Cheap eats in Civic

random said :

-1 for Tip-Top, not too bad on its own merits but awful compared to Asian Café.

Likewise, the sausage rolls from the bakery outside Supabarn are edible, but the ones at Dobinson’s 5m away are manna from heaven. (Two of them plus a chocolate croissant for dessert would be quite a massive meal, and still < $10).

On the strength on this, I had a sausage roll from Dobinsons today. Not good. Not bad flavour, but way way too greasy – my lips had about an inch coating of fat on them by the time I finished it. Cheap at $2.70 for a reasonably big one, but can’t recommend.

astrojax said :

no yap. a great japanese place – tasuke – is almost next door, though. yum!

Agreed. Not a sub-$10 place but great food. Love the eel.

There are still a few proper take-aways in Civic. I sometimes go to Acacia Cafe on Lonsdale Street, in between the new TJs motorcycle repairs and the Repco parts shop. I’m vego and a small eater, but I’m sure the quality of their hamburgers equates to their very nicely done potato cakes and salad sandwiches.

The Yum Yum Tree in Bailey’s Arcade does, in my opinion, the best burgers in town (far, far better than what is served up at Blue Gum’s). They also do great roast rolls (the pork with crackling is, probably literally, to die for) and their chips are spot on and always cooked fresh. You wouldn’t get change from a $10 if you wanted a drink as well though.

no yap. a great japanese place – tasuke – is almost next door, though. yum!

toriness said :

YapYapYap said :

toriness said :

+ another for zambrero! areeba!

Who, what, where?

zambrero is a burrito (in the main, you can get some secondary/minor items there too) outlet, on the central corner/intersection of civic bus interchange – along from the phoenix. not only great for lunch but also a far healthier (but more messy!) late night drunken option on the weekend than chicken grommet.

Oh, the green place. For some reason I’d assumed it was a sushi bar.

YapYapYap said :

toriness said :

+ another for zambrero! areeba!

Who, what, where?

On the corner across from Dick Smith in the bus interchange in Civic, where Quattros used to be. Take away mexican, very nice.

YapYapYap said :

toriness said :

+ another for zambrero! areeba!

Who, what, where?

zambrero is a burrito (in the main, you can get some secondary/minor items there too) outlet, on the central corner/intersection of civic bus interchange – along from the phoenix. not only great for lunch but also a far healthier (but more messy!) late night drunken option on the weekend than chicken grommet.

+1 indocafe – $10 takeaway lunchdeal of container of dell indo food (i recommend the sambel), a choice of springroll/corn fritter, and a drink (coke if you please – there are other choices!).

I can’t help but cringe at most of the other suggestions here — no human being should be consuming pies and sausage rolls on a regular basis,

don’t think we were advocating daily consumption – the suggestions above are quite varied and include some [a few, at least] healthy options. that said, pies made me the astro i am today!

thanks, though, for the fab recipe – this board needs a dedicated recipe swap thread, omni-accessible through the dreaded archiving systems it employs… rekkun you could do the above and wrap in rice paper and steam the results for an even healthier – or at least lower carb – version. the sweet chili sauce option can be bolstered with tamari or soy and even a drop of sesame oil.

+3 to the Zambrero burrito, although the burritos are far better from their shop on Lonsdale St in Braddon. The Lonsdale shop has erratic opening hours, though so there’s a very short window of opportunity for a feed (iirc, 12-3PM and 6-9PM weekdays, 6-9PM Saturdays). They are massive, delicious and far healthier than anything else on this list! $10 should get a burrito with grilled chicken or lamb, salsa, sauce, rice, beans, cheese, lettuce and sour cream plus a cup of Tang, which is a lemon-lime fizzy drink. In fact, I just polished off one for dinner.

I can’t help but cringe at most of the other suggestions here — no human being should be consuming pies and sausage rolls on a regular basis, unless they are home made. The massive fat content of pies, in particular, leads to heartburn and disturbed bowel function, even before we consider the longer term effects of gallstones, fatty liver, diabetes mellitus, etc.

