Queensland’s best new restaurants
Whether you want a fast, casual eatery for the whole family or a unique, fine dining experience, we’ve found the best new restaurants in Queensland.
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Queensland’s dining scene has exploded in the past 12 months with hundreds of openings.
Not turned off by staff shortages, a pandemic or rising prices, hospitality operators have dived in head first, creating everything from fun, casual eateries designed to appeal to the masses to sophisticated, fine dining experiences catering to elite foodies.
Whatever your tastes, we’ve found the best new restaurants of 2022 in the state.
Exhibition
109 Edward St, Brisbane City
Down a set of stairs into the barely lit basement of the old Metro Arts building in Brisbane’s CBD lies this ultra-trendy, 24-seat, degustation-only experience. From former Joy chef Tim Scott, Exhibition is just that, an exhibition in all things beautiful and unique, from the Japanese artefacts presented in glowing nooks along the exposed brick walls to the plating of dishes in stunning bespoke crockery commissioned from local ceramists. Bookings for two sit kitchen-side, watching the team of smartly dressed chefs work their magic, while groups of four sink into banquette seating and sturdy wooden chairs, ready for the multi-course menu ($150pp, premium version $210) to begin. A series of snacks kicks things off, say, perfectly formed sweet, textural spanner crab tarts or the freshest of vegetables lined up like passengers in an endive boat. It’s then on to larger dishes, such as a brilliant slab of dry-aged shell loin wagyu on a herbaceous sauce with cabbage and fried mung bean salad; before three sweet courses, with a palate-cleansing yoghurt sorbet dressed with mandarin syrup and shiso oil the standout. There are alcoholic and non-alcoholic drink pairings, or guests can select from a worldly line-up of mostly small-scale wineries, and bespoke cocktails. This is an experience set to wow.
Blume
4/12 High St, Boonah
This new 20-seat restaurant in Boonah, an hours’ drive from Brisbane in the Scenic Rim, has caused a sensation since opening late last year. In a former dental surgery, with pressed-metal walls and ceiling, Brisbane-born chef Jack Stuart, who worked in the UK before three years as head chef at Melbourne’s Congress Wine, returned home to South Brisbane’s Gauge for a year before heading for the hills to craft a menu from local produce including from his aunt’s garden up the road. The set, multi-course menu is $95pp, with a few add-on options. Menus change but might include a starter of iced consommé of tomato and lemon verbena with just-picked basil leaves. Each dish reveals skill and a serious intent with stunning, intensely distilled flavours. Chunks of smoky zucchini, and spelt cannoli filled with savoury custard and showered with Towri Sheep Cheese’s pecorino are noteworthy. Stuart and his kitchen offsiders deliver and explain courses, with a cheerful staffer taking drinks from a two-page, global list. Other dishes may include kingfish pastrami over a mound of devilled eggs, sangas filled with black garlic and mutton or rainbow trout topped with buttery sauce speckled with magical pops of finger lime, roe and pearl tapioca. A tart yoghurt ganache crowned with strawberry slices and pistachio, surrounding a drift of apple-flavoured ice may conclude a wonderful experience. Worth the drive.
Herve’s Restaurant and Bar
Level 1, Craft’d Grounds, 31-37 Collingwood St, Albion
Caviar, foie gras and truffles are on hand to luxe up the confident renditions of French bistro favourites at this newcomer in inner-northern Albion. Upstairs at Craft’d Grounds, the former timber mill turned hospitality hub, Herve’s menu begins with puffed potato topped with caviar, cheesy choux pastry balls, baked Flinders Island scallops or duck and foie gras pate. The main course line-up boasts a cold seafood platter and options such as Moreton Bay bug or Murray cod; succulent pork with native spices, roast pumpkin, lentil and pomegranate jus; perhaps a perfectly cooked Black Angus tenderloin or a 1kg wagyu T-bone. A standout is the ravioli of western rock lobster, with caviar an optional extra. The wine list is global, offering a broad array of price points, and unusually, a page of Corsican varieties. Desserts are terrific, with a starry chocolate confection topped with hazelnut nougatine and roasted vanilla ice cream encircled by Pedro Ximenez-soaked sultanas. Service is a strong point under the supervision of the restaurant’s namesake Herve Dudognon, with the May opening quickly moving into top gear.
