21 cheap lunch eats for under $15 in Melbourne's CBD

French Fix offers a taste of Paris in Melbourne. It's not your average boulangerie, with the team baking fresh baguettes and loading them with all sorts of fillings. You might have to wait a few minutes, but hey – at least, it's fresh. Le Roast-beef comes with layers of roast beef, crisp pickles, a healthy smear of Dijon mustard, mixed lettuce, tomato and mayo, and might just be our top pick of the bunch. All baguettes come in at just $15 each. Heaven.

After its super popular run last winter, Maha's $15 'Bowls of Goodness' lunchtime special has returned! Kicking off on 10 June and running until the end of August, the winter deal introduces a new lunch bowl every week and you can either dine in at the Bond Street restaurant or take it away for an express lunch. Think steaming hot bowls of laska, burnt tomato and chipotle braised Wagyu and Jimbaran grilled chicken with fragrant rice. Yum.

Craving a belly-warming bowl of fiery noods? BKK started slinging their chilli-spiked Northeastern Thai-style noodles for just $15 a pop as a winter special last year, and though we were glad, our hearts sunk at the future prospect they might one day disappear. But in good news for Melbourne's noodle lovers and cheap eat fiends, the lunchtime special is now here to stay, and available every Monday through Friday from 11.30am. Find it up the stairs from Her Bar.

With only $15, you won't be able to afford the signature tom yum noodles from this Thai favourite (these are about $20-21 a bowl) but you can afford a decent lunch-worthy snack. Try the deep-fried quail egg wonton skewers, otherwise known as keaw tod ($11.90), 12 deep-fried pork balls ($12.90) or four perfect fish cakes – all served with sweet chilli sauce. 

It’s almost impossible to visit a market without smelling the fried goodness of a gözleme. The stuffed Turkish flatbread is best enveloped around a combo of cheese and spinach, but the legends at Göz City (whose humble origins started at South Melbourne Market) offer a variety including herbed chicken, minced meat or mushroom and veg, too. Everything's $15 or under. There's even sucuk sausage and egg pides or böreks for those looking for something doughier, and some pretty phenom salads too if you want something fresh. 

Pop into this cosy 16-seater for Indonesian-style sangas and kaya-glazed crullers that don't just taste great, but also fit squarely into an average city worker's lunchtime budget. While most of the sandwiches are around the $16 to $17 mark, you can get a banging sausage and egg muffin for an easy $10. Smeared with a layer of Warkop's Bazzinga sauce of housemade chilli paste, fried shallots, spring onion, tarragon and dill, it's a great deal fancier than the one you can get at Macca's. Better yet, if you grab a coffee to go or slap on cheese and a hash brown as extras, your whole lunch still won't exceed $15. Score! 

What with its high-end fashion boutiques and corporate crowds, the Paris End of the CBD isn't exactly known for frugal spending. That's what makes Butchers Diner such a stand-out revelation on Bourke Street when you're timorously making your way towards Parliament House. Step into the fuss-free diner on your lunch hour and you'll find a generous array of carnivorous cheap eats to satisfy your belly – and, thankfully, leave your wallet relatively unscathed. But if you're really saving your hard-earned pennies, you can't go wrong with the $14.50 classic hamburger, which comes with a succulent 120-gram beef patty, tomato sauce, pickles and mayo. You'll be tempted to go back for it again and again. 

There’s a lot to love about an Italian sanga for lunch, whether it be a porchetta roll or a cotoletta panina. At Saluministi, you can get a panini stuffed with mortadella, stracciatella, proper balsamic vinegar from Modena and salad for just $14.50. If you're prepared to pay a few more dollars more, the world of Italian lunches in your oyster. Opt for a pollo panina filled with crumbed chicken, roasted peppers, provolone chilli and rocket, a prosciutto sandwich with fior di latte and rocket or a fried calamari sanga with salsa verde and lemon tartare. Even though it won't cost you an arm and a leg, this is a lunch that will get you through the afternoon.

Udon Yasan is a little Japanese eatery specialising in, you guessed it, udon noodles. It's a humble ode to the thick, springy noodle we all know and love, and you can get yours swimming in a broth with sukiyaki beef, bean curd, teriyaki chicken or even kimchi. There are also rice options for those looking for an alternative. Most noodle soups hover around the $10 mark but if you're really hungry and have a few extra dollars to spare, you can aslo grab two pieces of fried karaage chicken for a couple of extra coins.

Don't knock the Hare Krishna community's food until you try it. At Gopals on Swanston Street, Melbourne's oldest vegetarian restaurant, you'll be treated to a salad, a comforting main (think dahl or tofu curry), a rich vegan dessert and a drink – all for the price of just $10.90. It's run by Hare Krishna Melbourne for the International Society for Krishna Consciousness (ISKCON), and your meal is promised to be a blessed, karma-free one. In terms of bang for buck, this still has to be one of the hottest meal deals in Melbourne. There's another great place just like this called Crossways nearby, which has unlimited plate refills.

