Eight New Sydney Spots To Grab Lunch for Less Than $25

I am a repeat desk-lunch offender: tuna and rice cakes, zapped leftovers or snacky picnic plates, all on heavy rotation. Maybe these lunches appear on the sad side – but I love them. Cottage cheese swiped over Cruskits with sliced tomato, salt and pep? Sometimes there’s nothing better.

But if you arrive unprepared – or want something more without breaking the budget – it’s good to have options. The year has already delivered a clutch of new eateries that are all great picks if you’re looking to have lunch for less than $25.

Rurouni, Bondi Junction

This new 18-seat kaisen restaurant just opened with ex-Charcoal Fish head chef Tom Tse at the helm. The fish is all dry aged in-house, with Niland’s nose-to-tail approach seen throughout the menu. Grab the $24.50 tendon (tempura rice bowl) at lunchtime for a serve of fluffy koshihikari rice topped with tempura king prawn, snapper and greens. There’ll be yuzu mayo and Tse’s dashi-cut soy to dip.

Shop 2A, 71–77 Oxford Street, Bondi Junction
@rurouni.kaisen

Sit, Marrickville

The Baba’s Place team takes on the daytime shift with its new inner west cafe. There are a pair of pancakes (powered by house-cultured yoghurt) under a sheet of melting butter, and a serve of maple granita topped with sour cream gelato. But, for your $25 lunch, you’ll want the egg roll. For $19, you’ll get boiled eggs chopped with house labneh, mint and za’atar stuffed into AP ficelle. With enough cash for a Reuben Hills coffee, too.

2/387 Illawarra Road, Marrickville
@sit.marrickville

Blessed Fruit Pies, North Sydney

Rose, the co-owner of this new Miller Street bakery, rises at 4.30am six days a week to make shortcrust pastry from flour and Pepe Saya butter. While the thick slices of blueberry pie and individual sour cherry pies are major drawcards, you can stick to a classic savoury lunch with a golden chicken and leek, which arrives on little silver platter. It’s $12.50, which means you have plenty of change for the $6 cucumber and mint soda made with sekanjabin, a delicately sweet Persian syrup made with vinegar.

103 Miller Street, North Sydney
@blessedfruitpies

Itadakimasu, Darlinghurst

The set menus at the Sandoitchi team’s new onigiri bar are excellent – but you’ll be out more than your budget. That doesn’t mean you can’t make a ripper, filling lunch from the made-to-order onigiri (which arrive warm) and snacky sides. Order the golden pair of katsu whiting fillets (topped with creamy egg salad and house tartare) for $13, plus a $4.50 bowl of miso soup and a cheesy $5.50 Okinawa-style “taco” onigiri dotted with nori, crispy corn, grilled veggies and corn chips for crunch.

2/113–115 Oxford Street, Darlinghurst
@itadakimasu_onigiribar

Hamsi Street, Glebe

Led by celeb chef Somer Sivrioglu, a judge on Masterchef Turkey, this new Sydney Fish Market restaurant has added a casual venue next door. Hamsi Street is where you’ll find the chef’s balik ekmek. The charcoaled fish sanga, a common street food along the Bosphorus in Istanbul, is $19 and in itself worth a trip to the market. A small Turkish roll by Organic Bread Bar is stuffed with smoky, full-flavoured local mackerel, which zings with lightly pickled red onions, fresh rocket and a parsley pesto lifted with confit garlic.

Shop E1B/1 Bridge Road, Glebe
@hamsitaverna

Bronte Road Fish, Waverley

Word is, the burgers here rival those queue-creating ones around the corner at Out of the Blue. The Bronte Road Bistro team ditched the French food in favour of fish’n’chips. Your lunch? The tuna smashburger. Bluefin tuna – half ground, half chopped – is mashed with barbequed onions then shaped into patties. They’re smashed onto the hot plate, flipped, topped with cheese, then sizzled till the edges are crisp. They hit a fluffy bun with lettuce, pickles, American cheese and a slightly spicy tomato relish. It’s yours for $19 – or $23 with chippies.

280 Bronte Road, Waverley
@bronteroadfish

Kim’s Korean Deli, Darlinghurst

Hefty K-barbeque bowls are what you’re in for here – topped with flame-grilled pork, chicken, Wagyu or crispy tofu, all made to family recipes. Pick your base (brown rice, cabbage or half-and-half) then choose your protein. The $15.90 chicken number has the meat marinated for two days in a combination of soy, garlic, ginger, sugar and either apple or pear, then flame-grilled, while the $14.90 crispy tofu riffs on dubu jorim. Each of the bowls has its own dressing and mix of veggies, and there’s change for a $5.50 house soda, too.

112b Burton Street, Darlinghurst
@kimskoreandeli

Cafe Lewi, Lewisham

There are two fine-dining chefs behind this new station-side spot, which has quickly become a fixture in the inner west suburb. Each morning, they bake fluffy milk buns and tomato-studded slabs of focaccia, plus plenty more. For lunch, though, you’ll want the $21 caesar salad. Crunchy cos joins house-made hash brown “crispies”, bacon, parmesan and a creamy dressing – only bettered with a fried egg added for $4.

8A Victoria Street, Lewisham
@cafelewi

Got another $10?

Aalia Wine Room, the CBD newcomer, has added a set menu to its lunchtime offering. For $35 per person, get into the puffy Khorasan bread, your choice of sumac-dressed labneh or eggplant mesa’a’ah, plus a rump steak and chips. Minimum two people, available Tuesday to Friday from midday.

25 Martin Place, CBD
@aaliawineroom

Additional reporting by Howard Chen and Emma Joyce.