Short answer: The five Australian foods not to miss are a hot meat pie, a backyard-style barbecue or sausage sizzle, Sydney rock oysters or Moreton Bay bugs with a cold beer, a café brunch of smashed avocado and a flat white, and a slice of pavlova or a lamington for dessert. Add barramundi, Vegemite on toast and an Anzac biscuit, and you have tasted the country.
Australian food is a story of British roots, the world’s best seafood and two centuries of migration. Italian, Greek, Lebanese, Vietnamese, Chinese, Thai and Indian cooks have shaped what people eat every day, so a “typical” Australian meal could be a meat pie, a bowl of pho or a plate of pasta. Add superb seafood from tropical and cold southern waters, world-famous wine regions, a serious coffee culture and native “bush foods” known to Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples long before European settlement, and you have one of the most varied food scenes anywhere. The seasons are reversed: mangoes, prawns and pavlova mean summer and Christmas, from December to February. For the big picture, see our Australia travel guide.
Classic Aussie food
1. Meat pie
A hand-sized pie of minced beef in gravy inside a short-crust case with a flaky lid, eaten with tomato sauce (ketchup) at football games, bakeries and service stations. Bakeries also sell chunky steak, chicken, curry and vegetarian versions. In Adelaide, look for the “pie floater”, a pie sitting in a bowl of thick pea soup.
2. Sausage sizzle and the barbecue
The sausage sizzle, a grilled sausage (“snag”) on a slice of white bread with fried onions and sauce, is a national ritual at hardware stores, school fundraisers and election days. More broadly, the barbecue (“barbie”) is how Australians cook outdoors: lamb chops, steaks, prawns and sausages on a hotplate in a park or backyard.
3. Fish and chips
Battered or grilled fish with thick-cut chips, eaten out of the paper on a beach or by a harbor. Local favorites include flathead, snapper, whiting and, in the south, gummy shark, sold as “flake”. Ask for “grilled” if you want it lighter, and add potato scallops (battered potato slices), a fish-and-chip shop classic.
4. Chicken parmigiana
A breaded chicken schnitzel topped with tomato sauce, ham (sometimes) and melted cheese, served with chips and salad. It is the classic pub meal, called a “parmi” or “parma” depending on the state, and many pubs run a weekly parmi night. Portions are big, so one is plenty.
5. Vegemite on toast
Vegemite, a dark, salty yeast-extract spread, is eaten thinly spread on hot buttered toast. The secret is to use very little: a scrape over plenty of butter. It is in every supermarket and on most hotel breakfast buffets, and it is vegetarian.
6. Smashed avocado and a flat white
Australia’s café culture is serious, and the weekend brunch is an institution. Order smashed avocado on sourdough with feta and a poached egg, and a flat white, the velvety espresso-and-milk coffee that Australians consider their own. Many cafés open early and close by mid-afternoon, so brunch is a morning activity, not an evening one.
Seafood and bush foods
7. Barramundi
A native fish with mild, buttery white flesh, found in the rivers and coastal waters of the tropical north. It is on menus everywhere, usually grilled or pan-fried with crispy skin. It is best in the Top End and northern Queensland, around Darwin and Cairns, where it is caught locally; fishing for barramundi is a popular tour.
8. Sydney rock oysters
Small, creamy native oysters grown in the estuaries of New South Wales, with a rich, mineral taste. Eat them freshly shucked with a squeeze of lemon, at a harbor-side restaurant or from the seafood counters at the fish market in Sydney. Tasmania and South Australia are famous for Pacific oysters too.
9. Moreton Bay bugs
Despite the name, these are a kind of flat-headed slipper lobster from the waters of Queensland and New South Wales, named after Moreton Bay near Brisbane. The sweet tail meat is grilled with garlic butter or served cold on seafood platters. Balmain bugs are a close relative from farther south.
10. Prawns
Big, sweet king and tiger prawns are an Australian obsession, eaten cold with seafood sauce, grilled on the barbecue or in a prawn roll. At Christmas, families buy kilos of cooked prawns for a cold seafood lunch. Fish markets sell them ready to eat, so a bag of prawns and a picnic spot make a great cheap lunch.
11. Kangaroo and native bush foods
Kangaroo is a lean, dark red meat sold in supermarkets and served in restaurants, best cooked rare. Modern Australian chefs also use native ingredients such as wattleseed, lemon myrtle, finger lime, Davidson plum, quandong and macadamia, the nut that is native to Queensland and New South Wales. Look for restaurants and Aboriginal-led tours that share these foods with their cultural background.
Sweets
12. Pavlova
A large meringue with a crisp shell and a soft, marshmallow-like center, piled with whipped cream and fresh fruit such as passion fruit, berries and kiwifruit. Named after the Russian ballerina Anna Pavlova, it is claimed by both Australia and New Zealand, and it is the classic Christmas and summer dessert. It is naturally gluten-free.
13. Lamingtons
Squares of sponge cake dipped in chocolate icing and rolled in desiccated coconut, sometimes split and filled with jam and cream. You will find them in every bakery and at church and school cake stalls. Pair one with a cup of tea, and while you’re at it, try a Tim Tam, the chocolate biscuit Australians take home as a souvenir.