Rothwell’s Bar & Grill
235 Edward St, Brisbane City
With huge mirrors, chandeliers, marble-topped tables, green, curved banquettes and touches such as paper doilies and cut-glass tumblers, Rothwell’s on Edward St in Brisbane’s CBD takes a step back in time inspired by the building’s heritage origins. The 1885-built Rothwell’s building is now home to a classic grill, complete with lamps for each table and salt and pepper grinders. Start perhaps with steak tartare, French onion dip with deep-fried, ultra-crisp baguette, or a pleasing prawn cocktail, with the crustaceans chopped up and mixed with avocado, cucumber and a tangy cocktail sauce. Pastas such a tagliarini with sea urchin, caviar, butter and chives beckon, as does a seafood platter, Moreton Bay bug in thermidor sauce and duck cassoulet. A shared beef Wellington in its golden pastry lattice with red wine sauce is in hot demand. Five steaks may include a very tender rib fillet and all are served with a tower of crunchy onion rings, celeriac remoulade and a selection of mustards, horseradish and béarnaise sauce. A shared apple tarte tatin is golden with loads of caramel and big apple chunks and is a fine conclusion. Service by grey-uniformed staff is pleasant and courses are well timed. Start with a martini, visit the hefty 350-bottle wine list and end with an Armagnac for the complete experience.
Alba by Kuruvita
3 Alba Cl, Noosa Heads
After eight years at Sofitel’s Noosa Beach House, cookbook author and SBS cooking show presenter Peter Kuruvita has gone big with a new venture. The multipurpose enterprise with a clubhouse feel opened last December and combines Kuruvita’s interests with a studio kitchen for filming, a cooking school, cafe, pizzeria, restaurant, bar and providore. The white tablecloths, linen napkins and table lights lend a sense of intimacy to the restaurant, which features several of the chef’s dishes that reflect his Sri Lankan heritage, including an entree of masala potato dumplings with coriander mint raita and a Lankan bento box of three curries with steamed rice and condiments. New are pizzas, the bases using a sourdough starter Kuruvita began in lockdown, including one topped with slow-roasted pork belly, another with Queensland tiger prawns and a Noosa red tomato margherita. Black pepper prawns with grated coconut and whipped curd or seared yellowfin tuna accompanied by twice-cooked pork belly topped with crumbled pork crackling are excellent starters. Kuruvita’s signature snapper curry and a barbecued beef rib seasoned with a gunpowder rub and masala sauce similarly appeal, while Sri Lankan curds and treacle is a fine finale. A little off the beaten track, Alba is well worth the detour.
The Lodge Bar & Dining
49 James St, Fortitude Valley
There are not many menswear stores where you can buy a pair of boots, a dry-aged NY strip steak and perhaps a bottle of pinot noir. But New Zealand fashion label Rodd & Gunn has opened a hybrid enterprise where a clothing store seamlessly blends with The Lodge Bar & Dining, which rambles about a beautifully converted two-level Queenslander. With lashings of American oak, wool rugs, tan leather and brass touches, the light and appealing decor spreads across multiple spaces. On the food front, Michelin-backed executive chef Matt Lambert and head chef James Evangelinos have devised a substantial offering, with a “shells menu” opening with oysters served four ways and crustaceans including prawns cooked in eucalyptus.
This is in addition to the menu proper’s seven entrees, such as a salad of king prawns perched amid a mix of jewel-toned citrus on a bed of stracciatella; and 10 main courses including lamb loin, duck and soft, hand-cut fettuccine with blue crab pieces, sea urchin butter and bottarga adding layers of flavour. Staff are willing, with a mix of experience. It’s easy to imagine patrons embracing the multi-use concept, perhaps picking up some trousers on the way to imbibing a rose gold negroni.
