'Ello chaps! Queen…read moreStreet Mall is a marquee tourist and shopping area of downtown Brisbane. It extends from George Street to Edward Street with more than 700 retailers. Many of them include the kitschy tourist shops. NOTE: Don't assume all of the stores are the same. Some may have the very same products, but even at different prices. It's worth the while to browse around first and then actually make your purchases. Other stores include shoe stores, clothing, jewelry, and odds and ends. It does seem as though Queen Street Mall may have seen better days, although it is buzzing. It's better than a typical American shopping mall, although it is not a five star high end shopping plaza, making it very affordable for most shoppers. Reportedly there were 26 million visitors to Queen Street Mall last year. Overall I give Queen Street Mall four stars out of five.

I probably go to the Queen Street Mall too often. At some level, I feel lame for not exploring…read moreother options or areas. However, it's just too easy. It's well located and has just about everything one could want. There's food, drinks, movies, food, drinks, clothes, mobile phones, banks, etc, etc, etc. The current construction is a bit annoying, but it's hard to knock improvements being made. The result is a bit of a bottleneck with the huge crowds walking around on weekends. This is a problem when you walk faster than basically any other human in existence and are incredibly impatient. So, it's probably more of a problem just for people like me, which thankfully, I don't believe can be found in abundance. I like that there is often music and the people watching is tremendous.

I love this restaurant, and the food is impeccable. however i recently went there and got food…read morepoisoning from their seafood laksa.

Finding fast food in the late evening upon our arrival in Brisbane proved to be a tad bit more…read moredifficult than I thought it should have been. This was probably due to two reasons: 1. Seems like the local eateries close at what we (Americans) consider to be quite early (7 pm). 2. My son and I had ABSOLUTELY no idea where we were or what we wanted. After a bit of wandering, we stumbled across this gem (Fantasia Asian Food) by sheer luck. One of their employees was offering free samples on the street just outside the food court where they're located. My son tried the sample (chick pea curry) and, to my surprise, he LOVED it. Even more shockingly, he asked if he could have it for dinner ...... We found our take out. Located on the second floor of the food court near the Apple Store on Adelaide St. Tucked into the very back of the court. The chick pea curry with rice was excellent, and although mild (heat wise) for my taste, I wouldn't hesitate to order it for myself. I had the Asian spice wings . . . FANTASTIC. My wife got the lemon grass chicken . . . verdict was two thumbs up. Service was great especially for a Chinese joint.

I have no idea why I still buy food at the airport when the airport prices are so ridiculously…read moreinflated. A bottle of water is at least a dollar more than elsewhere and god forbid you want a sandwich. Combine the two and you will have at least $10 less in your pocket. Nonetheless, I still manage to always forget to either eat before I leave or bring something. That is why I more often than not find myself in the food court area of the Brisbane Domestic Terminal before a flight. BLD (Breakfast Lunch Dinner) is pretty good because of its long opening hours but still not the cheapest feed in the world. Their service was nice and it is one of the healthier options available with good sandwiches, wraps and the like available as well as a wide range of food and drink. It is a good enough place to grab a feed but nothing to boast about.

Good toilet located in the Vally Station. I've used this toilet often. Small toilet, small lines…read more Pretty clean toilet. I was going to put 3 stars because if you go there too early or late they are closed. But they have the new Dyson hand dryers so extra star!

Magical Rice is magical. Well, it's pretty darn tasty…read more It's your typical food court Asian food - sushi rolls and sushi packs for a grab and go meal, or order off the menu. The menu has a few of the usual flavours - Katsu Curry, Katsu Don and Teriyaki. But they also had a few other interesting flavours you don't usually see in a food court like Sweet and Sour and Spicy Black Bean. I had the Spicy Black Bean beef and my friend had the Katsu Don chicken. My dish was really tasty and had a bit of heat, but I could have handled spicier. I guess for a food court meal this is spicy enough, and you can always add extra chili powder. Our meals were huge too, really good value for $9.90. Lots of beef, lots of rice and strangely, there was lettuce on my meal. I guess this is what makes the place "healthy" - lettuce on all the meals! The meals could easily be split between two people, we both couldn't finish ours. I would definitely eat there again. I hope to start seeing Magical Rice stores opening in all food courts around Brisbane.

Its pretty good value for money at Magical Rice…read more I got a katsu chicken and for under $10 and was pretty stoked to see all that crumbed-fried chicken goodness resting on my curry. It was a huge helping and so flavoursome that I had to stuff every last grain of rice into my belly. Later, perhaps it was from the sheer pace that I engulfed my meal, I started to get a little sore in the stomach. Non-the less, the food was fresh and well cooked and the staff very nice, probably because I may have been the first customer of the day. Maybe. Magical Rice is located on the edge off the market food court. In general the whole place very vacant. Initially, I was expecting to see a whole load of people down from the nearby work areas having lunch but no. I guess I was there at the wrong time.

Fool me once shame on you. Fool me twice, three times - why oh why does Wagamama fool me again and…read moreagain? In public, I bag Wagamama a lot for their pretentiousness and overinflated prices. It's nothing but dressed up ramen noodles. Something keeps me going back to their website though to look for their 2-4-1 deals and whenever I do find one, back I go to slurp my way through a bowl of miso ramen. Wagamama Express is better than its predecessor in that the meal prices are cheaper and the food is just as tasty. The menu is not as extensive of course - there's only one ramen option available if you want noodle soup. However, they've covered the main lunch time favourites such as katsu curry, teriyaki chicken and yaki soba. It's also situated in the Myer Centre food court so it's casual dining. It'll be interesting to see if Wagamama Express can compete against the Japanese food court favourite Hainachi or whether it's purely trading off its brand. My guess is that it's here to stay.

