Chronicle To Tight-Wads: Read It And Weep, Then Eat, Cheaply

The Chronicle sends mixed messages this week, with Anatomy of a Cheapskate -- an exploration of how tight-asses let their friends down and stigmatize themselves -- right next door to their annual Bargain Bites section, listing all their favorite, cheapest places to eat in the Bay Area.

The message to cheapskates: Read it and weep, then eat, cheaply. Your tears are the perfect salt substitute, and they don't cost a thing! But cheapskates may pay the price in the end, the article warns. After all, there's a social cost to being a cheap bastard -- namely, being called a cheap bastard by your friends, in a newspaper -- but there's also the arguably worse price of intestinal apocalypse. So don't forget the Tums. And now, without further ado ...

In addition to 60 new restaurants in this year's Bargain Bites, the Chronicle also jacked up the maximum cost of a dinner entree from $10 to $12 -- not exactly cheap eats in our book. But what can you do? Inflation's a bitch.

We do have to disagree with some of their selections, including La Taqueria in the Mission, which is definitely on the pricey end for taquerias. Same goes for Burgermeister, where we found the burgers to be dry, the service apathetic and the price, well, just not low enough to be called "bargain."

But the Chronicle did spotlight some of our personal favorites on the cheap-o-meter. Yamo, in the Mission, is a great bargain, with no dish more than $5.25 -- we recommend the Yamo Cold Noodles. Another one of our favorite deals in the city, Saigon Sandwiches, also made the price cut this year. $2.50, baby. Can't beat that.

Yamo pic by Kristin on Flickr

-- Brian Bernbaum