Just 32 Really Photogenic Meals You Can Order In Brisbane

Equal parts delicious and damn good looking.

1. Pancake stack, Rogue Bar and Bistro

Instagram: @roguebistro

Every dish at Rogue is plated beautifully but the pancake stack has got to be the best looking. With salted caramel sauce, chocolate ganache, maple syrup, and vanilla ice cream there's no chance of these babies being anything close to dry.

2. Classic burger, Ben's Burgers

Instagram: @bens_burgers

Don't like pickles? Well, that's too damn bad. No menu alterations are accepted at this laneway burger bar. Add a milkshake, a serve of chips, and one of these super cute burger flags to your order and you've got yourself one photogenic meal.

3. Ice cream sandwich, Mister Fitz

Instagram: @bianca_eats

Happiness is being able to pick two different fresh-baked cookies to sandwich any flavour of hand-churned ice cream. Add pretzel crumbs, crushed chips, or M&M's to make the whole experience even more amazing.

4. Tartufo pizza, Tartufo

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It's always a good idea to order the dish that's named after the restaurant. "Tartufo" means "truffle" in Italian, and this funky star-shaped wood-fired pizza has a crust filled with pork sausage and truffle paste.

5. Rainbow latte, Piggyback Café

Instagram: @piggybackcafe

Sure, regular latte art is totally Instagram-worthy, but rainbow coffee takes it to a whole new level. Piggyback Café in Brisbane's south west has mastered the art of colour and coffee.

6. Black garlic bread, Gauge

Instagram: @de_palate

Served from breakfast through to dinner there's no chance of missing this cult dish. Resembling the texture of banana bread, the caramelised black garlic flickers between sweet and savoury, helped along by a thick smear of brown butter and burnt vanilla. It's a 10/10.

7. Doughnuts, Doughnut Time

Instagram: @iamhanhh3112

A Brisbane invention and now national chain, Doughnut Time know the power of social media. If you pay $6 for a doughnut, of course you're going to take a cute AF snap of it to share it with your friends.

8. Latke stack, Shouk

Instagram: @foodieguide_lily

Paddington's Shouk Café brought the flavours of the Middle East to its hilltop a couple of years ago. Fortunately, the latke stack has been a mainstay ever since. These Polish potato pancakes are hard to pass up, layered with cream cheese and your choice of salmon, bacon, avocado, or haloumi.

9. Cake, Wild Canary

Instagram: @fringeandfodder

Every cake at Wild Canary is the stuff dreams are made of. Chef Glen Barratt is extremely passionate about local produce in his kitchen and decorates each sweet creation with either local blooms or edible flowers from his massive garden.

10. Fried chicken nachos burger, Lucky Egg

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Dishing out the best chicken in the city, Lucky Egg isn't afraid to experiment with burgers. Above is one of the weekly specials, a fried chicken nachos burger. They team up with the neighbouring Barbara bar on Wednesdays for hip hop, beer, and fried chicken.

11. Strawberry sundae, Ekka

Instagram: @rebeccabontempi

Okay, let's break it down. Inside the cone is vanilla ice cream from Lick, then fresh strawberries, followed by a big-ass scoop of the best strawberry ice cream ever, a swirl of fresh cream, and finally a whole strawberry. It's all Queensland produce and only available at the Ekka each year.

12. Breakfast carbonara, Morning After

Instagram: @bianca_eats

The real question here: why had nobody thought to make this earlier? Essentially a ~deconstructed~ carbonara, pappardelle pasta is layered with field mushrooms, gooey 63-degree eggs, guanciale, and pecorino romano.

13. Cakes, Dello Mano

Instagram: @eatdrinkandbekerry

It's said that Ashton Kutcher once ordered the famous Brisbane luxury brownies for his birthday after trying them while here. While the small, coloured foil wrapped squares don't get much of a look on Instagram, the incredible miniature cakes at its new Queen Street Mall store sure do.

14. Raindrop cake, Harajuku Gyoza

Instagram: @ellamulsify

"Tasteless jello" is an accurate description for this clear cake, but it won't stop people forking out $8 for it. The cake is Harajuku's take on the New York street food invention.

15. Wattleseed custard, GOMA Restaurant

Instagram: @lu_lulu_lu

Barack Obama ate this. Follow in his ~foodsteps~ by ordering the almost-too-pretty-to-eat dish. It's epic on so many levels. It uses local and native ingredients, and was the final dish at the 2014 G20 Summit.

