These Melbourne Restaurants are Doing $1 Meals to Help Fight Food Wastage

There was a time when $1 could buy you a decent feed — several generous handfuls of mixed lollies from the corner store or a round of icy poles for you and three mates. These days, however, the only place you’ll get a good swap for a golden coin is The Reject Shop's discounted chocolate shelves.

Unless you get yourself to Melbourne between 3pm and 4pm this Saturday, March 5, that is. At that hour — and that hour only — a bunch of the city’s top-notch restaurants are selling dishes for just $1. Yep, one shiny dollar will buy you lime and coriander root sorbet at Botherambo, jamon croquettes at Bomba and Peruvian shepherd’s pie with smoked pork neck, alpaca heart, sweet corn and potato puree at Pastuso, among many, many other tasty morsels. Other eateries taking part include Grossi Florentino, Pope Joan, Saint Crispin, San Telmo, 400 Gradi and Rumi, as well as our favourite purveyors of baked goods, All Day Donuts and Agathe Patisserie.

And what’s even better than your wallet staying intact? These two facts: one, your bargain basement feast will be made entirely from food that would otherwise have been chucked in the garbage. And two, every dollar spent between 3pm and 4pm will go straight to one of Australia's food rescue charities, OzHarvest, FareShare, Foodbank or SecondBite. So, there's wins all-round.

This brilliant and delicious scheme is known as Yume Hour. Yume is a new app from Melbourne-based food waste entrepreneur Katy Barfield that provides restaurants with the tools to either sell or donate their surplus food. So, if they've got some extra cakes or salads left over at the end of service, they can put them up for half price on the app, and customers can come in and collect the goods right there and then. To take part in Yume Hour this Saturday, you need to download the Yume app , open it at 3pm, and reserve a $1 meal of your choice. Then go grab it before 4pm. The only catch is, you’ll need to be quick — dishes are limited, and first in will be best fed.

Yume Hour will take place from 3-4pm on Saturday, March 5. Download the Yume app from the App Store or Google Play. For more info, visit their website.