🍽️ Cheapest good food near Abids that is actually still worth the trip

Used to work near Abids for about two years before switching jobs, and during that stretch I built up a fairly reliable mental map of where to actually get a decent, cheap lunch within a short walking distance of the office without repeating the exact same place every single day of the week, which honestly gets tiring after enough months of doing it regardless of how good any one specific place genuinely is on its own. A small stall near one of the older buildings did an absolutely solid plate meal for what felt like an unreasonably low price even a couple of years ago, properly filling, the kind of meal that actually kept me full until evening rather than leaving me hungry again by four, though I have heard from a former colleague that prices there have gone up noticeably since I actually left that job, which is probably just inflation catching up eventually the way it does everywhere given enough time. There was also a slightly hidden spot down a side lane that most people walking past on the main road would genuinely never notice unless someone specifically pointed it out to them directly, serving a specific kind of biryani that was noticeably better than its extremely modest and unremarkable looking setup would ever suggest to anyone judging purely by outward appearance alone. What I appreciated most about that whole stretch generally was how little correlation there actually was between how fancy a place looked from the outside and how genuinely good the actual food turned out to be once you sat down and tried it yourself, some of the best meals I had during those two years came from places I would have easily walked straight past without a second glance if a colleague had not specifically taken me there themselves the first time. For anyone who still works or spends time regularly around that specific area now, are these older spots I remember still around and still worth it, or has the whole scene there changed significantly since I actually left?

Used to work fairly close to that exact same area a few years back myself and remember a similarly solid, cheap plate meal spot that kept me full until evening reliably. Would genuinely love an updated list of what is actually still around now, since apparently a lot changes there fairly quickly once one specific place either shuts down or the prices creep up too much for regulars.

That specific hidden biryani spot down a side lane sounds exactly like a place I used to know near a completely different market entirely, genuinely unremarkable from the outside but consistently better than places charging noticeably more for a supposedly nicer overall setup and presentation. The complete lack of correlation between how a place actually looks and how genuinely good the food turns out to be never stops surprising me.