Brisbane’s Best New Openings of 2023

Every year the Broadsheet team puts its collective wallets and waistlines on the line to eat and drink its way around Brisbane, sampling venues as they open. We’ve pooled our findings to creative comprehensive lists of the best new bars, best new cafes and best new restaurants.

But if you’re feeling exceptionally time-poor as we battle our way through the silly season and don’t have time for a longer read, consider this your cheat sheet to the best new venues of 2023.

Brisbane’s Best New Restaurants of 2023

• Bar Rosa, South Brisbane: Having already opened three of the city’s best Italian restaurants and bars – Beccofino, Julius Pizzeria and Bar Brutus – the team behind Bar Rosa could have rested on its laurels. Instead, they opened a new venue in the former Gauge space on Grey Street serving snacky Italian small plates that can be scoffed down in seconds or shared with a group, and large plates include rotating pastas, chicken cotoletta with cauliflower gratin, grilled fish and eye fillet.
• Bosco, Newstead: Simon Hill’s (Bar Alto 80-seat grill in a Newstead warehouse is beyond chic. The focal point of the restaurant is the open kitchen, equipped with a parrilla grill and a fire-powered oven. Bar Alto chef Sajith Vengateri oversees the menu, drawing influences from Spain, Italy and France. Hill – who is regarded as one of Brisbane’s best sommeliers – has curated the wine list to complement the cuisine.
• Establishment 203, Fortitude Valley: Owned by family-run Queensland beef producer Stanbroke, and with executive chef Ben O’Donoghue (an original Surging the Menu co-host who recently sold his popular Billykart Kitchen and Billykart West End diners) at the helm, this Italian steakhouse is offering 11 cuts of steak, including hefty on-the-bone cuts like a 1.2-kilogram bistecca alla fiorentina, an off-the-bone Angus rib eye and a pure Wagyu sirloin.
• Komeyui, Spring Hill: Longstanding Melbourne restaurant Komeyui opened in a modern space located – rather surprisingly – beneath the former Australian Federal Police building in Spring Hill. Catch head chef Motomu Kumano behind the sleek 12-metre-long sushi bar, as he painstakingly handcrafts some of the state’s best Japanese food. Put another way, “We’re not serving food, we’re serving a piece of art,” as the chef told Broadsheet earlier this year. With coal-grilled miso-marinated black cod, pork gyoza with yuzu citrus soy vinegar and surgically sliced sashimi, we’re tempted to agree with his self-assessment.
• La De Lah, South Brisbane: When Penang-born chef Eugene Lee opened his South Bank restaurant in late July, his mission was simple: to change the way Brisbane diners thought about Malaysian cuisine with his sophisticated, contemporary and creative menu. Expect bao buns filled with sweet bug tail, fennel and house-made green sriracha; fried quail with smoked kecap manis; slow-cooked short rib with wood-ear mushrooms and potato; and a nasi goreng kerabu, stained blue from the accompanying butterfly-pea flowers.
• Pilloni, West End: The sequel to Roman restaurant La Lupa, Pilloni is a Sardinian restaurant championing charcoal cooking. Beyond regional pasta dishes, the menu’s main drawcard is the porceddu, a quartered and spit-roasted suckling pig with ultra-crisp crackling. The wine list was put together under the guidance of former Essa sommelier Phil Poussart, and the Alkot Studio and Tonic Projects fit-out was shortlisted for an Australian Interior Design Award.
• Pneuma, CBD: Dan Arnold (Restaurant Dan Arnold and La Cache a Vin) and Matt Blackwell’s (ex-Goma Restaurant) Pneuma was one of the most hotly anticipated openings of the year – and for good reason. The menu includes snacks and small plates, such as smoked eel cream with black apple and crispy potato; malt tart with cheddar custard and Jerusalem artichoke; and corned ox tongue with tomato kasundi; plus mains like roasted monkfish tail with smoked onion and mussel beurre blanc.
• Settimo, CBD: Settimo, the first Brisbane venue from industry name Guy Grossi, is inspired by Grossi’s memories of the Amalfi Coast, with traditional Campanian dishes such as gnocchi alla Sorrentina, pasta al limone and scialatielli all’amalfitana.
• Short Grain, Fortitude Valley: One of the country’s most respected Thai chefs, Martin Boetz, has returned to his hometown to serve up the sort of punchy dishes he perfected over his years at Longrain’s Sydney and Melbourne outposts. Curated by Boetz and head chef Daniele Passaretta (ex-Same Same) the menu is strong from start to finish, with appetisers including oysters with nam jim sauce and salt-and-pepper cuttlefish, alongside robust mains like red curry with coconut-braised duck, caramelised pork hock with chilli vinegar and fried whole fish with caramelised tamarind.
• The Lex, CBD: New York-style grills have been popping up across the country, with Sydney’s Clam Bar and Melbourne’s Grill Americano both garnering much acclaim in recent years. The Lex is following suit. The menu from an ex-Noma chef offers a melange of high- and low-brow cuisine that’s rarely seen in Queensland. (Think tater tots with Avruga caviar and crème fraîche, and an elaborate take on a hotdog made with barbequed octopus.) The star is The Lex’s selection of dry-aged meat: a hefty, marbled tomahawk steak from Warwick, a flatiron steak with smoked bone marrow and charred shallots, and macadamia-crusted cobia with buttermilk and tarragon – a pescatarian option that rivals the richest Queensland beef.

