Brisbane’s 12 best suburban restaurants, recognised nationally
From mouth watering seafood to heavenly desserts, we’ve compiled a list of the best suburban restaurants to dine at these summer holidays. SEE THE LIST
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From sensational seafood spreads to jaw dropping desserts – we have Greater Brisbane covered as we reveal the top suburban restaurants to dine this holiday season.
Scored on their quality of food, delicious drinks, service, presentation and ambience – these are the venues which had people talking and diner’s mouths watering with all 12 restaurants featuring recently on Australia’s top 400 list.
From eateries in suburbs just outside the CBD such as Woolloongabba or Teneriffe to bayside hubs such as Manly – our list features many areas across the city.
BEST SUBURBAN BRISBANE RESTAURANTS
HERVE‘S RESTAURANT AND BAR
Level 1, Craft’d Grounds, 31-37 Collingwood St, Albion
Hervé‘s Restaurant and Bar located at Albion promises an artisanal French-inspired food and wine experience, for any person, for any occasion.
It opened in May last year and is set within the food and lifestyle hub, Craft‘d Grounds, a former timber mill turned into a hospitality precinct.
The menu features both solo eating and sharing opportunities with dishes like the fresh seafood bouillabaisse, with fresh bay lobster, tiger prawns, scallops, mussels, clams, rouille, fennel and karkalla to keep the conversations and cocktails flowing.
Hervé’s is open for lunch Thursday through to Saturday and dinner Wednesday through to Saturday.
THE ARSONIST
457 Esplanade, Manly, 3396 8962, thearsonist.com.au
The bayside’s Arsonist is an aromatic homage to wood, smoke and flame.
The restaurant’s menu centres on smoking, charring and coalroasting, with Stockyard brisket, Hervey Bay scallops and their signature creme brulee all on offer.
Guests can immerse themselves in the warmth, sight, sound, smell and taste of cooking with fire in Manly, just 30 minutes from Brisbane’s CBD.
It is open for lunch on weekends and dinner Wednesday through to Saturday.
ELSKA
2/148 Merthyr Rd, New Farm, 0435 247 411, elska.com.au
New Farm’s Elska is an intimate, 12-seat, degustation-only fine dining restaurant headed by chef/owner Nathan Dunnel.
Elska moved from Wilston to New Farm in February, 2022 and offers a range of local delicacies such as kangaroo tail, emu, foraged mushrooms and even alcoholic kombucha.
The restaurants takes its name from the Scandinavian word for love and is bold and generous in its 14-course menu.
They are open for lunch on Saturday and dinner Thursday through to Saturday.
BECCOFINO
10 Vernon Tce, Teneriffe, 3666 0207, beccofino.com.au
This Teneriffe restaurant will not hit the wallet hard at all and is regarded as one of the city’s finest Italian eateries.
Beccofino continues its high standards almost two decades after it opened, delivering simple, understated but always excellent food with warm and attentive service.
The authentic, handmade pasta and 48-hour fermented pizza will always be a popular drawcard and their pizzas were voted best in Brisbane by Delicious.com in November last year.
The rustic restaurant does not take bookings and are open for lunch on weekends and dinner Tuesday through to Sunday.
MELROSE
7 Oxford St, Bulimba, 3899 3371, melroserestaurant.com.au
Brisbane’s trendy Bulimba area on Oxford St is home to Melrose, a Thai-fusion restaurant offering ma hor pork, curries and all the spicy Thai favourites one would expect.
It is split into two dining spaces, including one with high tables and a bar shaking up signature and classic cocktails and pouring food-friendly wines to thirsty diners and the other, buzzing with the hubbub of an open kitchen under a retractable roof perfect for spring lunches.
Ex-Longrain chef Arte Assavakavinvong is not afraid to play with Chinese and Japanese flavours as well but The chilli tolerance of diners will definitely be tested.
Melrose is open for lunch Friday through to Sunday and dinner Wednesday through to Sunday.
1889 ENOTECA
10-12 Logan Rd, Woolloongabba, 3392 4315, 1889enoteca.com.au
The Roman Woolloongabba restaurant 1889 Enoteca was voted the second best restaurant in Queensland by readers in August this year.
The Brisbane staple was crowned one of the world’s finest Italian restaurants by Italian magazine Gambero Rosso, the authority on the nation’s food and wine.
This was in large part due to the extensive and impressive vino list, a result of co-owner Dan Clark’s expertise as a wine wholesaler.
From the first course offerings, the vitello tonnato is the standout – the finely sliced veal curled into rose buds and arranged in a puddle of bowl-licking tuna mayonnaise with capers and olives.
