Urban Thai (Arlington, VA)

Sure, you can have a Thai meal for the same price as fast food. At Urban Thai, for $5.95 you can take advantage of Big Bowl lunch specials that include popular dishes such as Tom Yum Noodle Soup, Wild Chicken and Ginger Beef Broccoli (served on rice), with a complementary Veggie Spring Roll. If your favorite Thai dish is not on the Big Bowl menu, ask for the regular menu – you’ll find a lot of other entrees priced at $6.95 for lunch. Are you a vegetarian? Urban Thai also has eight-item vegetarian lunch menu with a price range of $5.95 to $6.95.

Tony Lin’s (Rockville, MD)

You can find at least one Chinese restaurant in virtually every strip mall and shopping center in the Washington area. But Tony Lin’s in Rockville (Maryland’s new Chinatown) manages to stand apart from the rest. Their regular menu is authentic as it gets – Kidney in Garlic Sauce, Preserved Turnip in Egg, Beef Stew & Beef Tendon in Hot Pot, and Pork Intestine with Sour Cabbage, with many more. Lunch specials are featured on an extensive, and more mainstream, menu featuring: Kung Pao Chicken - $5.75, Shrimp in Lobster Sauce - $7.95, Sweet and Sour Port - $5.75. All are all served with an egg roll and rice. As you may imagine, there are lots more lunch choices, most priced between $5.50 and $6.95. Everything is MSG free.