Cheap Eats?

The half-decent F&C shop up teh road here in Melbourne Suburbia has their cheapest fish and chips meal (piece of battered flake, 1x dim sim, 2x potato cakes, and a "handful" of chips + tartare sauce) comes in at $17... that's roughly $20NZ, $12US, £8.50.

Coffee here is pricey but as a self proclaimed coffee mecca, Melbourne coffee houses are run by snobbery alone :)
 

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The cheapest meal I can think of is the $1.50 all-beef hot dog & soft drink (with free refills) at the Costco food courts. I finally had one for the first time earlier this month. Not the best hot dog I’ve ever had, and your toppings were limited to ketchup, mustard, mayo, dill relish and raw onions. But it was decent enough, and it was bigger than the bun it came on. A comparable meal at a sports venue would probably cost 10x that or more.

The BEST cheap meal I ever had was at a convenience store in NOLA back in the late 1980s. Their Po’Boys were $1/foot. They were more bread, veggies & condiments than meat, but there was enough meat on them to be tasty and identifiable. And to be fair, the way they were made was probably healthier than a standard Po’Boy.
 

A good classic fish and chip shop is always good value for money and generally decent food too. I live in Auckland cbd so I have to go a bit further afield to get something resembling a smalltown fish and chip store.
Best ones around here are often located in small towns.

And the lower sociology economic suburbs.
 

The cheapest meal I can think of is the $1.50 all-beef hot dog & soft drink (with free refills) at the Costco food courts. I finally had one for the first time earlier this month. Not the best hot dog I’ve ever had, and your toppings were limited to ketchup, mustard, mayo, dill relish and raw onions. But it was decent enough, and it was bigger than the bun it came on. A comparable meal at a sports venue would probably cost 10x that or more.

The BEST cheap meal I ever had was at a convenience store in NOLA back in the late 1980s. Their Po’Boys were $1/foot. They were more bread, veggies & condiments than meat, but there was enough meat on them to be tasty and identifiable. And to be fair, the way they were made was probably healthier than a standard Po’Boy.

Late 90s here $1.50 usd would be close to $3. That's fish, chips a d another cheap item like a hotdog.


Iirc Cosco hotdogs here are $1.10 usd.
 

One local place may be cheapest in the country for breakfast.

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Bacon and eggs $13.50. Add Sausages are $4 or 5 iirc.

$9.90 usd approx.
 



Are those NZ price tags? With my Canadian dollars, that menu is an absolute steal. Here's a local to Ottawa pub chain's menu. As these are in Canadian dollars, add 25% to get NZ prices.


Your prices ate around 50-100% more approx. Some of that is hard to find here. I haven't seen that fried cauliflower for a while.

Depends on the dish and location. Nachos are usually cheap. Can be as low as $10-$13 nzd restaurant often sub 20.
 

From my part of the US, those prices are eye poppingly cheap. The closest approximation near me is about four times as much.
It’s about half what you’d pay in most places in Vancouver, but it really depends - there are some places almost that cheap. CAD = 1.25NZD.

Just about the cheapest place to get fed around here is, of course, the Costco food court - $10 (USD7.50 or GBP 5.50) for a slice of pizza and enough poutine for two last night - but those really don’t count since they’re loss leaders for Costco.

For places actually trying to make a profit, the cheapest eats are in good food courts, especially Chinese food courts such as the dozen or so in Richmond or the Crystal Mall, where you can expect to get a delicious and filling meal for about $10 each.

We were amazed by the NZ eating out prices when we lived in Christchurch, but a couple we knew who’d moved from Victoria (BC) were much less impressed, because the prices were and are pretty similar for the most part. Eating out here is insanely cheap compared to the U.K.
 

Coffee here starts at around $2.20 usd. More typical its $3.20.

That's interesting. Coffee price seems closer than food's.

A subsidized sandwich + cookie is €3.30 (=6.70 NZD) at the student's cafeteria. That's probably the cheapest meal available.

I checked the unsubsidized price would be 11,16 NZD.
 

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