Revealed: Suburbs with the most and fewest eateries in Brisbane

One outer Brisbane suburb is mixing it with the inner city as far as restaurant choices go, but others are dining wastelands.

Brisbane’s foodie hot spots and dining deserts have been revealed in an exclusive new list from Brisbane City Council.

The data provides a suburb-by-suburb breakdown of restaurants and cafes where customers can sit down to enjoy a meal (not including grab-and-go coffee shops, takeaways or bakeries).

The suburb taking out the title of Brisbane’s culinary capital is the CBD, boasting a whopping 410 places to dine.

Coming in second place with just under half that number was Fortitude Valley with 204 eateries, followed by South Brisbane with 159, West End with 105, and Sunnybank with 103.

Brothers Rob and Paul McMullen own chicken and burger shop Seoul Bistro in Sunnybank, and say the food scene is well and truly alive in the southern Brisbane suburb.

“It definitely feels like a very bustling area,” Rob said.

Paul and Rob McMullen at Seoul Bistro Sunnybank. Picture: Richard Walker

“There are a lot of customers – it’s always busy so I feel like we have to always be prepared and we always have to have something that really stands out to stay around.”

The restaurant has become one of the most popular in Brisbane on delivery platforms Uber Eats and Deliveroo, and attracts long queues out the door each night of people wanting to dine in.

Rob said the fact there were so many competing restaurants in the one area meant they were forced to continually be on their game, with a keen focus on quality control and consistency.

“It’s pretty intense. It can be pretty tiring,” he said.

“We’re only closed one day a year, Christmas Day, but we’ve got an amazing team who put in a tremendous effort.”

Rounding out the top 10 suburbs were Upper Mount Gravatt (90), Woolloongabba (87), Hamilton (84), Chermside (70) and Sunnybank Hills (67).

At the other end of the list were an incredible 15 suburbs with only one restaurant or cafe.

These were: Bulwer, Enoggera Reservoir, Gordon Park, Kalinga and Pinkenba in the north, Burbank, Doolandella, Drewvale, Karawatha and Mackenzie in the south, Kooringal, Lota and Wakerley in the east and Anstead and Mt Crosby in the west.

A further 15 suburbs had only two restaurants or cafes.

Tyra Taylor at Seoul Bistro Sunnybank. Picture: Richard Walker

Lord Mayor Adrian Schrinner said Brisbane had grown immensely as a food destination over the past decade, with new offerings popping up each week.

“Areas in Brisbane including the CBD, Fortitude Valley, South Bank, West End and Sunnybank have become real food capitals, with dozens of cafes and restaurants to choose from,” he said.

“It’s great there are cafes and restaurants in almost every single suburb of Brisbane, but I always encourage operators to not forget our suburbs as a place to do business.

“There are hungry residents in every single suburb – if you open, they will come!”

Finance, administration and small business chair Adam Allan also encouraged diners to eat local as the hospitality industry continued its recovery from COVID, which lead to Brisbane City Council providing more than $17 million in fee, rent and charges relief to 14,000-plus local businesses and organisations last year.

“I encourage residents to support their local small businesses. It has never been more important to buy local than right now and it is something every Brisbane resident can do to help our community recover,” Mr Allan said.

“The pandemic is not over and while our city has done a fantastic job in keeping coronavirus at bay, there have been bumps in our road to recovery.”