Is that a normal price for a pad thai?
What takeaway costs in Australia
Median prices for pad thai, butter chicken, dumplings, pho, laksa, kebabs, banh mi and fried rice, counted across real Australian menus rather than estimated.
Eight dishes carry most of Australia’s takeaway trade, and every one of them is ordered under the same name from Darwin to Hobart. Here is what each actually costs, measured across 3,972 priced menu rows from 2,131 listings.
| Dish | Median | Middle half | Venues |
|---|---|---|---|
| Butter chicken | $21 | $17.95–$24.90 | 206 |
| Pho | $20.50 | $18.50–$22.90 | 79 |
| Pad thai | $19.80 | $15.90–$23 | 134 |
| Laksa | $18 | $17–$20 | 95 |
| Kebab | $17.90 | $15–$22.50 | 369 |
| Fried rice | $17.50 | $15–$20.40 | 542 |
| Dumplings | $14.90 | $11.90–$18 | 594 |
| Banh mi | $12.50 | $12–$14 | 112 |
What this tells you
The dearest of the eight is butter chicken at $21; the cheapest is banh mi at $12.50. The more useful number is the spread: kebab has the widest middle half of the eight, which means the venue decides the price far more than the dish does.
Where it is dearest
State-by-state medians for the two with the largest samples. A state appears only where it has at least 40 priced examples.
| State | dumplings | fried rice |
|---|---|---|
| New South Wales | $14.80 | $17.50 |
| Queensland | $13 | $18 |
| South Australia | $12.80 | $17.90 |
| Tasmania | $14.99 | — |
| Victoria | $15.40 | $17.90 |
| Western Australia | $14 | $16.90 |
How this was measured
Each dish is matched by name and by menu section, medians rather than averages, and prices below 40% or above 250% of a dish’s own median are excluded as add-ons and banquet rows rather than portions of the dish. Recomputed from the latest catalogue export.
Some dishes clear the sample threshold nationally and in only one or two states. Where that happens the national figure is published and the state table is not, because a median from a handful of venues is a coincidence rather than a fact about a state.