Victoria reigns pizza supreme in takeaway price wars

Victoria, long regarded as a foodie mecca, has a new mantle: home of Australia's cheapest takeaway menus, data from an online and mobile ordering service suggests.

The data looks at the average cost of buying five staples of the takeaway diet: supreme pizza, barbecue chicken, butter chicken, Penang curry and pad Thai.

Bingeing on all five meals would cost a Victorian $15 less than it would for a Queenslander. The Sunshine State is the most expensive for takeaway food.

But even in Melbourne's suburbs there are huge discrepancies, with up to $17 difference between the cost of a supreme pizza in Kew East and in Tecoma.

Those with a craving for takeaway in Sydney would do best to avoid the CBD and Darlinghurst, where prices for pizza and barbecue chicken were about $4-$5 more than options in suburbs such as Ultimo, Pyrmont and Haymarket.

The data comes from Menulog.com.au, which says it was taken from the 5000 restaurant menus registered with the service.

Queensland was the most expensive state for takeaway, followed by Western Australia and then New South Wales. The ACT and Northern Territory were not included in the figures.

The most expensive average price for a meal was for a supreme pizza: $18.11 in Queensland and just $13.19 in Victoria. A supreme pizza in New South Wales cost an average of $17.46. Barbecue chicken was the second most expensive meal and Queenslanders paid the top average price of $17.37, while Victorians paid nearly $5 less ($12.76).

South Australia had the cheapest butter chicken ($12.83), Penang curry ($10.90), and pad Thai ($11.05).

Menulog spokeswoman Julia Snabl said the disparity in takeaway prices illustrated that it paid to research a good takeaway deal.

"If you search online, you can find discount offers and special deals for multiple ordering, such as a free order after a set number of previous orders, or free sides and drinks included with orders," Ms Snabl said.

The difference between the most expensive Melbourne suburbs for takeaway is also stark. Butter chicken costs an average of $6.47 in Burwood. Travel to McKinnon about 20 minutes away and it would cost an average of $18.54.

West Footscray offered the cheapest barbecue chooks at about $6.40, while in Windsor the price skyrocketed to $20 on average.

The cheapest pad Thai was in Carnegie and Preston at $9 and the most expensive Wantirna at $17.90.