Back in April, we called it. Asian bakeries dominated the national scene this year with venues across the country following the trend.

In Brisbane that trend isn’t isolated to bakeries. Several of our favourite cafes of the year draw on influences from Bangladesh, Singapore, Thailand, Japan and Korea. We’ve been copying our neighbour’s homework and it’s created some stellar dishes.

Here – in alphabetical order – are the best new Brisbane cafes of 2025.

Cafe Disco, West End

Cafe Disco is hard to miss – and that’s not just because of its bright yellow facade. The all-day diner was recently called out by Gerald Ong as serving his favourite bite of the year. The 40-seat venue is owned by Tasfeen Hassan, who grew up in Bangladesh but has been in Australia for many years. He’s drawing on his experience of living between cultures to create an idiosyncratic menu that blends the cuisines of his two homes. There’s flatbread, lamb kofta, house-made pickles, shakshuka with corn bread and more. On the drinks front, there’s chai, Passport Coffee brews and a selection of premium teas from Singapore’s TWG. There are also cocktails on offer (it’s always five o’clock somewhere, right?), including a tequila number that’s layered with a spiced-herb mix.

Idle, New Farm

When you consider how much of a staple of the Brissie bread scene Agnes Bakery became, it’s easy to forget it started as a pandemic pivot. The team has pivoted once again, shutting Agnes Bakery and opening Idle, a cafe-bakery hybrid that will carry on the bakery’s legacy.

The new spot has 36 seats and a sleek Tamsin Johnson fit-out that invites you to linger. Thankfully, the baked goods and breads that made Agnes so popular have made the trip alongside a new cross-laminated pain au chocolat, a tonka bean kouign-amann and a Basque cheesecake. There’s also an all-day dine-in menu. An early favourite is the Baghdad eggs: fried eggs served with labneh, smoked almond crumb, brown butter and a side of flaky flatbread made with croissant offcuts.

For lunch, there are salads and chicken from a coal-fired rotisserie. There’s also a market section selling sexy smallgoods – including blueberry jam and gentleman’s relish, sardines, honey, wine and spirits.

Nos Bakehouse, Dutton Park

Taking note of a nationwide trend, Broadsheet writer Becca Wang declared 2025 the year of Asian bakeries. Nos Bakehouse exemplifies this trend locally.

Run by an ex-Florence pastry chef Susan Koh, Nos is known for its shokupan (Japanese milk bread). The fluffy vessels house fillings like beef bulgogi, prawn cocktail, tuna mayo and more. All these sandos can be ordered in a bento box, complete with a sesame-dressed salad, tamagoyaki and miso soup. For sweets, there’s a yuzu cheesecake that’s brûléed to order, a banoffee tart, twice-baked chocolate cake and an ube Basque cheesecake with vanilla cream. There’s also milk pudding and French toast. Drinks include ceremonial-grade matcha, which can be dressed up with a berry puree or lavender foam.

Nos isn’t content to just bob along and go with the flow. In the lead-up to its first anniversary, Nos unveiled a new menu, which proves how far it’s evolved. Although Nos was originally billed as a Japanese bakehouse, the new menu incorporates wider Asian flavours with Korean shakshuka in a gochujang sauce; tom yum pasta with mussels and king prawns; and panang curry with pork katsu. Koh is Singaporean so you can expect onsen egg and kaya toast, as well as Singaporean chicken curry in a shokupan bread bowl.

075 Pinsa Romana, New Farm

Pinsa is having a moment in Brisbane. It all started at Paddington’s now-closed La Pinsa, the city’s first pinseria. Beyond that, the dish has featured on menus at The Alligator Club, Doughcraft, La Lupa and Scugnizzi. So while pinsa isn’t new to Brisbane, no one is making it quite like 075 Pinsa Romana. 

According to co-owner Michele Bei, who was born in Perugia but moved to Rome where he learnt how to make traditional Roman-style pizza, that’s all down to the 800-kilogram Castelli oven. The handmade Roman oven was shipped by boat and then crane-lifted and forklifted into the venue. In it Bei, and his partner and co-owner Aleks Miletic, are shaping bubbly, high-hydration dough onto a rectangular tray and topping them with traditional flavours. 

Bei’s dough uses a blend of flours, meaning there’s less wheat flour than a typical Neapolitan-style pizza. The result: a light, airy, crisp base that’s soft on the inside and is easier to digest. There’s also suppli, a popular Roman street snack and the city’s answer to arancini. And you can BYO wine as long as you don’t mind drinking from a plastic cup. 

Refreshingly, 075 Pinsa isn’t trying to be anything it’s not. They don’t want to be a restaurant, they don’t have delusions of grandeur. They just want to make a damn good pinsa. 

So What Stereo, Fortitude Valley

Listen to So What by Miles Davis and it’s easy to understand why Kawid “Meek” Brikshavana named his new cafe in Fortitude Valley after the track. The tune led to the creation of modal jazz, favouring improvisation over rigid chord progressions. Step inside So What Stereo and that same free-form energy is everywhere. Mismatched furniture, multicoloured walls and abstract art create a retro feel in the space. Brikshavana credits his partner Ratinan “Ploy” Rattanathai for sourcing most of the cafe’s decor through Facebook Marketplace.

Tucked away in a cul-de-sac off Wickham Street, the cafe sits alongside The Valley Grocer, The Valley Butcher & BBQ and Sam’s Thai Kitchen, in a cluster of businesses that are becoming a mini Thai Town. Brikshavana, who is originally from northern Thailand, is serving dishes you seldom see anywhere else. He is particularly proud of his khao soi. The dish consists of egg noodles in a rich coconut curry, with either braised chicken or beef, topped with crispy egg noodles. The rest of the menu is equally appealing. There are Thai boat noodles, Chiang Mai sausage, Thai-style scrambled eggs with coal-grilled tiger prawns and nam prik num (roasted green chilli paste), and a grilled beef congee set. Coffee comes from Single O and is available as both espresso and filter.

Just recently the team added dinner to their offering, what can’t they do?

Time and Temp, Albion

When Manning Young and Palita Cai launched Time & Temp, they planned a low-key soft opening to test out the equipment. They were quickly run off their feet by pastry-obsessed Brisbanites. They’ve been selling out ever since.

Cai’s cardamom buns became an early hit, which is no surprise considering she cut her teeth at Falco, a Melbourne bakery famed for the Scandinavian staple. Beyond the bun, her pastry line-up always features a plain croissant and a pain au chocolat made with Hunted & Gathered chocolate. The rest changes depending on what produce is in season. Over the first few weeks, Cai produced a savoury corn danish, a maple pecan pie and a rhubarb crumble danish with vanilla crème diplomat. Supernormal head chef Jason Barratt is particularly fond of the deeply savoury ’nduja scroll with roasted onion, fennel seeds and Stradbroke Island honey and the black sesame kouign-amann.

For coffee, Young – a Proud Mary alum – is focusing on batch brew, rotating through his favourite roasters. For him, it’s all about complementing the pastries, rather than building the business around coffee margins.

Honourable mentions

There’s so much more to get excited about in Brisbane this year.

Daniel Bowles and Chih-Wei Hsu continued their expansion into the outer suburbs with Alby’s, a cafe that’s serving Single O and all the standard fare, as well as trending treats. Top picks include the beef rendang toastie and an iced tiramisu drink topped with a cold vanilla foam.

Bingsu, a Korean milk-based shaved ice, has swept the country. Most capital cities have at least a handful of shops specialising in the fluffy dessert. But despite Brisbane’s large Asian community, bingsu has been largely relegated to just two places: Sunnybank and the CBD. Sophie Xu and Ted Chen have bridged this gap with Semi Semi. There are classics like taro and black sesame; Earl Grey and Thai tea; and a plant-based coconut, mango and chocolate bingsu.

Reporting by Elliot Baker and Becca Wang.