Fifteen
Basement – 115-117 Collins St – www.fifteenmelbourne.com.au

$15 two course bar meals

Sitting at the marble bar, as we arrive just after opening at 12pm it is set and ready to go.

On a Monday arvo it’s pretty quiet, we’re actually the only punters taking up the deal today.
On the menu - Broccoli and Potato Soup, and a Penne Ragu.

The soup is great, homestyle and tasty - goes down a treat. The ragu is full of flavour with a great chilli kick, but I reckon this Italian restaurant has taken the term al dente a little too far, to me it just feels a touch undercooked?

It’s a good deal, but be warned, dishes are as big as you’d expect for a $15 deal in a decent restaurant - it’s a particularly light serving of pasta, and I’m going to assume there’s a little more atmosphere later in the week (or even later in the afternoon) when the place gets a bit busier. 

Café Vue
430 Little Collins St, btw Queen and William Sts – www.vuedemonde.com.au/cafe-vue 

Jutting off the side of Vue de Monde, just next to the RACV, is Café Vue, which offers an inexpensive way to get taste of Shannon Bennett’s inspirations. Nothing on the menu priced over $15. Pumpkin bouillabaisse is a fishy surprise, looks like a thin pumpkin soup, tastes like a rich bouillabaisse. The kitchen prepares a big, ballsy broth from shellfish and fish, then cooks cubes of pumpkins in the stock, and finally purees the results. Great soup, wouldn’t mind a spare prawn or the like to chew on - $9.
Duck cassoulet jaffle is delish, beans and soft duck in a thick toasted sandwich, while the Vue burger is compact and tasty, and comes complete with a side of fries at $15. Chicken and porcini mushroom pie was missing any crispiness to the pastry.

But the fun way to try Café Vue is to invest in a lunchbox, a $15 eat in or takeaway option that offers you a starter, salad, savoury and dessert (a combination which changes each month). For July - it’s Wild mushroom croquette, Avocado salad with potato crisps, Roast turkey on licorice roll and Rhubarb sago. Get in early, we wandered in at 2pm and they’d sold out.
Worth it just for the Café Vue desserts – we did steal a serve of the sago, and last month’s choc hazelnut mousse was gloriously evil - YUM!

WARNING: these may be considered girl-sized servings, the reaction from a male colleague on the amount of food contained in last month’s lunch box wasn’t encouraging, but for me, it was perfect. 

EARL Canteen
500 Bourke St, in the Lt Bourke courtyard out the back – www.earlcanteen.com.au 

According to their website, “EARL Canteen came about because two hungry waiters spent too much time watching chefs in fancy restaurants making a snack with ingredients destined for diners plates and two pieces of bread. It was the ultimate staff meal”. And so they set about starting a business that boasts “restaurant quality sandwiches”.
Sandwiches off the menu are cooked fresh while you wait, and if you head in early like I did, it really isn’t too long a wait, I could imagine that later in the rush hour might be a different story. My ciabatta didn’t taste anywhere near as boring as it looked. The “Bacon Rage” contains thick slices of Otway bacon (no fat), chunky but soft fennel, chestnuts, and a deeeelicious quince aioli.
Great value is their lunchbox at $13.50, your choice of three salads (we grabbed the beetroot, carrot, orange, lentil, and mint) choice of three baguettes (went for the roast pork, chilli, tomato, anchovy and olive) such a small dessert (as in seasonal fruit friand). These sandwiches are not cheap, but when businesses are taking the time to source tasty, quality produce and devise unique flavour combinations, it’s a price many would be willing to pay. The menu’s littered with morsels like Moondarra Wagyu meatballs, confit duck, Lime & palm sugar poached Glenloth chicken …  EARL has the perfect formula, a menu so full of mouthwatering options, it’s hard not to commit yourself to return to try at least a few others!

Bar Lourinha
37 Little Collins St, www.barlourinha.com.au

Okay, so I cheated on just a touch on this one, but surely one slip a week is okay, and the food should really come in only ten bucks or so over the $15 limit. Bar Lourinha does weekday lunch specials; from Monday Lamb Stufato to Fishy Fridays. Dishes are meant to be shared, so one between two works with a small dish or two on the side, and prices vary from $18 to around $25 per special. We went on Thursday when it’s Goat Chanfana, a Portuguese kid stew with red wine sauce, and a soft potato. Nice and tasty, but definitely needs accompaniments, we went for some roasted mushrooms with garlic cream (divine), and octopus and anchovy banderillas (little skewers with pickles, peppers, octopus and other goodies). I admit, this was $50 work of food, but the ambience at Bar Lourinha, and the Iberian tastes make it worth the indulgence! Word is the day to go is Wednesday, when the giant paella is cooked at the end of the bar, good luck ordering anything else!

Listener suggestions for other great, cheap workday lunches appreciated! Email Ela Carte here