Still catching your breath after what felt like a never-ending succession of food and drink openings in 2024? Because 2025 is shaping up to be just as busy.

The revival of CBD dining continues with a bunch of blockbuster venues being unveiled down towards the northern end of the City Botanic Gardens and Kangaroo Point Bridge.

First cab off the rank is The Fifty Six on the top floor of Naldham House, which opens this week. In the kitchen is former Good Food Guide Young Chef of the Year finalist Gerald Ong, fresh from Canberra where he was exec chef at Golden Panda, Lucky Duck and Mrs Wang in that city’s Tiger Lane food precinct.

Ong is cooking traditional Cantonese food with touches of modern techniques. Expect a big focus on dumplings and small plates, and a 200-bottle wine list with a clutch of drops from China.

Anna Spiro is again in charge of design and has given the dining room a lavish if uncluttered treatment, making the most of the top-floor outlook across the river.

Also opening over the coming weeks are Mulga Bill’s and Stilts, the much-delayed Kangaroo Point Bridge two-hander from prolific restaurateur Michael Tassis.

Stilts will be the more elevated of the two and have a big seafood focus; Mulga Bill’s (named after the Banjo Patterson poem Mulga Bill’s Bicycle) will be an all-day-dining spot, with steak, seafood and pizza, and coffee and pastries for the commuter crowd.

Later in the year on the nearby corner of Edward and Mary streets, powerhouse Anyday Group (Agnes, Same Same, Bianca et al) will begin to open its ambitious new food precinct in the heritage-listed Coal Board Building and an adjacent Edward Street premises.

First up will be the 150-seat Golden Avenue (the group’s largest venue yet) on the Edward Street side, with Anyday co-owner Ben Williamson and group chef Adam Wolfers drilling down on the Levantine cuisine that’s been so pivotal to both of their careers. Currently pegged to run its first service in July, this will almost certainly be a contender for opening of the year.

Golden Avenue will be followed later in the year by two more restaurants and a cocktail bar in the Coal Board Building.

And Anyday isn’t done yet, with the group to shift its cult Agnes Bakery to New Farm and rename it Idle. With the name change will come a new approach, with the bakery transforming into a relatively cosy full-service cafe serving a seasonal breakfast and lunch menu alongside its usual selection of refined pastries and woodfired breads.

Agnes Bakery will continue to operate on James Street until Idle opens on the corner of Brunswick Street and Merthyr Road in April.

In late February, Fortitude Valley will welcome a local instalment of Goros, Sydney hospitality group Solotel’s izakaya that features a bar, dance floor, games and stacks of Japanese snacks, spirits and sake. Taking over the old Little Valley premises on Warner Street, the 500-person Goros will use the space’s former street-side dining room and second-level bar area, but also have a third level for karaoke and function rooms.

In March, Hannah Wagner will open a sequel to her terrific Fortitude Valley wine bar Dark Red, expanding across Ann Street to open Dark Blue in Winn Lane. Expect a New York loft-inspired fit-out with a drinks list that focuses on wines from Argentina, Portugal and Spain, and pre-batched (“but fairly intricate,” Wagner says) cocktails. There will also be an efficient snack menu that features toasties, tinned sardines and the like.

Shane Delia will be the latest big name from Melbourne to take on Brisbane when he opens an as yet unnamed restaurant at the Thomas Dixon Centre in early April. Delia is sitting on the details for now but says to expect a constantly evolving menu that taps different cuisines to take diners on what he calls an “unrestricted spice journey”. He also says it will operate beyond its dining room and help create bespoke events throughout the centre.