Photo: Steven Woodburn
For the time-poor worker, lunch breaks are sacred rituals that frequently go unobserved. Looming deadlines and competing needs can build a strong case for eating at your desk and working through your break. But if protecting your peace isn’t a compelling enough reason to step out of the office, perhaps these lunch specials and set menus from some of our favourite Sydney restaurants will change your mind. Not only are they designed to have you wined and dined in record time, they can also offer a more economical way to tick off some of those must-try places on your culinary hit list. Who said dining out was reserved for the weekend?
Whether you’re practicing the art of taking a break or a well-seasoned socialiser using your lunch hour to squeeze in some quality time with friends, we’ve rounded up the best lunch specials in Sydney to know about this year. From grab-and-go patisserie items that still feel indulgent to sit-down three-course affairs in moody lofts, these are the menus we’re turning to to make our lunch breaks count.
The best lunch specials and set menus in Sydney
The Charles
Few places will transport you as quickly from the sterility of an office than the romantic European brasserie and bar, The Charles. Housed in an Art Deco building in the CBD, towering ceilings, twinkly chandeliers and uniformed waitstaff will have you feeling like you’ve left the continent. Head into the chic checkerboard-floored bar adjacent to the main dining room for a relaxed lunch, where $29 will get you an aged wagyu cheeseburger and your choice of house wine, beer or soft drink.Â
When: Mon–Sat: 12-6pm
Bookings: Bookings recommended via SevenRooms. Walk-ins welcome.
Watermans
Barangaroo’s Eastern Mediterranean waterfront restaurant from the Bentley Restaurant Group is the ideal spot for a sun-drenched, leisurely lunch. But when time is of the essence, its $35 express lunch menu will do the trick. Available Tuesday to Sunday, it offers a selection of dishes built around wood-fired cooking. Expect roast chicken pie with cavolo nero, pine nuts, and a spiced masakhan and sheep’s milk cheese sauce; lamb dumplings with aromatic yoghurt and hazelnut brown butter; an ezme salad dressed with pomegranate molasses and topped with crispy garlic; and beetroot with labne, grapes and sumac caramel.
When: Tues–Sun
Bookings: Bookings recommended via SevenRooms. Walk-ins welcome.
Bistro Grenier
Inherently moody and a little grungy, this sultry French restaurant above Odd Culture in Newtown is the perfect place to forget about your work woes for a couple of hours. Head upstairs to indulge in two courses for $59 or three for $69 per person, with a pre-fixe menu that might involve souffle fromage, a comforting cassoulet and a crème caramel with a port and jamon custard.
When: Fri lunch
 Bookings: Bookings recommended via SevenRooms. Walk-ins welcome.
Ho Jiak Haymarket
It may not be a $5 lunch in a sweltering hawker hall in Malaysia, but Ho Jiak’s $26 lunch special comes a close second. From 11am-4pm during the week, you can get a selection of Ho Jiak’s greatest hits (yes, its signature smoky char kway teow and indomie goreng is included) and a free drink (perhaps Teh Tarik or house beer) for less than $30. Plus, sides like a plate of fried chicken wings for an additional $5. Run don’t walk.
When: Mon–Fri: 11am-4pm
Bookings: Bookings recommended via SevenRooms. Walk-ins welcome.
20Chapel
Fridays are for frites and nowhere does this ring truer than at fire-led Marrickville steakhouse, 20 Chapel by Corey Costelloe. Friday lunches bring a 250-gram steak with frites and your choice of sauce for $45, with options including black pepper and curry leaf; or mushroom, onion and Marsala. Whether it’s a working lunch or an end-of-week treat, Costelloe never disappoints.
When: Fri 12-3pm
Bookings: Bookings recommended via SevenRooms. Walk-ins welcome.
Chophouse
If saving your pennies is one of the reasons you’re not taking a break away from your desk, Matt Moran’s CBD steakhouse has the antidote. For just $15, you can enjoy a full-sized Martini, a premium beef slider and golden fries. Available throughout the week from noon until 6pm, it’d be a shame not to.
When: Mon–Fri: 12-6pm
Bookings: Walk-ins only.
Vitelli’s Upstairs
Wunderlich Lane’s red-sauce Italian diner has a new headliner for Saturday lunch: the Don Vitelli Cheeseburger. Layering dry-aged, grass-fed beef with provolone and pickles within a sesame bun, the burger comes with Vitelli’s signature vodka sauce on the side for unlimited double-dips. This one may not be for the workers, but it’s certainly for the lunchtime devotees.
When: Sat 11.30am-2.30pm
Bookings: Bookings recommended via SevenRooms. Walk-ins welcome.
Aalia Wine Room
The more relaxed counterpart to Gourmet Traveller’s 2023 Restaurant of the Year for New South Wales, Aalia, this sleek Martin Place wine bar offers prime lunchtime people watching and a taste of the Middle Eastern flavours that its sister restaurant next door is loved for. Sneak in some alone time over steak frites boosted by a “café de Cairo” butter for $39, or head in with a guest (be it boss, colleague or friend) and dine on the set menu for $39 per person, where you’ll both get Aalia’s somun bread with labneh or eggplant dip, plus, rump steak and chips.
When: Tues–Fri: 12-3pm
Bookings: Bookings recommended via SevenRooms. Walk-ins welcome.
Ibushi
Located in Sydney’s multi-storey Japanese dining precinct, Ibushi is Prefecture 48’s robata-style restaurant specialising in open-flame cooking. At $75 per person, Ibushi’s lunchtime set menu celebrates expertly grilled meats and seasonal produce in a fun, communal setting. Don’t skip the tuna tartare served on crisp sushi rice, miso pork jowl complemented by a burnt apple puree and fennel-apple salad, or the heirloom tomatoes on a bed of stracciatella cheese. For the grilled meats portion, expect seasonal stars like autumn’s Koji-marinated spatchcock, finished over charcoal.
