There’s no such thing as a free lunch – but restaurants in Sydney right now have read the room. As budgets shrink, so too have the prices at some of Sydney’s best bars, fine-diners and local haunts. Cheap and cheerful never looked so delicious.
We’ve found 21 of the best restaurant specials in Sydney.
$25 noodles and a glass of wine or beer at Spice Temple
Save last night’s leftovers for another lunchtime. Today, lunch is courtesy of executive chef Andy Evans at Neil Perry’s Spice Temple, the Sydney institution famed for its heady take on regional Chinese dishes. Take a seat at the bar for a generous bowl of fragrant noodles plus a glass of white or red wine or a Tsingtao for $25.
Where: 10 Bligh Street, Sydney; spicetemple.com.au
When: Wednesday to Friday, 12pm to 3pm
Book here
$10 Burgers, $15 Schnitties and $4 tacos at Hotel Harry
The mid-week slump can be easily remedied with a wallet-loving $10 burger in the cheerful surrounds of Surry Hills stalwart Hotel Harry. On Wednesdays choose from wagyu beef, buttermilk fried chicken or black bean and onion with hash brown and beetroot relish – with crisp shoestring fries, natch. The restaurant specials: on Monday, you’ll score $15 chicken schnitzel and on Tuesdays it’s impossibly affordable $4 fish, pork or pulled chicken tacos.
Where: 40-44 Wentworth Avenue, Surry Hills
When: Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday
Book here
50 per cent off restaurant specials at Manta, The Fenwick, Summer Salt and more
Multi-course menus a distant memory? Reminisce with Sydney Restaurant Group’s very heart-warming winter restaurant specials offer of 50 per cent off signature three-course menus at a selection of its fabulous Sydney spots until August.
At Woolloomooloo’s Manta, there’s 50 per cent of a three-course rotating menu with sides. Expect dishes such as beetroot with whipped goat curd and caramelised walnuts, Junee lamb rump with black barley risotto and caramel mille-feuille with Piedmont hazelnuit and milk ice-cream for $59.
Where: 6/6 Cowper Wharf Roadway, Woolloomooloo
When: June and August, seven nights a week
Book here
At mod-Italian Noi in Petersham, $59 snags you three courses plus sides including vitello tonnato, casarecce cacio e pepe, and market fish with Jerusalem artichoke and chives make up the restaurant specials every day of the week.
Where: 108 Audley Street, Petersham
When: June and August, seven nights a week
Book here
Each Wednesday, Thursday and Sunday, the 50 per cent off three courses deal is $59 per person at Summer Salt in Cronulla. Dinner restaurant specials may feature crisp pork belly with gochujang glaze and sesame cream, roasted duck breast with salt-baked beets and beetroot ketchup with roasted chat potatoes, and Tira-miso, a riff on the classic with a miso-infused caramel.
Where: 66 Mitchell Road, Cronulla
When: Wednesday to Sunday evenings
Book here
Sunday to Thursday at The Fenwick in Balmain, it’s just $59 for three courses plus sides – dine like a king on chicken liver parfait with toasted brioche, hand-rolled gnocchi with saffron butter and yuzu cheesecake.
Where: 2-8 Weston Street, Balmain
When: Sunday to Thursday
Book here
Choose from dishes such as polenta-crumbed Hawkesbury calamari, slow-cooked Wagyu beef cheek and apple crumble with vanilla bean gelato at Ripples Chowder Bay in Mosman. The $59 deal runs from Wednesday to Sunday and you can BYO a bottle of something special for just $16 corkage.
Where: Building 7C Chowder Bay Road, Mosman
When: Wednesday to Sunday
Book here
At sister restaurant Ripples Little Manly the deal is even sweeter: $49 will see dishes such as crudo with shiro shoyu and sesame rice cracker, blue grenadier in sourdough beer batter and a selection of sorbets presented to your table. The offer is available Wednesday to Sunday.
