Pepper Lunch, Civic

It's our special Cheap Eats edition and so this week we're eschewing the white linen, the fine dining, the wine flights, and the edgy menus in favour of something, well, cheap and cheerful. Some place we can have dinner for under $20 each.

Enter Pepper Lunch, which contrary to the name is also available for dinner. A little outlet next to the Oliver Brown chocolate cafe in Garema Place - part of a large, popular Japanese steakhouse chain - is the ticket on a cold Canberra weeknight. Nothing flash, but bright and clean. And the hook is the cast iron sizzling hot plates on which all meals are delivered, with beef, salmon and chicken cooking at 260C on the plate before you.

Pull up a chair at a table among the uni students and take your time examining the menu which is liberally scattered with the word "pepper". Most of the dishes are easily under $15 - the basic beef or chicken pepper rice plate is $9.90. You can add egg, cheese, mushrooms and other toppings for an extra dollar - it's an order at the counter joint.

If the sound of the sizzling doesn't get you, the waft of heat from the black hot plate will - plonked down by a young member of staff with a rote but very cheery, "Thank you for waiting!". There's a protective paper wrapper round each meal, warning people about the 260C heat, which makes for some odd eating angles.

Eel pepper rice arrives with a golden moat of beaten egg ($16.90). The eel is piquant and filled with flavour and once you pull out the chopsticks and stir the liquid egg through the pile of rice - that satisfying sound of egg hissing into shreds on the hot plate - you've got a helluva good cheap eat. This one's our favourite dish of the night.

If you're a member of the 1 per cent, splash out on the "sizzling giant rib eye", the most expensive thing on the menu at $24.90. The steak is pre-cut into strips which can be piled up in a corner to slow down their cooking and comes with a scattering of corn, beans and a half of potato. And a basket of chips. The meat's properly seasoned, softly pink on the sizzle plate and just juicy.

This being a Japanese chain, there is of course an obligatory section of "Western wonders" - in this case sizzling hot plate pasta dishes. The cream pasta ($13.50) comes with (cooked) chunks of chicken and sliced raw mushrooms surrounding a pile of pretty standard spaghetti. There's a sauceboat filled with a creamy concoction that you pour into the sizzle plate mostly for the joy of filming a slow-mo video of furiously bubbling cream to Snapchat to your friends.

If you're a slow eater or conversation takes over, those hot plates keep the food warm right through to the end of the meal - and if you want to spice things up a bit, there's a heap of different toppings on the table, including togarashi red pepper flakes and an umami-heavy garlic soy sauce.

Drinks are of the Pokka variety - try the unsweetened green tea for a refreshing change - and if you've got change left over from your $20 finish off the meal with an emerald striped green tea sundae ($3.50).

88-96 Bunda Street, Canberra, Australian Capital Territory

• 02 6152 0573
• http://www.pepperlunch.com.au/

• Cuisine - Japanese
• Features - Wheelchair access, Vegetarian friendly, Cheap and cheerful
• Owners - Pepper Lunch Australia
• Opening Hours - Sun-Thu 11:30am-9:30pm; Fri-Sat 11:30am-10:30pm
• Author - Natasha Rudra

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