When: Weds–Sat: 12-2pm
Bookings: Bookings recommended via their website. Walk-ins welcome.
The Grill at The International
This “classy, confident and cosmopolitan” chophouse just became more accessible with the introduction of its $69 Quick Fire set menu. Designed to be enjoyed comfortably within an hour at any time of day, it’s ideal for business lunches, shopping breaks or pre-show dinners. Begin with warm sourdough and cultured butter before moving on to your choice of seasonally-driven snacks and a main built around steak, fish or lobster (+$30).
When: Always available
Bookings: Bookings recommended via OpenTable with tables reserved for walk-ins.
Martinez
Circular Quay’s French-leaning restaurant and rooftop terrace is making it easier to leave our desks with their $20-$25 lunch specials available throughout the whole venue. Enjoy a rotating menu of steak frites, seafood pastas, wagyu burgers and more while soaking in the midday sun.
When: Mon–Thurs: 11.30am–3pm
Bookings: Bookings recommended via SevenRooms. Walk-ins welcome.
Petit Loulou
This adored French café and patisserie at the entrance to Martin Place metro has packaged up the grab-and-go lunch with a neat bow. For $15, you can get a baguette sandwich (choose from luxurious options like prosciutto and brie, saucisson or pork rillette, among others), a salad (nicoise, lyonnaise or Caesar) and a bottle of Orangina – best enjoyed in the sunshine.
When: Mon–Fri: from 10.30am until stocks last
Bookings: Walk-ins only.
White Horse
These days $55 won’t get you far, but at the revamped White Horse in Surry Hills it unlocks a four-course menu centred on lobster, Bannockburn chicken and seasonal produce. Round out the meal with Adelaide Hills brie ice cream served with strawberries and pistachio and consider it a lunch break well spent.
When: Fri–Sun: 12-3pm
Bookings: Bookings recommended via SevenRooms.
Poetica
Continuing the luxe lunchtime burger trend is North Sydney’s fine-diner Poetica, whose flamed-grilled cheeseburger served with herby fries and a choice of house wine, beer or soft drink for just $29 makes stepping out for your lunch break incredibly hard to resist.
When: Mon–Fri: 12-6pm at the bar
Bookings: Bookings recommended via SevenRooms. Walk-ins welcome.
Olympus
Since opening in 2024, the sun-lit courtyard at Olympus has been one of the most coveted dining rooms in the Sydney food scene. Fun and fashion-forward crowds pile in, hankering for taramasalata scooped up with warm pita; lemon yellow avgolemono soup that reminds owner Jonathan Barthelmess (The Apollo) of his childhood; savouring charred octopus with an almond skordalia and potato or devouring the team’s slow-cooked lamb shoulder. For an easy way to sample all the favourites, the full taverna will serve up all the greatest hits in one go: rich taramasalata, a slightly nutty split pea dip, souvlaki with sesame yoghurt, all for $77 per person.
When: Mon–Fri: from 12pm; Sat–Sun: from 11:30am
Bookings: Bookings recommended via SevenRooms.
JĹŤji
 Whether you’re closing deals over lunch, wooing clients or simply looking for some reprieve in the CBD, the rooftop at Jōji is the place to be. At $65 per head, you can enjoy an express lunch menu with a curated selection of Jōji’s best dishes. Bookings are encouraged in this small CBD oasis.
When: Tues–Fri: 12-3pm
Bookings: Bookings encouraged via SevenRooms. Walk-ins welcome.
Cho Cho San
Potts Point’s loved izakaya-adjacent hotspot, Cho Cho San has always had a way of pulling us back in, and its newly launched bottomless weekend brunch is no exception. Following the success of its “buns and bubbles” offering, it’s reinventing the menu, refreshing its drinks list, and adding live DJs to its weekly rotation. For $99 per person, diners can enjoy a banquet menu featuring all the favourites (this might look like an assorted sushi and sashimi platter, alongside glossy eggplant miso sticks, pork gyoza and more), plus a free flow of sparkling wine, house wine and beers. For those after a more premium option, upgrade to the cocktail package for $120 per person. With an hour and 45 minutes to wine and dine, these are your Saturday plans, sorted.
When: Sat: 12-3pm
Bookings: Bookings required via SevenRooms.
Woodcut
Barangaroo workers won’t be able to walk past this modern waterfront restaurant without the aroma of smoky wood stopping them in their tracks. During lunchtimes, Woodcut’s signature brick chicken has been reimagined as a chicken burger with chips, available at the Hickory Bar from noon until 3pm, Tuesday to Sunday, for just $30. Also on the cards is a Moreton Bay bug brioche roll and a French dip-inspired roll starring roast beef, pastrami and bresaola doused in pepper jus. Walk-ins only.
When: Tues–Sun: 12-3pm at the Hickory Bar
Bookings: Walk-ins only.
King Clarence
This much-loved neon-tinged hotspot wins bonus points for its lunch set menu. For under $50, you can get the best of King Clarence’s fare – including the famed fish finger bao on Nigella’s hit list. Complete with oysters, Korean fried chicken, rice and miso soup, we think this one is the whole package. No convincing needed.
When: Daily from 12pm
Bookings: Bookings required via SevenRooms.
The Wine Bar at The International
City slickers rejoice, this trendy wine bar in Martin Place will have you feasting on excellent $15 pizza made with 72-hour fermented sourdough and a rotating roster of $25 handmade pastas. Plus, $10 glasses of wine. “Proper lunch” runs from Tuesday to Saturday, noon until 3pm, weekly.
When: Tues–Sat: 12-3pm
Bookings: Bookings recommended via SevenRooms.Walks-in welcome.