Kid Curry
East St, Fortitude Valley
Using beef cheeks as the basis for a massaman curry proves to be a masterstroke at Kid Curry, which opened last year in Fortitude Valley beside its siblings Snack Man and Happy Boy. The tender, unctuous meat lurking in a rich sauce with potato chunks and pickled ginger for company is an eye-widening combination, enhanced by cleaning the bowl with chunks of flaky roti. Kid Curry, as its name suggests, also serves other curries such as butter chicken, confit duck rendang and rogan josh, but its broad pan-Asian sweep offers more delicate dishes as well, like a terrific grilled prawn salad or grilled octopus with glass noodles, pork and nahm jim. Starters vary from kingfish cured in coconut vinegar to a fried chicken sandwich or a take on Malaysian-style curry puffs, which are bulging pastry crescents stuffed with spiced vegetables. The wine list is a clipped collection of almost entirely European, small-producer options, a couple of Japanese beers and four Asian-influenced highball cocktails.
The decor is laid-back with timber-lined walls, concrete floors and bare tables and service is welcoming and efficient, with dishes arriving quickly.
Melrose
7 Oxford St, Bulimba
Thai-fusion fare is elevated in every sense of the word at this glamorous rooftop restaurant in Brisbane’s trendy Bulimba.
Like an up-market resort in Phuket, the fit-out is chic yet welcoming. It is split into two dining spaces: one with high tables and a bar shaking up signature and classic cocktails and pouring food-friendly wines to thirsty diners; the other, buzzing with the hubbub of an open kitchen under a retractable roof perfect for spring lunches.
Staff well-drilled on every element of each dish passionately recommend favourites from ex-Longrain chef Arte Assavakavinvong’s menu of shareable small and large plates and curries. His version of ma hor pork is a standout – the sweet, sticky, chewy, salty, spicy mix of caramelised pork and prawn wrapped in pickled pumpkin; while prawn betel leaves explode with both flavour and juices in a sour, spicy mouthful.
The chilli tolerance of diners will be tested by pork belly capped with enviable crispy crackling, fired up by an intensely spicy green nahm jim.
Or keep things sweet with lightly battered chunks of deep-fried eggplant in a sticky black vinegar dressing. Just be sure to finish this sophisticated, fun fusion experience with
a signature elevated
Asian dessert.
Sushi Room
Ground level, The Calile Hotel, 48 James St, Fortitude Valley
In a dimly-lit tenancy off the lobby of The Calile Hotel is Sushi Room, the newcomer by the team that brought SK Steak & Oyster, Hellenika and Sunshine to the precinct. It’s a 60-seater with a Mad Men-goes-to-Tokyo vibe, with vertical blinds, a textured domed ceiling and a sushi bar that acts as a central stage, plus bar, booth and table seating. There’s a long, changing line-up of sashimi and nigiri, the fingers of glistening rice topped mainly with slivers of vibrantly fresh seafood, as well as sushi rolls and rice, sashimi, tempura and several grilled yakimono dishes including toothfish, duck and smoky wagyu tenderloin. Vegetable tempura wears its batter lightly, while seafood futomaki rolls are a more filling option. As diners are seated, they’re rapidly offered a glass of Charles Heidsieck Champagne, with no price mentioned (it’s $35), offering a clue that while you can eat there for a reasonable price if you choose carefully, it’s probably not the right place if expenditure is a concern. Single nigiri cost from $8-$60 and tempura ranges from $21 for the vegetable version. through king crab and abalone up to possibly $320 for a whole lobster. Set menus and omakase are also on offer and there’s a small private dining room.
La Luna Restaurant
Marina Mirage, 74 Sea World Dr, Main Beach
Beautiful inside and out, this Marina Mirage newcomer offers a quintessentially Gold Coast dining experience. While it’s uncertain if a connected beach club being built on the waterfront will affect views, they’re peerless for now. Windows frame waterfront sunsets, while most tables in the split-level space survey the marina’s megabucks moorings. Foliage floats from the ceiling and drapes over archways, tables are fashionably dressed in fawn and white linen, and blonde sheer curtains billow in Broadwater breezes. The menu is grounded in greatest hits, ranging from a generously filled rendition of the now-ubiquitous bug roll to a handful of high-end beef cuts crossing the chargrill. Shareable snacks from the cold bar suit the setting – oysters; a salty-sweet pile of prosciutto and melon; delicate scallop sashimi; and New England lobster rolls. Skip to an entree of served-sizzling saganaki ribboned with rainforest honey and main of seafood-loaded linguine. While requests for window seats can’t be guaranteed, online bookings include the chance to firm up first impressions by ordering French fizz, the natural choice from a luxe list. It’s the place to take somebody special when you want to show off.
