A Foodie's Guide to Braddon Restaurants, Cafes, and Bars

Spend a little time with Braddon's evolution into a culinary hotspot with the best cafés, smartest restaurants, and funnest bars that have redefined Canberra's food scene.

Over the past decade something unexpected has happened in Canberra, that concrete playground of politicians and bureaucrats, while the rest of Australia was busy mocking the capital's roundabouts and early bedtime. Braddon, an ex-industrial neighborhood a stone's throw from Parliament House, was quietly becoming the country's most underrated food destination.

Best restaurants in Canberra? Braddon. Best bars in Canberra? Braddon. Best coffee? Yep, that’s in Braddon too. We’ve rounded up the top spots in Braddon to treat your taste buds.

When looking for the best place to stay in Braddon the Mercure Canberra, with its blend of classic charm and contemporary ease, puts you right on the doorstep of the capital’s best galleries, restaurants, and nightlife. When dining in you have a choice between the classically styled Courtyard Restaurant, and Olims Bar and Bistro which is known for one of the best beer gardens in Canberra.

Barrio Collective Coffee Bar and Roasters, a tiny joint with maybe 15 stools, does coffee right. Central and South American beans, one size for milk drinks, and an alternative-milk house blend of cashews, almonds, and raisins that they make themselves.

Locals love: The batch brew sitting in an urn on the counter. No theatre, just good coffee.

Location: Barrio Collective, 59/30 Lonsdale Street, Braddon

When ONA Coffee (the biggest specialty roaster in Canberra) decided to build a concept café, they could have gone full coffee-snob, alienating normal humans with impenetrable coffee jargon and judgmental stares. Instead, they created The Cupping Room, a light-filled space where staff want to teach you something about coffee rather than make you feel bad for not knowing already. They've put real thought into developing flavour profiles that might expand your coffee horizons, and the food follows the same philosophy. Their egg and bacon roll with gochujang aioli is transcendent.

Locals love: Going off-menu and asking for their dirty chai, a chai latte with a shot of espresso for a complex, spicy caffeine hit.

Location: The Cupping Room, 1/1-13 University Avenue, Canberra ACT 2601

Gather's pale pink walls and trailing greenery brings a brightness to Braddon's café scene, but what really sets them apart is a willingness to bring international street food into the morning hours. The Mt Kosciuszko trout hash brown is a tower of crispy potato glory and the mushroom and black garlic banh mi, for example.

Locals love: The "Morning After" smoothie, a hangover-busting blend of banana, dates, espresso, cacao, and oat milk that locals swear by.

Location: Gather, 4/24 Mort Street, Braddon

It may not surprise you that our political capital is no stranger to the long lunch, but Braddon still has a few tricks up its sleeve. The food here is deeply creative and the restaurants have a sense of friendly competition when it comes to inventive menus.

White Chaco keeps things exclusive with just 20 seats and two dinner sittings. The fusion of Japanese and Taiwanese flavours here are a thoughtful conversation between culinary traditions, producing dishes like the warm scallop sashimi with butter soy, smoked nuts, and an unexpected finish of pecorino cheese.

Locals love: The plum wine list here is exceptional. Order the Umeshu Genshu by Fukuju, a complex, undiluted plum sake that drinks like an otherworldly whisky with none of the burn.

Location: White Chaco, g10/27 Lonsdale Street, Braddon

Only Australians would have the audacity to open a restaurant dedicated almost exclusively to riesling, a wine so misunderstood that in most places, it's relegated to a single entry on the wine list. Here, it gets a fourteen-page manifesto and the food is all designed to showcase the remarkable versatility of riesling.

Locals love: Ask for the "mystery flight" of three unmarked glasses of riesling that the staff challenges you to identify, get them all right and your next glass is on the house.

Location: Rizla, Unit 146 Mode3/24 Lonsdale Street, Braddon

This is where to go for Lao and Thai food with the volume cranked to eleven, unapologetic about heat, funk, and flavour. The share-style menu encourages the kind of communal eating experience that makes dinner memorable, particularly when accompanied by their cocktails that manage to be both novel and technically perfect.

