The South Brisbane Wine Bar Worth Climbing the Stairs For
There are restaurants you notice from the street, and then there are the ones that make you feel as though you’ve been let in on something.
Maeve Wine Bar belongs firmly in the latter category.
Tucked upstairs at 39 Melbourne Street in South Brisbane, with its entrance around the corner on Grey Street, Maeve announces itself with one of Brisbane’s more memorable arrivals: a deep burgundy staircase, flashes of brass and the promise of wine waiting somewhere above.
It sets the mood before the first glass is poured.
The bar occupies the first floor of a heritage-listed building constructed in 1929 for the Queensland National Bank. Inside, the original architecture meets dark timber, marble, brass, ribbed glass and soft globe lighting — less “Brisbane wine bar” and more somewhere you might stumble across on a side street in Europe.
And that is essentially Maeve’s appeal.
It is just as suited to a glass and something small before the theatre as an entire evening built around the menu.
The food
Maeve describes its food as European-inspired, seasonal and designed for sharing, with the menu moving from snacks and small plates through to more substantial dishes.
That means the best way to eat here is gradually.
Start with something salty, add something luxurious, order another glass of wine, and let dinner become dinner.
The focaccia with ‘olive olive’ oil, currently $12, is exactly the sort of opening move that makes sense at Maeve: simple, generous and made to sit alongside the first pour of the night. Freshly shucked oysters with preserved-lemon mignonette are currently listed at $39 or $75, depending on quantity.
The oysters in our visit were followed by beautifully soft focaccia and a succession of smaller plates — including scallops served in their shells and finished with vivid orange roe. It is the kind of food Maeve does particularly well: recognisable ingredients, enough detail to make them feel special, but never so manipulated that the pleasure disappears beneath the technique.
Then there is the rösti.
On the current menu, crisp potato rösti arrives with crème fraîche, caviar and chives, two pieces for $20.
It is also very close to the ideal Maeve order: crisp, rich, salty and unapologetically made for wine.
The middle of the menu currently moves through dishes such as burrata with smoked eggplant and pomegranate, king salmon rillettes, tuna carpaccio, duck liver parfait, steak tartare and pizza fritta with jamón and pickled pineapple.
What to order if you want something substantial
Eventually, the menu gets serious.
Current larger plates include cauliflower and Comté pie, barramundi cotoletta, pimento chicken and a 500g Black Angus striploin with Café de Paris and fries.
If the steak is on the table, let it be the anchor.
The version pictured here arrived deeply charred outside and pink through the centre, with a generous spoonful of herb-laced Café de Paris butter slowly melting into the meat and sauce below.
Order it for the table rather than treating it as somebody’s individual main.
Add fries with confit garlic dip, and the dressed baby gem with capers and shallots, and you have exactly the sort of dinner Maeve is made for.
The set menu
For a first visit — particularly if you would rather have Maeve make the decisions — the $75 per person Sharing Set Menu is probably the easiest way to experience the restaurant.
It is less a formal fine-dining degustation and more a Maeve-curated progression through the menu.
At the time of writing, it includes duck liver parfait with grilled bread and Davidson plum, Black Angus steak tartare with yolk and horseradish, pimento chicken, dressed baby gem, fries with confit garlic dip and crème caramel with vermouth to finish.
It gives you the rhythm of the restaurant without requiring much thought — which is sometimes exactly what you want from a wine bar.
For groups, it can also become compulsory. Maeve currently requires the set menu for groups of seven or more dining between 5pm and 8pm. At lunch or after 8pm, groups of up to nine can still order à la carte, with the set menu required from ten guests.
And then there is the wine
Calling Maeve a restaurant almost misses half the point.
Wine is central to the place.
Maeve’s list favours small producers from Australia and around the world, with plenty available by the glass, and the team deliberately positions the experience as serious wine without the seriousness that can sometimes surround it.
That makes this a particularly good place to ask rather than automatically order something familiar.
Tell them what you normally drink, how adventurous you feel and what food is coming.
Then let the table evolve from there.
There are also beers, cocktails, spirits and non-alcoholic drinks for anyone who isn’t there for the wine.
Save room for dessert
Dessert remains pleasingly restrained.
The current menu offers burnt cheesecake with lemon curd for $20, crème caramel with vermouth for $17 and terrine au chocolat with absinthe prunes and crème fraîche for $22, alongside a cheese selection.
After an evening of oysters, rösti, steak and wine, the crème caramel feels particularly on-brand: familiar, European and just indulgent enough.
How much does Maeve cost?
Maeve sits comfortably in the mid-to-upper-range wine-bar category, but how much you spend depends almost entirely on how you approach the menu.
The Sharing Set Menu is $75 per person.
For two people ordering several dishes, dessert and wine, we would allow roughly $100–$150+ per person.
Do you need a reservation?
Technically, no.
Practically, we would book.
Maeve welcomes walk-ins whenever seats are available, but the restaurant itself strongly recommends reservations. Bookings are made online rather than by phone or email.
The dining room has two-hour seatings and offers both the à la carte and set menus. The bar area is more casual, generally reserved for groups of up to three, with 90-minute seatings.
Maeve is also directly opposite Brisbane’s Cultural Centre precinct, making it an obvious option before QPAC. If you are dining before a performance, Maeve asks guests to allow at least two hours rather than trying to squeeze dinner into a rushed pre-show window.
Our advice: don’t rush it anyway.
When to go
Maeve currently opens Tuesday to Thursday from 5pm until late, and Friday and Saturday from midday until late.
For the full experience, we would choose dinner.
For something more relaxed, Friday or Saturday lunch lets you settle in early and stay awhile; Maeve currently also runs a Pasta & Spritz lunch offering from 12–4pm on those days, although seasonal offers can change.
The Boarding for Dinner verdict
BOOK IT.
Maeve is the sort of address we want a Boarding for Dinner guide to solve for you.
You could easily walk past without knowing what sits upstairs.
Instead, you climb the burgundy staircase, order oysters, savour the rösti and split the steak, and suddenly two hours have disappeared.
MAEVE WINE BAR
Where: Level 1, 39 Melbourne Street, South Brisbane — entrance via Grey Street.
Best for: Date night · Wine lovers · Pre-theatre dining · Long lunches · Sharing plates
Price: $$–$$$ · $75pp sharing set menu; à la carte from roughly $6–$90 before drinks.
Reservations: Recommended. Walk-ins accepted subject to availability; bookings are online only.
BFD order: Oysters → focaccia → rösti with crème fraîche & caviar → something from the middle → Black Angus striploin → crème caramel.
Allow: Around two hours if you’re settling in for dinner.
Boarding for Dinner rating: Worth the booking.
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