CC’S Bar & Grill
Crystalbrook Bailey, 163 Abbott St, Cairns
When affable, engaging staff show diners to the dry ageing meat cabinet, explaining the process that takes place within and that the beef hails from the restaurant’s own cattle farm 400km away, it’s clear this is not your average steakhouse. CC’s is a venue that would sit comfortably in any of Australia’s major capital cities. The protein-packed menu boasts 12 entrees including caviar, oysters three ways and myriad beef and seafood options, while steak is at the epicentre of the mains, featuring both wet- and dry-aged cuts ranging from a 200g sirloin to a 1kg-plus tomahawk. There are also five non-steak mains, such as local reef fish and a vegetarian number. A local delicacy is the lobster-like red claw from Atherton which comes simply grilled and dressed with a melange of soft herbs and lemon. It’s an entree just light enough to launch into, say a Crystalbrook 350g 45-day dry-aged sirloin on the bone, served with melting bone marrow and your choice of sauce or an excellent Mareeba black garlic compound butter. A greater variety of red wines is needed to complement the beef range, but for the deep-pocketed, Penfold’s Grange and Henschke’s Mount Edelstone and Hill of Grace are on hand.
Rubi Red Kitchen & Bar
2235 Gold Coast Hwy, Mermaid Beach
From celebrated hospitality veteran Michael Lambie comes this pan-Asian eatery with a menu as bold as its neon-lit, magenta-tinged fit-out. Book on Saturdays to secure a table at the relaxed rooftop bar with calming views over the Gold Coast hinterland under a retractable ceiling, or for the full culinary experience, the bustling downstairs dining room is filled with smells of the Orient. Food is made to share here, whether it be the chef’s coveted kingfish sashimi swimming in an acidic nam jim dressing balanced by pools of sweet coconut cream; or the tender wok-seared calamari enlivened with chilli. Just don’t miss Lambie’s signature Sichuan duck with plump and moist flesh underneath skin crispier than a perfectly roasted potato, accompanied by a honey-like tamarind and sesame glaze. It’s all matched seamlessly to a keenly priced, global wine list, championing great smaller producers, and a mix of food-friendly cocktails and local and imported beers. While staff may be slightly vague on the details of the menu, their friendly disposition and willingness to educate themselves makes for a laid-back dining experience.
1st Edition
356 Brunswick St, Fortitude Valley
Old and new school hip hop pumps through the sound system like a nightclub; diners sing and dance along in their chairs, while the shadowy image of Batman looks down from walls lined with superhero murals. Welcome to 1st Edition in Fortitude Valley. The work of comic-loving mates Marc Grey and Steve Maiden, this tiny 22-seater bar-restaurant is all about fun, with diners perched on stools along an L-shaped counter laminated with cartoon strips, as kitchen staff plate up dishes and bartenders shake drinks within arm’s reach. Although pretentiousness isn’t part of the package, the blokes clearly take their crafts seriously, with Grey behind a cracking cocktail menu that offers signatures and spins on classics worthy of a superhero; while Maiden combines his love for Mexican and Asian fare with French technique to create a share-style menu that’s approachable yet out of the ordinary. Think steamed spanner crab in a jalapeno-laced cucumber emulsion ready to be scooped up with artichoke chips; or a red duck curry fired up with birds eye chillies and jalapenos producing a heat that creeps up on you like Spider-Man. 1st Edition is a restaurant delivering equal parts fun, flavour and frivolity.
