$20 for a side of fries at Sydney restaurant

If you were to order a side of chips Infinity by Mark BestThe fine dining restaurant on the revolving 81st floor of the Sydney Tower will cost you $17. But what you’ll get is very different from any potato chips you might find at your local fishmonger, bar or restaurant.

These chips are made from sebago potatoes harvested from a Southern Highlands farm and are sugar tested to ensure a nice, even cooking. These are meticulously hand-cut to 1.5 centimeters square, steamed at 100 degrees to create the optimal soft, fluffy interior, then blanched in olive oil at 160 degrees – and that’s just the preparation.

Once your order reaches the kitchen, each chip is fried in wagyu beef tallow until a crisp, golden crust forms, then sprinkled with malt vinegar powder and salt (a nostalgic nod to executive chef Mark Best’s favorite supermarket chip, Smiths’ Salt & Vinegar).

“[Chips] “Bring a sense of comfort to the table, but that doesn’t mean these things have to be done haphazardly,” Best said. “The price reflects the labor involved, the cost of ingredients including tallow, the level of menu they feature in and the wider running costs of the restaurant.”

In 2026, the phrase “cheap as chips” is no longer as meaningful as it used to be. While hot chips remain one of Australia’s favorite foods, consistently crowned the most ordered meal by Uber Eats, prices have soared everywhere, from frozen chips in supermarkets to high-end fine dining restaurants.

Despite its hefty price tag, Mark Best doesn’t offer the most expensive side of fries in the country. Rather you can find them in the Merivale restaurant. Mimi’shere “shoe chips, tarragon mayonnaise” is listed for $20.

The upscale restaurant in Sydney’s eastern suburb of Coogee has broken the $20 price cap in the last 12 months; This is an increase of more than 40 percent since 2020, when the same meal was $14. Merivale did not respond to requests for comment.

“Restaurant chip prices appear to be increasing rapidly rather than slowing down,” he said Good Food Guide editor Callan Boys.

“I think restaurateurs everywhere are waiting for someone to break the $20 chip barrier, like when Quay’s entrées were $50 in the late nineties, giving other fine restaurateurs the green light to raise their prices.”

While high prices are justified if the potatoes are seasonally sourced, hand-cut and served with homemade seasonings, Boys said the promise of easy profits can lead some restaurants to cut corners and charge unreasonably high prices for frozen shoelaces purchased in bulk.

“That’s one of the reasons why the steakhouse model is so popular. The big bucks are made on the sides and the booze,” he said.

Restaurants rewarded with hats in 2026 Age And Sydney Morning Herald Good Food Guides I haven’t served $20 fries yet, but they’re close. (Mimi’s excluded 2026 Good Food Guide after this imprint allegations of sexual harassment and exploitation published In Merivale restaurants.)

The price of the chips has increased by 50 percent in the last six years, from $13 to $19.50. Donovan’sA one-hat restaurant on St Kilda beach in Melbourne. The restaurant did not respond to a request for further information.

‘Restaurant chip prices appear to be rising rapidly rather than slowing down.’

Good Food Guide editor Callan Boys

Two-hat CBD steakhouse in Sydney Rockpool Bar and Grill It charges $18 for a side of hand-cut chips; That’s 80 percent more than just $10 in 2020. A portion of chips at Rockpool Bar & Grill Melbourne also costs $18.

“Every chip at Rockpool is cut by hand and goes through a multi-step process before it reaches the plate,” said Rockpool executive chef Santiago Aristizabal.

“It takes a fair amount of work for something that looks simple, but that’s the point. A humble chip may look simple, but doing it properly takes time, care and good materials.”

Chipflation is not exclusive to fine dining. A bag of frozen chips in 2026 costs an average of $4.80 at Coles and Woolworths ($3.80 at Aldi), a regular portion of Macca’s chips costs more than $4, and the average price of a minimum of chips at fish and chip shops in Melbourne and Sydney is around $6.50.

The average punter at the bar is likely to pay between $10 and $12 for a side of fries and up to $23 for a large portion at the bar. Prince Alfred Hotel Richmond is in Melbourne.

