Toowoomba restaurants and bars: 7 new venues you need to try

With the Toowoomba dining scene quickly expanding over the past couple of months, here are seven venues you need to visit.

Chef Raphael John De Paula with his food from the newly established Karan-An restaurant, and Elizabeth Anderson (left) and Araceli Castillo enjoy their pisco sour cocktails at Bodega.

Toowoomba residents sprung into the new season, so did a number of new restaurants, bars and cafes.

Here are seven locations you need to try in the Garden City.

Bodega Bar

Hidden behind a fake shopfront is one of the city’s newest bars, Bodega.

The venue specialises in live music and offers boutique beers and an array of Latin-inspired liquor.

Bodega manager Percy Small having fun behind the bar on opening weekend. Picture: Kevin Farmer

Created by former Junk Toowoomba owner Todd Farr and located next door to where that restaurant was located, visitors can expect “good times, cold beer and music”.

You can find Bodega at Walton Stores where Spanish tapas restaurant Hola was previously located.

Mouse Proof Brewing

Slide back the door of a former Toowoomba factory and you will find Toowoomba’s newest brewery Mouse Proof.

Professor John Bennett (left) and Mal Campbell from Mouse Proof Brewing. Picture: Nev Madsen.

It is run by award-winning brewer Professor John Bennett and a team of five co-founders and is complete with 14 taps.

Wood panels and beer cans adorn the walls of the rustic and retro fit-out inside the old Dairy Farmers factory on Brook Street.

Take a trip up the stairs and you will find a small outdoor bar complete with astroturf and oil drum tables.

Proof BBQ

A new restaurant in Toowoomba’s CBD is smoking up a storm on the site of three former pubs.

Proof BBQ, which specialises in smoked meats, has expanded from its Windsor location in Brisbane to the Garden City.

Proof BBQ owner Ryan Lane. Photographer: Liam Kidston.

It is already proving popular in its site on Duggan Street, which is the former location of Volcanic Brewing, The Florence and The Office.

Diners can dig into some pulled pork or even their unique taxi fries – fried chicken skins with seasoning.

Amalfi Cafe

It didn’t take long for the former location for restaurant Junk to find a replacement tenant in the Amalfi Cafe.

The cafe opened at the start of September and specialises in delicious Italian food.

You can find the new venue in Walton Stores.

Brooklyn Donut and Coffee

If you want to bite into a delicious pastry inspired by the Big Apple, make sure you head to level 1 of Grand Central.

Summer Simon tries out the doughnuts at Brooklyn Donut with her mother Roxy. Picture: Nev Madsen.

Brooklyn Donut and Coffee recently opened outside Woolworths, offering residents the chance to score a decadent treat.

It is another new eatery that proved popular fast, with doughnut lovers queuing to score one of the extravagant creations.

Karan-an Asian Boutique

A little taste of Melbourne arrived in the Toowoomba CBD earlier this year.

Raphael John De Paula opened Karan-an Asian Boutique Restaurant on Margaret Street after running Kusina on Ruthven Street.

In addition to taking inspiration from the food scene down south, the food in inspired by Thai Malaysian and Filipino cuisine.

You can find the restaurant just down from the Ruthven Street intersection.

The Brewhouse

One of Toowoomba’s biggest breweries has moved and expanded to a prime CBD location.

The Brewhouse, the new base of 4 Brothers Brewing, is in a fast-growing part of Margaret Street.

Madeleine Johnston (left) and Madeleine Rayner at 4 Brothers Brewing new Margaret St premises The Brewhouse. Picture: Kevin Farmer

The new location has allowed the brewery to expand its offerings, particularly in the food department.

Visitors can even down a schooner and a plate of chicken wings in street seating.