A cheap city lunch doesn’t have to mean another 7-Eleven sandwich or a sad desk salad. At a time when the cost of, well, just about everything is climbing, a handful of new(-ish) CBD eateries are drawing on the everyday food cultures of Vietnam, Italy, France and beyond to serve satisfying lunches that don’t ask you to sacrifice flavour for affordability. These six spots prove you can still eat well in the middle of Melbourne for under $20.

Ulam Express

The life of a rendang melt at this exciting new Indonesian sandwich window starts well before your lunch break. Next door to sister restaurant Ulam Rasa, the grab-and-go offshoot layers 10-hour-braised beef chuck with American cheese, pickled cabbage and red onion inside toasted sourdough ($18.90), turning one of Indonesia’s best-known comfort dishes into a weekday sandwich. The low-and-slow cook happens upfront, so most orders are ready in about 10 minutes. Seating is limited to a handful of stools, so most customers do takeaway, preferably with a sweet, pandan-laced coffee known as kopi klepon ($5.90).

297 Exhibition Street, Melbourne, instagram.com/ulam_express

Sederhana

By 10.45am most days, a queue is already forming outside Sederhana, the first Australian outpost of Indonesia’s long-running Padang restaurant chain, serving West Sumatran cuisine. If you’re dining in, dishes are presented together in the traditional hidang style, creating a banquet-like spread. For takeaways, diners can build their own plate from the display counter, stocked with slow-cooked curries, braised meats and sambals. If it’s your first visit, order jasmine rice with beef rendang gently cooked for nine hours ($17.50), or go for the ayam panas (crispy galangal-spiced chicken) with sambal balado (red chilli sambal) and rice ($19).

Lunch is served daily from 11am to 3pm. Everyone joins the same queue, but takeaway is the quickest option if you’re choosing from the display, with staff able to pack your meal straight away.

207 Queen Street, Melbourne, sederhana.com.au

Saigon Square

A $10.99 lunch feels almost nostalgic – a deliberate decision by owner Tien Phung and her family who hope affordable prices encourage diners to look beyond pho and discover the breadth of Vietnamese cuisine. On offer? Bun bo tai, a beef noodle soup flavoured with lemongrass and fermented shrimp paste, plus pho tai (rare beef pho) and com tam suon, which is a grilled pork chop on broken rice. All come in lunch-sized portions for $10.99 on weekdays. The soups share a broth based on Tien’s mother Xuan’s recipe, boiled for 10 hours before simmering overnight for another 14.

Basement, 111 Lonsdale Street, Melbourne, saigonsquare.com.au

Remo’s Pasta & Tiramisu

Remo Nicolini wants his pasta bar to become part of people’s weekly lunch rotation, which is why nothing on the menu costs more than $19. Inspired by the neighbourhood pasta bars he grew up with in Italy, the menu highlights Roman classics such as rigatoni carbonara ($17) made with guanciale, pecorino and egg – never cream – alongside eight-hour wagyu ragu ($18) and rigatoni pomodoro finished with stracciatella ($15). All sauces are made on site and, despite the lunchtime queues, most bowls are ready in 10 to 15 minutes. Grab a seat if you can, then round out the meal with an $8 tiramisu or the signature crema di caffe, an Italian-style frozen coffee treat ($3 small, $5 large).

198 Little Collins Street, Melbourne, remospasta.com.au

Casse-Croute

Some sandwiches rely on the fillings but at Casse-Croute, the bread does the talking. Fresh baguettes emerge from the oven throughout the day, filled to order with house-roasted meats, French butter, Dijon mustard and cornichons. The roast beef baguette, Le Boeuf ($16), is a bestseller, while the minimalist Le Jambon ($16) proves that ham, emmental cheese and butter are all you really need when the bread is this good. It’s an efficient takeaway operation, with most orders ready in three to five minutes, but visit before noon or after 1.30 pm to avoid the busiest queues. Pair your baguette with an Orangina drink ($5) or one of the house-baked Breton pastries.

130 Little Collins Street (enter via Coromandel Place), Melbourne, instagram.com/cassecroutemelbourne

Kub Khao

One day, it might be green curry chicken. The next, pad krapow or massaman curry. Kub Khao’s weekday lunch special changes daily, with one, two or three rotating dishes served over steamed jasmine rice (from $12). If decision fatigue has already hit before lunch, go straight for the $10 khao man gai - poached chicken, fragrant rice, cucumber, clear soup and ginger-soybean sauce. Or opt for one of the permanent $15 comfort dishes, including barbecue pork, crispy chicken or stewed pork leg, which can also be served over egg noodles instead of rice.

Shop 8, Paramount Food Court, 108 Bourke Street, Melbourne, instagram.com/kubkhao.au