Lucy Bell Bird

With six Japanese wines and a menu of elevated Japanese snacks, Joy Liu’s new Oxford Street bar carves out its own niche between Sydney’s omakase counters and izakayas.

Huerta is one of Australia’s best Mexican chefs. At Barro, he’s serving a deeply personal menu with CDMX tacos, mole made with a family recipe and cocktails featuring lesser-known Mexican spirits.

The chef made the move from Melbourne to Brisbane three years ago. Since then, he’s scoped out an impressive list of local favourites including a “perfect” pizzeria, a romantic out-of-towner and a falafel joint that merits repeat visits.

The Tippling Club chef is returning to Australia to open an ambitious fine diner in the Clare Valley. And he has starry ambitions to make the degustation diner one of SA’s best regional restaurants.

The Surry Hills restaurant is back after a seven week renovation. And everything is new, from the furniture and joinery to the à la carte menu and a happy hour featuring $10 cocktails.

Monet’s Water Lilies hang alongside pieces by Picasso, Matisse, Mondrian, Cézanne, Degas and Van Gogh at this unprecedented collaborative exhibition between the Art Gallery of South Australia and the Toledo Museum of Art.

This month’s calendar is a feast for the eyes with masterful modernist paintings, a play which takes Chekhov to the Tiktok era, and the return of Illuminate.

The chef also shares a local joint serving simple but excellent Singaporean food, his must-order dish at Long Chim and an overseas spot he can’t wait to get to.

Plus, the daifuku spot she loves, grandma-approved dumplings, and the pizzeria she can’t wait to return to.

Plus, a film festival, fondue, a Jungle Giants gig and many more events worth braving the cold for.

Restaurants, wine bars and cellar doors. There are so many reasons to visit the regions this year.

It’s a busy month in Brissie, with a string of hot events including stage spectaculars, food festivals, design markets, and more.