1889 Enoteca is open for lunch Friday through to Sunday and dinner Tuesday through to Sunday.
C’EST BON
609 Stanley St, Woolloongabba, 3891 2008, cestbon.com.au
Set in one of Brisbane’s heritage-listed buildings on Stanley St, Woolloongabba, C’est Bon underwent a major three-storey transformation in 2019, opening up a rooftop bar and a cellar for intimate dining.
The French restaurant offers delectable snacks such as eclairs filled with cognac-laced duck liver pate and a hint of plum, lobster thermidor vol-au-vents and little marjoram and heirloom tomato tarts.
Chef Andy Ashby’s establishment also offers small plates of pig’s head and pistachio terrine or sweet corn brulee to name a few, which pair with a French-heavy wine list.
C’est Bon accepts diners for breakfast and dinner Tuesday through to Saturday and lunch, Friday and Saturday.
DETOUR
6/11 Logan Rd, Woolloongabba, 3217 4880, detourrestaurant.com.au
Another Woolloongabba favourite is Detour, a restaurant famous for its Kentucky Fried Duck and a radical head chef in Damon Amos, who has been known to cook with gunpowder and plate up the occasional insect.
Detour opened in 2017 and was an early adopter in offering a significant amount of quality plant-based dishes, rather than treating them as an afterthought.
Fossilised carrots with char siu peanut, dukkah and chai, coal-roasted broccoli and smoked pumpkin with maple are just some of the indulgent vegetable creations available.
The drinks list consists of a heavily Australian array of wines, craft beer, cocktails and spirits.
Detour is open for lunch on weekends and dinner Tuesday through to Saturday.
CLARENCE
617 Stanley St, Woolloongabba, 0401 976 000, clarencerestaurant.com
Named after Clarence Corner, this Woolloongabba restaurant opened in early 2022 and is a 35-seat bistro settled into the bare red brick walls of an 1865-built shopfront.
Owner and Head Chef Ben McShane has plied his trade at Nineteen at The Star on the Gold Coast and Michelin Star restaurant Umu in London, before taking his talents to Brisbane’s south.
Clarence’s modern European menu consists of a green bean, white peach, almond and marjoram salad as well as squid with kohlrabi, bottarga and aioli and an appealing deconstructed duck terrine with bean chutney and horseradish.
Clarence is open for lunch on weekends and dinner Thursday through to Sunday.
NOTA RESTAURANT AND WINE BAR
224 Given Tce, Paddington, 3217 6116, notarestaurant.com.au
After opening Nota in a heritage-listed shopfront in inner-western Paddington in 2019, the owners took over the tenancy next door in March last year and knocked out an arch in the wall, making room for an extra 40 diners and becoming Nota Restaurant and Wine Bar.
Rather than one room being the restaurant and the other the wine bar, the European restaurant is a movable feast with some tables enjoying the chef’s menu and others plumping for snacks.
The menu consists of garlic and herb butter scallops, a tempura fish sandwich, beef carpaccio with tuna mayo, crispy capers and fried shallots, or bigger dishes such as Fraser Island spanner crab pasta with chilli and garlic or excellent Black Onyx steak.
The wine list offers 90 bottles of mainly European and Australian small-producer wines.
Nota is open for lunch Friday and Saturday and dinner Tuesday through to Saturday.
MANLY BOATHOUSE RESTAURANT
4 Trafalgar St, Manly, 3393 5920, manlyboathouse.com.au
The bayside’s Manly Boathouse Restaurant launched in 2021 and took over dining institution Wilson’s Boathouse, with the site completely gutted and transformed into a restaurant, patisserie, gelateria and fish and chippery all under the one roof.
Alongside fresh oysters and Moreton Bay bug sliders, Head Chef Braden White’s melt-in-your-mouth gnocchi with local mushrooms, truffle cream and crisp parmesan cracker form part of the eclectic modern Australian menu.
Boats sail by the waterfront and catch the diner’s eyes at the eastern bayside restaurant’s relaxed yet sophisticated setting.
The Manly Boathouse is open daily for lunch and dinner.
LA BELLE VIE
60 MacGregor Tce, Bardon, 0435 200 282, labellevie.com.au
La Belle Vie, or “the good life” in French, is a traditional French restaurant, which opened in 2020 and is located in Brisbane’s west, and prides itself on passion, quality and experience.
Just 10 minutes from Brisbane’s CBD in Bardon, Head Chef Samuel Perrin’s menu offers French traditional favourites such as foie gras, escargots or Saint-Jacques scallops, lamb rack with Mediterranean herbs and quail with a rougaille-style sauce.
Desserts include a lemon and meringue tart and dark chocolate dome with a raspberry heart and diners are offered fresh slices of baguette to start.
La Belle Vie is open for lunch and dinner Tuesday through to Saturday.
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