No counter meals here, these hotels serve the very finest of food and drink. Long gone are the days when all Brisbane pubs had a menu selection of roast of the day or bangers and mash. These days, many pubs and hotels are catering to the discerning diner, with a la carte restaurants part of the pub package.
Sticks restaurant at Chalk Hotel won the 2007 Restaurant and Catering Awards for Best Restaurant in a Pub/Tavern/Club. Open for breakfast, lunch and dinner, there's indoor and al fresco dining. If you want dinner to extend into the night, there's plenty of music and action in Chalk Hotel's bars.
Newly renovated and classy, Cucina Bar and Restaurant at the Albion Hotel is open 7 days a week for lunch and dinner and serves Italian food. Enjoy a pre-dinner drink at the bar, where the décor creates a stylish atmosphere.
There's also The Newmarket Hotel with an a la carte restaurant as part of the mix. The rundown old pub has had a full transformation into a stylish northside destination for food and drink.
Deery's at the Story Bridge Hotel offers a la carte dining. Other areas of the hotel are best for watching sport or a casual ale but Deery's is a restaurant with a deserved reputation.
The Regatta's Boatshed Steakhouse sits on Coronation Drive beside the Brisbane River. Enjoy award winning steaks in the expansive dining area. The grand old building now houses the Boatshed restaurant as well as other cafes and bars.
Fix restaurant at the Port Office Hotel is situated in the Brisbane CBD. With bars and dance floors upstairs, you can start the night off in style with a meal at the Fix Restaurant.
12 Restaurant & Cellar at The Melbourne Hotel, West End. Try the restaurant or the daily wine and cheese tasting. 12 has a sommelier on duty and you can sit in booths inside or comfy armchairs on the footpath.
The Steak and Crabhouse at Belvedere Hotel, Redcliffe, specialises in fresh seafood and winning steaks. Spoil yourself with mud crab, sand crabs, oysters and other seafood at this historic pub with a view. There are more casual eating options and bars too at the Belvedere.
Brisbane has many bars that have restaurants or drinking holes with food menus - the lines are blurring between places to drink and places to eat. So don't think pubs can't serve good grub!
