Five Romantic Brisbane Date Ideas for This Week From Budget to Blowout

We're always on the hunt for new things to do, scouring the city for not-boring Brisbane activities — and that includes different ways to spend time with your special someone. Need an idea that's guaranteed to take your next date way beyond done-before beers at the pub? We have suggestions.

Whether you're taking someone on a second date or doing your 100th with your significant other, we've got some killer (and, yes, cute) options for dates to go on this week, no matter how much money you've got to spend.

Just think of us as your cultural wingman. You're welcome.

Free

Installation of Haus Yuriyal's artwork including (front to back) Bopa, 2024, Kalabus, 2024, Kamkau Ike (Haus Toktok) 2024 with Yuriyal Bridgeman's Yuri Alai Eagles (ceiling shield paintings) 2024 and Kuman (shield) paintings 2024. 'The 11th Asia Pacific Triennial of Contemporary Art, Queensland Art Gallery / Photograph: C Callistemon © QAGOMA

Check Out the Latest Highlights in Asia Pacific Art

Forests, riverbeds, floating mirrored spheres, a hefty collection of motorbikes: across past summers, these have all filled Brisbane's Gallery of Modern Art. Every three years, so does a returning showcase dedicated not to a theme but to the area of the world that the River City is a part of. For more than three decades now, pre-dating GOMA's existence, the Asia Pacific Triennial of Contemporary Art has contemplated this corner of the globe, the experiences over its vast expanse and the region's talents. The 2024–25 iteration, which is on now, marks the exhibition's 11th run — and if the fact that there's more than 500 works doesn't already make it seem like a maze for you and your other half to enjoy, a labyrinth-esque installation at Queensland Art Gallery should.

Thailand's Mit Jai Inn is displaying a maze-like piece to the QAG Watermall, a space that's also seen its fair share of past works — including from Yayoi Kusama and at prior APTs — and featured on-screen in Apples Never Fall. This time, art lovers can spy tunnels, curtains and scrolls, all in an installation that you can step inside. There's your first must-see part of APT11.

Displaying until Sunday, April 27, 2025 at both GOMA and QAG, the exhibition's full list of 500-plus works hails from over 70 artists and collectives, with more than 200 individuals making a contribution. Among the new commissions, Jasmine Togo-Brisby, Kawita Vatanajyankur, Trương Công Tùng, Paemanu Contemporary Art Collective, 'Aunofo Havea Funaki and the Lepamahanga Women's Group, Mele Kahalepuna Chun and Mai Nguyễn-Long all provide pieces; however, the list of artists involved goes on from there.

Courtesy of 28-artist collective Haus Yuriyal in Papua New Guinea, attendees can check out paintings on fighting shields, sculptures carved from tree ferns and a harvest garden in Queensland Art Gallery's sculpture courtyard. At GOMA, the Long Gallery features Tai Moana Tai Tangata, a combination of sculptures and video from Aotearoa's Brett Graham. Plus, Dana Awartani from Saudi Arabia and Palestine is presenting the floor-based Standing by the Ruins, which uses Islamic geometry and crafting, as well as Arabic ruin poetry, to ponder the impact of war.

Under $20

Spend Friday Night at a Latino Fiesta

If there's an occasion worth celebrating, including Christmas, spring and winter, Woolloongabba's South City Square has marked it with markets in the past. The inner-east precinct also loves putting on monthly shindigs with food trucks and stalls — such as on Friday, February 21, 2025, when it's hosting the return of its Latino Fiesta.

Running from 4–8.30pm, this after-work event goes heavy on bites that'll make you and your special someone's tastebuds believe that they're in Latin and South America. Last time the pop-up took place, empanadas, tacos and arepas were on the menu.

Tunes are also on the agenda, getting Latin music echoing. Latin dancing is part of the fun as well — and, of course, there'll be market stalls aplenty.

