Manning St Take Away - good cheap uni food :)

During a mad hunt for free on street parking at Kingswood campus the other day, I discovered a little row of shops tucked away neatly in Manning St. For those of you unfamilliar with street names, Manning St is opposite the park with the swings and is the first street you come across when walking from the uni past the primary school. Right at the end of these little shops, hidden in a back corner, was a small takeaway shop with a little yellow sign bearing faded words that read "Manning St Take Away".

The store was cluttered with a narrow passage between the counters and hot food display and shelving behind. A small Asian lady with a friendly smile stood awaiting my order.

The first thing to appeal to me about this obscure little eatery were the prices. Less than half the price of any UWS Connect store, I was able to buy a chicken burger for $3.50, chips for $2.50, potato scollops at 70 cents each - prices I hadn't seen in a long time! Lunch suddenly became affordable once again to a poor starved Centerlink receiving student like me. The lady nodded as she took my order, and returned shortly with my food all wrapped and ready to go.

I wasn't sure what to expect when I unwrapped my chicken burger. The store was hidden, narrow and dark inside, the little Asian lady seemed friendly enough, but for the price I had paid, would the burger be safe, let alone tasty?

It was marvelous. Among the best chicken burgers I had ever had. The meat was moist and the right texture, the lettuce crunchy, the tomato fresh and ripe, the maonaise tangy and sweet, the bread roll light and fluffy. The only downside to my burger was that it ended too soon. The chips and potato scollops were fairly average - there isn't really much that changes between stores in the flavor of chips except for their price. And for $2.50, the portion we were served was very generous.

All up, my chicken burger, chips and potato scollop lunch cost me $6.70 - which for the same price at UWS Connect, I could possibly get a packet of wedges with sour cream and have 20 cents change. If you're going to be bothered to walk up the stairs to get to the food court, walk that extra five minutes and save your money. It's much better value.

:-)