Hope & Anchor
347 Van Brunt Street, Red Hook, Brooklyn
(718-237-0276)
Red Hook is a culinary backwater ripe for gentrification -- especially with the prospect of a Fairway satellite on the waterfront, a French brasserie under construction nearby, and the recent opening of this friendly diner, a beacon in the Brooklyn wilderness. Stop in for all-day breakfast, a BLT ($5), or inventive, gently priced dinner entrées ($9–$12) like cauliflower ravioli with raisins and capers. Anything deep-fried is (predictably) delicious, even if the clam cakes have a batter-to-crustacean ratio of about ten to one. Plus a decent wine list, service without attitude, and a superb ice-cream sandwich.

Indian Taj
37-25 74th Street, Jackson Heights
(718-651-4187)
The heated competition of Jackson Heights's bustling Indian enclave makes it a compulsory bargain-buffet destination. A couple doors down from the bigger, better-known Jackson Diner, this plucky David undercuts the ballyhooed Goliath by a buck, charging $6.95 (weekday lunch) for its all-you-can-eat feast of golden-battered vegetable pakora, mixed grill, savory goat curry, a surpassingly rich chicken mekhani (the house specialty), and a lineup of vegetables that have been cooked into fragrant, spicy submission. Remember: No doggie bags and no sharing.

Inside
9 Jones Street
(212-229-9999)
The trick to dining at Anne Rosenzweig's comfortable, cut-rate sequel to boom-year bistros Arcadia and Lobster Club is to avoid filling up on delectably lethal bar snacks like deep-fried bacon-wrapped dates, fried oysters, and a mustardy grilled cheddar-and-ramp sandwich. That way, you can savor chef–co-owner Charleen Badman's seasonally inspired salads, homemade pastas, and charismatic comfort food, like roast chicken over a pungent field of spaetzle and "lilies" (a lyrical and botanically correct name for onions, garlic, and shallots) for $16.

The Jerk Center
1296 East Gunhill Road, the Bronx
(718-547-1970)
Here's a "Cheap Eats" dining tip: Make sure you have the correct number before calling to ask directions to any eating establishment that happens to have the word jerk in its title. In particular, the question "Is this the Jerk Center?," we've learned, does not go over well with anyone who doesn't actually prepare or serve Jamaican barbecue for a living. No matter the difficulty of getting there, the Jerk Center, a shabby space located at the back of a defunct Bronx cell-phone-and-beeper store, is worth the effort. The joint's tenaciously spiced, minimally sauced jerk chicken (in $4, $6, and $8 portions, with cabbage, salad, and rice and peas) may be the deepest, smokiest, charcoaliest barbecued bird in the five boroughs. Danny Meyer should send a spy.

Joe and Pat's Pizzeria
1758 Victory Boulevard, near Manor Road, Staten Island
(718-981-0887)
At the risk of enraging the Staten Island pizza mob, those who crave a true thin crust, a mildly sweet crushed-tomato sauce, and a delicate dose of mozzarella might consider bypassing the hallowed grounds of Denino's for this nondescript, unatmospheric pizzeria done up in pre-fab Greek-diner décor and staffed by what must be half the local sophomore class of idly gossiping high-school girls. But when one of them can be troubled to take your order and deliver your fourteen-inch medium pie ($9.75), the environs melt away like artful dabs of cheese into a winningly thin crust.

The Kati Roll Company
99 Macdougal Street
(212-420-6517)
Somewhere between Lebanese-style shawarma and wrap sandwiches, the rolls at this Greenwich Village single-item specialist make superb (and, at $2–$5 a pop, cheap) street food. Kati means "skewer," which is how most of the flavorful marinated fillings (chicken or beef tikka, paneer-cheese cubes-and-peppers) are cooked before being rolled up in a wok-griddled paratha. Protein-packing unda rolls have a layer of egg cooked onto the paratha, and aloo masala is the spiced potato mixture familiar to fans of dosas, those fermented-rice-flour crêpes that had heretofore cornered the Indian fast-food market.

La Fonda Boricua
169 East 106th Street
(212-410-7292)
Even if you had a Puerto Rican grandmother, you'd be lucky if she could whip up food as hearty and soul-soothing as these sand-castle-size heaps of garlicky mofongo, densely packed with plantain and fried pork ($6.50); nicely seasoned stews with fork-tender meat ($5–$7); heaping helpings of perfect rice and beans (white, red, pink, or chickpeas); crispy, golden-brown fried pork chops ($7); and maduros sweet enough to give you cavities. And if you know La Fonda only from the days when a sign with the names of the previous owners, gina y george, defiantly hung outside, you'll be amazed at the transformation. Not only have the owners annexed the store next door and renovated both spaces into a comfortable two-room restaurant decorated with vibrant Puerto Rican art, but they've finally changed the sign. Happily, the ebullient El Barrio–community– center vibe and the Latin-love-song soundtrack haven't changed a bit.

Lil' Frankie's Pizza
19 First Avenue
(212-420-4900)
The irresistible offspring of Frank is distinguished by its custom-built brick oven, a tool used to sublime effect on everything from torpedo-size eggplants ($3.95) and lasagne alla Bolognese ($10.95) to whole fish and terrific thin-crust pizza ($5.95–$12.95). The dense, earthy fava-bean soup teeters deliciously on the edge of oversaltiness, but cut it with a juice glass of Montepulciano, or get your vegetables the traditional way -- in the unfailingly fresh Lil' Frankie's salad, a mound of zestily dressed arugula surrounded by neat piles of chopped vegetables and, to gild the Lil', cubes of Fontina cheese ($8.70).

Locanda Vini & Olii
129 Gates Avenue, at Cambridge Place, Clinton Hill, Brooklyn
(718-622-9202)
Despite the sign outside reading lewis drug store, the burnished-wood apothecary drawers, and the rolling ladders, the only prescription this onetime pharmacy fills now is for satisfying, sometimes unfamiliar Italian food in an artfully preserved setting. Nibble on herb-seasoned olives and cheese, share a platter of cured-meat or seafood charcuterie ($10.95 and $12), dip saltless Tuscan-style bread into romaine-lettuce pesto, and sample the pasta tasting of the day ($8.75). The monthly wine-tasting dinners and the relaxing, highly civilized jazz brunch are worth a special trip.

Long Island City Cafe
5-48 49th Avenue, Long Island City
(718-361-2004)
This friendly, spare café is mostly a lunchtime operation, but on Wednesday, Thursday, and Friday nights, the lights are dimmed, candles are lit, and an American comfort-food dinner menu kicks in, with Tony Bennett on the stereo and entrées like roast halibut and filet mignon bordelaise running from $11 to $17. The fresh-mozzarella salad is distinguished by pre-season cherry tomatoes with decent flavor, and the garlicky stuffed artichoke would pass muster in any of the venerable Italian kitchens nearby.