place
If you’re ever in Sydney, check out B-Kyu blog for cheap eats ideas
One of my favourite non-Canberra food blogs is the Sydney-based street-food blog B-Kyu.
B-Kyu is “a celebration of the world’s great culinary underbelly by two Sydney-based travel nerds. They dig traditional foods, hole-in-the-wall restaurants, and international supermarkets of mystery.”
They recently came to Canberra to check out our annual world-famous National Multicultural Festival and were appropriately impressed.
They also wisely set aside some time to visit a local favourite – The Burmese Curry Place.
I’ve blogged on it before here and it’s one of those classic authentic ethnic restaurants that is family run and gives you consistent value for money.
It’s great to see it get the national recognition it deserves!
Laksa at Noodle Cafe in Garema Place
Enjoyed a delicious spicy $10 Combination Laksa at the Noodle Cafe for late lunch in #Canberra today.
This place is highly recommended. I recently rediscovered it after a recommendation from Eileen (@TheFoodAvenue).
What’s hard to believe is the friendly and quick service one receives for the $10 lunch specials (complimentary prawn crackers, cup with ice for your drink, table service).
Cans of drink are $2.50.
Despite the fact that I’ve blogged about this place already and awarded it two #Canberra Beanies already, I think I’ll be back on a regular basis and slowly work my way through their specials menu!
Noodle Cafe Garema Place
(Three #Canberra Beanies) 
I recently had the pleasure of joining another Canberra Foodie (Eileen, better known as @TheFoodAvenue) at her favourite inner-city affordable eatery – Noodle Café in Garema Place.
Noodle Café is located right next to HonkyTonks, so makes a convenient pre-party dinner venue as well as a great place to meet friends for a cheaper and satisfying lunch for as little as $10.
The $10 lunch specials are varied and the main menu has plenty of other affordable options as well.
I chose to ask if I could have an authentic beef Pho that included tripe, a delicious dish I grew to love at authentic Vietnamese restaurants around Australia. The friendly waitress obliged, even though this dish wasn’t on their usual menu. It cost a few dollars more than the lunch special pho but was well worth it.
My lunch partner Eileen chose her favourite dish, a delicious combination chow mein with perfectly cooked noodles (the two beautiful photos below are hers). We also shared a couple of fresh and perfectly cooked vegetarian spring roles and a couple of tea pots of chinese green tea, all for the extremely reasonable price of $33. Considering the excellent table service (with complimentary prawn crackers) and the freshness and taste and large portions I was extremely impressed.
The flavours of the food were amazing. If the food is not exactly to your liking, there is the usual plastic container of chilli and flavouring sauces that anyone who frequents authentic Asian restaurants would be familiar with.
Noodle Café gets 3 #Canberra Beanies and joins our list of top ten affordable eateries in Canberra.
If you’re not sure where to find this place, have a look behind the big screen in Garema Place or next door to Honky Tonks. Or if you prefer Google maps, just look up 5 Garema Place.
Canberra City Labor Club lunchtime specials
(three #Canberra Beanies)
The specials board outside the City Labor Club is always worth a read.
The City Labor Club doesn’t have much competition from other community clubs in the civic area. There is an outpost of the Woden-based Hellenic Club and a Magpies Club but they are both smaller and less well-known and further away from the prime position next to the Merry Go Round in the centre of town at Garema Place. For the uninitiated, Canberra’s Community Clubs are unique in Australia. They have privileged access to gaming machines in return for community funding and not-for-profit constitutions. Their boards are elected by the members and all profits are in theory reinvested into the club or the community.
They are also well-regarded for affordable food and drinks. Most adult Canberrans are members of at least two of their local clubs. On this recent Monday I paid $9.90 for a chicken Parmy and $4.50 for a welcome cold schooner of VB. Both looked & tasted great. 3 #Canberra Beanies.
I go this club regularly for lunch and am rarely disappointed. At other times I’ve had $9 meat-lovers pizza. My friends have also ordered healthy $14 salmon and avocado salad.
But I tend to go back for the parmy. The hot one is particularly good.
CBRfoodie 