AUSTRALIA’S MOST POPULAR TAKEAWAY FOOD IN 2024

Find the most popular takeaway food in Australia 2024 list. The top most-sold takeaway dishes in restaurants, eateries, food stores & businesses in Australia in 2024. 

Brought to you by Mau, a Senior Digital Marketing Specialist at eDigital.

THE MOST POPULAR TAKEAWAY FOOD IN AUSTRALIA FOR 2024

Before you find the most popular takeaway food in Australia in 2024let me tell you something you have probably been turning a blind eye to…

You will never build a sustainable business based on takeaway sales.

  • If you use Uber Eats, DoorDash or Menulog, the 20% to 30% you pay them for every single order is helping them grow their business, not yours.
  • When you sell using those delivery apps, you are helping them grow their database, not yours. Yes, that’s right, you cannot request them to transfer your hard-earned takeaway customers’ data to your platform.
  • To get more takeaway sales you constantly need to advertise more offers and cut more profit.

Takeaway is NOT your business.

You are in the business of making people feel amazing. (the experience)

YOU SELL AN EXPERIENCE.

YOU DO NOT SELL FOOD.

Offering yummy food is not enough if you want to make a profit.

Many can offer a tasty dish but extremely few are offering an amazing service.

The better you become at making people feel amazing, the easier will be to charge a premium for the experience you offer (Premium price – profit driver)

Let that sink in for a minute.

High dependency on takeaway sales is happening to business owners who have not had the skills and knowledge to train their staff and teams in remarkable customer service.

And I do not blame them.

In general, the service you get at restaurants and food outlets in Australia is s***t! with few exceptions counted with half of one hand’s fingers.

As consumers are not seeing the value of sitting at a restaurant, they either:

  • Cook at home
  • Buy pre-cooked meals at supermarkets or
  • Buy takeaway

All these cut the massive opportunity you have to make a big profit.

The solution

I can train you and your team on how to deliver a truly unique and remarkable experience that will keep customers for years talking about it.

You will also learn:

  • Lower customer acquisition costs.
  • Minimise dependency on food delivery apps and paid media.
  • Build a marketing engine with marketing assets and channels you fully own.
  • How to craft a marketing plan that boosts your food sales and customer lifetime value.

Contact us today and book your training.

THE TOP TAKEAWAY FOOD AUSTRALIANS ARE EATING

Ok.

Now let’s talk about takeaway food trends in Australia…

Are you guessing pizza, curry or Chinese are the most popular takeaways in Australia?

According to the below food industry sources, there is something different getting the Australian taste buds.

Sadly, there are low signs of organic food or healthy food becoming mainstream.

Online apps and food delivery services are making junk food more accessible as confirmed by the University of Sydney research.

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According to the former food delivery app Deliveroo, below are Australia’s most popular takeaway food dishes:

  1. Fish and chips. The most popular sold takeaway food in Australia.
  2. Grilled chicken burrito from Guzman y Gomez in Sydney
  3. The OG from Fishbowl in Sydney
  4. Beer battered fries from 8 Bit in Melbourne
  5. Tommy the Chook from Boss Burger Co. in Geelong
  6. Chicken schnitzel from Schnitz in Wollongong
  7. Classic burrito from Zambrero in Adelaide

Deliveroo is now gone but they confirmed there was a massive increase in orders for ice cream, biscuits and chocolate cakes. Thai and sushi during the initial period of the pandemic in 2020.

AUSTRALIAN TAKEAWAY FOOD STATISTICS

According to research firm Roy Morgan, over 17 million Australians eat takeaway food and despite the burgeoning food choices available in recent years, McDonald’s junk food remains the most visited fast food restaurant in Australia.

Over half of Australians aged 14+ (52.7%) eat McDonald’s in an average of six months while traditional fast food rival KFC is second at 40.8%.

Nearly a third of Australians eat Subway, Hungry Jack’s or Domino’s Pizza food in an average of six months and Domino’s Pizza is now the third most popular restaurant for the upcoming Generation Z.

Note > Advocacy group Parents Voice crowned Hungry Jacks as having Australia’s worst junk food digital marketing campaigns.

