From riverside Italian and gourmet burgers to rock ‘n’ roll Mexican and Greek fine dining, there are plenty of restaurants in Brisbane city to make your taste buds happy. Check out our top picks below.
For decadently good food and drink, head to OTTO on Eagle St for floor-to-ceiling views paired with a degustation menu of refined elegance. Try oysters Kilpatrick and painted crayfish as well as steak and pasta dishes. Here are some of the best restaurants besides The Brisbane Club that offer top rated food.
SK Steak & Oyster
With its Palm Springs-inspired aesthetic and a roster of classic cocktails, SK Steak & Oyster offers the best of both worlds. It is also a restaurant in the truest sense of the word, offering fine dining and exceptional service. With a menu showcasing some of Australia’s finest steak and seafood, you are guaranteed a memorable experience.
Owned and operated by the team behind Hellenika, SK is a swanky reinterpretation of the upmarket bar and grill, debuting at the coveted Ada Lane end of The Calile in Fortitude Valley. With a sultry piano bar and cozy booths, the space is perfect for long lunches or intimate dinners.
The design eschews the trappings of traditional American grills, relying on the simple beauty of structural concrete cornerstones and pale timber. The furniture is also elegant, with the Walter Knoll Saddle Chairs combining precision and timeless austerity with soft organic lines that embrace the curve of the bar. Muuto’s Nerd stool, meanwhile, adds an element of playful whimsy to the scene. The wine list is impressive with a focus on rarer drops and a variety of vintages.
Olive + Angelo
Olive + Angelo serves family-style Italian cuisine. Their menu includes antipasto dishes such as focaccia, buffalo mozzarella and paprika-dusted calamari. They also have a range of handmade pizzas made from stone-ground unbleached flour, EVOO and sea salt. Their risottos and pastas include the creamy purple pappardelle with beets, coconut feta and black olives, and oven-baked lasagne with Bolognese. Desserts such as tiramisu, Nutella pizza and affogatos are available to finish. Those looking for something healthier can try their alcohol-free craft mocktails.
The restaurant is located on Edward Street. Its interior has a rustic feel with wooden tables and chairs. The dining area can seat 240 people and has an outdoor courtyard. Their menu is seasonal and made from recipes passed down through generations.
Olive and Angelo’s kitchen features a Trueheat range, RATIONAL iCombi oven, chargrill and 10 individual burners. Comcater helped them customise their Trueheat range to suit their unique cooking style, staffing and clientele. They also help with training, service and after sales support to ensure they get the most out of their new kitchen equipment.
Los Felix
With its sky-high harbour views, sleek Philippe-Starck interiors, and enticing menu, Los Felix is one of the city’s most visually striking restaurants. It’s also one of the most deeply flavourful, thanks to the culinary ingenuity of Chef Aurelie Altemaire and Head Mixologist Francois Cavelier. They showcase the best seasonal ingredients – Patagonian toothfish, Iberian pork, Japanese oysters – in inventive, deeply satisfying dishes. And the wine list, curated by Pili Restrepo Hackler, is an education in natural wines.
The only thing that could have improved it would be if the bar was a little more welcoming to bro-clientele (you know, the guys who order two Grey Goose martinis without looking at the menu). Otherwise, Los Felix is as close to perfect as a restaurant can get.
Allonda
Allonda is the second project from Nota owners Sebastiaan de Kort and Kevin Docherty. Set in a new laneway space, it’s more modern than the heritage-listed Paddington sibling, with plenty of polished concrete and eye-catching textured acoustic spray. There’s a wraparound mezzanine level and ample laneway seating to supplement the 90-seater’s main dining room.
The menu here has a few crossover dishes with Nota, but mostly Allonda celebrates seasonal Australian produce in the style of its sister restaurant. That’s expressed in dishes such as a smoked uni bucatini, the restaurant’s namesake risotto finished Venetian-style with roasted tomato butter, and lightly chargrilled Western Australian scampi.
Service is relaxed and friendly, especially considering Allonda’s price point. There’s a broad wine list with lots of lean whites and light reds, managed expertly by Yanika Sittisuntorn. Cocktails range from chilli and basil spritzes to burnt orange and bourbon sours, and there’s a special Coravin menu as well. The desserts are decent too, though skip the icy apple sorbet and gelatin-heavy fennel panna cotta in favour of a rich and bitter dark chocolate mousse and a scoop of the ice cream-like salted caramel gelato.