Locals love: The flamed cauliflower spiced with paprika, ginger, garlic, and sweet potato curry blend, finished with caramelized corn puree and roast chili oil.

Location: Zaab Street Food, 2/9 Lonsdale St, Braddon

In a scene increasingly dominated by food that exists primarily to be photographed, Braddon offers substance over style. Not that style is lacking, this is after all a neighbourhood where design matters, but it's never at the expense of what actually ends up in your mouth.

Wilma, the 200-seat behemoth from James Viles (of Biota fame) and head chef Brendan Hill, strips Asian BBQ down to its essential elements: good meat, good fire, good company. What elevates Wilma is the kitchen's understanding of balance, every rich, fatty bite of meat is countered with something fresh, acidic, or spicy.

Locals love: The bone marrow bun—soft, pillowy rolls served with roasted bone marrow, native mountain pepper, and pickled shiitake. Spread the marrow on the warm bun like butter and experience texture and flavour contrasts that'll haunt your dreams.

Location: Wilma, 1 Genge Street, Canberra ACT 2601

In a culinary landscape increasingly partial to native Australian ingredients, it's easy to drift into gimmick territory, a sprinkle of wattleseed here, a token finger lime there. What sets Corella apart is its uncompromising commitment to these ingredients as fundamental building blocks. They're still willing to play, though, as evidenced by their "buttermite”, a fun take on Vegemite butter served with saltbush-dusted focaccia.

Locals love: The carrot tartare with pickled zucchini and a confit egg yolk that you mix together and scoop onto crusty baguette.

Location: Corella, 14 Lonsdale Street, Braddon

Topping restaurants Canberra lists long after it opened, eightysix was named for kitchen slang meaning "we're out of it," and embraces the ephemeral nature of great dining. The chalkboard menu changes constantly and if you fall in love with something, well, better hope it's still there next time. Past hits have included habanero steak tartare with prawn crackers, and lemon ricotta gnocchi.

Locals love: The caramel popcorn sundae, so popular that it's the only permanent fixture on the ever-changing menu.

Location: eightysix, corner of Eloura and Mode 3 Building, Lonsdale Street, Braddon ACT 2612

Finally, these are the three best Braddon bars for a cheeky nightcap and a game of ‘Hey, didn’t I see that guy on Question Time’?

Volstead Repeal, named after the act that ended American prohibition, is a whisky and cocktail bar hidden at the end of an arcade off Mort Street that understands that great drinking is about atmosphere as much as alcohol. The wall of whisky featuring over 400 bottles, however, isn't for show. It's a carefully curated collection reflecting the owners' obsession with the spirit in all its global diversity.

Locals love: The Penicillin, a smoky, spicy Scotch cocktail with honey-ginger syrup and fresh lemon that locals swear has medicinal properties for curing everything from broken hearts to actual colds.

Location: Volstead Repeal, Shop 7/32 Mort Street, Braddon

For something a little rowdier head down the road to The Peacemaker Saloon. The American Southwestern focus delivers food that's perfect for soaking up their strong drinks: Sloppy Joes, pulled pork, and a Frontier Chili that hits with heat and depth. The late-night menu starting at 10pm is a godsend in a town that historically rolled up the sidewalks embarrassingly early.

Locals love: The house mint julep—hand-crushed ice, the perfect silver julep cup frosted just so, and bourbon that's been specifically selected to stand up to the mint and sugar.

Location: The Peacemaker Saloon, 26 Mort Street, Braddon

Wine Room brings Spanish laneway culture to Braddon with a space that feels both cosmopolitan and intimately local. The wine list doesn't limit itself to Spanish varieties but maintains that Spanish philosophy of wine as everyday pleasure. Their house take on gilda, the classic Basque pintxo skewering anchovy, olive, and pepper, adds tuna for a bar snack that pairs perfectly with crisp whites or mineral-driven reds.

Locals love: The "natural selection" option where you tell the staff what flavours you're in the mood for, and they'll choose for you from their collection of minimal-intervention wines. 

Location: Wine Room, 24 Mort Street, Braddon

So the next time someone tries to tell you that Canberra is nothing but roundabouts and school excursions, send them to Braddon.