A long lunch for a small team, a dinner for your department and a night out for the whole company each need a different kind of room. Most of these eleven have several spaces, from private dining rooms for a handful of people to riverside decks that hold hundreds, so each entry covers what the venue serves, what it offers for Christmas functions and which of its spaces suit which size of group.
Port Office Hotel, Brisbane City
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Port Office Hotel is a heritage-listed pub, restaurant and bar in the middle of the CBD, with function spaces over two levels and private bars in some rooms. For your Christmas party, you can choose canapés, a set menu, shared dining or platters, add a drinks package or a bar tab, and bring in extras like live entertainment or a photo booth. The Wine Room gives a team of up to 16 a room to itself, and the Blue Room does the same for up to 30. The Clancy Room and the Margaret Room are semi-private, set apart from the bar but not fully closed off, and hold up to 40 and 30 guests. For a bigger group, the Edward Room holds up to 150 and the Dining Room and Bar up to 300.
Where: 40 Edward Street, Brisbane City
Bookings: Email [email protected] or call (07) 3558 3329.
Babylon Brisbane, Brisbane City
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Babylon sits on the river at Eagle Street, with views of the Story Bridge and a menu built on Turkish and Middle Eastern flavours. For a function, you can start with canapés like crispy feta in toasted nigella seeds and harissa-grilled prawns with lemon toum, then add a grazing spread of hummus, flatbread and dolmades. Seated groups can have a set menu instead, and drinks run on packages of two to four hours or a bar tab. Its semi-private dining rooms suit a department Christmas lunch: Kasr seats 14, the covered outdoor Ishtaar 32, and the two Esagila rooms can be booked one at a time for up to 20 guests or together for 40. For a bigger crowd, Apsu, Nabu and Enki can be booked together for 200, and the Babylon Gardens, with its own private bar, can be booked exclusively for a cocktail party of up to 400.
Where: 145 Eagle Street, Brisbane City
Bookings: Email [email protected] or call (07) 3186 6655.
Electric Avenue & Mrs J. Rabbits, Woolloongabba
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Electric Avenue is a quirky English-style pub in a heritage-listed building on Logan Road, which it shares with the bar Mrs J. Rabbits, and its functions run on set menus or canapés. For a small team, you can book the Electric Avenue Dining Room for 20 seated or 30 for cocktails, the Mrs Merinos Dining Room for 12 seated or 15 for cocktails, or Mrs J. Rabbits for up to 40 for cocktails. If the whole office wants in, you can hire Electric Avenue for up to 100, or for up to 140 if you add Mrs J. Rabbits. There’s more to come, too: new owners Lloyd and James are redecorating, and a new chef and a new menu are on the way.
Where: 23 Logan Road, Woolloongabba
Bookings: Christmas function bookings are open. Send a function enquiry through the Electric Avenue website or call (07) 4428 7336.
Midtown, South Brisbane
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Midtown is a cocktail bar on Fish Lane in South Brisbane, pouring martinis, margaritas and old fashioneds, and its Christmas parties are pitched as a festive night out that doesn’t feel like a work do. You can choose a canapé party (think lobster croissants and steak tartare crostini) or a seated Christmas dinner, with drinks on a bar tab or a two-hour package. Downtown is the space for a group of 15 to 45, with high and low seating so everyone can mingle, while the top of the bar and the more intimate Uptown suit smaller groups of 12 or fewer. If a table will do instead of a room, the 12 Bites of Christmas menu runs Wednesday to Saturday from 11 November to 19 December, on a two-hour seating for two or more guests.
Where: 15 Manning Street, South Brisbane
Bookings: Send an enquiry through the Midtown website or email [email protected]. Christmas dates are limited.
Everton Park Hotel, Everton Park
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Everton Park Hotel is a relaxed North Brisbane pub with plenty of parking, and its Christmas functions run from canapés (four, six or eight per person) and two- or three-course set menus to platters, with drinks packages of two to four hours or a bar tab. Every function area is semi-private, sectioned off from the rest of the pub without closed doors, so your team gets its own corner. The Alcove, overlooking the open kitchen, holds 40, the Courtyard and the Laneway 60 each, and the Terrace and the elevated Sports Bar Deck 80 each. A bigger team can take the Lawn, or the Beer Garden Lawn and Terrace together, for 150. And if partners and children are invited, the Kids Room holds 20.
Where: 101 Flockton Street, Everton Park
Bookings: Email [email protected] or call (07) 3051 7606.
Regatta Hotel, Toowong
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Regatta Hotel is the heritage pub on Coronation Drive with the iron-lace verandahs and river views, and its Boatshed restaurant is known for dry-aged steaks off a two-metre flame grill. For a big end-of-year party, the Boatshed holds 170, the Glenolive heritage function lounge 110, and the Level One Exclusive, which takes in the Winterford, Thornton, Gailey and Gazzard rooms and the Verandah Bar, up to 260. Smaller teams have options too: the Henley Room, a working wine cellar with a fine dining menu, takes 22, and the Thornton Room and the Whiskey Bar take up to 30 each.