Other leading fast food outlets include Red Rooster, and the reigning 2017 Roy Morgan Customer Satisfaction Award Winner Grill’d. Over 10% of Australians eat Red Rooster or Grill’d in an average of six months.

The most popular quick service restaurants australia 2020

The most popular quick-service restaurants Australia 2020

⭐️ Popular read > The top 25 food hashtags on Instagram

Things have not changed that much in the past years.

Aussies’ addition to fast food from almost the same quick-service restaurants has not changed.

Most popular takeaway fast quick food restaurant australia Roy Morgan 2018

Most popular takeaway fast quick food restaurant Australia Roy Morgan 2018

Note: takeaway food and home-delivered food are counted separately by Roy Morgan research.

AUSTRALIAN HOME DELIVERED FOOD STATS by Roy Morgan in May 2021

5.5 million Australians aged 14+ (26.5%) used meal delivery services last year, up from 3.9 million (19.0%) in 2019 and 3.3 million (16.3%) in 2018.

The growth of meal delivery services such as Uber Eats, Menulog, HelloFresh and DoorDash was ‘supercharged’ by lockdowns.

The two youngest generations are the most likely to use meal delivery services and saw the biggest increases last year with well over a third of Millennials 37.2% (up 9.7% points from 2019) and Generation Z 37.2% (up 6.9% points) using meal delivery services in an average three months.

However, despite increasing usage amongst all generations, the use of meal delivery services drops off sharply for those aged 45 and over in the older generations. Just over one in five people in Generation X (21.7%) used a meal delivery service in 2020, an increase of 6.7% points from 2019 while only 11.4% (up 5.3% points) of Baby Boomers and 9% (up 4.9% points) of Pre-Boomers used one of the services.

Women are more likely to use meal delivery services (27.9%) than men (24.9%) with the highest usage for both genders among those aged 25-34 with 45.2% of women and 43.1% of men in that age group using the services. Women are more likely to use the services in all age groups.

City-dwellers (31.6%) are far more likely to have had their meals delivered than those in country areas (16.6%).

Uber Eats remains the market leader and is now used by 12.8% of Australians including over 1-in-5 of both Generation Z and Millennials. Other leading meal delivery services such as Menulog, DoorDash and HelloFresh have also seen significant increases in usage of their services.

✔️ Most read today > The top 25 most popular food hashtags on TikTok

TAKEAWAY FOOD BEHAVIOUR DATA IN VICTORIA, AUS

The VicHealth Coronavirus Victoria Wellbeing Impact Study confirmed a massive jump from 13% to 28% (more than double) of people ordering takeaway food during the first lockdown.

Takeaway food behaviours Victoria Australia 2020 first lockdown

Takeaway food behaviours Victoria Australia 2020 first lockdown. Source: VicHealth

The massive increase in the junk takeaway food trend in Australia is concerning. Takeaway food delivery apps will learn specific consumer tastes (fat levels, salt levels, sugar levels), create a profile for each consumer and potentially market them accordingly, making junk food or highly processed foods stickier and harder to keep away. The result? increase in obesity and chronic diseases. I feel sorry, especially for overweight kids due to their parents’ poor takeaway food choices. If being healthy is your top priority, the action is simple: buy fresh organic food and cook it at home. Tip: Many organic vegetables can be eaten raw, saving you the cooking

Mau

WHAT IS THE MOST SOLD UBER EATS FOOD IN AUSTRALIA

According to Uber newsroom, Asian flavours dominated Australia’s favourites in 2020 – Chinese, Thai, Japanese, Indian and Vietnamese all entrenched in the top 10 most popular cuisines nationally.

