awesome home cooking for peanuts.