14. Anzac biscuits
Chewy, golden biscuits of rolled oats, desiccated coconut, flour, sugar, butter and golden syrup, linked to the Australian and New Zealand Army Corps of the First World War and eaten around Anzac Day on 25 April. The word “Anzac” is protected: according to the Department of Veterans’ Affairs, biscuits sold commercially in Australia need a permit to use it. Say “Anzac biscuits”, never “cookies”, if you want a friendly smile.
Where to eat: Sydney, Melbourne and beyond
Sydney. The new Sydney Fish Market, on Blackwattle Bay next to its old site in Pyrmont, opened on 19 January 2026, with more than 40 retailers, restaurants and seafood counters by the water. It is the place for oysters, prawns and a seafood platter. Elsewhere in Sydney, eat fish and chips on the beach at Manly or Bondi, and explore Chinatown, Haymarket and the Vietnamese food streets of Cabramatta.
Melbourne. Melbourne is Australia’s café and food capital, with espresso bars in the laneways, Italian Lygon Street in Carlton and Greek, Vietnamese and Chinese neighborhoods. The Queen Victoria Market, officially opened on 20 March 1878 and on Australia’s National Heritage List, has more than 600 small businesses across two city blocks, with deli halls, cheese, bread and hot food stalls. See our guide to the best food markets in the world.
Adelaide and the wine regions. According to the market itself, Adelaide Central Market was established in 1869, officially opened in 1870, and is the oldest continuously operating market in its current location in Australia, with more than 70 stalls. Adelaide is also the gateway to the Barossa, McLaren Vale and Adelaide Hills wine regions; on the other side of the country, Margaret River pairs wineries with surf beaches.
Hobart and Tasmania. In Hobart, Salamanca Market runs every Saturday from 8:30 a.m. to 3 p.m., rain, hail or shine, with more than 300 stalls including local produce, coffee, breakfast and lunch. Tasmania is known for salmon, oysters, cheese, apples, cool-climate wine and whisky.
Queensland and the tropics. In Brisbane, look for Moreton Bay bugs; in Cairns and Port Douglas, tropical fruit, barramundi and reef fish; and on the Gold Coast and Byron Bay, beach cafés and farmers’ markets.
Food etiquette and tipping
Tipping is not expected in Australia, because service staff are paid award wages; rounding up or leaving about 10% for very good restaurant service is appreciated but optional. Our tip calculator works in Australian dollars. Some restaurants add a surcharge on Sundays and public holidays, and many businesses add a small card surcharge; both must be shown on the menu or at the till. Some restaurants are BYO (bring your own wine), sometimes with a corkage fee. When someone invites you to a barbecue, it is polite to bring drinks or a salad. At the pub, friends take turns buying rounds, called a “shout”: if someone buys you a drink, offer to buy the next one. Coffee has its own vocabulary too: a long black is close to an americano, a short black is an espresso, and a cappuccino often comes dusted with chocolate rather than cinnamon.
Australian English has its own food words, from “brekkie” (breakfast) and “arvo” (afternoon) to “snag” (sausage) and “chook” (chicken); our phrase cards cover the basics for your other trips. One rule matters before you even land: Australia has strict biosecurity laws, so declare all food, plant and animal products on your arrival card or drop them in the amnesty bins.
Eating on a budget
Eating out is where Australia feels expensive: a meal at an inexpensive restaurant costs about A$25 in Sydney and Melbourne, and a cappuccino about A$5.70. Save with bakery pies and sausage rolls, supermarket picnic lunches, cooked prawns from a fish market, and food courts and Asian restaurants in the Chinatown areas. For daily budgets, see how much a trip to Australia costs. Market walks, food tours and winery day trips are easy to compare in our tour finder.
Plan your trip
Australia is huge, so link food to your route: our top places to visit in Australia, the Australia itinerary and the best time to visit Australia, region by region and season by season. Our AI trip planner can build a plan with markets and wine regions, and the Destination weather tool shows the weather for each stop.
Frequently asked questions
What is the national dish of Australia?
Australia has no official national dish. The meat pie is the food most often called the national dish, followed by the barbecue, Vegemite on toast, pavlova and lamingtons.
Is Australian food spicy?
Traditional Australian food is not spicy. Heat comes from the country’s many Thai, Indian, Malaysian, Sichuan and Vietnamese restaurants, where you can choose your level.
What do people eat for breakfast in Australia?
At home, cereal or toast with Vegemite, jam or peanut butter. At cafés, weekend brunch means smashed avocado, eggs on sourdough, banana bread and a flat white. Hotel buffets often add a full cooked breakfast.
Is Australia good for vegetarians?
Yes. Cafés, restaurants and supermarkets in the cities have plenty of vegetarian and vegan options, and the Asian and Middle Eastern restaurants are easy choices. In small country towns and pubs, the choice can be limited to a vegetable pie, pasta or salad.
What foods are unique to Australia?
Vegemite, lamingtons, Anzac biscuits, Tim Tams, barramundi, Moreton Bay bugs, kangaroo and native bush foods such as wattleseed, finger lime, lemon myrtle and the macadamia nut.
Can I bring food into Australia?
Some food is allowed, but you must declare all food, plant material and animal products on arrival, even small amounts, or throw them in the amnesty bins. Declared items that are not allowed are taken away without penalty; undeclared items can lead to fines or visa cancellation.