Entry is free, as is onsite parking for two hours. If you attended in 2024, or have been to other events inSouth City Square's monthly series — such as the Vegan Laneway Festival, Asian Hawker Market and European Food Safari — you'll know that you're in for a Friday-night treat.

Under $50

Enter the Tart and Tangy World of Sour Beers

First, there was the Weekend of Darkness. Then came the Weekend of Tartness — aka the sister festival The Scratch just had to have. Where the former has celebrated ales, porters, stouts and other tipples at the dark end of the spectrum since 2013, the latter cartwheels to the opposite end of the extreme spectrum of beer styles. If it is tart and tangy, it is likely to be on the menu.

Between Friday, February 21–Sunday, February 23 in 2025, beers from more than two dozen breweries will take over the taps of the Milton hangout — tipples of the funkiest, sourest, most refreshing beers being produced in Australia and around the world. It might sound like a gimmick, but these biting brews have been around longer than you might think. In fact, historically, all beers used to be sour.

Drinking is only part of the fun, whenever the need for a sour brew hits for you and your significant other over the five unique sessions across the three days.

As for what you'll be knocking back, breweries that usually take part include Queensland's own Black Hops, Felons, Newstead, Range and Sea Legs, plus Garage Project, Puhaste, Tiny Rebel, Wildflower, Fairweather, Cascade, Batch and Blood Brothers from elsewhere.

Under $100

Share a Serving of Sand Crab Spaghetti

Get crabby, Brisbane — and no, we don't mean your mood. When a feast of crab awaits, there's nothing to be cranky about. For the entire month of February 2025, Bar Alto at Brisbane Powerhouse is hosting Crab Fest, aka an excuse to add a heap of dishes featuring the crustacean to its menu.

Opt for the spanner crab maritozzi and you'll be tucking into spanner crab on brioche bun, for instance. For something bite-sized to share, the sand crab and zucchini fritters come in six-piece servings.

Pasta fans have three selections to tempt tastebuds: spanner crab gnocchi with chilli and lemon, spanner crab tortellini with trout caviar, plus sand crab spaghetti alla chitarra to share. The latter pairs a whole sand crab with handcut spaghetti, chilli, garlic, vermentino, cherry tomato and basil, and is only available in servings for two.

Whichever you pick, you'll also be enjoying your crab dishes of choice with the venue's glorious riverside view right up until Friday, February 28.

Say Cheers to Margaritas

Do you and your other half like tequila? Lime? Salt? Love all three combined in one of summer's ultimate cocktails: the margarita? Then you'll want to be sipping riverside for 11 days between Thursday, February 20–Sunday, March 2, 2025. How better to celebrate International Margarita Day?

Howard Smith Wharves is getting into the spirit of the occasion with ample spirits, all at returning festival HSW Margarita Week. Yes, it goes for longer than seven days, but that just means more excuses to hit up the inner-city precinct's venues for drinks.

From day one, venues around the waterside spot will all be serving up 'ritas — or marg-inspired sips — in flavours including watermelon, frozen mango, tom yum, blood orange and Chinese gooseberry. Beer lovers are covered, too, thanks to Felons Brewing Co's Paloma Sour Ale, which is made with tequila, salt and grapefruit zest.

Food-wise, Stanley Chef Louis Tikaram is hosting a pop-up Margarita Week food stall over the event's two weekends, from Thursday, February 20–Sunday, February 23 and again from Thursday, February 27–Sunday, March 2. On the menu: pork chicharrónes and refried black beans, plus tacos in varieties such as achiote chicken, grilled kingfish, wagyu tromba and mojo roasted local mushrooms.

Top image: Subas Tamang / Tamang people / Nepal b.1990 / KAAITEN: History, Memory, Identity (installation view) 2024 / Woodcut prints on Nepali handmade paper / Purchased 2024, Queensland Art Gallery | Gallery of Modern Art Foundation / Collection: Queensland Art Gallery | Gallery of Modern Art / © Subas Tamang / Photograph: C Callistemon © QAGOMA.