Brisbane’s best restaurants for a business lunch

Otto

River | Upscale Italian | Class
Best for business lunch, somewhere special, private dining room

Sometimes it pays to step back from the issues of the day and get a fresh perspective. A lunch table at Otto will do that – you’re clear of the CBD, looking back at it from the south bank of the river. With windows thrown open to that precious breeze, and a table for 12 in the private dining room knocking back the Tignanello, this is old-school Italian miraculously revived for contemporary tastes.

When Brisbane entrepreneur Cathie Reid needs to impress an investor, she takes them to Otto. “The food is always great, and looking back across the river at the CBD skyline is a lovely way to showcase the city to visitors,” she says.

Chef Will Cowper does the best focaccia in town, and the Saison mortadella and salami are no-brainers. Some tables have been known to order all the cicchetti (small Venetian snacks) and skip the entrées. Pasta is too good to be taken for granted, and the smoke-and-sizzle Otto Reserve’s black angus by way of Rangers Valley means you can go serious with wine. The bright and breezy Otto Osteria next door is a smart choice for a more casual occasion – same views, smaller bills.

Menus are sunny yellow, glasses are Riedel and tabletops are white-clothed – we think the round tables are better than the square for fours and sixes. Couples will be offered the tables for two on the window, but the next row of tables back have more space and better views. Another fresh perspective.

Wine | Lots of Australian and French bottles on offer, but this is Otto, so drink Italian – either classico (the aforementioned Tignanello) or cult (Radikons aplenty).

Shop 1, River Quay, Sidon Street, Brisbane, ottoristorante.com.au

Agnes

Wood fire | Dark arts | Detail
Best for business lunch, somewhere special, private dining room

It’s Friday lunch, and this dark, industrial space in a back street is humming. One table is hitting up martinis and oysters licked with a coal vinaigrette; others share platters of burnished, caramelised carrots. There’s an almost medieval beauty to the broad hearth in the open kitchen, where whole chickens hang over charcoal pits next to the wood-fired oven, and all cooking is done without gas or electricity.

Part of the dynamic Anyday group (Biànca, hôntô, sAme sAme and LOS), Agnes shares their good service DNA across three levels. Note the semi-basement wine bar for pre- or post-meal drinks, the massive private room overlooking the dining space, and the tucked-away rooftop bar for a breath of fresh air. When notable Brisbanite Marie-Louise Theile isn’t dining at one of the many restaurants in James Street, she can often be seen at Agnes. “Being dark and den-like, there is a real sense of escape from the Brisbane heat and mass ordinariness that surrounds most business centres,” she says. “Plus it feels very private.”

To eat? Chef Ben Williamson brings that same heightened sense of theatre to the food across a sharply honed, seasonal menu. Snacks of sourdough crumpets with yellowfin tuna or Bay of Fires cheddar gougeres help break the ice when you’re meeting up for the first time. Steak is a significant part of the business – crusty, Angus rib-eye with house mustard and confit garlic – but of greater interest, perhaps, is the deeply glazed aged duck with its faint whiff of smoke, sweetbreads that are caramelised outside and creamy inside, and skewered prawns that come still hissing from the grill. It’s doing business with a difference, with good food and a good vibe.

Wine | Food cooked over a “medieval” hearth needs something from the “bold & old” section of the wine list, surely, like Paolo Bea’s bloody sagrantino.

22 Agnes Street, Fortitude Valley, anyday.com.au

Short Grain

Hot and sour | Pork hock | Lively
Best for business lunch, team lunch, partner or pal

Australians are well versed in Thai food, attuned to the dizzying collision of hot, sour, salty and sweet. Many trained their palates on Martin Boetz’s cooking at Longrain during its 14-year run in Sydney – and now that Boetz has returned to his home town to open Short Grain, the love affair continues.

Channelling the colour and energy of a Bangkok market, the warehouse space is the perfect fit for this tropically inspired modern Asian restaurant. Light floods through the giant windows by day as the wooden tables are covered with bright, fresh salads and curries, but be aware that noise levels rise at night.

The caramelised pork hock is a popular order, as is the salt and pepper cuttlefish, and hot and sour salad finished with the crunch of ground glutinous rice. Team some roti bread with charcoal-blackened prawns and a sour orange curry of grilled Spanish mackerel, or a sour orange curry of grouper, or go for the whole deep-fried snapper – no need to fillet, just pull the crisp golden skin off the bone with a fork. “It’s the sort of food that Queenslanders should be eating,” says Boetz. “Light, fresh and tropical.”

There’s one big round table for 10 for semi-private dining if needed, and on a busy day, you might find Boetz himself ferrying food to diners. The chef’s house-made chilli sauces on the food store shelves make a good impromptu thanks-for-joining-me-today gift.

Wine | Great drinking – and value – to be had among the well-selected lighter, juicier reds: beaujolais, barbera, pinot and Gentle Folk’s exemplary “Vin de Sofa”.