Where: 543 Coronation Drive, Toowong
Bookings: Email [email protected] or call (07) 3051 7617.
Riverland, Brisbane City
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Riverland is a riverside bar on Eagle Street, with views of the Brisbane River and the Story Bridge from its decks. Its kitchen serves a classic Queenslander-style menu, and function guests can have canapés, shared platters or mini substantials like beef sliders, fish and chips and dagwood dogs. Drinks packages run two to four hours, and every package can be tailored to your event. When the whole company is coming, the entire venue holds up to 1,000, and the decks can be joined together for cocktail parties of 150 to 450. Smaller groups fit too, with Main Deck North taking 30 cocktail-style and the Sky Deck 60.
Where: 167 Eagle Street, Brisbane City
Bookings: Email [email protected] or call (07) 3051 7655.
Walkabout Creek, The Gap
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If you’d rather take the team out of the city, Walkabout Creek sits in D’Aguilar National Park at The Gap, overlooking Enoggera Reservoir, with rooms set in the treetops and rainforest views. The venue sits above the Walkabout Creek Wildlife Centre, so on a daytime booking you might catch a glimpse of its emus, wallabies or resident wombat from the deck, and the Ferntree Room looks out over the tree-kangaroo enclosure. Its Christmas packages include four hours of venue hire for a minimum of 30 guests, with a choice of a Christmas Cocktail package with a grazing station, canapés and bigger bites, a Christmas BBQ or a Christmas Buffet with glazed ham, plus drinks packages of two to four hours. Packages that finish before 5pm cost less than evening ones, which suits a long end-of-year lunch. The Ferntree Room takes 56 seated or 80 standing, the Banksia Room, with a grand piano and a timber dance floor, 124 seated or 200 standing, and the Deck, for groups of more than 80, takes 204 seated or 300 standing.
Where: 60 Mount Nebo Road, The Gap
Bookings: Call (07) 3300 2558 or send an enquiry through the Walkabout Creek website.
Crown Hotel, Lutwyche
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Crown Hotel in Lutwyche is a local pub with live music, live sport and a beer garden, and it has a wide range of function packages and platter options. Every space is semi-private, so your group has its own section and still feels part of the pub. The Crown Dining Room and the Courtyard each hold up to 50, and the Pavilion & Balcony up to 80. For a bigger group, the Sports Bar, with its own TVs and a microphone on request, and the Beer Garden Section hold up to 120 each, or you can book the Pavilion, Balcony and Courtyard together for up to 130.
Where: 446 Lutwyche Road, Lutwyche
Bookings: Email [email protected] or call (07) 3051 7604.
Goldie’s Tavern, South Brisbane
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Goldie’s Tavern is an all-rounder pub on Melbourne Street in South Brisbane, with British-inspired food, indoor booths, an open-air beer garden and easy food and drink packages, seated or cocktail-style. The Garden, a partly undercover beer garden, holds up to 100, and the Annex, with its own private bar and big screens for the sport, up to 130. For the biggest crowd, the Sideline, an undercover outdoor terrace, takes up to 200 standing.
Where: Corner of Melbourne and Merivale Streets, South Brisbane
Bookings: Email [email protected] or call (07) 3062 2510.
The Lord Alfred, Brisbane City
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The Lord Alfred on Caxton Street serves modern Australian food and has a space for almost every group size. A small team can sit down to dinner in the Watchhouse, a dining room in the original underground gaol cells that seats 18 and runs its own menu, or meet in Lord’s Boardroom, which holds up to 20. The semi-private Quarterdeck, which spans indoors and outdoors, takes 60 for cocktails or 20 seated, and Alfie’s Crafthouse, with its own entry and outdoor bar, holds 50.
For a bigger group, the Brasserie, a private room full of greenery, takes 80 for cocktails or 40 seated, the Sports Lounge 100 for cocktails or 70 seated, and the Verandah Bar, the biggest room, with private bathrooms and a verandah over Caxton Street, 220 for cocktails or 80 seated. The whole venue holds up to 1,200 for cocktails. Packages include catering and drinks or a bar tab, plus personalised reservation signage, table linen and a cake stand, and you can add live entertainment, a dance floor, a photographer or event styling. Canapé and set-menu packages are for groups of 20 or more.
Where: 68 Petrie Terrace, Brisbane City
Bookings: Email [email protected], call (07) 3924 8024 or send a function enquiry through the Lord Alfred website.
Lock in the venue first, then get the invite out before everyone’s December fills up. Get the room right and the office will have only one thing left to argue about: the Secret Santa budget.