Brisbane’s Best New Bars of 2023

• Alice, CBD: An ’80s-themed dive bar tucked down a laneway is serving complex cocktails while a jukebox blares vintage tracks.
• Antico, CBD: In the former Super Whatnot space, Antico, a new small bar from The Cuatro Group (also Death & Taxes and Dr Gimlette) showcases just eight rotating cocktails.
• Bar Francine, West End: This tiny West End bar in a converted 100-year-old cottage feels like eating at a mate’s place thanks to the relaxed and welcoming service – and the tinnies of XXXX on offer. The dynamic wine list highlights minimal intervention Australian producers, while cocktails are inspired by Australian nostalgia with libations named Shandy and Fruit Cup.
• Flying Colours, West End: After closing Super Whatnot at the start of the year, Simon Martin opened Flying Colours in July offering a mature menu with input from Adam Wolfers (ex-Gerard’s) that might include house-made flatbread, seared scallops with ’nduja, or a signature hotdog. Drinks range from a natural-leaning wine list to a clutch of craft beer taps and a concise cocktail offering.
• Ruby, My Dear, Newstead: Brisbane’s first Japanese-inspired vinyl bar serves sophisticated vinyl and izakaya-style bar snacks while spinning serious tunes.
• The Nixon Room, Fortitude Valley: With snacks like fried nori crisps with tuna tartare, and frozen cucumbers compressed in bay leaf oil, The Nixon Room from chef Phil Marchant and the team behind neighbouring Essa might just be serving up the most creative bar food in Australia. Expect a range of Martinis and elaborate cocktails like the God Complex, made with whisky, amaretto, hazelnut and roast banana.

Brisbane’s Best New Breweries of 2023

• Future Magic Brewing, East Brisbane: An airy new brewery – from a pair of former tech bros turned brewers – gave new life to a food packaging plant after a successful crowdfunding campaign.
• Patio by Range, Paddington: Drawing on the success of Range Brewing’s Newstead taproom, Patio by Range opened in June offering a wide selection of Range beers on tap and Italian-centric dishes.
• Working Title Brew Co, Newstead: Taking over the old Newstead Brewing space on Doggett Street in April, Working Title pulls pints from 12 rotating taps which include everything from pilsners and pale ales to experimental brews like a pine tree Christmas ale, or a salted caramel and pretzel pastry stout.

Brisbane’s Best New Cafes of 2023

• Corner Deli, Woolloongabba:An NYC-inspired sandwich joint from the Clarence team, expect hot sandwiches like fried chicken with hot sauce, mayonnaise and iceberg lettuce; curried mortadella with tomato and provolone; and confit duck with horseradish cream or fresh deli rolls. Wash it all down with coffee from Bancroft Coffee Roasters, and a tidy selection of lo-fi wines available by the tumbler.
• Hawthorne Coffee, Hawthorne:Hawthorne Coffee is a small, light-filled space with pastel colours, a smattering of seats and a compact kitchen which churns out sourdough toasties and specialty blends from Bancroft Coffee Roasters.
• James & Antler, Fortitude Valley: When brothers Tze-Huei and Chewie Choo opened their James Street kiosk, they couldn’t have predicted how quickly it’d take off. In the first week and a half, they served around 1300 croques and 1400 frappes. And things haven’t slowed down since.
• Pablo’s Pantry, Woolloongabba: Helmed by mother-and-daughter duo, Marissa and Helen Kentrotis, Pablo’s Pantry is an ode to family. Everything from the cookies, muffins and cinnamon buns to the pastitsio and spanakopita is made in-house from family recipes. Expect everything from eggs with pistachio and kale pesto, feta and lots of herbs to roast pork sandwiches with apple sauce and coleslaw.
• Straits, Coorparoo: Hospo young gun Brendan McCrystal opened Straits when he was just shy of his 24th birthday. Go in for coffee made from a rotating range of beans from small Australian producers, pastries from Brasserie Bread and a serious stack of vinyls – as is apt for a venue named after Dire Straits.
• Single O, Newstead: Sydney’s Single O, finally landed in Brisbane this year with an industrial-chic Newstead cafe serving its flagship Reservoir Blend, alongside rotating single-origin blends and self-serve taps dispensing batch brew and an iced oat latte.
• Scugnizzi, CBD: Inspired by bakeries in Italy where they sell pizza al taglio (pizza by the cut), Scugnizzi has inspired snaking lunchtime lines with its chunky slices of Roman-style pizzas. There are options like truffle and pancetta with mushrooms, and a ripiena (filled pizza) number with mortadella, pistachio and stracciatella. There’s also a large range of pastas that are cooked to order, such as gnocchi with duck ragu and porcini sauce, and tagliatelle with prawns and zucchini.

And to find out what we loved eating, check out our team's favourite drinks and dishes of the year.