16. Oysters, London Fields

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West End's newest gastropub's trio of oysters with cider jelly and pickled apple has been the talk of the town lately. Love 'em or hate 'em, the first person who tried an oyster was a brave human.

17. Acai bowl, Kiss The Berry

Instagram: @_simplyacai

With acai bowls one can never be sure if you're paying for the expensive Amazonian #superfood berry or for the time it takes some poor soul to perfectly fan the fruit on top. All acai bowls seem to be beautiful, but not all are created equal, and this is one of the best.

18. Matcha waffles, Coffee Anthology

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Coffee Anthology recently won Beanhunter’s Top Café in Australia award for its excellent brews, but the matcha waffles really top the menu. The chewy green waffles come with a scoop of mascarpone and seasonal fruit.

19. Conut, The Doughnut Bar

Instagram: @kayhanscented

The Doughnut Bar is no stranger to a food trend and jumps on every bandwagon. "Conuts" are the latest invention, joining its stable of cronuts, milky buns, doughnut shakes, hot balls, dough cones, rolled ice cream, and classic doughnuts. Croissant pastry is shaped like a cone, treated like a cinnamon doughnut, lined with Cadbury milk chocolate, and filled with soft serve.

20. Char sui pork tacos, Red Hook

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Crispy char sui barbecue pork is laid atop a wombok salad. From a bar that's best known for its burgers, this dish really is a stand out.

21. Cappuccino pop, Queen of Pops

Instagram: @ivette_journey

What if we told you there's actual caffeine in these coffee pops? A double hand-drawn ristretto in fact. Come summer, replace your hot coffee with this kick on a stick.

22. Funnel cake, World Famous Funnel Cakes

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This is one of those things that's 80% marketing, 20% substance, making it super photographable. Dressed in burlesque carnival gear, girls and guys with big feathers in their hair pop and boogie to ragtime tunes from the World Famous Funnel Cakes shipping container at Eat Street.

23. Fried cauliflower, Gerard's Bistro

Instagram: @daz_zling

When your mama was trying to get you to eat vegetables as a kid she should have taken tips from Gerard's head chef Ben Williamson. Here he dresses up fried cauliflower with a tasty sauce of tahini, ras el hanout, and smoked almond, topped with jewel-like pomegranate seeds.

24. Strawberry, coconut, and hazelnut doughnut, Nodo

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"Eat doughnuts for breakfast" is their motto, and since these cult gluten-free sweets are baked not fried there are no arguments here. Topped with couverture chocolate, cream cheese, dried fruits, and nuts they're damn tasty.

25. Gnocchi, 1889 Enoteca

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It's been the best seller at 1889 Enoteca for seven years for good reason. The gnocchi here melt in your mouth like little clouds of heaven. Being tossed with pork and fennel sausage, parmesan cream, and black truffle tapenade only makes this dish more irresistible.

26. Red velvet French toast, Piggyback Café

Instagram: @foodramblings

Red velvet lovers rejoice because this breakfast dish is a triple threat. It's a red velvet French toast filled with a red raspberry cream cheese, served with a rich velvety chocolate sauce. Yum.

27. Pricollo, LTD Espresso

Instagram: @ltdespresso

Yeah, that's a penis on your coffee. LTD Espresso will serve you a "pricollo" or an "ejaculatte" if you ask nicely and use your best manners, unlike their cheeky baristas.

28. Lemon meringue doughnut, Gluten Off

Instagram: @thesillycoeliac

Gluten Off take a freshly-dusted hot cinnamon doughnut, drop a large spoonful of lemon curd on top, pipe a swirl of meringue, and pull out a blow torch before your eyes. It's incredible and only $5 at Eat Street.

29. Nutella shots, Bar Pacino

Instagram: @wendyfoodie

Love Nutella? Love alcohol? You're in luck! Bar Pacino make Nutella shots. In fact, they might be the most delicious shot going around.

30. Waffles, NoDo

Instagram: @desireebin

Matcha latte and the prettiest waffle in the world = 11/10 Instagram points. Gluten-free doughnut legend NoDo now do gluten, dairy, soy, and refined sugar-free waffles from its Newstead store on weekends.

31. Tonkatsu ramen, Taro's Ramen

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It's not going to win a food beauty pageant but when you see a bowl of Taro's award-winning ramen, you know it's going to be damn good. Each ingredient has been meticulously vetted, tested, and improved to ensure only the best produce makes the bowl.

32. Cheeseburger, Gerard's Bar

Gerard's Bar literally blow torch cook its cheeseburgers with real flames in front of your eyes. Honestly, it's a sight to see.