Australian food is a mix of British roots, migrant cooking from Italy, China, Greece and Vietnam, very good seafood and a serious café culture. You can eat well at every price, from a pie at a bakery to a long seafood dinner, but it's an expensive country compared with a lot of the world. This guide covers what to order, where locals actually eat and what things cost. Prices are in Australian dollars (AUD) and come from guides written at different times, so treat them as a rough guide and check the current exchange rate before you go.

The classics to try

  • Meat pie: a savoury pastry filled with meat (or a plant-based filling), usually eaten with tomato sauce. You'll find them in roadside bakeries and at sports grounds. One guide says Four'n Twenty pies were made small enough to eat one-handed at football matches
  • Sausage sizzle: a sausage in white bread with optional tomato sauce and fried onions, usually sold at a barbecue stall for fundraising. They're often run outside hardware stores at weekends, and the ones at polling stations are nicknamed "democracy sausages"
  • Chicken parmigiana ("parma"): a breaded chicken schnitzel topped with a tomato sauce, ham and cheese, served with chips and salad. It's the most famous pub meal, and many pubs offer an eggplant version
  • Fish and chips: in the southern states the fish is often gummy shark, which is sold as "flake"
  • Aussie barbecue: meat, seafood and vegetables cooked outdoors at home, in parks and on beaches
  • Avocado on toast: a café brunch staple, often vegetarian. It reportedly debuted at a Sydney café
  • Vegemite: a salty, savoury spread, usually put thinly on buttered toast. Many visitors find it an acquired taste, so go easy the first time

Sweet things

  • Lamington: squares of sponge cake dipped in chocolate and rolled in desiccated coconut, sometimes with jam or cream in the middle. Queensland claims it
  • Pavlova: a meringue dessert, usually with fruit and cream. New Zealand also claims to have invented it
  • Anzac biscuits: oat and coconut biscuits that were sent to soldiers in the First World War
  • Tim Tams: a chocolate biscuit from Arnott's, easy to find in supermarkets and easy to bring home
  • Fairy bread: white bread with butter and sprinkles, a children's party treat since the 1920s
  • Damper: a simple wheat bread, traditionally baked in campfire coals by travellers and stockmen

Seafood

Australia has a long coastline and the seafood shows it. Look out for barramundi, King George whiting, Moreton Bay bugs and rock lobster, as well as oysters and prawns. A few places to know:

  • Sydney Fish Market: more than 40 traders. One guide gave Sydney rock oysters at about AUD 24 a dozen, prawns at about AUD 40 a kilo and sashimi-grade tuna at about AUD 15
  • Bruny Island, Tasmania: half a dozen shucked-to-order oysters for about AUD 19 at Get Shucked
  • Perth and Darwin: one guide points to lobster in Perth and barramundi in Darwin
  • Apollo Bay, Victoria: fish and chips by the beach from the Apollo Bay Fishermen's Co-Op, which has been operating since 1948

Native ingredients

Indigenous Australians have eaten native plants and animals for tens of thousands of years, including kangaroo, emu and macadamias. Kangaroo is lean and is sold in some supermarkets. If you want to try native ingredients in a restaurant, one guide mentions Ochre in Cairns, which serves crocodile and emu dumplings (mains from about AUD 36, and a three-course set menu at about AUD 88).

The pub counter meal

The most Australian way to eat dinner is a "counter meal" at a pub or club, a casual meal you order at the bar. One writer called it "the best dinner of the week" and described families heading out for one on a Friday. Typical dishes include the chicken parma, schnitzel, steak, roast of the day, fish and chips, salt and pepper squid and bangers and mash.

  • Parma deals: in Melbourne, many pubs run parma specials, mostly on Wednesdays. A listings site shows prices from about AUD 18 to AUD 32, often with a drink, and a typical one is around AUD 23 to AUD 27
  • Pub burger and chips: about AUD 15 to AUD 20 in one older budget guide, a bit more in remote areas
  • RSL clubs: these are clubs for ex-servicemen and women that are open to visitors in most cities and towns. You sign in at the door and get cheap drinks and inexpensive meals, which makes them a good budget option