15 Marshall Street, Fortitude Valley, shortgrain.com.au

Rothwell’s Bar & Grill

Steak | Burgers | Beef Wellington
Best for business lunch, team lunch, somewhere special

For a premium, wine-driven grill room, Rothwell’s does a clever line in hi-lo dining. You can park yourself in the front bar and have a quick burger for lunch, or move to a booth at the rear of the comfortable dining room in Edward Street for a longer session. Even so, there are plenty of options, which feels like the way to go these days.

There’s the opportunity to cover the table with small plates of San Daniele prosciutto, French onion dip and chicken liver parfait with plenty of toasted brioche on the side. But if you want to go all-out, pre-order former Aria chef Ben Russell’s beef Wellington for two, for its impressive heft and construction technique, the rosy-hearted eye fillet ensconced in a mushroom duxelles, spinach and burnished pastry. A seafood platter (oysters, prawns, scallops, crab and tuna) is good if you don’t mind picky eating, and fish pie presses all the right nostalgia buttons.

The marble, leather booth and chandelier schtick, intuitive service and the reassurance of a wine cellar put together by co-owner Dan Clark of Woolloongabba’s much-loved 1889 Enoteca make it a reliable option for corporate diners.

We know people who come here just for the fried onion rings that accompany the steak – not such a bad reason, come to think of it.

Wine | Go wild with the ridiculously good by-the-glass selection poured via Coravin: not cheap but worth every cent to access such rare bottles.

235 Edward Street, Brisbane, rothwellsbrisbane.com.au

SK Steak & Oyster

Prawn cocktails | Martinis | Booths
Best for team lunch, partner or pal, somewhere special

If Sydney’s Rockpool, Melbourne’s Di Stasio and New York’s Carbone decided to have a baby together, it would look like SK. There’s the benchmark burger, the opinionated wine list, the dry-ageing window, the soaring flames from a wood-fired grill, and the white-jacketed staff who get high on hospitality.

Simon Gloftis has a mini-empire in the James Street heartland at The Calile; Hellenika is on the sunny pool deck above, and the benchmark Sushi Room is adjacent. At SK, he’s fond of a soundtrack featuring anthems from the ’70s, ‘80s and ‘90s. “SK is one of the best restaurants in the country right now,” says hedge fund manager Doug Tynan. Beef baron Trevor Lee and his wife Keri Craig-Lee are fans as well.

The classic comfort food menu can’t be beat, with its Rockefeller oysters (spinach and cheese gratin), saucy steak dianes, caesar salads and seafood cocktails. Mains are simple and ungarnished, leaving you free to choose one of the nine sides or nine potato dishes, including an outrageous bug and lobster mash.

SK moves into an LA grill room martini mode at night – more suited to celebrating the deal than doing due diligence.

Wine | One of the few Brisbane restaurants to give local wines a proper look-in: beef up the wagyu with a Witches Falls garnacha from the Granite Belt.

48 James Street, Fortitude Valley, sk-so.com

La Cache à Vin

Wine, obviously | French | Brains
Best for business lunch, team lunch, somewhere special, private dining room

Would the wheels of Brisbane’s business grind to a halt without La Cache à Vin? It’s possible. Founded by the formidable Thierry Galichet in 2018, it’s now in the safe hands of owners Romain Maunier and Dan Arnold. The location is unlikely, with entrance from a car park. But once inside, you’re immersed in a Disney-like caricature of a French bistro, with sandstone walls, spacious wooden tables and bottles of fine wine everywhere you look.

There’s a brisk, friendly efficiency to the service and the customer here is always right. You want the pâté en croute from the set menu? Pas de probleme. You want not one but two serves of the crumbed brains? Mais oui.

On a hot day, cool off with a delicious chilled gazpacho and silky gravlax to pile onto baby blinis; on a cool day, dive into the onion souffle. Or just do what everyone else does, and order the filet de boeuf, the tall brick of eye fillet with a shawl of tangy bearnaise, pepper or roquefort sauce next to a kindling pile of fries.

Like Melbourne’s France-Soir, La Cache is a broad church – and a lifesaver when you need something civilised on Monday or Tuesday. The two private dining rooms have genuine character, like everything else in the place.

Wine | Great selection of all-French wines from all the classic regions but many unfamiliar producers, so put yourself in the sommelier’s hands.

215 Wharf Hill, Spring Hill, lacacheavin.com.au

Key

• Business lunch
  When you have things to discuss. Great food, comfortable, attentive, not too noisy.
• Somewhere special
  When you need a wow factor to impress, celebrate, or say a big thank-you.
• Team lunch
  The focus is on fun, food and sharing, the price is right and the vibe casual.
• Partner or pal
  The best places for the best people in your life.
• PDR
  Private dining room

Restaurants were visited over the four months to April 2024, with writers paying their own way.

The winter issue of Fin Magazine – plus the Fin Dining & Wine special – is out on Saturday, May 11 inside AFR Weekend.