Chipflation: The rising cost of fries across Australia
Chip prices are surging from farm gate to fine dining room.
Across the country, operators are grappling with compounding cost pressures — from raw ingredients (including potatoes) and energy to wages and supply chain margins — and diners are increasingly feeling it on the bill.
At Sydney's Infinity by Mark Best, a side of fries will set you back $17. The product justifies it: sebago potatoes sourced from a Southern Highlands farm, sugar-tested, hand-cut, steamed, blanched in olive oil, and finished in wagyu beef tallow before being dusted with malt vinegar powder. But the executive chef is clear-eyed about what drives that price point.
"[Chips] bring a sense of comfort to the table, but that does not mean they should be done casually," Best told the Sydney Morning Herald. "The price reflects the labour involved, the cost of the ingredients including the tallow, the level of the menu they sit within, and the broader operating costs of the restaurant."
The $20 barrier has already been breached, with Merivale's Mimi's in Coogee listing shoestring chips at that mark — a rise of more than 40 per cent on the same dish in 2020. Industry observers suggest the move may signal a wider shift in how restaurants price their sides.
Good Food Guide editor Callan Boys noted the psychological significance of that milestone. "It seems like restaurant chip prices have been sprinting rather than creeping," he told the Herald. "I suspect restaurateurs everywhere have been waiting for someone to break the $20 chip barrier, like when Quay's main courses tipped $50 in the late nineties and provided a green light for other fine-diners to raise their prices."
Boys also flagged a risk that price increases could outpace quality. "It's one of the reasons the steakhouse model has become so popular. The big money is made on the sides and booze," he said.
Among hatted venues, the price trajectory is steep. Rockpool Bar & Grill in Sydney now charges $18 for hand-cut chips — up 80 per cent from $10 in 2020.
The pressure isn't limited to fine dining. At the pub level, a large serving can reach $23, while fast food and fish and chip shops have also moved upward. Scott Leach, publican at Sydney's Rose of Australia, said value remains a priority but acknowledged the layers of cost behind every serve.
"It's difficult as a small stand-alone business … competing with larger groups," Leach told the Herald. "[They] have sharper pricing that flows into cheaper retail pricing."
Further up the supply chain, the picture is equally strained. NSW Southern Highlands grower Jon Hill said farming input costs have more than doubled, but returns haven't kept pace. "All that's more than doubled," Hill said. "But what we're getting paid [doesn't cover it] … we're not making enough out of it, it's only an existence."
Labour costs add another layer. Joe Grimshaw, co-owner of Northern Soul Chip Shop in Melbourne's St Kilda, said his product involves four hours of daily preparation and reflects an 18 per cent increase in minimum award wages since 2020. "We try to do this one thing as best as we possibly can," Grimshaw said. "We have to charge what we feel it's worth [$8-$12], and that's more because of all the labour … and the machinery we've had to buy."
Despite it all, consumer behaviour experts say the market for premium chips remains resilient. Professor Gary Mortimer of Queensland University of Technology argued that perceived value — not rational cost comparison — drives spending decisions. "You'd think that no one in their right mind is going to pay $50 for a bowl of chips, but if it's at an exclusive restaurant, that's one night only, with limited seats and a celebrity chef like Heston Blumenthal … people would pay," Mortimer said. "As consumers, we're not rational. If we were, we'd always buy the cheapest product, the cheapest car, and the cheapest groceries, but we don't."
Jonathan Jackson, 17th March 2026