Having said that, here is a recipe for truly delicious home made sausage rolls:

Thai Pork Sausage Rolls

500g pork mince. A medium sized tray of pork mince from the supermarket weighs up to 600g, this is also fine. It’s a very forgiving recipe.

1 1/3 cups breadcrumbs.

1/2 cup finely chopped fresh coriander (cilantro)

1/3 cup Thai sweet chilli sauce (or more, if you like)

1 teaspoon ground cumin

1 teaspoon ground coriander seeds

1/2 teaspoon salt

1 large carrot, peeled and grated

1 small zucchini, grated

6 sheets reduced-fat puff pastry (you can use the regular kind, but it doesn’t really seem to make any difference).

1 egg

—

Pre-heat oven to 200 degrees Celsius. Spread the pastry sheets out on the counter to defrost.

Mix together all the ingredients. If it seems too dry to stick together, add more sweet chilli sauce, if it is very wet and stick add another 1/3 of a cup of bread crumbs.

Divide the mix into sixths. Using a sixth of the mix, form a long mound of mix about 4cm wide about 3cm up from the bottom edge of the pastry. Fold the bottom edge of the pastry up over the sausage mix. Now roll the pastry up tightly around the mound. Cut this long sausage into pieces about 5cm wide. Place them, edge down, on a baking tray covered with non-stick baking paper, 2cm or so apart. Brush the tops with a little beaten egg (sprinkle with sesame seeds if desired). Repeat with remaining sheets of pastry and meat mix.

Bake for 20-30 minutes, until the pastry is golden brown and the filling is cooked. Cool on a wire rack.

Very good served with a mixture of sweet chilli sauce and tomato sauce/ketchup. Also good cold. They freeze well. Fantastic for lunch, or served with a bowl of soup, or taken around to a friend’s house

Golden Crust family run Bakery next to Superbarn. Buy drink from superbarn (duh) and a couple pies and/or something sweet from the bakery.

I love hot food so Nando’s is good value in my eyes.

Oh and the Korean place opposite the old main entrance to DJs

toriness said :

+ another for zambrero! areeba!

Who, what, where?

James-T-Kirk said :

Holden – Big Mac meal deal, upsized to large.

Thats harsh!

I didn’t mean any offence. It simply meets the brief, that’s all.

Health takes a backseat to the almighty dollar… Australia’s obesity epidemic looks set to continue. Go the packed lunch!

Mmmmm food… my favourite.

Civic asian noodle house
Civic pub
Blue Gums

All great eats.

-1 for Tip-Top, not too bad on its own merits but awful compared to Asian Café.

Likewise, the sausage rolls from the bakery outside Supabarn are edible, but the ones at Dobinson’s 5m away are manna from heaven. (Two of them plus a chocolate croissant for dessert would be quite a massive meal, and still < $10).

There is an Asian Grocery store next to Kismet at the Unilodge building in City West that sells various Asian dishes (green curry, hainan chicken and the like) for $5 with rice. I haven’t tried them, but from all reports they are more than worth the piddling $$’s charged.

Walk to Supabarn/IGA, buy loaf of bread, 200gms of meat, some lettuce and tomatoes… maybe even a jar of mayo. Probably costs a tad more than $10 but you now have lunch for 5 days. 😉 If your a fussy eater like me and have to have fresh bread…. buy a bread roll daily for less than $1 from Bakers Delight

If you feel hungry again by 3pm… again walk to Supabarn/IGA – buy box of cup of soup for $2. Lasts 2 days.

Buy a foot long spicy italian sub from Subway, with all salads on it for $7.50. Split that with a friend/co-worker, so you’re essentially paying $3.75 for a huge 6-inch sandwich. Walk 10 meters to the carousel and buy a can of coke for $1.

Lunch with a drink for $4.75. It might not be the greatest sandwich in the world, but it’s filling and it’s tastier than 90% of the $9 sandwiches you’ll find around the city.

