Lunch Specials in San Antonio

Bohanan's is a $90-steak room at dinner. At lunch, the downstairs bar is one of the only ways to eat that kitchen's food without the steakhouse check.

A King William classic that holds the line on cheap weekday plates while the neighborhood gentrifies around it. The Tejanas plate is one of the few sub-$6 sit-down lunches left downtown-adjacent.

More boulangerie than coffee shop. The pesto-side-salad croissant sandwich is a quieter lunch than the Pearl can give you, for less money.

Aldaco has run her kitchens since 1989 and treats the lunch menu as a real menu, not an afterthought. The crema chipotle on the grilled chicken is the giveaway.

A 1937 Tex-Mex institution running a rotating weekday plate menu. The chalupa plate on Tuesday is the local order; the green chicken enchiladas on Friday are the editorial pick. Plate format means the protein, the rice, and the beans show up together for around the price of a sandwich elsewhere.

A patio-and-fountains Mexican institution that built its reputation on weekend mornings, but the lunch menu is the everyday reason to come. Smaller portions, same kitchen.

Jason Dady's Italian room inside the Museum of Art is open for lunch when most of his peers aren't. Eat on the river-facing patio, then walk the SAMA galleries off the same ticket.

The combo is the move: $12.75 for two entrées plus the standard wonton-rice-tea sides is genuinely below the $15-18 you'd pay à la carte. A SA institution since 1983, which the daily-special rotation honors.