Sal's is known for slinging New York-style pizza slices bigger than your head. You could go for a couple of slices of your choosing, or take our advice and spend your $15 on the Sal's Famous special that comes with one giant slice of cheese pizza and one giant slice of pepperoni pizza, and will leave you with $4 change. Spend that on extra sauce or a drink and your afternoon's set.

N. Lee Bakery is known for one of the best portable lunches you can find: bánh mì. Our fair city's blessed with a vibrant Vietnamese community, and as a result, we’re lucky to have spots like N. Lee slinging Vietnamese baguettes in the heart of the CBD. Get yours filled to the brim with lashing of roast pork or mixed ham, and make sure to choose all the trimmings including pickled julienned carrot and ribbons of fresh cucumber. Most of 'em won't set you back more than $13.

Chances are you’ve spotted Little Ramen Bar with a line snaking outside its door, comprising folks keen to sample its classic ramen. It's a creamy tonkotsu soup loaded with pork broth and topped with seaweed, bamboo shoots, spring onions and chashu pork. You can even choose to amp up your base with shoyu, miso or shio, and the bowl only costs $15.90. Okay, so it's 90 cents over the $15 mark. But in our books, the great taste of this comforting and hearty soup is well worth a bit of extra pocket change. 

Fans of Ottolenghi, look no further. Here, you can get a wild vegetable-packed pita for a flat $15. Pick from cauliflower and tahini or the hot chickpea filling to stick to budget. If you're happy to spend a few dollars more, you can dig into the meatier lamb and steak pitas. All of it's delicious, and a miracle for this day and age, affordable.

Earl Canteen is a one-stop shop for sandwiches, salads, sweets and coffee. Think of it as your work mum that packs you nutritious and tasty lunches so you can be the envy of your colleagues. Go for the classic chicken sandwich with the Callebaut chocolate chip, walnut and sea salt cookie – one of the city's best cookies. All up, your order will only cost $14.90.

If you love the prices and flavours so far covered in the list, but you're after a lunch that's a fair bit lighter and healthier, head to Fishbowl at Melbourne Quarter on Collins Street. It's one of Australia's most trusted purveyors of food delivered fast that isn't, well, fast food. Think protein-packed nourish bowls, vegan salads and lunch boxes topped with fresh Australian tuna and salmon. Nothing fake gets into your bowl and the Japanese flavours are delicious. We love the O.G option: a yummy combo of salmon sashimi (or poached chicken, if you prefer), kale, beets, edamame, red onion, roasted sesame dressing, seaweed salad and crisp shallots. Most dishes sit nicely under the $15 mark, and the team also have stores on Flinders Lane and at QV. 

Coppe pan might be new to Melburnians, but the bread rolls have been a staple for Japanese people since World War II, when they functioned as food rations. At Coppe Pan, archetypal Japanese street food dishes – from gyoza (dumplings) and takoyaki (octopus balls) to chicken karaage (fried chicken) and yaki soba (stir-fried wheat noodles in a sweet and savoury sauce) – are sandwiched in fluufy, somewhat sweet white bread rolls known as ‘pan’. You can get two chicken katsu sando rolls here for just $14.80. 

Stop by the Borek Bakehouse for snacky Turkish staples that will always leave you with change in your pocket. A trip to the Bakehouse is incomplete without a crisp, bready borek stuffed with punchy feta and spinach, aromatic lamb and veggies or spiced potatoes. If you feel like some other doughy goodness, opt for a pide stuffed with sucuk and egg or chicken and mushroom. You can even add on a couple of housemade dips and still stick within the budget. 

This pint-sized shop on Swanston Street specialises in Jingzhou-style guokui, a piping-hot, sesame-coated Chinese flatbread. At Wang’s, they’re filled with your choice of protein before being rolled out thin and cooked in a cylindrical charcoal oven similar to a tandoor. 'Spicy beef' and 'yummy lamb' are two of the most popular options, but there are also tasty cheese and red bean versions to appease vegetarians and sweet tooths. All pancakes are under $15!

Fancy some Chinese street food for lunch? Pop into Melbourne Central and head down the escalators to the basement food court. Sure, it might not be the most resplendent setting for an afternoon meal but when big hunger hits, who cares? Here, you'll find Foodao, a purveyor of traditional Chinese foods, namely oven-baked goodies called 'fooshao'. These wheat pastries are hearty and filling, stuffed with ingredients like black pepper beef, pork, and kung bao chicken, and at just $6.50 to $7 each they're a steal. If you're craving a carb-licious feast, order the best-seller combo for just $15.