Delicious: Sydney’s best places to eat on the cheap
Food trucks to sandwich shops, hole-in-the-wall take away joints to casual dine-in restaurants, these are Sydney’s best – and most affordable – cheap eats.
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Sydney might be filled with award-winning fine dining restaurants, but eating out in the Harbour City doesn’t have to decimate your bank account.
In fact, many of the city’s most beloved eateries offer entire meals for less than you’ll pay for a glass of wine in a top-tier institution.
From food trucks to sandwich shops, hole-in-the-wall take away joints to casual dine-in restaurants, these are Sydney’s best – and most affordable – cheap eats.
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Marrickville Pork Roll
Sydney’s banh mi obsession has seen many Vietnamese sandwich shops attract queues across the city, but none have whipped up the same fervour as this aptly-named temple of sandwichery in the Inner West.
The original Illawarra Road window has been replaced by (slightly) roomier digs next door, and an additional location in Darling Square will soon be joined by a third outpost in The Rocks, but nothing’s changed about the value on offer.
Expect crunchy on the outside, soft on the inside rolls stuffed with pork and veggies, and a selection of rice paper rolls, all for well under $10.
Harvey’s Hot Sandwiches
The word ‘sloppy’ might have negative connotations, but Harvey’s carries the label with pride.
Inspired by the Italian-American sandwich shops popular across the United States, $20 will get you change for your Philly cheesesteak, Nashville hot chicken roll, beef dip sandwich with dipping sauce or the signature hot pastrami and beef brisket sandwiches, both available in ‘simple’ or a sauced-up ‘sloppy’ variations.
— Parramatta; harveyshotsandwiches.com
Shwarmama
Stroll past this diminutive shopfront on a side street of Surry Hills, past the pillar of meat spinning in the window, and you’d be forgiven for thinking this is just another kebab joint.
A bite gives the game away, though; the top-notch meats, salads and pickles that spill generously from the light-as-air pita bread revealing the skill of the team involved.
But despite being founded by the clever guys behind Ester, Poly, Reuben Hills and the Paramount Coffee Project, even the most expensive of the pitas, wraps, plates or bowls
come in at under $20.
— Surry Hills
Pastizzi Cafe
The world is divided into two types of people: pastizzi fans and people who haven’t tried a pastizzi yet.
Pastizzi cafe on Newtown’s buzzing King Street services both types of people, with an expansive selection of the golden, crispy Maltese pastries stuffed with all manner of delicious fillings.
Go for the traditional ricotta and spinach, a sweet berry and custard or the beef and ale, all for under $5 per pastry. Love your pasta stuffed too? Pastizzi Cafe’s hand made ravioli is a Sydney institution, and just as much of steal at under $20 a bowl.
Cairo Takeaway
If you see a crowd gathered around the front of this Enmore Road favourite, there’s a good chance the team in the street-facing kitchen have just dropped a batch of fresh falafels into the giant pan of simmering oil.
Cairo Takeaway is famed for its vibrant, fresh, and affordable fare, with a selection of falafel, pickles, grilled meats, roast veggie salads, dips, and a host of other Egyptian street foods big enough for two coming in at well under $50.
Frangos
The fact that you can walk away from Frangos with two whole Portuguese chilli and garlic marinated chickens, a mountain of chips, salad, house-made flatbread and that (rightly) famous chilli sauce, all for under 50 bucks, explains the perpetual but fast-moving queue outside each of their beloved eastern suburb outposts.
Fans are just as passionate about the chicken burgers, starring a succulent grilled chicken breast and dripping with delicious chilli mayo.
Chinese Noodle House
Though there’s no shortage of affordable eateries in and around Chinatown, it’s Chinese Noodle House that folks flock to on any given evening to down plates of steaming pork, beef
and veggie-stuffed boiled dumplings and bowls of Xinjiang-style hand-pulled noodles.
Nothing from the extensive menu will break the bank, but those beloved dumplings and noods will fill you up for under $16 a plate. Bring your own bevvies and make the whole outing even more wallet-friendly.
– Chinatown
Buon Appetit Food Truck
So proud was the Vitagliani family of the Italian food being whipped up in their kitchen, that they’ve taken to the streets to spread both the love and the pasta.
Stationed in Sydney’s western suburbs and dispensing a made-daily pasta selection, obsession-worthy fried and stuffed breads known as ‘pizza fritta’, a raft of sweet treats, and a rotating fixture of other creamy, carby Napoletana street food, nothing on the Buon Appetit Food Truck’s menu will set you back less than $20. A wheelie good deal, if you ask us…
Hot Star
Spruiked as a ‘ridiculously oversized’ slab of fried chicken, it’s hard to believe quite how much value you’re getting for your $9 until it ends up in your hot little hands.
Crunchy outside, juicy inside and dusted in an irresistible seasoning mix of varying spice levels, this Taiwanese export with locations across Sydney is as delicious as it is gigantic, and – at cost per inch at least – is one of the city’s cheapest indulgences.
— Multiple locations
Fabbrica
Offering pasta, sauce and cheese by the gram, Fabbrica (Italian for ‘factory’) let’s you build the dinner of your dreams, prepared quickly in your own kitchen. Mix and match pork and fennel sausage ragu, cacio e pepe sauce and eggplant ragu with linguine, rigatoni and campenelle, or buy a ready-to-cook pack with everything you need for around 10 bucks a plate. Visit the Fabbrica store and cafe in the CBD for coffee, sandwiches, pasta (of course) and half price negronis during happy hour.
Slim’s Quality Burger
Modelled on cult West Coast USA burger chain In-n-Out, Slim’s made-to-order burgers might be loaded with juicy Aussie beef, cheese, pickles, tomato, lettuce, bacon and Slim’s signature burger sauce, but at $9.50 for the works, they’re cheap as chips too.
Speaking of chips, they’re hand-cut with an optional slathering of bacon, cheese and grilled onions, rounded off into a meal with a cream-topped thick shake or a towering hot fudge sundae.
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