10 tips for eating at hatted restaurants on a budget

Ugh. Budgets. The wet blankets of good times. Like dietary requirements and sunrise. A spell of penny-pinching doesn't have to mean Mi Goreng and bread dipped in something runnier than bread for every meal, though. You can still eat out and you can eat out well.

Here are 10 tips for dining at Good Food Guide hatted restaurants when you want your eight-textured chocolate cake and a house deposit, too.

Go easy on the Grange

Stick to the house plonk and make that one bottle last. An easy-drinking lager isn't a bad option for riding shotgun the whole way either and will get along perfectly fine with most dishes.

Better yet, stay away from the sauce completely. A grim notion, yes, especially for a restaurant that relies on booze sales for the bulk of its profit. Which is pretty much all of them.

BYO, yes or no?

If a dry meal is beyond the realm of possibility, let it be known a few hatted restaurants will let you bring your own bottle. It doesn't hurt to phone the restaurant and ask if BYO is A-OK as it won't always be advertised on their website. Check out Matteo's in Fitzroy North, The Wolfe in East Brisbane (Tuesdays and Wednesdays only) and South Yarra's Bacash, where you can BYO on a Friday with no corkage if you choose the three-course option for $85 a head.

Even Tetsuya's will let you BYO, albeit at $30 for the first bottle and $45 for every bottle thereafter. (If this is your version of eating on a budget, give me a call when you properly flex the plastic, yeah?)

Tonight's rib is tomorrow's lunch

Here's an excellent way to make sure you go home alone on the first date: ask for a doggy bag. The equal and opposite of bringing carrot sticks to the movies. There are occasions, however, where you can take away food from a hatted restaurant and not look like a Shop-A-Docket-hoarding nutter.

Leftovers permissible for taking home include LP's Quality Meats' beef short-rib, Hartsyard's fried chicken and anything that's seen the asado at Porteno. If it can be sliced and thrown into a salad the next day, it's free game and a free lunch.

Make pasta the main event

Australia's best Italian restaurants usually offer pasta in both entree and main-sized portions and a large serving of pasta is often cheaper and more filling than its secondi mates. See Uccello and Lucio's in Sydney, Il Bacaro in Melbourne and the brilliant 1889 Enoteca in Brisbane.

Get in early

You don't need a night at the opera to take advantage of pre-theatre specials. You just need to eat dinner at the same time Millionaire Hot Seat is on. Think of it as practice for old age.

Bennelong, The Gantry, Bistrode CBD, Mercado and Aria are beaut for early-bird bargains in Sydney and Ezard offers "pre-tennis" specials during Melbourne's Open season.

Stick to the game plan

Most hatted restaurants publish their menus online, meaning you can have a fair idea of how much you're spending before sitting down. Unfortunately, sticking to a plan means avoiding impromptu extras like cocktails, oysters, side dishes, dessert wine, whisky, cheese, caviar, cognac and truffles. In short: all the fun stuff. Budgets really are the worst, aren't they?

'Tap's fine, thanks'

If you're dropping $10 on charcoal-filtered Tuscan spring water while trying to budget it's possible you haven't grasped the whole "saving money" thing.

Pull up a stool

Many hatted restaurants will have a bar that offers an exclusive, cheaper menu. Leading the counter charge in Sydney is Rockpool Bar and Grill, Bentley, Automata, Icebergs, Restaurant Hubert and Momofuku Seiobo while Cafe Di Stasio, Lume, Tonka and Cecconi's Flinders Lane will sort you out for killer bar snacks-cum-dinner in Melbourne. Brisbane locals can hit Stokehouse Q for its bar menu minute steak or Nickel, Fortitude Valley for prawn cutlets and prosecco.

Let's do lunch

Whether it's a two-course business meeting or a take-the-afternoon-off booze-and-snooze fest, lunchtime dining is your friend for prix fixe value. A Good Food favourite is Restaurant Hubert's le menu de dejeuner for $75 per person (hold the $160 caviar service if it's the wrong end of the pay fortnight).

Other bangers for your Sydney lunch buck are Lumi, The Restaurant Pendolino and Glass Brasserie. Melbourne lunch specials can be found at Rosetta, Grossi Florentino Upstairs, The Press Club and Woodland House, while Aria Brisbane rocks a daytime prix fixe in the north.

Save the degustation for another day

Not all hatted restaurants have prices requiring you to put the Playstation in hock. Casual but no less professional joints like Acme, Bar Brose, 10 William Street, Embla, Marion, and Gauge will feed you very well and leave change for the pub.