Here's Everywhere You Need To Eat And Drink In Brisbane This Summer

Say "no" to average food and bevs.

Brisbane is a gorgeous city. It's also home to a whole bunch of damn fine cafés, restaurants, and bars.

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Here are all the best places to eat and drink this summer:

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1. Wild Canary, Brookfield

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"Eat local" isn’t just a fashionable motto at Wild Canary, it’s at the roots of what they do. The menu is based around what produce is available from local farms and backyards, and the cake cabinet is out of this world pretty.

2. Petrichor & Co, Ascot

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Hungover? Get around a bowl of calentado at this new Racecourse road café. That’s a traditional Colombian breakfast made of rice, beans, corn salsa, topped with a fried egg, side of chorizo, and slices of ripe, grilled plantain. The waiter says it will cure all woes.

3. Bruno’s BNE, Tarragindi

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It’s nice to support someone fulfilling their dreams, and Brazilian expat Bruno Silva Franca has done just that by opening Bruno’s BNE. The new Tarragindi café has a strong focus on coffee with a short, sharp menu that reinvents the classics. Eggs benny on house-made cornbread with apple hollandaise, anyone?

4. King Arthur Café, New Farm

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Set in a petite old two-storey warehouse just off James street, King Arthur is one the of the cutest spaces around. Its summer menu features a cool coconut brown rice pudding with stewed fruit, which is perfect for warm Brisbane brunches.

5. Queen of Pops, Clayfield

Instagram: @queenofpopsaustralia

Iced lattes are so 2013. Last year hole-in-the-wall northside café Queen of Pops gave us coffee pops - that’s a double ristretto shot in a latte, cappucino or long black icy pole - and this year it presents a single origin soft serve. Naturally, the single origin changes so try your luck.

6. Billykart, Annerley & West End

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Have you had the Aussie Asian eggs? Celebrity chef Ben O’Donoghue’s two Billykart cafés dish up this wonderful dish, which is essentially fried-up noodles, bacon, bacon, bacon, bacon, a big prawn, and two deep-fried eggs. Genius.

7. Kiss The Berry, Brisbane City & South Bank

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Summer screams for an acai bowl and Kiss The Berry is still the best in the city, if not the country. Go the classic topped with banana, strawberries and honey, or try the ever-popular Snickers bowl with cacao, peanut butter, and almond mylk.

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8. Gauge, South Brisbane

Instagram: @duke.lll

A place for good eating and good drinking, Gauge rides the is-it-or-isn’t-is a restaurant line well. While breakfast is great, the lunch and dinner menus of share eats push the limits even further. Don’t leave without having the cult black garlic bread.

9. Chingon, Brisbane City

Instagram: @foodieadam

Mexican cuisine in Brisbane has a new face. Hidden down Eagle lane in the CBD, Chingon serves authentic tacos – seven varieties, nonetheless – alongside tequila, cocktails, and a daily frozen margarita. Do order a side of the "crack corn" because it’ll change your life. Oh, and did we mention it’s open until 2am weekends? Perfect.

10. Rogue Spice Canteen, Fortitude Valley

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Let’s be honest, summer in Brisbane will have you sweating anyway so step it up a notch with a curry from Rogue Spice. The cheap AF modern Asian restaurant takes queues from Indonesian cuisine, and our best tip is to over order and get any leftovers packed away. The pork belly Panang curry, coconut barbecue beef ribs, and sticky spicy chicken wings are all winners.

11. Ben's Burgers, West End

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Previously known as The Bleachers, this tasty spot in West End serves up your favourite burgers in a spacious space with hidden half-court out back.

12. The Apo, Fortitude Valley

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Gerard’s Bistro’s Ben Williamson is the mastermind behind the menu now, and what a damn fine menu it is. The Apo is notoriously dark come night, so drop by for a long Sunday lunch in the summer sunshine and order dish after dish, carafe after carafe, and cocktail after cocktail. Definitely get around the steamed oyster with sujuk and soured yogurt, the smoked tartare snack, and the Lebanese taco.

13. OTTO Brisbane, Brisbane City

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Holy views! Have you had the pleasure of a window seat at newbie OTTO? Book yourself into the Italian fine diner, hidden on the fourth floor of the new 480 Queen development. Indulge in the now-rare pleasure of white table linen great service over a bowl of black and white tagliolini with Moreton Bay Bugs, cherry tomatoes, chilli, and basil.

14. Hello Please, South Brisbane

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Twelve months ago if you suggested we’d be dining on southern Vietnamese food out of a shipping container in a carpark under a train line many would have scoffed. Yet here we are, pausing the conversation each time the city trains roll by, munching down spring rolls, and thinking it feels more authentic this way.

15. Gerard’s Bistro, Fortitude Valley

Instagram: @sianjase

Let Brisbane’s love for Gerard’s never falter. Dive head first into the share plate of beef brisket that gets pulled at your table, order the bekaa wings, and don’t skip the delicious cauliflower dish. Better yet, return for weekend brunch.