“There’s no doubt you’ll see this everywhere,” said Scott Leach, the restaurant’s publican. Australian Rose In Erskineville, Sydney. Like many pubs, the Rose sells two tiers of nachos: a side (rosemary-salted fries, $4, among the city’s most affordable) and a larger sharing portion (more than double the price, with vegan truffle mayonnaise, $14).

Value is at the forefront of mind, Leach said, but there are other factors to consider when determining price: the quality of the fries purchased, the oil used, the electricity required and the fees (and penalty rates) for the people who cook and serve them.

“As a small, independent business, it is difficult to compete with larger groups,” Leach said. “[They] has sharper prices that translate into cheaper retail prices.”

Price increases start at the potato farm and continue throughout the supply chain. Restaurant owners like one-hatted Mia Coady-Plumb Bar Magnolia Melbourne is at Brunswick and Corey Costelloe is in one cap 20 Chapels In Sydney’s Marrickville, he said rising oil and potato prices had hit their profitability.

Farming costs have risen to record levels in the last five years, AUSVEG reports, but that’s not why potatoes are expensive. Independent producers like Jon Hill Hill Family Farm In the NSW Southern Highlands and Richard Hawkes Hawkes Farm Victoria’s Mornington Peninsula has seen more than its fair share of increases in the cost of fertiliser, electricity and fuel.

“All of this has more than doubled,” Hill said. “But how much do we get paid? [doesn’t cover it] … we can’t get enough of it, it’s just an existence.”

Hawkes said large-volume buyers had kept contract prices steady, despite a brief spike during a weather-related supply shortage late last year. “In one particular case, there is a potato chip manufacturer that is lowering prices,” he said. “The margins most farmers make are pitiful… Those who make the money become middlemen.”

Both Hill and Hawkes have diversified to survive and now sell directly to restaurants. Hawkes also serves hot chips from Boneo farm gate. “They are loss leaders, but they encourage people to come to the farm and they often leave with potatoes and other produce,” he said.

Then comes the labor cost. We turn a bag of seasonal potatoes into British crisps that are soft on the inside and golden on the outside. Northern Soul Chip Shop It takes years of research and four hours of cleaning, peeling, cutting and frying three times each day in Melbourne’s St Kilda. This is a significant investment, given the 18 percent increase in the minimum wage since the business opened in 2020.

“We’re trying to do this as best as we can,” co-owner Joe Grimshaw said. “We should charge what we feel is worth. [$8-$12]and this more so because of the labor and machinery we had to buy.”

Frozen chips offer a solution for restaurants where fries are an accompaniment rather than a specialty.

“When Bar Magnolia Opened three years ago, I resisted putting it in [chips] It was on the menu, but there was such a demand that I had to!” Coady-Plumb, which freezes its own fries, said it charges $10 per serving. “They are a mainstay now.”

20 Chapels Said chef-chef Corry Costelloe: “The average diner doesn’t care about hand-cutting their fries; they just want a crispy, well-seasoned fry. Our fries are purchased frozen and pre-cut… so we can keep them at $12.”

They are among the cheapest chips at a famous restaurant in Sydney, but they are not as popular as the $18 slices that Costelloe and his team spent two days cutting, fetching, boiling, chilling and double-frying.

“When we explain the process to our customers, they understand,” he said. “Word has spread and these are definitely a special dish.”

Gary Mortimer, professor of consumer behavior and retail marketing at Queensland University of Technology, said customers would continue to buy fries as long as they saw value beyond deep-fried fries.

For a diner, that might mean spending $18 to brag about trying the fanciest wedges in town at 20 Chapel; for another, that might mean spending $19.50 at Donovan’s to enjoy fries at a legendary waterfront restaurant.

“You’d think no one in their right mind would pay $50 for a bowl of chips, but if it’s at an upscale restaurant, it’s for one night only, there’s limited seating, and there’s a celebrity chef like Heston Blumenthal… people will pay that,” Mortimer said.

“As consumers, we are not rational. If we were, we would always buy the cheapest product, the cheapest car and the cheapest food, but we don’t.”