Is this Brisbane’s best beer garden?

It’s gone from heritage-listed treasure to boasting Brisbane’s most modern beer garden, with premium ingredients at play on its massive menu and its own microbrewery.

Alison Walsh

@AlisonAWalsh

3 min read

February 9, 2023 - 3:00PM

QWeekend

The Jubilee Hotel. Picture: David Kelly

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Pappardelle with premium Little Acre mushrooms, a poke bowl, a 500g grass-fed, grain-finished T-bone and sandcrab spaghettini. Where are we? Some new CBD riverfront crowd-pleaser?

No, the Jubilee Hotel in Fortitude Valley. The rendered brick, heritage-listed pub with its classic style and distinctive arched windows has been serving thirsty drinkers since first licensee Isabella Atwell opened the doors in 1888. After various structural tweaks over the years, including the addition of a large deck at the back, the old retainer has undergone not so much a touch up but a revolution.

The Jubilee Hotel. Picture: David Kelly

The up-to-the-moment pub grub is the least of the changes. While the front of the hotel is substantially the same, now, as part of the massive Jubilee Place development, it sits beneath a 14-level cantilevered office tower, which imposes itself like an overbearing relative.

On ground level, the pub has a massive, new, covered extension that is far from heritage-like. It’s all giant dramatic, diamond-shaped beams along the Constance St side, and open to the air high up on the other, there are gardens of spotlight plants and function rooms at the back of the old hotel overlooking this futuristic space.

The floor of the massive area is populated by a microbrewery, an open kitchen, large bar and a massive television screen fronted by seating. On a raised section, large, curved booths hug one side, and scores of tables set up a bistro vibe.

This new take on the Queensland beer garden means, sure, you can still have a XXXX and a steak but nobody’s judging you if you opt for a charred pumpkin salad with beetroot hummus and red sorrel washed down by a bottle of Levantine Hill Chardonnay.

The Jubilee Hotel’s charred pumpkin salad. Picture: David Kelly

Perhaps start with oysters, salt and pepper squid, a charcuterie plate or, like we did, with Peking duck spring rolls with hoisin sauce ($15). They’re crunchy and piping hot but the flavour of the meat is a little lost amid the pastry. Chermoula tiger prawns ($24) are nicely chargrilled, and there’s a generous amount of them, but the North African condiment is not especially evident.

Main course options are plentiful, pizzas both rosso and bianco; salads; burgers including a chickpea and potato option or a steak sandwich; seven steaks; schnitzels, parmigiana, beer-battered local flathead or grilled market fish. Phew!

Crispy pork belly. Picture: David Kelly

Crispy pork belly ($32) is a great, succulent piece of meat, braised in masterstock with the promised crispness to top, hot mustard apple slaw, sage kipfler potatoes and a small bowl of rather thin red wine jus. Sandcrab spaghettini ($34) is an enormous bowl of snaking pasta flecked with a generous amount of crabmeat, as well as slices of fresh chilli, some halved cherry tomatoes, garlic and parsley but the high ratio of pasta to the other ingredients means that it’s wanting in flavour.

Sandcrab spaghettini at the Jubliee Hotel. Picture: David Kelly

Diners can order from a QR code on the table or at the bar but, even so, the service is better than many restaurants, with staff popping by to see if there are any questions about the menu, to deliver meals and clear away quickly.

The wine list runs to several pages, with many options available in two by-the-glass sizes (from $9) and bottles, as well as a cellar reserve selection including an array of Penfolds and Hill of Grace, topping out at an Opus One 2010 from California for $2000. There are even four white wines on tap. The draught beer selection is large with everything from Black Hops Lazy Day, to Balter XPA and Frankies, named for owner Tony Burnett’s father who worked for Castlemaine, one of the drops from the in-house microbrewery Two Dogs Brewing, which has tanks along the back wall.

It’s all attention-grabbing but at this stage the food is varied in quality. The menu is so large it’s likely there are other winners beyond the pork, which in itself tells the story of a pub that’s gone from old faithful hangout to modern playground.