Agnes, the fire-driven restaurant tucked inside a heritage brick warehouse on Agnes Street in Fortitude Valley, has unveiled its most substantial menu overhaul to date, introducing 25 new dishes inspired by Spanish and Mediterranean flavours.
Agnes feels almost like it was meant to be there all along — a street with the same name, a stripped-back warehouse of brick and concrete, and a kitchen that runs entirely without gas or electricity.
Nearly six years on, Agnes has become one of the most recognised restaurants in Brisbane not by reinventing itself each season but by staying firmly committed to a single idea: fire as the only means of cooking, and produce as the only point of difference.
The new menu, unveiled in May 2026 by co-owner and culinary director Ben Williamson, does not abandon that idea. It sharpens it.
A change in the kitchen that prompted a rethink
The menu shift follows the departure of group chef Adam Wolfers, who stepped away earlier this year to take on a similar creative role at Sydney restaurant group Esca. Wolfers had been a significant part of Agnes’s culinary identity, and his exit gave Williamson both the reason and the space to approach the menu from scratch.
The result is 25 new dishes that Williamson describes as a return to the restaurant’s original instincts: fewer elements, better produce, and the fire left to do most of the talking.
“Working with fire is the art of managing a primal element, compelling our team to cook with intuition,” Williamson says. “Our new menu reflects this philosophy, stripping back unnecessary elements and focusing on quality produce, allowing the ingredients and fire to speak for themselves. I wrote this menu from the ground up to take Agnes back to its roots.”
The Spanish and Mediterranean lean is a notable shift in emphasis, though not entirely a surprise for a kitchen that has always drawn on a broad palette of influences. Williamson’s background includes time cooking in the Middle East and years at Gerard’s Bistro before Agnes opened, and that restlessness with any single culinary tradition has always fed into what ends up on the plate.
The new dishes
The new menu reads like a list of things that shouldn’t work together until they do. Scorched Mallorquin toast arrives with honeycomb, fennel seeds and guindillas, the sweet and the sharp and the pickled finding their alignment. Chistorra, a Catalan-style chorizo, is roasted in cider.
Coral trout comes in pil pil sauce with burnt lemon, the Basque technique of emulsifying fish collagen into a silky, almost gelatinous sauce lending the dish a texture that few other cooking methods could achieve.
The kitchen at Agnes burns ironbark, applewood, cherrywood and olivewood, each chosen for how differently it interacts with whatever is being cooked. That level of specificity is what separates the fire-cooking here from a novelty act, and it is that same specificity that underpins the new dishes.
Not everything changes. The smoked tomato toast remains, a dish that has become close to non-negotiable for regulars. The sourdough crumpet with yellowfin tuna and crème fraîche also stays on, a combination that has been quietly perfecting itself since the restaurant opened.
Two set menus and a new cocktail list
Alongside the food, Agnes has introduced two set menus for groups of two or more. One sits at $89 per person, the other at $139, each combining dishes from the new menu with a selection of the restaurant’s classics. The format suits the way Agnes is best experienced: not as a series of individual choices, but as a meal that builds across the table.
The cocktail list has also been overhauled, this time with a Once Upon a Time in Hollywood theme. Two of the new drinks are the Did I Say Something Funny, Stuntman, combining kalamansi, chamomile, gin, apricot and peated rice, and the Spahn Ranch, made with tequila, bee pollen, raspberry and lime.
Whether the film reference is a wink or a genuine structural conceit barely matters when the drinks are that specific about their ingredients.
Sunday bookings carry a 10 per cent surcharge and public holidays a 15 per cent surcharge. Duck dishes are available to preorder at least 24 hours before a booking by emailing seatme@agnesrestaurant.com.au.
Agnes is at 22 Agnes Street, Fortitude Valley, and opens Tuesday to Thursday from 5.30pm, Friday and Saturday from 11.30am, and Sunday from 5.30pm. Phone (07) 3067 9087. Bookings are available here.
Published 27-May-2026