Blue Gums do fantastic burgers, burger with cheese and bacon is $6, after eating it you feel like you’ve had a salad sandwich with warm meat rather than a lard capsule.
The ‘Club’ is a goodie too, chicken with salad/mayo bacon and cheese for $7.
Bacon and egg big brekky all day, plus pasta, stir fry, roast meat rolls. And all the usual sandwiches, muffins etc. I am definitely a fan of Blue Gums and eat there often (and get my morning coffee there)

If you want to save a dollar buy a drink from the newsagent across the courtyard.

Also the Indian place across from City West carpark do $8 lunchboxes, and there’s an Asian place next to Pj’s or whatever the pub is along from Wig and Pen that do lunch boxes as well.

I haven’t worked in Civic for several years, but I used to be quite partial to the Indo Cafe underneath the rear of the Waldorf. As I recall, indonesian stir fries for around $8.

never heard of the blue gum cafe – i’m keen on a nice burger.

Except perhaps McDonalds, I’ve not eaten lunch out in years and not noted after finishing that I had probably ate double what I really needed, or what I would have taken from home.

So if you eat out and still get hungry by 3, you either have hollow legs or probably should put down the chips and do more with them.

take a sandwich from home and save yourself $10 like those people who cant go out for lunch???

+1 for Magpies Club

Tepanya noodle bar – Garema place (where valentino’s used to be) a small noodle box $9.90, large $11.90 The small box is just a little smaller than the large and is very filling. You choose your meal type (beef, chicken, vege etc) choose your noodle (hokkein, rice noodle, udon etc) and choose your sauce (Satay, Chilli, Teriyaki, etc)

pie and sausage roll from vietnamese[?] bakers outside superbarn. five bucks. double that, but forego coke [though this in itself is excellent advice]

and plus one to the maccas comment – thought the op was asking about food…

looked at this zambero’s place today – will try sometime on such advice. ta.

ahh a topic close to my, errr, stomach. some personal faves:
– zambero
– $9.90 lunch deal at PJs (Mon-Thurs)
– schnitty at new Canberra Club cafe (top level)
– city club lunch special
– credit crunch lunch at UniPub (Mon-Wed)
– mooseheads pizza & pint on Tuesdays (i think)
– la pasa
– dare i say it, subway?

both c centre food courts have bigger-than-mini pizzas for around $7 too.

+ another for zambrero! areeba!

Holden – Big Mac meal deal, upsized to large.

Thats harsh!

caf said :

Tip Top (upstairs in Garema Place near Landspeed) – takeaway lunchbox (try the deep-fried chicken satay!) will leave enough change from $10 for a coke.

+1 again – Brilliant value even for sitting down.

Civic pub in Braddon, cook yr own steak, bread roll and buffet salad bar, $7 i think, mon, tue and wed
the beer is dear though

+1 to the city club (magpies) cheap, fast….and cheap beer

caf said :

Tip Top (upstairs in Garema Place near Landspeed) – takeaway lunchbox (try the deep-fried chicken satay!) will leave enough change from $10 for a coke.

+1

the takeaway dish (2 meats and rice/noodle) is $6 and includes a spring roll

+1 for burrito from Zambrero… it’ll fill you up.

Do yourself a favor and skip the can of coke… from one “big eater” to another.

Tip Top (upstairs in Garema Place near Landspeed) – takeaway lunchbox (try the deep-fried chicken satay!) will leave enough change from $10 for a coke.

Indian takeaway near borders

Bakery Cafe (where Sammy’s used to be). Great value

Big Mac meal deal, upsized to large.

You can trough-down at the City Club for $10 or less

La Pasa, near the post office in the Jolimont building. Two selections with rice/noodles, and a can of drink for $10.

I don’t know what they cost but sometimes I’ll get Mr Jessieduck to bring home a burrito from that Mexican place at the interchange if I can’t be bothered cooking dinner. They are very filling- I never finish mine.

The indian place in the food court of the Canberra Centre – big servings and the best potato and eggplant curry, ever.

The Japanese place next door’s not too bad either.

http://tiny.cc/gjUZK

Blue Gum Cafe hidden away behind a few buildings.

They make awesome burgers. 🙂