Lucio’s Marina
Noosa Marina, 2 Parkyn Ct, Tewantin
Lucio’s opened its doors at the marina in Tewantin in December last year, a move north for the Galletto family who ran Lucio’s in Sydney’s Paddington for almost 40 years. Matteo Galletto, wife Dieuwke and sister Michela are running the show, and their new digs have a nautical air with caulked wooden floorboards, white tablecloths, blue and white furnishings and a small selection of the artworks that covered the walls of the Sydney operation, with views across the Noosa River. The menu starts light with snacks such as oysters or ciabatta with tomato butter; antipasto in the form of octopus carpaccio or cured swordfish loin, or maybe a solid version of fritto misto, and moves on to pastas such taglioni with Fraser Island spanner crab or ravioli of Moreton Bay bug with foie gras and saffron, and larger share plates: fish, prawns, or two types of steak. Spaghetti tossed with sea urchin cream is appealing and good care is taken with the fish of the day, say, blue eye trevalla enhanced by a rich tomatoey minestrone of fregola, braised fennel and prosciutto pangrattato. Dessert is limited to lemon myrtle panna cotta with summer fruit or moistly luscious three milk cake. Drinks are delivered promptly from a list that includes local Heads of Noosa Japanese lager and Sunshine and Sons gin, spritzes, four types of negroni and a 200-bottle wine list.
Bocca Italian
Cnr Bokarina Blvd and Longboard Pde, Bokarina
It just opened its doors in mid-June but Bocca, an Italian 150-seater in a new development opposite the beach at Bokarina on the Sunshine Coast, is already buzzing with the experienced team from Maroochydore’s Market Bistro at the helm. Orange umbrellas out the front match the tangerine walls inside, which team with the blonde wood tables, chairs and floors, loads of windows and foldaway doors. The menu begins with breads, salumi, cheese and antipasti, including marinated octopus or calamari fritti, and offers a dozen pizzas cooked in an imported stone-based oven. The funghi version, with a sparse scattering of sauteed mushrooms and porcini and a light touch of buffalo mozzarella, taleggio, fior di latte and truffled pecorino, arrives with an airy base replete with satisfying charry spots. There are a couple of main courses such as crumbed chicken breast or osso buco, otherwise it’s risottos and pastas, including a marinara that is a pleasing twist of linguine flecked with chunks of fish and prawns bound in a chilli and garlic-enhanced sugo. Drinks include cocktails such as a spritz with mandarin segments and Aperol, while the wine list wanders the globe across a variety of price points, but with strong representation from Italy.
Clarence
617 Stanley St, Woolloongabba
Clarence, new this year, is a 35-seat bistro settled into the bare red brick walls of an 1865-built shopfront, with polished floors, naked wooden tables and black ladder-backed chairs under a row of dangling light bulbs. It’s the creation of chef Ben McShane, whose CV runs to sous chef at Nineteen at The Star on the Gold Coast to Umu in London, and Franklin Heaney, whose experience includes front-of-house manager at Momofuku New York. The drinks list keeps it tight with a spritz and a negroni for cocktails, Felons lager, Balter XPA, nine Australian whites, six reds, and a couple of rosés. The clipped menu begins with starters such as green bean, white peach, almond and marjoram “salad”; squid with kohlrabi, bottarga and aioli; and an appealing deconstructed duck terrine with bean chutney and horseradish. There’s complimentary excellent house-made bread and butter, too. Main course options are inventive and might include Murray cod with asparagus and cranberry hibiscus sauce; crispy-skinned roast chicken with carrot, pine nut and nori; or venison with beetroot, cherry and white onion. Rhubarb meringue pie with yoghurt sorbet is a solid conclusion to a small enterprise with big dreams.
Bandita
3/271 Gympie Tce, Noosaville
Sitting along foodie hotspot Gympie Tce, the newly opened Bandita is like something out of Tulum with white walls, timber bi-fold doors and a sun-lit outdoor lounge area looking across the road to the twinkling Noosa River. Although families are welcome here and you can easily find something for the kids, this is grown-up Mexican food. Start with snacks, perhaps a standout chicken quesadilla, the marinated meat enveloped in a toasted tortilla and topped with a citrusy salsa of cucumber and celery known as pico de gallo verde and chipotle mayo. Or possibly even better are the vegetarian-friendly sikil-pak tostadas. They feature the dip made of ground roasted pumpkin seeds, tomato and habanero chillies, spread on two puffy, cushion-like, deep-fried corn tortillas and topped with silky soured cream from nearby Maleny and a bitey tomatillo and avocado sauce. A wood-fired barbecue is behind all the tacos and mains, pumping out everything from slow-cooked vegies to a 1.1kg Cape Grim OP rib. But it’s the fish taco, crowned with more of that terrific pico de gallo verde and fiery chipotle mayo, that’ll bring diners back for more. While service can be a little lacking, for vibrant modern Mexican on the Sunshine Coast, Bandita is a must-visit.
