Brisbane’s Mexican food scene needs a miracle — and it might be goat birria tacos
You should also try the tuna belly tostadas, an unreal combination pho from a tiny CBD kiosk and the "Ultimate Taster" German platter for $25pp
Birria Boy
I’ll be the first one to say it: Brisbane cannot do Mexican food properly if it had a gun to its head. For a very long time, the only Mexican-adjacent food that was available was from one of three types of venues:
A takeaway chain that puts fries and/or plain black beans in everything.
A “restaurant” chain with a very dusty back bar with a handful of mainstream tequilas, a concerningly extensive menu of bland dishes covered in tomato sauce and “Aztec”-themed decorations.
A pastel-coloured bar to drink fruity vodka cocktails with candy garnishes that also happens to serve guac and chips and chicken nachos or in a similar energy, swap the pink drinks for giant Margarita slushies and free sombreros.
There’s a few reasons why good Mexican food hasn’t reached our side of the world yet. For one, there is a very small community of Mexican people here and as such, there aren’t many opening restaurants + the ingredients are not easily accessible. Did that ever stop us from trying to imitate the cuisine terribly? No. Can we improve the way we research and learn to respect a cuisine? Yes.
Luckily, there are more and more places taking inspiration from true Mexican dishes and flavours. Woolloongabba’s newest pop-up restaurant Birria Boy is one of them.
As suggested, Birria Boy has a birria (a regional variation of barbacoa from western Mexico, mainly made with goat, beef or lamb) focus with beef, goat and mushroom as the options. They are served in house made masela corn tortillas that acts as a crisp, deeply savoury casing. The goat version (with a house-butchered whole goat, pico de gallo, goat’s cheese) comes with a fruity tomatillo consomme for dipping and balancing richness.
The duck carnita read as a French-ified taco — it uses the confited legs of whole ducks (while the rest are used next door at C’est Bon), frijoles, burnt orange, radish and pickled onions.
I was pleasantly surprised by the effort on the snack-front — crisp chicharrones dusted with acidic tajin and dipped in a light mole was an unmatched way to start the meal (Margaritas mandatory here), followed by zingy, ceviche-style yellowfin tuna belly on a tostada with smoked crema and a rich bite of chorizo-stuffed woodfired jalapeno. Whatever you do — do not sleep on the snacks.
If you are ever so Margarita-inclined, don’t drive because you will want to sample all the flavours. I’m a Tommy’s purist but I did have the grapefruit one and it was well-balanced and poured over block ice — pretty nice.
617 Stanley St, Woolloongabba
Em Saigon
There is much food-related knowledge I have come to acquire over the years but one thing I’ve not been able to wrap my mind around is how a tiny CBD food kiosk produces one of the best pho broths I’ve had in Brisbane. To the owner of this place — Em Saigon — who doesn’t know my name but calls me “Combination Pho” because that’s the only thing I order here — this one’s for you.
Em Saigon is a family-owned Vietnamese restaurant on Gresham Lane I discovered when I was working a corporate job up the street. Since I left that job, I’ve not been able to get my weekly fix (the saddest part). This is why it’s the best combo beef pho ($18, a steal) you can find in the city, or anywhere:
Broth: so clean and light yet full of depth. Perfectly seasoned — never excessive seasoning or spices to overcompensate for lack of cook-time. Right balance of onions and ginger and star anise. I wish they sold the stuff in takeaway coffee cups.
Meat: the combo option comes with super tender brisket, great meatballs and thinly sliced rare beef. No tripe which is a minor bummer but I can let it slide this time. They also have the classics — just rare beef/just brisket/both.
Noodles: good quality, roundish noodles (I hate the flat, too-thin noodles that disintegrate). Important: never overcooked.
Service: quick, no BS. Some oiling of the machine is needed for peak corporate lunch times but overall, seamless. You will get called the name of your regular order if you visit enough.
100 Creek Street, Shop/3 Gresham La, Brisbane City
The German Club
The most German thing about me is that I had a German teacher in primary school that we called Frau Gallagher (I think she was Irish). Or perhaps my obsession with The Sound of Music as a young child (I thought they were German). I’ve always wanted to quell my mysteries about German food (and culture but that’s for another time) — what better opportunity than at The German Club?
My under-qualified impression of The German Club (est. 1883!) is, on the basis of aesthetics, a chicer Australian pub with the addition of vintage German signage, photographs and honour boards with previous families and figures of significance all over the walls. Bar-wise, most of the beer and some of the wine is German (LOVE me a glass of any German riesling) and served in authentic glassware.
Behold: my first ever spätzle. (And definitely not my last.) This was a cross between a dry-ish carbonara and weeknight fridge cleanout (in a good way?). Crispy, salty bits of speck and mushrooms were littered throughout a well-buttered, irregularly-shaped egg pasta. It’s meant to be eaten as a side to saucy meat dishes, hence the relative plainness but I would absolutely eat this as a meal any day of the week.
Then came the main act. This is where I felt a little bit geared up, oddly, like a competitive eater about to throw down. Perhaps it was because of the sheer amount of protein and carbs in front of us. The lowdown? Cheese kransky (excellent, 10/10), roast pork belly (typical, 7/10), roast potatoes (7/10, could’ve been crispier and better seasoned), chicken schnitzel (3/10 quite bland, dry meat), braised cabbage and sauerkraut (5/10 for gut health) and the gravy (6/10 not house made but very nostalgic). We also mistakenly ordered a classic potato salad — very unnecessary but a nice, light respite for the other rich food.
416 Vulture St, Kangaroo Point
Becca Wang is a freelance writer and food and drink columnist. She has by-lines in Broadsheet, Boothby, Gourmet Traveller, RUSSH and others. She is also the founding editor of Hawker Magazine, a food and culture publication. You can keep up with her at @supper.partying.