Good Food: Top 20 Sydney cheap eats 2018
To love and know Sydney is to visit the Opera House, and explore these cheap eats greats.
As this year's Good Food Guide will soon prove, there's enough fine-dining restaurants in Sydney to try a new one every night of the year. Maybe even enough for a hatted lunch every day with the odd high-end breakfast thrown into the mix as well. It's an enticing concept, to live the life of a soon-to-be-bankrupt Hollywood star. But most of us could only afford this life for a month, maybe even a week, at most. That's where the cheap eats come in, and luckily, Sydney has those in spades as well.
The Good Food Guide 2019 will be released in October. Photo: Supplied
Part of what makes cheap eats so good is the price, that sweet spot between 10 and 20 bucks for a meal. But cheap eats are also an incentive to get out of the city and explore the suburbs. They can be an introduction to a new culture or the beginnings of a new life-consuming obsession. They can even be better than all those hatted lunches you were considering!
This list can be viewed as a way to save a few bucks while eating some of the best food Sydney has to offer, or you can do what I do and use it as an always-growing list to show visitors (or residents who've become disenchanted) what makes Sydney so great. A trip to Cabramatta or Auburn is as important to enjoying Sydney as a visit to the Opera House – and you don't have to wait until May for Harris Park to be covered in colourful lights. It's bright and pretty every night of the year. The food is cheaper, too.
Khao Pla
Sydney's best Thai restaurant outside of Thainatown, Khao Pla's menu is a mix of straight-up classics and unique spins on standards. Come with a group and order as much as you can, especially the tom-yum-flavoured fried chicken wings and the irresistibly sticky tamarind pork ribs. The recently opened location in Macquarie Centre is worth a visit, too.
Shop 7, 370-374 Victoria Avenue, Chatswood, 02 9412 4978, khaopla.com.au