I love me some Wagamama! The 2 times that I have been to Brisbane I have eaten at Wagamama and have…read morenever been disappointed and yes, I do plan on eating there again! If you don't fill up on the food, which may be hard to do, they have a delicious dessert menu as well!

At one time back in the 1990s, Centro Toombul was one of the biggest and busiest shopping centres…read moreon the north side, until Westfield Chermside came along. Centro Toombul, which once had a big cinema, is now a shell of its former self - the cinema closed down years ago and David Jones finally shut its doors last year. However, like a Phoenix rises from the ashes, Target has now opened its doors in the old DJ's location, bigger, better and brighter than before. That David Jones was so sad and old and depressing, but the Target is huge! It has really rejuvenated the shopping centre, and I believe there is talk of a new cinema opening up in late 2012. Toombul is a great shopping centre when you don't want to battle the crowds of Chermside, as it has all the essential shops - supermarket, discount bargain shops, fashion stores, food courts, deli, bottle-shop, fruit and vege shop and more. It also has an Aldi, which Chermside doesn't have. There are a number of good eateries both in the food courts and outside the centre, including Sushi Train, Zarraffa's Coffee, Billy Baxters and Mehfil Indian. There is also a 24 hour McDonald's on top of the Toombul shopping centre.

When I moved into town, Toombul was a Westfield. They got picked up by Centro after that, and now…read morethey've moved on again. They're just themselves now. Has anything changed? Not at all. Much smaller, and nowhere near the range of Chermside, it can also be a lot quieter than Chermside. The cinemas have reopened here under Event, and thankfully they've had a refurbish, and it's a nice quiet spot to catch a movie. Groceries? Bi-Lo is gone, it was replaced for a while by a second Coles in the complex, but you still have Coles and Aldi. Something new is coming, we'll see. Admittedly I rarely do my groceries down here, I'll head to the 24/7 Woolies close by. Is Chermside a better shopping centre? But this is my local, I can walk here if I want to, and sometimes you just don't want the mega-mall experience.

I find this place confusing and frustrating every time I go there. They have every shop you could…read morewant, which is probably part of the problem. I always end up parking at the WRONG end of the behemoth single story centre (this is why building up is a good idea) and then need to do a 20 min power walk to my destination. They also seperate major competitors by the length of the centre in some kind of Highlander move (THERE CAN BE ONLY ONE), so if you want to compare Myers vs DJ's you're going to have to walk and walk and walk. My biggest gripe is the addition of paid parking. I had to do last minute wedding shopping (mother of the bride dress, bridesmaids dresses, beauty stuff - all 5 days before because I LOVE ADRENALINE) and ended up dropping about $800 there. When I left we'd been there for about 4 hours and I had to pay for parking!? Mate, here's some free advice, if I'm at your child filled, noisy, confusing shopping centre for 4 hours it's because I'm spending money there, not because I'm kicking it at the food court with my teenage mates. Plus, it's just a blatant money grab. They haven't installed extra parking or more services, they've just decided to take your money. If I was one of the retailers I'd be well pissed as I'm sure I'm not the only customer deciding to go to Indooroopilly when I can't avoid a shopping centre. I ended up sending a ranty email to centre management, and last time I was there I was happy to see that they've introduced validated parking if you spend over $150. Not thrilled though, as I think $50 is enough to warrant free parking and you can't validate at stores, you've got to go find centre management which is no doubt 3 kms away from where you're standing.

Big shopping place in Chermside, Brisbane. Try the breakfast at The Coffee Club. Big breakfast…read moredishes that's close to being homemade. Coffee tasted wonderful.

If I were a tourist, this would be disappointing. MC makes me think of the functional over the…read morestylish. The foodcourt hosts solid businesses but none of them essentially exciting. Big W sticks to the essentials (although it does have an optometrist and always brings in the Peter Morrissey range). Woolworths is pretty good for a city centre grocery store. So you get a barber, florist, optometrist, jeweler, internet booths, grog store, newsagent, chemist and large toilets. A few luxury stores are on the Edward Street frontage. This includes the Apple Store. The Shingle Inn here has bad chairs (uncomfortable and dirty) in what would otherwise be quite an ace spot to have a nice lunch. They really, really need to address that and hopefully MC will do something about it. Beware with the parking. The gates to this mall close 9pm on night shopping. There probably is a way to get to the carpark afterwards but we haven't found out how yet. Parking entrance is via Elizabeth Street. There used to be a doorway into Big W from Elizabeth Street, but these days the only entry points are from Edward and Queen Streets. The foodcourt has recently undergone a glossy revamp. The thing that gets me most, however, is despite the lovely space inside (it can't be helped if most of the shops are not very interesting) the outside is and always will be a horror to me. A large steely wedge with sturdy poles clinging onto decorative lacy patterned glass panels. Who what why where? It's so disappointing they whacked that onto the heritage building.

If you're a city worker wanting to escape the crowds, head to Macarthur Central for your weekly…read moresupplies and errands. What Macarthur Central lacks in specialty shops and boutiques, it makes up for by providing a stress free shopping experience in a central location and housing a full line Woolworths and Big W. There are a few specialty shops such as Honey Birdette and Oroton but this shopping centre focuses on covering the essentials. There's a decent newsagency, a book shop, chemist, medical centre and a JB Hi Fi where you actually have elbow room. This seems to be the place where all the ATMs like to hang out as well. ANZ, Bank of Queensland, Commonwealth, NAB, Redi ATM and Suncorp can all be found in this complex. Best of all, their food court hosts a wide variety of eating options and you can actually get a table around lunch time. Try the Hainachi here sometime for a fuss free, easy meal. NB: The opening hours refer to the shopping centre but Woolworths and Big W have extended trading hours.