About Us

Who are we?

GoingOut is a fast-growing Australian-based business run by a small, dedicated group of individuals passionate about food and improving the quality of life for everyone they serve.

This website was inspired by the food and service at a small, homely, incredibly cheap restaurant run by Paul in Kings Cross, Sydney, Australia.  We won't tell you the name of the restaurant because we don't want to influence reviews of the restaurant in any way.  In 2008, at the tiny, 1950s style hole-in-the-wall restaurant, a full-flavoured freshly cooked vegetable soup (with home-style barley!) cost 80 cents! A juicy steak with steamed vegetables cost under $10! The hard-working, friendly (tatooed) waiter knew everyone's name. The food was cooked to perfection. It was unassuming, but perfectly run. Even when they were very busy, meals would come out of the kitchen within minutes, piping hot.  It was this unassuming little restaurant that inspired this website.

When the founders first came to Sydney, we were shocked that all the restaurant reviews and guides in Sydney focused solely on "up-market" restaurants and neglected these "Hidden Gems" hiding just around the block. We realised this was the same in each suburb and town around Australia.  We wanted to celebrate these "Hidden Gems", to bring them to a wider audience, to alert new-comers to town or those who did not know they existed, to show what real value and real service are all about.

Please note that in saying this, we are not "anti-fast food".  But we do want small, cheap, locally owned and independently run restaurants to survive. They cannot compete with the advertising budgets and power of the multi-nationals and many, sadly, are dying - not because of poor quality food, but because of increased rental costs and a declining customer base and higher food prices. We hope that, through this website, you will never need to order another plastic pizza or plastic hamburger again!

This is the place to visit when you want to find a great cheap meal close by.  No other website is dedicated solely to this end of the market.  That's what this website is all about.  That's what we do!

Please help us achieve our vision by contributing to this website whenever you can!

Thanks for visiting.

And just a final note of gratitude to our good friends at arroWebs, the web-designers for this website.  They did a terrific job to deal with the complex functionality behind this open source website.  Thanks guys for all your efforts and the long hours you put in!  You were great to work with. 

What GoingOut is all about

Vision: To use the spontaneous organising power of the Internet to create a flourishing network of passionate people.

Mission: To provide the best underground information aboveground, to our exclusive network. And to keep digging until we find it.

Values: In everything, freedom of expression and goodwill works best (at least in a small group of like-minded people!)