Longtime Dining
Level 1 QueensPlaza, 226 Queen St, Brisbane City
Set above Gucci in the luxury QueensPlaza retail centre, this fresh, contemporary Chinese restaurant focuses on yum cha as flashy as the designer stores surrounding it. The fit-out is modern, with a stunning moulded bar at the entry, leading to a dining room of grey banquettes, teal and rattan chairs, white-clothed tables and curved booths under individual arbours. But truly setting this eatery apart from its competitors is its top-notch signature cocktail menu delivered by charismatic and charming bartenders. Local and Asian beer is available too, plus wines that tread a mostly well-known path and myriad non-alcoholic options. It’s all designed to pair with the colossal food line-up covering steamed dim sum, kitchen snacks, rice noodle rolls and sweets. There are also pimped-up versions of traditional favourites running from live seafood and Mongolian lamb rack to Cointreau duck and truffle fried rice. Glutinous rice dumplings are some of the best in town with the pleasantly chewy fried exterior enveloping a perfectly seasoned pork mince centre. They’re perhaps only upstaged by the barbecue pork crisps, with buttery shortcrust pastry wrapping around a viscous puddle of sweet, sticky char sui pork. The runny-centred, fluffy, golden molten salted egg custard buns are worth any potential mess.
Myrtille
Thallon St, Crows Nest
From the family behind renowned defunct Hampton bistro, Emeraude, comes its grown-up, more sophisticated cousin Myrtille, in nearby Crows Nest, 40 minutes outside Toowoomba. Soaring barn-like ceilings hover overhead, while cobalt blue brick walls and an enormous floral mural help close in the sprawling space and add a level of cosiness. Warming things up even further are the welcoming, passionate and professional staff, who explain the generous ever-changing menu, which moves from share-style snacks through to entrees and mains that continue matriarch Amanda Hinds’ ethos of showcasing the best of local produce. Bowls of puffed salt and pepper chicken skin crackling hit tables, devoured with the restaurant’s own gin made by Pechey Distilling Co, just down the road. Meanwhile a signature cocktail of blueberry syrup, cassis and prosecco makes for a delicious foil to the tasty pair of Mooloolaba whiting sliders with finger-licking tartare sauce. Entrees may run from chicken soup to slow-cooked snails; while mains could be fish and chips, Moroccan hogget pie or a twice-baked gruyere souffle topped with scallops that is every bit as good as it sounds. It’s a venue overflowing with country charm and hospitality and it’s easy to see why diners are making the trek to Myrtille.
Piatto
2460 Gold Coast Hwy, Mermaid Beach
This cosy, 16-seat, Italian-inspired eatery in Mermaid Beach confidently pushes the definition of “moody lighting”, with the room so dimly lit, it could be a nightclub. But that’s part of the venue’s rustic, inn-style charm, with guests losing track of where they are and fully immersing themselves in the experience. And here the experience is a three-course set menu ($79), with guests to choose three dishes per person from four sections: antipasti, primo, secondi and dolci. Charming waitstaff will suggest opting for the bigger primi and secondi as part of the three courses to ensure maximum value for money, while they’re also obliging with wine recommendations from the two-page list, heavy with well-suited Italian drops. Begin with the “Ortiz anchovies, garlic bread” – a surprise standout, featuring two of the umami-rich fish reclining across a golden, spherical bread roll – its core soaked in a garlicky butter. Just as good is the prawn ravioli bathing in a creamy, tangy buttermilk sauce, while co-owner and front-of-house guru Thea tag-teams with her chef-husband Brad in the kitchen to crank out a cracking sticky date pudding with a caramel brandy sauce that will have diners making their next booking as they leave.
For more great restaurants, see the delicious. 100 list of Queensland’s best restaurants here.
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