Melbourne's favourite local takeaway lunch

Depending on how hungry you are, a $20 note will buy you a souva and some chips or salad at Jimmy Grants with change to spare. George Calombaris’s cheap eats restaurant chain borrows menu items from its higher end siblings – the souvas and garlicky chips with feta is started life at Gazi, and the grain salad is a version of Hellenic Republic’s famous Cypriot freekeh salad. It’s a great way to eat food by a big time chef without breaking the bank. If you’ve ever eaten at Calombaris’s other restaurants, you’ll know that the best way to get a feed is to pick the ‘Feed Me’ option and it’s no different at Jimmy Grants. Tell them you want to ‘Eat like a Greek’, and you’ll get a full spread for two for $35. Never change, Jimmy.

Given that this colourful Mexican street food eatery now has seven locations across the city, it would seem that Melburnians can’t get enough of beef brisket tacos, fresh fish burritos with chipotle aioli and shaved cabbage, and grilled chicken and quinoa ensaladas. Lunch at the Flinders Lane eatery is a flurry of city workers refuelling, but there are also locations in Collingwood, Hawthorn, Richmond, Windsor, Chadstone and Knox.

These guys were doing fresh gourmet takeaway meals before it became a thing. Operating since 1998, this deli/café makes fresh pasta on site and has a well-stocked larder section that could make a hungry lunch-hunter shed a tear.

Hot beef, cold beer. What you see on the sign is what you get at this Collingwood burger haven, which now has sister restaurants in the CBD, Prahran, Hawthorn and Ringwood. These days, they’ve expanded their no-frills beef patty offering to veggie burgers and mini burgers – all of which are available to take away.

At the #cleaneating side of the takeaway lunch spectrum is Hanoi Hannah Express Lane – the teeny-tiny sister to popular Windsor restaurants Saigon Sally and Tokyo Tina. A serving of prawn and pork rice papers rolls with a fresh coconut makes for a flavoursome light lunch. For something with a little more crunch, go for the pork belly banh mi with crackling, fresh chilli and Thai basil mayo.

If you're already a fan of George Calombaris’s mod-Greek diner (we dream about those soft shell crab souvas regularly) then you'll need no convincing that Gazi's Bend Over Box is where you want to be at lunchtime. For $33, you'll get olives, pita, dip, meat, fish, salad, Gazi's delicious garlic and feta chips, a glass of beer or wine and something sweet to seal the deal.

Fresh, healthy takeaway lunch options abound at Earl Canteen. Classic chicken sandwiches, salmon wraps, and salads packed with superfoods are all on offer with muffins, cookies, brownies and dessert pots providing the ultimate post-lunch treat. With card payments welcome for all purchases, there’s no need to spend precious lunchbreak minutes wasting time lining up at the ATM.

Burgers, fries and shakes are the name of the game at Betty’s Burgers. Providing perfect lunchtime fodder for those work days that just drag on, the menu at Betty’s Burgers has all the classics expected of a burger joint (and a few surprises too). There’s Betty’s Classic and Crispy Chicken but also a Shroom Burger for vegetarians and a ‘Bare Betty’ burger for the carb-averse. All orders can be charged to a card without a minimum spend, so even a side of onion rings is possible for punters without cash on them.