Where: On the beach, Stuart Street, Manly
When: Friday and Saturday dinner
Book here
Read more… The 7 best breakfast spots in Sydney
$1 wings and $5 schooners at Atomic
Pair very good $5 beers with $1 chicken wings in four tasty flavours at Redfern’s microbrewery Atomic on Tuesdays. Other generous offers include $15 burgers on Wednesday lunchtimes plus $1 dumplings from 5pm, and a burger-and-beer combo on Thursday for $20.
Where: 158 Regent Street, Redfern
When: Tuesdays
Book here (walk-ins welcome)
Prix fixe perfection at Chez Blue in Rozelle
Make it a long lunch Friday to Sunday or an early-bird dinner between 5pm and 6pm Tuesday to Sunday at Darling Street’s Chez Blue for two courses for $55 per person, or three for $65. The menu takes in French bistro classics such as gruyere and parmesan souffle, roasted chicken with potato puree and crème brûlèe. Oh, and if you head to the bar between 3pm to 5pm Friday to Sunday, you can pair $2 oysters with your glass of Champagne.
When: 12pm to 3pm Friday to Sunday; 5pm to 6pm Tuesday to Sunday
Where: 599 Darling Street, Rozelle
Book here
$5 Taco Tuesday and $14 margaritas at Nu’u
Within a classic Victorian on Glebe Point Road is a Mexican cantina where regional Oaxacan fare is complemented by handicrafts from the region. Forget Tex-Mex, at Nu’u the food is thoughtful, flavoursome and nuanced. Pop in for the restaurtant specials on Tuesday from 5pm to 7pm to sample maize tacos – the papa con chorizo and pork belly carnitas will take you on a journey. Pair them with $7 Mexican beer or $7 rosé and pretend you’re on holiday.
Where: 29 Glebe Point Road, Glebe
When: Tuesdays from 5pm to 7pm
Book here
$15 pizza at Promenade Bondi Beach
From 3pm to 6pm Monday to Friday, take a seat sand-side at Promenade’s Beach Bar for bargain pizzas. This is one for those in the know – be sure to utter the words “pink dolphin” to your waitperson to get the deal on pizzas topped with bacon, smoked pumpkin and fried sage; sausage and roasted capsicum; and mushrooms with taleggio.
Where: Shop 4, Bondi Pavilion, Queen Elizabeth Drive, Bondi Beach
When: Monday to Friday from 3pm to 7pm
Book here
$10 margs and $7 house beers, wines and spirits at The Abercrombie
Every day from 5pm to 7pm, Chippo party-starter The Abercrombie is slinging extremely reasonably priced drinks. See you on the rooftop on Friday afternoon for skyline views and a salty-sweet $10 margarita to welcome the weekend.
Where: 100 Broadway, Chippendale
When: Every day from 5pm to 7pm
Book here
Two-for-one at Catalina
It’s an event – before you even get to the menu there’s a scenic 13-minute ferry-ride from Circular Quay to Catalina in Rose Bay. Water views are enhanced by the kitchen’s output, the work of executive chef Mark Axisa and head chef Alan O’Keeffe who create a new menu daily. Expect flavours of the Med and Asia created with Australian produce such as Sydney rock lobster risotto, Little Joe grass-fed beef and pan-roasted Murray cod with turmeric yoghurt and kipfler potato. As far as restaurant specials go, this one’s a blinder: score a two-for-one dinner, sign up to Catalina’s mailing list and be ready to go – they’ll let you know the day of the offer.
Where: Lyne Park, New South Head Road, Rose Bay
When: They keep you guessing
Book here
Rockpool Bar & Grill restaurant specials
This generous happy hour at Rockpool Bar & Grill one of Sydney’s favourite brasseries is actually two hours of aperitivo perfection. Order a $10 spritz – we’d choose the elderflower fiorente and prosecco – or a Sbagliato with Campari, sweet vermouth and prosecco to whet the appetite for a series of small plates. Select Wagyu brisket empanadas ($10), corn tostada with fish ceviche ($10) and macadamias with ancho chilli ($6), or just get dinner done with a Coppertree minute steak with café de Paris butter ($19). Burgers are justifiably famous here – nab David Blackmore’s Full Blood Wagyu burger or the Rockpool Cheeseburger, with handcut chip and a beer for just $29 all day Monday to Friday and from 5:30pm on Saturday.
