In the city, there were a number of cheap food halls, and almost always the stall with the vegetarian option was westernised Chinese or related cuisine. It was pretty much always cheaper to get a large and share it than it was to get two small serves -- the large came with rice and three dishes. Lot of students I knew split dishes that way. And it was usually a dollar cheaper to get a vegetarian large than a meat one. There might be more than one stall with vegetarian options, but if there was only one, it was stir fry veg (maybe with some kind of nuts), omelette filled with cabbage and onion, and hmm, failing to think what we always ended up with as the third.
Off Hay Street Mall there was an underground one at the west end which could be accessed from either the Mall or from William Street. It was pretty grotty, but cheap and might have been open more hours than some of the other ones, because I certainly remember going there more often. There was also the one in the bottom of the Carillion arcade. The other one we went to regularly was The Old Shanghai in Northbridge, although I think there was a wider range of food options there.
All probably more than you need, given you were talking about going to Hungry Jacks/equivalent as a small part of your question!
There were also a lot of yum cha places, which were a good option for cheap, because you could get just a couple of dishes. Trickier to be vegetarian, but when there was surprise meat it was alway pork or chicken, rather than beef. I used to frequently go in to the one in Northbridge near the corner of James and William Streets and get a bag of the sesame rice balls, which were either red bean or lotus seed filling, because that was very much a cheap way to get a vegetarian meal with protein in it (My guess at price for the early 2000's would be $3 for three). Vegetarian steam buns were available in a lot of places. I know that UWA sold steam buns for a while, but I don't know timing there.
There was also another entirely vegetarian restaurant in Northbridge, which I liked a lot more than Utopia, and I think it was still running by your time period. I believe it was called the Happy Buddha, and it was away from the busy parts of Northbridge, and did all you can eat options from a buffet. Lots and lots of faux-meat options.
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In the city, there were a number of cheap food halls, and almost always the stall with the vegetarian option was westernised Chinese or related cuisine. It was pretty much always cheaper to get a large and share it than it was to get two small serves -- the large came with rice and three dishes. Lot of students I knew split dishes that way. And it was usually a dollar cheaper to get a vegetarian large than a meat one. There might be more than one stall with vegetarian options, but if there was only one, it was stir fry veg (maybe with some kind of nuts), omelette filled with cabbage and onion, and hmm, failing to think what we always ended up with as the third.
Off Hay Street Mall there was an underground one at the west end which could be accessed from either the Mall or from William Street. It was pretty grotty, but cheap and might have been open more hours than some of the other ones, because I certainly remember going there more often. There was also the one in the bottom of the Carillion arcade. The other one we went to regularly was The Old Shanghai in Northbridge, although I think there was a wider range of food options there.
All probably more than you need, given you were talking about going to Hungry Jacks/equivalent as a small part of your question!
There were also a lot of yum cha places, which were a good option for cheap, because you could get just a couple of dishes. Trickier to be vegetarian, but when there was surprise meat it was alway pork or chicken, rather than beef. I used to frequently go in to the one in Northbridge near the corner of James and William Streets and get a bag of the sesame rice balls, which were either red bean or lotus seed filling, because that was very much a cheap way to get a vegetarian meal with protein in it (My guess at price for the early 2000's would be $3 for three). Vegetarian steam buns were available in a lot of places. I know that UWA sold steam buns for a while, but I don't know timing there.
There was also another entirely vegetarian restaurant in Northbridge, which I liked a lot more than Utopia, and I think it was still running by your time period. I believe it was called the Happy Buddha, and it was away from the busy parts of Northbridge, and did all you can eat options from a buffet. Lots and lots of faux-meat options.