City pigs out – and you pay!

There’s no such thing as a free lunch — unless taxpayers pick up the tab.

Since Jan. 1, New York City has spent $3.3 million on food and drink for workers and guests, ordering from delis, pizzerias and diners. At this rate, the total will hit $5.7 million this year.

While most New Yorkers brown-bag it or buy their own sandwiches, a Post review of records found that municipal employees don’t always dig into their own pockets.

With few exceptions, city workers are not allowed to expense their meals. But the Post probe found hundreds of unexplained tabs, from a few bucks up to $25.

The city Department of Education was at the top of the food chain — with workers spending $1.5 million on meals hidden under the obscure category “non-overnight travel expenses.”

The review of city comptroller data found:

* The City Council kept from nodding off by quaffing $5,256 worth of coffee on the taxpayer tab.

* Under the category of “instruction and school leadership,” the staff at MS 385 sank $2,000 into the Brooklyn’s Fish Eye Bar & Grill.

* The Department of Education has spent $37,686 at Bassett Pickle Works, a Brooklyn caterer. Of 65 purchases, the biggest was $3,059.

* The Comptroller’s Office itself downed $570 at Sunset Beer Distributor in Brooklyn for brew served at its annual “Quality of Work Life” picnic, hosted jointly with unions.

* Tax dollars filled cash registers at the Bel-Aire Diner in Queens, Tazmania Pizza in The Bronx, and the swanky Glen Cove Mansion Hotel on Long Island.

* The Mayor’s Office went to three liquor stores for $18,000 worth of booze.

Under the comptroller’s directives, “light refreshments” (soda, coffee and cake at a maximum $3) and “modest meals” (a sandwich or similar fare and a drink at a maximum $8) are allowed in certain circumstances. For example, employees can expense meals when they’re required to “complete urgent work,” forgoing the lunch hour.

A $20 “dinner break allowance” may be given when a workday or meeting lasts at least 10 hours, plus two hours after dinner, the rules say.

Chez Bloomberg keeps wine purveyors busy.

“The head chef at Gracie Mansion comes in all the time,” said Warren Berry, assistant manager at Park East Wines & Spirits. “Of course, they get a case discount.”

Mayor Bloomberg’s spokesman, Marc Lavorgna, said about 70 percent of the office’s food and booze expenses are reimbursed privately.

Feeding frenzy

How much city agencies have spent on meals and snacks since Jan. 1: