Brisbane – An Introduction to Eating and Drinking

Over the past decades we have made many trips to Brisbane to sample the food and drinks without being too excited about many of the venues. We have also noticed the continuous encroachment on the CBD and surrounding areas of ugly, too-high apartment blocks which have turned whole areas into wind tunnels.

It was therefore interesting to pay a recent visit where we found a new dynamism in the food and wine scene with many new and exciting restaurants and cafés popping up and some of our old favourites still providing excellent offerings (but the apartment blocks are still ugly).

This story highlights places to visit if you want to try interesting food, exciting wines, good coffee and other venues that foodtourists seek out.

This is a brief introduction as we need to go back here a few more times to really bet under the skin of this sprawling city.

We must start with two of our recent finds namely Snack Man and Happy Boy, both of which have the same ownership and both of which serve excellent food and very interesting wines. They sit next to each other in East Street, Fortitude Valley. You can read our story about Snack Man here and you can peruse their menu here.

In 2024 we again visited Snack Man on the first night in Brisbane and were, once again, delighted with the food and wine we were served. We have updated our story about this venue here. Between fairy-lit trees, East St, just off Ann St, Fortitude Valley QLD 4006.

We ate very similar dishes to those we had tried before and were not disappointed. they were, once again, delicious. We were also delighted with a recommendation from the sommelier of a wine we had not ever tried. It was an Austrian wine from the Kollektiv Peternell which weighed in at only 10.5% alcohol. It was a wine made primarily from Grüner Veltliner (90%) and a little Muscat which had been soaked with the skins for a few days then the juice transferred to stainless steel tanks for almost 12 months to create an orange wine. It was delicious and matched perfectly to each of the dishes we tried.

We were also very impressed with our visit to a restaurant on the edge of Brisbane’s Fortitude Valley called Agnes. This is a relaxed place with excellent service that cooks extremely tasty food over fire. We thoroughly enjoyed our meal here and will certainly put it on our list to visit again on our next Brisbane adventure. 22 Agnes St, Fortitude Valley QLD 4006.

There is another old favourite that is still going strong that we didn’t have time to get to but we are still happy to recommend it for both the food and the wine. Enoteca 1889 serves excellent Italian influenced dishes and excellent wines imported by the owner such as Gravner and Radikon. It is well-worth a visit. 10-12 Logan Rd, Woolloongabba QLD 4102.

A pleasant surprise was a relatively new restaurant called Stanley which crouches under the iconic Story Bridge. It is a large restaurant churning our very good Chinese dishes. The service is also excellent. 5 Boundary St, Brisbane City QLD 4000.

For wine and spirits, the obvious choice is one of the best stocked places in Brisbane called the CRU Bar and Cellar which is currently undergoing major renovations which should be complete in June 2024. The staff here are quite knowledgeable about the wines they stock and have a particularly good appreciation of French wines and styles. 1/22 James St, Fortitude Valley QLD 4006.

We are always looking for good coffee options and the best that we found among many attempts was Industry Beans, once again, in Fortitude Valley. This is an offshoot of the Melbourne roaster of the same name that started operations in Fitzroy and then have expanded within Melbourne and subsequently to Sydney and Brisbane. It is a sleek, light-filled space and the range of coffee is very good, with both washed and natural process options being available. 18 Proe St, Newstead QLD 4006.

On the most recent trip we sampled the coffees, pastries and breakfast dishes at a “collective” of outlets that have combined to provide an interesting food and coffee experience in the centre of the CBD.

It is a combination of a coffee provider, a maker of excellent pastries and the group who provide the breakfast dishes. The coffee provider is Coffee Anthology who get their coffee from a range of roasters including

We will add more to this summary after future visits.