16. 1889 Enoteca, Woolloongabba

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It’s time to pull up a seat at the marble bar and order 1889 Enoteca’s renowned pillow-like gnocchi. The dish has been the best seller on the menu every year since the joint opened for good reason. Now just to find an excuse to book out the long table in the private wine cellar downstairs...

17. Izakaya Kotobuki, Brisbane City

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Those who know and love Kotobuki do it with great passion and good reason. It’s great Japanese at prices anyone can afford yet it feels like a treat. Izakaya translates roughly to "sushi and sake", which means the city outpost aligns alcohol with the casual diner’s food. Order the Lion King and/or Crunch Chicken rolls, and don’t skip the yakitori by night.

18. The Croft House, Brisbane City

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What’s remarkable about the new Croft House is that technically it’s a hotel restaurant, but it feels like anything but. Carving its own identity on Albert street, pull up a bar stool in its window, order vino and cheese, and set about people-watching for the afternoon.

19. Fritzenberger, Caxton street

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Chicken salt is great, but what if you had the option of roast chicken salt, twisties salt, shiitake mushroom salt, and more? Yeah, Caxton street’s newest brew bar and burger house lets your fulfill your dreams at its serve-yourself salt bar. Drop in for an in-house brewed beer, tasty burger, and loaded fries.

20. Fromage The Cow, Milton

Instagram: @mountmichaelwines

One of Milton’s newest residents is a cheese lover’s paradise – yep, it’s a whole restaurant dedicated to the good stuff. Leave you lactose-intolerant and vegan friends at home because cheese and wine pairing is going to be your new favourite Brisbane experience.

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21. Tomcat, Fortitude Valley

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One of Fortitude Valley’s newest bars feels like an old friend. Find the staircase off Wickham street and climb the well-worn stairs to the first level where chambers of rooms lead from one to another uncovering pool tables, two bars, hideaway booths, and a pizza menu.

22. Holey Moley, Fortitude Valley

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Look, adulting is hard. Forget bills for a second and pick up a club at the Valley’s newest mini golf bar that's set inside a big 130-year-old church on Warner street. It’s themed like Alice in Wonderland, so expect the bizarre on your nine-hole journey.

23. Netherworld, Fortitude Valley

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Netherworld has wound back the clock by bringing in an arcade bar. Coming to us from the people behind the Scratch, this confirms it - play time is truly back for adults. Late December the doors will swing open for the first time to reveal over 15 pinball machines, 25 arcade machines, classic consoles, and countless board games spanning from the '70s until now.

24. Bardon Bowls Club, Bardon

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Don your best whites and head to the green. You might recognise the Bardon Bowls Club from Violent Soho's film clip for "Like Soda". The club is open from Thursday to Sunday with a different food truck on site almost every day and a game costs less than a schooner in any bar.

25. Alfred & Constance, Fortitude Valley

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With a tiki-themed lounge upstairs and frosé available (yes, that’s frozen rosé), it’s safe to say Alfred & Constance is a pretty solid summer hangout. Where else can you get a salted caramel pina colada in a frozen pineapple? If you haven’t dropped by in the past six months the old girl has a new lick of paint, the cutest bathrooms, and a few other small renovations.

26. Alquimia, Fortitude Valley

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Hate tequila? Perhaps you just haven’t found one you like. Alquimia is Brisbane’s only bar dedicated to the stuff and is converting people one at a time. Already a tequila lover? Step right up, this bar is more than deserving of your attention.

27. Sixteen Antlers, Brisbane City

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The CBD has a new rooftop bar and it goes by the name Sixteen Antlers. The views from up there are pretty spesh, with an epic not-seen-before vantage point over City Hall. It’s on the top floor of the Pullman and is best for a sunset drink, watching red and orange hues light up the skyline.

28. Fitz & Potts, Nundah

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Fitz & Potts is the ultimate neighbourhood bar. With an excellent deck for afternoon bevs, a solid stock of interesting and boutique liquor a supremely cool retro fit out - go forth and people watch. The bar overlooks downtown Nundah from one storey up.

29. Eleven Rooftop Bar, Fortitude Valley

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If you like your rooftop bar with a bit of dressed-up glam, Eleven is the marble covered, sky-high drinking terrace for you.

30. GreenHill, Caxton street

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Caxton street has been going through a lot of change lately and poor footy punters will feel lost next season when they return to the notorious pre-game booze spot. GreenHill Bar is the strip’s newest local. It's in that space where the Male Revue once showed, but with its raw brick walls, custom stools, and epic booze list you wouldn't know it.

31. Gerard’s Bar, Fortitude Valley

Instagram: @bianca_eats

This small refined bar serves one of the best cheeseburgers in town. From a tiny kitchen, a solid set of snack plates are served with the cheeseburger itself hand-torched before your eyes. If this isn’t convincing enough, take one look at the cocktail menu - it has fours types of negroni.