Five Cheap Restaurants on South Beach

​South Beach dining can be nauseating before you even pick a restaurant, if you don't know how to navigate it properly. Restaurants hire hot girls to wave menus in your face and yell lunch specials at you while their cleavage falls out of their shirts. Everything seems to cost twice what it should, and more often than not that quality is right up there with Burger King.

But there are restaurants south of 23rd street that offer delicious food that won't empty your pockets.

​5. Pizza Rustica
Pizza is always cheap, but that also means it's usually boring. At Pizza Rustica, though, you'll never run out of weird and tasty topping combos to try. From barbeque shrimp paired with juicy pieces of pineapple, to roasted eggplant and creamy goat cheese, to mouth watering Nutella-and-strawberry dessert pizza, it's hard not to try a different kind each time you visit.

Pizza Rustica's "slices" are more like quarter pies. They actually serve them to you stretched across two plates so that they will fit. And best of all, these gargantuan pieces won't run you more than $4.95 (and $3 if you get just plain Margherita). And in case you're not feeling so adventurous, they also have salads and paninis for $6.95.

​4. Puerto Sagua
Stowed away among the tourist trap of restaurants that is South Beach, the all-wood decor of Puerto Sagua feels more like South Miami than South Beach. The restaurant serves up real, tastes-like-home Cuban food for a bill a fraction of what you'll spend at any other restaurant in spitting distance. (Granted, there are no Russian strippers here, so if that's you're thing you'll have to look elsewhere).

The juicy pernil asado (roasted pork shoulder) con moro y yuca is $12.95, while the ropa vieja con arroz y platanos (shredded beef with rice and plantains) is $10.95. The seafood dishes naturally cost more, but at $24.95 for a whole fried snapper with rice and beans, you're still getting off easy.