Australia is known for iconic, often simple, comfort foods like the savory Meat Pie, the salty Vegemite on Toast, the sweet Lamington & Pavlova, and the historic ANZAC Biscuit, alongside hearty pub fare like Chicken Parmigiana, fresh Barramundi, and BBQ staples like the "snag" (sausage) in a bun, all reflecting its British roots, multicultural influences, and love for outdoor cooking.
Popular Australian Food
The famous Australian specialties that you must try
Roast lamb has been declared Australia's national dish in a major poll that shows we're still a country of meat eaters at heart. The poll, held on News Ltd websites across all mainland capitals, attracted more than 24,000 votes. It revealed three clear front-runners – all of them meat-based.
The most popular food in Australia is widely considered the meat pie, an iconic hand-held pastry filled with minced meat and gravy, followed closely by other staples like roast lamb (a Sunday dinner favorite), chicken parmigiana (a pub classic), and Vegemite on toast. Other beloved items include smashed avocado on toast, fish and chips, and sweet treats like Pavlova and Anzac biscuits.
Animal native foods include kangaroo, emu, witchetty grubs and crocodile, and plant foods include fruits such as quandong, kutjera, spices such as lemon myrtle and vegetables such as warrigal greens and various native yams.
The meat pie was brought to Australia by British settlers in the 18th century. The first meat pies were simple affairs, made with a pastry crust and filled with meat and gravy. These pies were a convenient and portable meal for workers and travellers, and quickly became a popular food item in the growing colonies.
Australia's food scene is a melting pot, reflecting our diverse population. You'll find restaurants and cafes serving dishes from all over the world, including Italian, Indian, Thai, Chinese, Vietnamese, and Middle Eastern cuisines. Whether you're craving sushi, pizza, or a spicy curry, you'll find it here.
Overall across diet types, Australian, Italian and Thai stand out as Aussies' top most favoured cuisines, followed by Chinese and Indian. Local food – Australian cuisine – is most popular among pescetarians and flexitarians, and second most popular among meat eaters and vegetarians/vegans.
Half of the top ten popular dishes are beef or lamb dishes, four are chicken dishes and one fish meal makes the top ten. The typical meal served and eaten on the Australian dinner table would be a red meat dish with at least three or four different varieties of fresh vegetables.
Australians call McDonald's "Macca's," a common slang abbreviation that the company has embraced and even used in advertising and on some store signs, reflecting the Australian habit of shortening names, like calling people "Bazza" for Barry.
Here are some of the Australian food inventions:
Meat Pies
This Australian favorite is made up of flaky pastry filled with minced meat and gravy, sometimes mixed with a variety of vegetables. It's basically the Australian food equivalent of a chicken pot pie. This filling snack is perfect on the go or at a pub, and is quintessentially Australian.
Australian cuisine is a vibrant fusion of global influences and native ingredients, shaped by our country's multicultural population and diverse landscapes. Rather than being bound by tradition, Australian food embraces innovation – blending bush foods like wattleseed and emu with Asian spices and European techniques.
10 Most Popular FOODS in the World
The 2-hour/4-hour rule in Australia dictates how long potentially hazardous foods (like meats, dairy, cooked rice) can safely stay between 5°C and 60°C (the "temperature danger zone") before bacterial growth becomes risky. If out for under 2 hours: it can be refrigerated or used/heated. If 2 to 4 hours: it must be used immediately and cannot be put back in the fridge. Over 4 hours: it must be thrown out. This is a cumulative time, including prep, storage, and display.
Meat Pie. When it comes to Australian food, I think that the humble meat pie likely tops the list. The closest thing to a meat pie in the US is a "pot pie", but that doesn't begin to describe it. A meat pie is traditionally a "takeaway" food item, held with the hand, and eaten at sporting events.
In South Australia, the snag reigned supreme, in Victoria lamb galloped into the top spot while in NSW the meat pie was the most popular dish. So there you have it, roast lamb has been voted as Australia's national dish, closely followed by the good old meat pie and the classic snag on the BBQ.
Four'N Twenty has been an iconic Australian brand since 1947, synonymous with delicious, hearty pies enjoyed by millions. As they continue to grow, their focus is on expanding into international markets, bringing the authentic taste of Australia to the world.
Aussie slang for a meat pie includes classic rhyming slang like "dog's eye," often paired with "dead horse" (tomato sauce), and less common, colourful terms like "rat coffin," "maggot bag," and "bachelor's breakfast," though most Aussies just call it a "pie".
The most famous pie in Australia is the classic meat pie, a savory, handheld snack with minced meat and gravy, often enjoyed at sporting events and road trips, but innovative variations like kangaroo, crocodile, or laksa pies are also popular, with bakeries competing for "best pie" titles. Iconic brands like Four 'n Twenty have made the humble beef pie a cultural staple, served with tomato sauce (ketchup) for a quintessential Aussie experience.
The standard three-part test for Aboriginality in Australia requires a person to prove they have Aboriginal descent, self-identify as Aboriginal, and be accepted by an Aboriginal community as such, a test originating from court cases like Mabo and adopted for many government programs, though the Australian Bureau of Statistics (ABS) uses a simpler self-identification for census data, while the descent and community acceptance elements are key for specific benefits and employment.
A large part of the traditional Aboriginal diet included native fruits and seeds that grew naturally within the area. The types of fruit and seed depended on the season and availability, but could include wild passionfruit, wild oranges, bush tomato, bush banana, bush plums, mulga seeds and wattle seeds.
The Tim Tam still holds a special place in the hearts of Australians, coming second with 8,900 average searches across the country each month. Other legends to make the list of Australia's most popular snacks include Cheezels, Cherry Ripe, Lamingtons and Passiona – all scoring just under 5,000 monthly searches.