Street food and markets

  • Queen Victoria Market, Melbourne: a classic stop. A cinnamon donut from American Doughnut Kitchen costs about AUD 1 to AUD 5, and the Summer Night Market on Wednesday evenings from November to March has rotating stalls with items like Korean pancakes, banh mi and souvlaki, at about AUD 10 to AUD 18
  • Other Melbourne favourites: dumplings at Shanghai Dumpling House (about AUD 10 to AUD 16), curry laksa at Laksa King in Flemington (about AUD 15 to AUD 20), beef pho at Pho Hung Vuong 2 on Victoria Street in Richmond (about AUD 14 to AUD 18) and lamb souvlaki at Jim's Greek Tavern in Collingwood (about AUD 12 to AUD 20)
  • Adelaide Central Market: street food from about AUD 12
  • Mindil Beach Sunset Markets, Darwin: held on Thursday nights from May to October, with food stalls from many Asian cuisines. You can bring your own wine and a blanket
  • Dim sims and banh mi: two migrant-influenced snacks that show up at markets across the country. The mix of European techniques and Asian flavours is often called Modern Australian cooking

Coffee

Australians take coffee seriously, and Melbourne is known as the coffee capital. Don't just ask for "a coffee". Name the type:

  • Flat white: one espresso shot with steamed milk and a thin layer of foam
  • Long black: two shots poured over hot water, similar to an Americano
  • Short black: a single espresso shot
  • Latte: like a flat white but with more foam, and served in a glass if you drink in
  • Magic: a Melbourne speciality, a double ristretto with steamed milk in a small cup
  • Iced coffee: be careful, because in many cafés it may come with a scoop of ice cream. Order an "iced latte" if you want chilled espresso, milk and ice

Say whether you're staying or taking away. Most cafés offer dairy alternatives such as soy, almond and oat milk. In Melbourne, one guide says most cafés charge under AUD 6, and a flat white is around AUD 5 in Byron Bay.

Where locals eat

  • Pubs and clubs for counter meals, especially in the evening
  • Bakeries for pies, sausage rolls and pastries
  • Markets and food courts for a quick lunch
  • Migrant neighbourhoods, such as the Vietnamese and Greek places in Melbourne's suburbs, for good, cheap food
  • Public barbecues in parks, which are free or cost a couple of dollars in coins. Buy meat, vegetables and plates at a supermarket

If you'd rather have a guide

A guided tour is a good way to find the right places quickly, especially on a short stay. It's worth checking what's included and the price before you book.

What it costs

  • Coffee: about AUD 4 to AUD 6
  • Pub parma: about AUD 18 to AUD 32, depending on the place and whether a drink is included
  • Street food and markets: about AUD 10 to AUD 20 a dish
  • Restaurant dinner: a three-course meal for two at a mid-range restaurant is about AUD 120 before drinks, according to one 2026 article
  • Waterfront restaurants cost more. A Melbourne news story reported beer-battered hake with chips at about AUD 34 at a beachside restaurant in St Kilda
  • Drinks: a schooner (a medium beer) was about AUD 12 at a Brisbane brewery in one guide, and older guides put a standard drink at AUD 6 to AUD 10
  • Tipping: it isn't customary or expected, though some places have a tip jar for loose change
  • Self-catering: a supermarket shop and a barbecue is the cheapest way to eat

Where to eat by region

  • Sydney: the fish market for seafood, plus a lot of Asian food
  • Melbourne: coffee, markets and the migrant food scene
  • Brisbane: pub food and craft beer, such as at Felons Brewing Co under the Story Bridge
  • Tasmania: oysters on Bruny Island
  • Byron Bay: macadamias at The Farm
  • Fremantle (Perth): local beer and produce
  • Cairns: native ingredients at Ochre
  • Hahndorf, South Australia: German-style food such as pretzels and schnitzel

A simple eating plan for a day

  • Breakfast: avocado on toast and a flat white
  • Lunch: a pie from a bakery, or a market stall
  • Afternoon: a lamington or a Tim Tam
  • Dinner: a parma at a pub, or seafood if you're on the coast

For the practical side of the trip, see our guide to your first time in Australia from the UK. If food is your reason for travelling, our guides to what to eat in Rome and what to eat in Copenhagen are worth a read, and our Trip Budget Calculator can help you plan what to set aside for eating out, using "My own numbers".

Planning more? See all our Australia guides for UK travellers.

Where this comes from

Menus and prices change, and the guides below were written at different times, so this is a snapshot checked on 15 October 2026. These are the sources it draws on: