Breakfast Creek Hotel

01What to order

• Dry-aged rib eye on the bone, Nolans of GympieNamed by Time Out in 2022 and again in July 2026; 400 g / 14 oz in the 2022 listing.
• Maranoa tomahawkThe largest steak: 1 kg / 2.2 lb in Time Out's July 2026 guide. In 2022 a 1.2 kg / 2.6 lb tomahawk cost A$110.
• Darling Downs filet mignon240 g / 8.5 oz in the 2022 listing; still on the menu in July 2026.
• Porterhouse, 350 g / 12 ozThe smallest steak in the 2026 guide; from the Darling Downs in 2022.
• The CreekA 200 g / 7 oz eye fillet topped with scallops, Moreton Bay bugs and creamy garlic prawns, served in the Spanish Garden.
• An aged fillet from the cabinetChosen by the diner in the Beer Garden and charcoal-grilled in the open kitchen, per the hotel.

02The beef

Time Out's July 2026 guide describes every steak as Queensland-sourced, with prices from A$48: a 350 g / 12 oz porterhouse, a 1 kg / 2.2 lb Maranoa tomahawk, dry-aged rib eye on the bone from Nolans of Gympie and Darling Downs filet mignon. In October 2022 the same publication counted 12 steaks, from an MB2+ rump at A$36 to a 1.2 kg / 2.6 lb tomahawk at A$110. The hotel's own steak page, which carries no date, names other lines: Graziers beef from South-East Queensland and the Darling Downs, grain-fed for up to 100 days; Platinum Premium, finished on up to 180 days of grain; Darling Downs Wagyu crossed with Angus and Murray Grey, at marble score 4 to 6; and grass-fed cuts from Mandalong Station in northern New South Wales, dry-aged in a cabinet in the Spanish Garden. The Mandalong line does not match the 2026 guide's all-Queensland sourcing, so both are given here.

03The fire

The hotel's steak page says the steaks are char-grilled in front of the guest, and that the aged fillet from the cabinet goes over charcoal in an open kitchen. The same page lists the plate: an Idaho potato, bacon sauce, coleslaw, sliced tomato and a bread roll. Man of Many, in 2021, also described the steaks as char-grilled in view. No source describes the grill itself.

04The story

William MacNaughton Galloway, a seaman's outfitter who was Mayor of Brisbane in 1889–90, laid the foundation stone on May 18, 1889. The hotel, designed by Simkin & Ibler in a French Renaissance style, opened on May 17, 1890. Galloway died in 1895 after a fall from a second-floor window. The brewers Perkins & Co bought it in 1900, and the firm later merged into Castlemaine Perkins. The Cavill family held the license from the 1920s until 1998. Diners ate in the beer garden from the late 1940s or early 1950s; by the early 1960s an outdoor kitchen let them pick a steak from a cabinet. The Spanish Garden opened in 1968 serving Mexican food, which did not catch on, and turned to barbecue in 1969, when a steak cost A$1.50. In 1977 a petition kept the beer in wooden kegs, and the hotel remains, per Wikipedia, the only one in Brisbane pouring beer "off the wood." It entered the Queensland Heritage Register on Oct. 21, 1992. The sources differ on when the steaks began: the early 1960s on the hotel's history page, 1967 on its steak page; Steakpedia dates the steakhouse to 1968.

05The practical

2 Kingsford Smith Drive, Albion. The Spanish Garden serves lunch from 11:30 am to 3:30 pm every day, and dinner from 5:30 pm to 9:30 pm on weekdays, from 5 pm to 9:30 pm on Saturday and from 5 pm to 8:30 pm on Sunday. The hotel opens at 10 am. The Beer Garden, where the steak cabinet stands, seats more than 500 on timber decks. Each garden is booked separately, on the hotel's site or by phone on (07) 3262 5988. The hotel notes that trading hours may vary.

Address

2 Kingsford Smith Drive, Albion QLD 4010

Phone

+61 7 3262 5988

Website

breakfastcreekhotel.com

Directions

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06In Brisbane’s selections