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 smash burger. 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.