Top Ten Cheap Eats in Perth

1. trevor / Feb 20 2010

   

   Jessie’s for sure!
   Alfred’s is a Perth institution and well worth a visit!
2. Jesper / Feb 20 2010

   

   I agree with Jesses Curry Kitchen for sure! I am yet to discover the Prophet.
3. Devan / Feb 21 2010

   

   Jessie’s must surely be your second home
   You can’t beat the simple burgers at Alfred’s. Some may say that it lacks the class of say Jus Burgers, Flipside or Burger Bistro, and they’re right. But it’s comfort food. Good ol’ comfort food.
4. Des / Feb 22 2010

   

   I agree with the roast duck at Eureka. Its so juicy and not fatty! There other dishes are pretty good too! After reading this I have a craving for fish head mai fun soup!
5. Devan / Feb 23 2010

   

   Hey Des! Ooh yeah that fish head soup sounds so good right now. Just had it on the weekend. Still good as ever!
6. Katy Presh / Apr 29 2010

   

   You know why Perth is so expensive?? Apart from all the miners earning big bucks… it is that damn entertainment book! Have you noticed how many people in Perth have that book and use it all the time? All the crappy restaurants have these buy one get one free meal vouchers which keep them afloat… they artificially inflate the menu prices to counter for the vouchers… which makes the other restaurants think they can get away with charging $35 for a piece of chicken and some vegetables…!!
7. Devan / May 5 2010

   

   Hi Katy, wow, yes, I never thought about that. You could be right! A lot of people use the entertainment book And now that there’s an EatingWA VIP card, surely that too would have an effect?
8. Me / Sep 10 2010

   

   Don’t forget the Sparrow at 434 William St Northbridge.

   It is an amazing Indonesian restaurant that has been there since 1993 and is so cheap that we give them more than the bill to not feel guilty.

   It will close soon due to a lack of custom due to the council making it difficult to get there with one way streets and a development project to keep people in main northbridge (the fighing area) rather than the nicer, quieter places of north William st.
9. Devan / Sep 17 2010

   

   Hi “Me”, thanks for your comment!

   Wow I didn’t realise Sparrow was closing down??? That’s not good!
   lol the fighting area? classic. Northbridge is getting better….more children and families at night time!
10. Entertainment book supporter / Mar 8 2011

    

    The Entertainment book is available for most capital cities and even some smaller areas (ie. Gold Coast) in Australia. I definitely don’t blame it for inflated Perth prices. I would blame it more on the fact that Perth is not a cultural centre of Australia, and therefore it is harder to attract decent chefs at a resonable price. Further to this, the cost of food, fruit and veg is slightly higher.
11. Katy / Mar 9 2011

    

    Hmmmmmmmmmm have you seen the places where they accept the Entertainment book??? $40 steaks in awful restaurants… you can go to must for a $40 steak. Entertainment book supporter – you have not disuaded me!!
12. Perth Lady Of Leisure / Apr 11 2011

    

    Totally agree with you!!! Finally, someone else thinks the food here is mediocre. The pricing is also unjustified! If anyone has a problem with this, then they either have not been exposed to what is outside of Perth or don’t really have a high standard

    Anyway, here is a comment I made at another blog about Malaysian Restaurants which is a bit long but I hope will give your readers some information on casual/ cheap Malaysian food in Perth.

    Hi, I am Malaysian and I can tell you that egg sauce for the Tak Chee noodles is BAD – not just in your photo above but I went recently to try it myself. It is NOT what Cantonese egg sauce is meant to be and certainly by Malaysian standards it is downright awful. Too watery, lack of flavour in the stock, overcooked and hardened egg. Mine was served to me with a WHOLE cooked egg! Bleargh! This is supposed to be lightly cooked at the end – and in strands). This is the beauty of the classic Egg Sauce. Only the Char Koay Teow and the laksa at Tak Chee is good. The chicken rice is only passable – albeit a large serve, the chicken doesn’t taste good and the rice is OK but the soup is a joke, it’s smaller than the usual soup bowl serve. The place to go for decent Hainanese Chicken Rice is Ten Ten – I think it is in East Vic Park but Google it to double check and get the address. They are usually consistent, but the fat lady boss at the cashier counter is always a sour puss – rude as anything. Parking behind this place is free, though.

    And by the way, I am a chicken rice addict and I have had chicken rice more than a dozen times at each Malaysian/Singaporean places in Perth to be a fair enough judge on this

    Another Malaysian place you can try is Penang Food (on William Street – Kakulas’ neighbour). This is another place I have been going to for years and years apart from Tak Chee. The food (or cook) is different now. You will not believe the new menu here at Penang Food. There are many KL and Malaysian specialities on the menu now. I hear they have duck noodles, chicken feet noodles, and all sorts of Malaysian Chinese coffee shop goodies now even meepok. I am told, because I hardly look at the menu – usually can’t make up my mind or order too many dishes! So it’s better to order what I go there to eat!

    The chicken rice here is pretty hopeless – but I intend to try it again as I only tried it once since the change of menu. I love LOVE LOVE the “KL Pork Noodle Soup”. It is actually served with a large spoonful of “Chee Yau Char” (the deep fried pork fat/lard nom nom nom) just like in KL and PJ. Believe me, I used to live on this dish as well as Hainanese Chicken Rice when I was still living in KL – and this Penang Food one is as good as it gets. I order meehoon only as my noodles as I am allergic to wheat so I can’t have the yellow noodles. Also I find the meehoon brings out the flavour from this dish a lot more. The soup stock is to die for – delicious to the last spoonful. I think their Fried Hokkien Noodles also has the Chee Yau Char.

    The hor fun here is also pretty good – I saw someone order it and it looked fantastic. Certainly authentic – not at all like what the Tak Chee one look and tastes like. Another thing I think I saw on the menu was a crispy yee meen noodles!!! Which I keep forgetting to try everytime I go back.

    Also I tried the fried meehoon to take away yesterday – passable, but a lot better than they used to make here and the roti canai and curry chicken is quite good.

    The other thing I found out at Penang Food is they now open from 9AM! GREAT, coz I was never able to find any Malaysian makan place open before 11am before, so I am looking forward to coming here for breakfast. They have cheap set breakfasts which are very typical Malaysian breakfasts and for about $5.90 or $6.90. Best of all, you can order them all day long – not just at breakfast time! I think you can choose from nasi lemak, noodles with fried luncheon meat (you know the typical Malaysian Chinese breakfast lah!!), porridge, half-boiled egg and toast (the typical KL coffee shop stuff!). Nom nom nom!
13. Liam / Apr 12 2011

    

    U have to go to the prophet so good
14. themuse / Jan 10 2012

    

    The food and beverages over here are very expensive especially in pubs as we do not have pokies.
    If we did the prices of food and beverages would be largely subsidised by them.
    I am from Perth originally but have lived in London and then Sydney for the last 6 years, ive recently moved back and am the biggest Perth advocate around, I LOVE it.
    However the service is generally deplorable and the prices are well and truly out of the realm of reasonable.
    There is quality produced grown here and fairly cheaply (just shop in the William Street China Town area of Northbridge).
    Really the only way to change things is to avoid overpriced restaurants, they will soon have to adjust their prices accordingly.

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