An Aussie’s $26 ‘sausage McMuffin’ has sparked a fierce debate over whether Sydney or Melbourne have the best brunch scene.
The divisive breakfast consisted of a sausage and egg English muffin, a hash brown, three visible leaves of lettuce and a single, quartered cherry tomato.
‘For $26, I was expecting better,’ the peeved patron captioned the image on Reddit.
‘This is a new café. I assumed, based on the price, that it would be “a little bit fancy,” and I was intrigued about what they could do with an English muffin.
‘Nope, I just paid $26 for a sausage McMuffin. This is why Sydney doesn’t get close to Melbourne for brunch.’
Many locals commiserated, venting their own dissatisfaction with the state of the Saturday morning scene.
‘What is that? I love Sydney, but this kind of thing makes me hate it,’ one said.
‘Wow, that is awful. I could get a full English at my local basic shop… even the lettuce looks pathetic,’ another added.
A Sydney breakfast has left a diner wanting after they paid $26 for a ‘sausage McMuffin’
Some Sydneysiders overlooked the miserable plate to defend their city.
‘I wouldn’t say Sydney cannot compete with Melbourne. You can choose equally s*** overpriced places there. Plenty of good places in Sydney,’ one wrote.
‘Man that’s miserable. It has absolutely nothing to do with Syd vs Melb, though. You just need to research your cafes better,’ another said.
‘Sydney has brunch that can compete [with] –if not exceed– Melbourne but you need to know where to find it. You’re unlikely to just stumble upon it,’ a third agreed.
Others took issue with the cherry tomato and lettuce accompaniment.
‘Yesterday’s salad is working hard out there,’ another joked.
‘That’s the saddest salad in the world right there,’ another agreed.
Other Sydneysiders said the meal was a blatant ‘rip-off’ and a ‘cash grab’.
The $26 ‘sausage McMuffin’ has sparked a fierce debate over whether Sydney or Melbourne have the best brunch scene (pictured, a café in Melbourne)
Some agreed it resembled items on the McDonald’s breakfast menu, with one pointing out it would only cost ‘about $8’ at the fast food chain.
‘It looks like the owner is just drop shipping from McDonald’s,’ they said.
‘Isn’t this just the McMuffin meal with a lettuce leaf?’ another agreed.
One particularly business-minded local decided to crunch some numbers.
‘This looks like $2.50 maximum worth of food product and a successful business would charge four times what the material cost is,’ they wrote.
‘So maybe $10 maximum for this dish.’
Residents in Australia’s capital cities have long been miffed by breakfast and brunch price during what is considered the worst cost-of-living crisis in recent decades.
Last month, a Brisbane woman fumed after she was forced to shell out $15 for two coffees amid insiders’ warnings prices are set to rise even further.
Other Aussies even reported paying $22 for a single pint at a north Sydney pub, with vision of the card reader going viral amongst fed-up party-goers.
In 2023, ‘lunchflation’ emerged as the dominant term for the increase in prices of takeaway food frequently bought by workers in offices and on job sites.
Just two years ago, Aussies were alarmed to discover the typical meal out cost $20 instead of $10.
