Gold Coast cheap eats: 14 of the best cheap eats and meal deals

Got spare change? You’ve got dinner. We reveal 14 restaurants where you can save your cash and eat out, too.

GOT spare change? You’ve got dinner. Amber Macpherson reveals 13 restaurants where you can save your cash and eat out, too.

$1 gyoza

Oi Izakata, 4/30 James St, Burleigh Heads

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Gyoza for $1 a pop on Tuesdays is a much better deal for diners at Oi Izakaya than it is for the chefs out the back. Manager Stephen Thompson says hundreds of dumplings are handmade and cooked to order every Tuesday night. “We sell between 400 and 500,” Stephen says. “We thought about cooking them and having them ready to go like McDonalds, but it’s not what we want to be. We want to bring quality and intimacy.” Stephen says the early week deal has become the restaurant’s most profitable evening, so those looking to indulge need to book a table. The only catch is that you must order one drink per person (which needn’t be alcoholic) and it’s limited to 20 gyoza per table at once — but you’re free to reorder once you polish those off. Oi also offers a sashimi and jug of sake or sangria for two for $50 on Wednesday night, and $5 temaki (a kind of taco sushi) on Thursday nights.

Daily happy hour

Bine Beer and Dining, 1/28 Chairlift Ave, Mermaid Beach

Bine Beer and bar owner Scott Imlach. Picture: Jerad Williams

Deals come and go but you can count on this popular Nobby Beach bar for a daily bargain. Bine Bar and Dining owner Scott Imlach says the happy hour special has stood the test of time and isn’t going anywhere. “Bine itself has stuck with the same formula for six years — a solid happy hour of 50c wings and $5 beers between 4 to 6pm every day, and it just works,” he said. You read correctly: cheap beer and wings every day for a whole two hours. Bine Beer also hosts a legendary Sunday session with a burger and beer deal for $15.

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$1 oysters

Burgster, 4 Philippine Pde, Palm Beach

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It’s deals galore at Burgster in Palm Beach, with food and drink going cheap five days of the week. If you’ve got a champagne taste on a shoestring budget, this is where you can enjoy sophisticated seafood for a steal. On Friday between 3 and 5pm, Burgster serves up fresh, natural oysters for $1 each. They do sell out, so make sure you arrive at 3pm on the dot for ultimate scoff time. Every Monday Burgster slings $5 cheeseburgers, with the option to double ($10) or triple ($15) stack your burger. On hump day you can treat yourself to wings Wednesday, when saucy chicken wings go for $1 and margaritas for $10. Thirsty Thursdays see schooners poured for $5 a pop.

Cheap sliders

Cambus Wallace, 4/2237 Gold Coast Hwy, Mermaid Beach

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Cambus Wallace is known for its cocktails but the speak-easy Nobby Beach bar has plenty to offer in the cheap eats department. On Tuesday, you can pick up a $5 slider of angus beef, pulled pork or crumbed zucchini patty, all with slaw, rocket and chipotle aioli. But let’s be real — one slider is never enough, so you can also get two of the same for $9 or three for $13. On Wednesday, Cambus serves Angus Hereford sirloin steak with chips and slaw for $15, or arancini balls, chips and slaw for $10. Thursday you can pick up a fancy toastie featuring truffle mushroom and Swiss cheese, smoked chicken with caramelised onion or salami and gherkins for $10, all with fries and slaw.

Dinner and a show

Burleigh Pavilion, 3a/43 Goodwin Terrace, Burleigh Heads

Burleigh Pavilion pepperoni pizza.

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Date night with an exceptional view doesn’t need to cost a pretty penny when you head to The Pavilion. The Burleigh Heads venue serves up a priceless vista with the ocean right on its doorstep, making the weekday dinner and drink deal even more enticing. Diners can order a meal and drink of house wine, sparkling or a schooner of tap beer for $25, with a different meal on offer for the first four days on the working week. Mondays it’s beer battered fish and chips, Tuesday is beef or vegetarian nachos, Wednesday is your choice of a beef, chicken, fish or veggie burger, and Thursday is woodfired pizza (vegetarian, mortadella, capricciosa, pepperoni, prawn or parma).

Tacos

Tupe-Aloha, 1 Musgrave St, Coolangatta

Experience three vacation destinations for the price of a taco at Tupe-Aloha, the eatery where “Hawaii meets Mexico and has a holiday in Kirra”. The Mex-American diner hands out tacos for $5 each on Tuesdays, loaded with your choice of beef brisket, fish, fried chicken or pork, as well as a vegan option for the cruelty-free subscribers, served on a corn tortilla. Wednesday is $10 burrito time, featuring flavours of shredded beef, pulled pork, chicken or vegetarian. If you’re strapped for cash after living it up on the weekend, you can continue those feel good vibes at Tupe- with $1 wings and $5 beers on Mondays.

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$1 wings

House of Brews, 17 Orchid Ave, Surfers Paradise

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If food can ease the Monday blues, then cheap chicken wings can cure it. Surfers Paradise’s House of Brews cooks up saucy, spicy chicken wings and sends them flying for $1 each, from 4pm to midnight. Choose your coasting of original, smoky barbecue, American, piripiri or spicy death, and watch your sadness for the week ahead disappear with every bite. House of Brews also hosts happy hour specials on weekdays. From 4pm to 6pm, Monday to Friday, all beers, wines, spirits and tacos are $5. You’ll have plenty of change leftover to order that exotic cocktail you eyed off on another table.