Where: 66 Hunter Street, Sydney
When: Monday to Friday 4pm to 6pm
Book here
Read more… Jamie Oliver’s favourite Sydney restaurants
Prix fixe perfection at Monopole
Prix fixe, or fixed price, is a common occurrence in France. It’s a very tempting proposition: hand the reins over to the chef and let a succession of courses arrive at your table. No one could blame you for taking a long lunch or skipping out on work early to take up Monopole’s prix fixe offering for lunch or reservations before 6pm. The menu features artful, elevated bistro-style dishes such as mille-feuille d’anguille fumée (smoked eel mille-feuille), eschalot tarte tatin, and for le dessert, Chartreuse granita, vanilla ice-cream and green apple. Try two courses for $55 or make it three for $70.
Where: 16/20 Curtin Place, Sydney
When: Wednesday to Friday, 3pm to 5pm
Book here
Restaurant Hubert’s very happy happy hour
Dimly-lit, gilt-edged and soundtracked by live jazz, Restaurant Hubert is where Sydneysiders go to drink, dine and be entertained. There are three bars, a central dining room and even a theatre to match a menu that would be as at home in the Marais as it is in Sydney’s CBD. The restaurant specials occur at the daily happy hour, a time for aperitifs before taking a seat in the dining room – order cut-price negronis, G&Ts and Dubonnet highballs and avoid the delectable croque monsieur if you have any hope of fitting in a steak frites later on.
Where: 15 Bligh Street, Sydney
When: 5pm to 6pm daily
Book here
Gildas Golden Hour
Brighten up the middle of the week at Surry Hills’ Gildas with cut-price drinks and pinxtos – small, delicious morsels designed to be nibbled with drinks. This ode to the Basque region by chef Lennox Hastie is offering $12 cocktails and wines, $12 off-menu restaurant specials and $5 pinxtos between 5:30pm to 6:30pm on Wednesday and Thursday. Golden, indeed.
Where: 46-48 Albion Street, Surry Hills
When: Wednesday and Thursday, 5.30pm to 6.30pm
Walk-ins only, longer bookings here
Two-course lunch at Aria
A special occasion or just a treat-yo’self end-of-week lunch – you decide. Aria’s special two-course lunch includes an entrée and a main, plus free world-class views of Sydney Harbour, all for $120. Choose from dishes such as yellowfin tuna with native lime, daikon and kombu; and pasture-fed Angus fillet with savoy cabbage, green peppercorn and marrow.
Where: 1 Macquarie Street, Sydney
When: Thursdays and Fridays, 12pm – 1:30pm
Book here
Express lunch plus wine at Maydanoz
Pair flavoursome morsels of Turkish specialties such as stone-baked bread, lentil kofte, cacik (Turkish tzatziki) and kingfish collar kebab with a glass of Turkish red, white or rose at Maydanoz on weekdays. The CBD veg-led restaurant (Maydanoz means parsley in Turkish) pays homage to the western Aegean coastline of the country with its vibrant, mezze-filled menu. The feast costs just $55 per person.
Where: 50 Carrington Street, Sydney
When: Monday to Friday from 12pm
Book here
Main course and wine or beer at Sydney Common
Hatted restaurant Sydney Common resides within the Sheraton Grand Sydney Hyde Park, which means meals come with a side of green Hyde Park views. Lunch options consist of dishes like smoked pumpkin agnolotti with lardo, sage and red Leicester and woodfire roasted chicken with panzanella sauce and you can choose one plus a glass of wine or beer for $45.
Where: Level 1, Sheraton Grand Sydney Hyde Park, 161 Elizabeth Street, Sydney
When: Thursday and Friday, 12pm-3pm
Book here