Uber Eats Australia most sold food December 2020

Uber Eats Australia most sold food December 2020

THE MOST LOVED TAKEAWAY RESTAURANT IN AUSTRALIA BY CUSTOMERS

Roy Morgan’s 2020 Quick Service Restaurant Customer Satisfaction Award – Winners are:

1. Guzman y Gomez (winner)
2. Crust Pizza
3. Grill’d
4. Mad Mex
5. (equal) Subway & Soul Origin

WORLD’S TOP TAKEAWAY FOOD

Deliveroo’s most popular takeaway food – worldwide:

  1. Pad Thaï from Thaï at Home in Paris
  2. Cheeseburger from Five Guys in London
  3. Sushi Lovers Poke Bowl from CALI-POKE in Dubai
  4. Burrito from Boojum in Dublin
  5. Bubble Tea from Tenren’s Tea in Hong Kong
  6. Grilled Chicken Burrito from Guzman Y Gomez in Sydney
  7. Burrito from Gonzalez & Co in Barcelona
  8. Beef Burger from Tommi’s Burger Joint in Berlin
  9. Poke Bowl from Temakery in Amsterdam
  10. 2 Hot Wings® from KFC in Brighton

“You do not necessarily need to follow the trend of opening a popular junk takeaway food business. If all the trends, data and insights are telling you to open  – for example – a new “fish and chips” store to make money, think about the contribution are you making to your community. Do they need another junk food store in town? If – on the contrary – you are passionate about organic or vegan food, but the data tells you there is no market for it, you can start small with a food truck/van and once you educate the market about the benefits of your new healthy offering, you can scale up”

Mau

⭐️ You will also like > The best 10 Australian food and dishes

THE TOP AUSTRALIAN TAKEAWAY RECIPES

Below are the most popular takeaway dishes searched by Australians by taste.com.au:

  1. Pad Thai
  2. Cheeseburgers
  3. Poke bowl
  4. Chicken burrito
  5. Hot wings
  6. Beef tacos
  7. Pho
  8. Acai bowl
  9. Margherita pizza
  10. Chicken tenders

In Australia, cooking at home is seen more as a chore than as a hobby; leaving some few – who adventure in cooking at home – to eat quite depressing “homemade” dishes.

Anthony Albanese Australian politician depressing dinner Instagram

Anthony Albanese Australian politician depressing dinner Instagram

The above homemade depressing dish was presented by a high-paid Aussie politician on his Instagram account.

Trending > The best Allergen Guide Sheet Template for food and restaurant business owners.

Allergen guide sheet template

Allergen guide sheet template

MOST SEARCH TAKEAWAY FOOD IN GOOGLE AUSTRALIA 2020

most popular takeaway food australia 2020

Most popular takeaway food Australia 2020

Consume your takeaway food

According to the latest Household Food Waste Study by CQU University researchers, Australians waste 0.07 kg of takeaway food/home delivery per person per week. This could indicate that a whopping 91 million kg of takeaway/home delivery food is thrown into the bin in Australia every year. 

CONCLUSION

Takeaway food is an important component for Australian restaurants and food chains as it not only boosts revenue but also allows them to adapt to changing customer preferences, market trends, and unforeseen challenges.

Having a well-crafted takeaway food menu provides convenience to customers while expanding a restaurant’s reach and potential for sales growth.

eDigital can help you conceptualise, plan, develop, run and optimise successful food marketing campaigns that generate leads and sales for your brand.

The services we offer include:

  • Strategic planning for social media and other digital marketing channels.
  • Online advertising management and optimisation (Search, Display, social media ads and re-marketing).
  • Marketing training: social media training and digital marketing training. 
  • SEO strategy and execution. Including content development (articles, stories, eye-catching and SEO-optimised visuals).
  • Celebrity and influencer marketing campaign strategy. 
  • Brand development. Logo creation, brand personality development and design of marketing materials.
  • Consumer contests/competitions/giveaways.
  • Email marketing. Dip sequence design and deployment. 
  • Conversion rate optimisation. Also called “path to purchase” optimisation. 

Contact us today and start boosting your leads and sales.

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Final note: Want to reduce customer acquisition costs and dependency on paid media? eDigital‘s marketing strategy training will unmercifully review your marketing, help you build a marketing engine with channels and assets you own, stir your team’s thinking, bring new ideas for new conversion paths and boost customer lifetime value.

AUSTRALIA’S MOST POPULAR TAKEAWAY FOOD

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Mau is one of the most popular marketing consultants and facilitator of eDigital‘s best marketing strategy training and best social media training.  Top marketers use Mau’s popular Digital Marketing Plan and Social Media Plan templates.

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