$6 schnitzel and steak

Waxy’s Irish Pub, 3206 Surfers Paradise Blvd, Surfers Paradise

Waxy’s serves $6 schnitzels on Mondays. Pic Tim Marsden

Head to this Irish pub for an Aussie feed that will make you say holy schnitzel. Surfers Paradise watering hole Waxy’s cooks up a bargain on Monday worthy of making a ritual: chicken schnitzels for $6. Punters can purchase a schnitzel for $3 with a choice of one $3 side, including chips or salad, toppings or a parmigiana upgrade. If a juicy steak is more your style, every Wednesday and Sunday Waxy’s grills them up for the same price: $3 for the steak with a $3 side. If you think the economical eats end on the weekend, think again — Waxy’s offers 1kg of chicken wings for $12 on Saturdays.

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Bargain burgers

Betty’s Burgers, various locations, Gold Coast

Burgers and Fries at Betty's Burgers. (AAP Image/David Swift)

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How does angus beef, lettuce, tomato, onion, cheese, and special sauce on a brioche bun for $10.50 sound? Betty’s Burgers has the goods all day every day, with its signature Betty’s Classic burger selling for less that price all the time. Low carb diners can also get the same burger for the same price, sans bun and wrapped in lettuce instead. If you’re a big spender with a taste for chicken, lash out and get the southern fried poultry burger for $11.50, or go twice as nice with the double beef, cheese and bacon burger for $16. Since you’ve got away with such a cheap feed, you can try the restaurant’s onion rings or concrete dessert for $6 — both have developed a cult following.

Coffee and a bagel

Randy Wallhole, 1/21 Nind Street, Southport

Cafe surfing, Randy Wallhole, in Southport. Smokey Pink. Picture: Jerad Williams.

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Taste a New York treat without leaving Southport at Randy Wallhole, the eclectic cafe and coffee nook famous for its bagels loaded with a variety of delicious toppings. You’ll love the cafe’s daily deal a hole lot: coffee and bagel for $8.50, which includes any sweet or savoury-flavoured bagel and a topping of cream cheese or other condiments. The bagels are delivered fresh from Brisbane company Bagel Boys, made the traditional way by boiling and baking, and they come in gluten-free, too. The bacon and egg bagel is a stand-alone breakfast treat at $10, and warm toasted jaffles sell for between $7 and $9. There’s also every day coffee and cake deals for about $8.

Cheap cheeseburgers

Apres Surf, 2376 Gold Coast Hwy, Mermaid Beach

Apres Surf Mermaid Beach cheeseburger.

Apres Surf takes care of its loyal local crowd with weekly meal deals that take the pressure off the purse strings. Monday is cheeseburger day with the decadent snack selling for $5 each, featuring a brioche bun encasing a house made beef patty, cheese, pickles, ketchup and Dijon mustard. Even if you head along on any other day, the same burger is only $9 and part of a number of cost effective treats on the cheat meal menu. On Thursday you can slurp a bowl of pork or vegan ramen for $12.50, and on Sundays pick up a huge parmigiana and chips with ketchup for $10.

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Gyros

Greek Street Grill, 4 The Esplanade, Surfers Paradise

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This inexpensive eatery rolls bread, meat, salad, chips and sauce into one pleasant package for $11. Greek Street Grill’s famed gyros is an export of the Mediterranean, featuring your choice of shaved lamb, chicken, kofta, pork, falafel, haloumi or calamari, salad and lashings of tzatziki and hot chips, all wrapped up in a souvlaki-style pita bread. The sans meat options start at $10.50, going up to $12 for a lamb or a combination of protein. With one restaurant on the Esplanade of Surfers Paradise and another at Pacific Fair, it’s a great option for a beach day or shopping spree refuel.

Breakfast

Black Sheep Bistro, 2/108 Old Pacific Hwy, Oxenford

Here’s a breakfast haunt that won’t cost you your house deposit. Oxenford cafe Black Sheep Bistro knows eating out can be a numbers game, so the menu is divided into price range. In the $11 section you can get free range poached eggs and relish served on chargrilled ciabatta bread, or a deluxe bacon and egg burger with Swiss cheese and your choice of sauce (or $10 without the cheese). For $12 diners can try the golden soft pancake with black cherries and dark chocolate ice cream, the breakfast burrito with peppers, avocado, cheese and sweet corn relish, or the stone fruit and pecan muesli with coconut and chia seed yoghurt.

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Martini and $1 meal

Circle on Cavill, Cavill Ave, Surfers Paradise

White Rhino beetroot salad is one of several meals available for $1 with an espresso martini purchase.

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Espresso martinis are always a good idea but this Surfers Paradise bar and restaurant is making them even more enticing. Every Thursday from February 27, White Rhino Bar and Eats will make you an offer you can’t refuse — order an espresso martini off the new menu and you can add a burger or salad for just $1. The new martinis come in more-ish flavours of white chocolate, Baileys, mint slice, salted caramel or classic, and can be paired with a poke bowl or Greek, beetroot or Caesar salad; or a Wagyu beef, southern fried chicken or haloumi and smashed avo burger.