As you would expect in a city of this size there are plenty of Brisbane Restaurants to choose from with something to suit all tastes and all budgets.
We have eaten in many restaurants in Brisbane some good and others not so good and in this section we will help you find some of the ones we enjoyed. This section is not a comprehensive guide to Brisbane restaurants as there are far too many to tell you about but what we have tried to do is recommend restaurants that we like.
The main areas to find Brisbane restaurants are the City Centre, South Bank, Eagle Street Pier, Fortitude Valley, Paddington in particular Caxton Street and the West End but all of the suburbs have some decent restaurants and cafes.
In the city centre there are lots of pizza, sandwich and kebab takeaway places and there are food courts in all of the shopping centres that have all the usual options. They all tend to be pretty busy at peak lunchtime.
Apart from this there are some very good Brisbane city centre restaurants with four nice outdoor options to choose from in Queen Street Mall, plenty of pub food from bars such as Gilhooley’s on Albert Street and great backpacker budget food in the Tin Billy Bar on George Street near Roma Street Station
South Bank Parklands is an area dedicated to leisure and entertainment and has lots of cafes and restaurants. Many of them have great views of the Brisbane river and the CBD in the background which looks very pretty when it is all lit up at night. Our favourite South Bank restaurants include Ahmet’s Turkish restaurant and Ginga Japanese restaurant both of which have great food and very good service.
Eagle Street Pier is right on the Brisbane River and is home to some fairly upmarket restaurants including a Chinese restaurant, a seafood restaurant and restaurants offering modern Australian cuisine. There are also plenty of cafes set just back from the river which are open for breakfast and lunch and are much easier on the wallet than the restaurants.
China Town mall and Brunswick Street Mall are both in Fortitude Valley and this is where you will find some Fortitiude Valley restaurants serving excellent Asian food, good pub food and some lovely pizzas. For Chinese food you should try the Enjoy Inn, for cheap pub food the Royal George Hotel does very good midweek offers and for a great cooked breakfast Fat Boys Restaurant is unbeatable.
Caxton Street in Paddington is wall to wall restaurants and our favourite there is the Caxton Hotel Char Grill which does a great 2 for 1 deal on Tuesdays. Further along on Given Terrace the Paddo is a great option for roast lunch and the Kookaburra Cafe make wonderful pizzas. One of our favourite Brisbane restaurants is the Tibetan Kitchen on Petrie Terrace near Caxton Street. We have enjoyed everything we’ve ever eaten there and the Momos for starters are a must.
The West End is another area with a wide range of restaurants and some of them are fairly trendy. There you will find Tukka which serves modern Australian cuisine with kangaroo and emu appearing on the menu.
There are also some good Bulimba restaurants and Spring Hill restaurants.
Below are three wonderful Brisbane Restaurants which don’t fall in to any of the areas already mentioned. Two of them sit right on the Brisbane River and are fairly upmarket restaurants while the other is possibly the most famous restaurant in Brisbane.
The Breakfast Creek Hotel – 2 Kingsford Smith Drive, Albion
The Breakfast Creek Hotel, or the Brekky Creek as it is affectionately called by locals, is probably the most famous bar and restaurant in Brisbane and is one you should try even if you are only there for a few days. The Brekky Creek is a huge sprawling place with various bars, terraces and restaurants. One of the bars serves beer “Off the Wood” and it is one of the few places left that still does this. This means it is served from wooden casks directly rather than the standard stainless steel kegs with pipes. The speciality of the house is steak and they have a choice of more than 10 different types. You order from the counter where you can see all the different steaks and choose your cut and how you want it cooked. While there you should check out the bar which is housed in a refurbished electric sub-station and try one of their many draught beers.
Oxley on the River – On the river in Auchenflower
This is a wonderful restaurant on the river in the Auchenflower area of Brisbane about a 20 or 30 minute walk from the CBD. It is quite a fancy restaurant and is often very busy at weekends so is well worth booking in advance. Ask for a window table when you book as they have great views out on to the Brisbane river which is beautiful once it’s dark with lots of lights on it and the City Cats going back and forward along it. There’s a nice bar with comfortable chairs to have a pre-dinner drink if you arrive early. The service and the food are both of a high quality and the waiters and waitresses look after you very well. They do a lovely Scallops and Chorizo starter and wonderful Turkish bread with olives in it with dips. For main courses the Steak and Moreton Bay Bugs is very good as is the Bugs and Prawns on Rice. They might look quite small but are very filling.
The Brisbane Powerhouse – Brisbane River, New Farm
Originally a power station the Brisbane Powerhouse is now home to performing arts and has an upmarket restaurant on the ground floor on the banks of the Brisbane River. Watt consists of the Watt Restaurant and the Park Lounge Bar both of which are lovely places to eat. Watt Restaurant is open for breakfast on Saturdays and Sundays, lunch from Tuesday till Sunday and dinner from Tuesday till Saturday and it is a good idea to reserve a table especially at weekends. You can choose to sit outside on the terrace or inside in one of the elegantly decorated rooms. It is not the cheapest place to eat but the food is excellent with a wide range of modern Australian dishes to choose from and some truly wonderful desserts and the staff are very professional and helpful.
We were there on the night of the huge Brisbane storm in November 2008 and were treated to a wonderful lightening display and some torrential rain which meant we had no option but to sit inside. The staff were very busy making sure everything was secure but they still gave us very good service.
You can reach this restaurant by taking the CityCat to the New Farm stop and walking along the river for about 5 minutes.
Try the Courier Mail Eat Street section for more Brisbane Restaurants. It may take a minute for this site to load and then you click on Brisbane Central at the top of the screen.