The Queensland government recently announced the winners of "All the Best" for 2026, with Queensland residents voting for their favorite local shops, restaurants, beaches, tourist attractions, and places to live. This year's voting was incredibly enthusiastic, with nearly 75,000 independent votes recorded across 15 categories, ranging from Best Bakery, Best Café, and Best Beach to Best Gym and Best Butcher.
For ANP, the most noteworthy aspect of this list is not just "which restaurants are good" or "which places are worth visiting," but rather that it provides a very down-to-earth perspective, allowing us to re-understand community life in Queensland.
Many families planning to relocate or buy property in Brisbane prioritize factors like house prices, school zones, distance from the city center, and rental returns. While these are important, a place's suitability for living often depends on more everyday details: Are there supportive neighborhood shops nearby? Are there places to go on weekends? Does the community have its own rhythm of life? Are locals genuinely willing to spend, socialize, and build their daily lives there?
This year's "All the Best" list is like a lifestyle map. It's not just about tourist attractions; it's based on votes from local residents about their favorite places. For buyers looking to understand different suburbs in Queensland, this kind of list can sometimes be more valuable than simply looking at house price trends.
The following is the complete list of winners and their brief introductions for 2026:
| category | winners | Place | Shop/Location Introduction |
|---|---|---|---|
| Best Bakery | The Baker's Duck | Toowoomba | A popular local bakery specializing in handmade bread, pastries, and coffee. Toowoomba is a large inland city, and these kinds of small shops reflect the mature lifestyle and purchasing power of the community. |
| Best Banh Mi Place (Vietnamese baguette shop) | Banh Mi Factory | Zillmere | Located in northern Brisbane, this shop specializes in Vietnamese Banh Mi (traditional Vietnamese bread), Vietnamese snacks, and everyday takeaway meals. For buyers, these popular small shops often represent a community with a stable flow of people and diverse dining options. |
| Best Beach | Mooloolaba Beach | Sunshine Coast | One of the iconic beaches of the Sunshine Coast, it's surrounded by restaurants, accommodations, a waterfront promenade, and family-friendly spaces. These kinds of locations reflect the Queensland lifestyle, which extends beyond the city and includes weekend getaways and seaside living. |
| Best Burger Joint | Super Rooster | Toowoomba | Toowoomba is a local fast-food brand specializing in roasted chicken, burgers, and family-style meals. Its long-term popularity in the area reflects, to some extent, a stable customer base of families and local residents. |
| Best Butcher | Rode Meats | Stafford Heights | The butcher shop in Brisbane's North End is a typical example of local amenities. Everyday businesses like butcher shops, bakeries, and coffee shops often reflect a community's mature lifestyle more than large shopping malls. |
| Best Café | Farmhouse | Kedron | Kedron is a mature residential area in northern Brisbane. Local coffee shops like Farmhouse reflect the area's stable brunch culture, families, and community spending power. |
| Best Camping/4WD Spot | Gordon Country | Goomburra, Southern Downs | Located in the Southern Downs, it offers space for camping, 4WD, and outdoor activities. These award-winning locations demonstrate that Queensland living is not just about city living, but also about outdoor activities, nature, and family weekend getaways. |
| Best Fish and Chips Shop | Migaloo's Seafood & Ice Creamery | Urangan | Located in Urangan, near Hervey Bay, this shop specializes in seafood, fish and chips, and ice cream. In coastal areas, these types of shops are often associated with tourism, foot traffic, and local family spending. |
| Best Florist | Fiorella Florals | Bowen | The local florist in Bowen, in addition to fresh flowers and floral arrangements, also caters to the community's everyday gift needs. The fact that a business like the florist was selected reflects that the local community goes beyond basic necessities; it also offers a certain level of consumption and a sense of community. |
| Best Gym | Strand Fitness | Algester | Located in Algester, a suburb in southern Brisbane, gyms are an important amenity in modern residential areas. For young families and professionals, such facilities impact daily convenience. |
| Best Gym | Project 88 | Toowoomba | Winning the award together with Strand Fitness reflects that Toowoomba is not just a traditional regional city, but also a market for sports, health and lifestyle products. |
| Best Hairdresser/Barber | Sarge's Barber | Hope Island | Located in the Hope Island area of the Gold Coast, the area boasts well-established amenities. The availability of everyday services like hair salons, barbershops, and coffee shops is often a telling indicator of a community's maturity. |
| Best Ice Cream Shop | RAD Rolled Ice Cream | Urangan | Specializing in rolled ice cream, it caters to both families and tourists. Located in Urangan, the same area as Migaloo's Seafood & Ice Creamery, it reflects the region's established tourism and leisure consumption base. |
| Best Pizzeria | munja pizza | Wynnum | Located in Wynnum, a seaside community east of Brisbane, the restaurant in Wynnum, with its waterfront, parks, family homes, and local shops, reflects the attractive lifestyle of seaside communities in the east. |
| Best Pub | 4 Pines at Landers Pocket | Brisbane Airport | Located near Brisbane Airport, it combines dining, bars, and leisure spaces. The area around the airport is not only a transportation hub but has also gradually developed into a complex of restaurants, shops, and leisure facilities. |
| Best Tourism Attraction | The Savannahlander | Far North Queensland | A classic inland rail experience, departing from Cairns and traversing rainforests and inland landscapes. These award-winning projects remind us that Queensland's appeal extends beyond Brisbane, encompassing the natural and tourism resources of its far north. |
From ANP's perspective, this list can be divided into several interesting observations.
First, Brisbane's different neighborhoods each have their own unique characteristics. The north has Zillmere, Stafford Heights, and Kedron; the south has Algester; and the east has Wynnum. These areas may not all be traditionally "hot investment zones," but they all have their own community amenities, dining options, and neighborhood-supported shops. These lifestyle details are very important for owner-occupier buyers.
Secondly, Queensland's lifestyle landscape isn't limited to Brisbane. Toowoomba, the Sunshine Coast, the Gold Coast, Hervey Bay, Bowen, and Far North Queensland are all on the award list. This demonstrates that Queensland offers a diverse range of lifestyle options, with different cities and regions each having their own distinct character.
Third, truly mature communities are often not just about residences, but also about a complete range of daily consumption scenarios. Bakeries, butcher shops, coffee shops, gyms, barbershops, flower shops—these seemingly ordinary small shops actually constitute the quality of life in a place. When buying a house, focusing only on the house itself easily leads to overlooking these everyday details.
ANP consistently advises buyers not to rely solely on data before researching properties, but to actually explore the community. Going out for a coffee, buying everyday necessities, checking the streets on weekends, and observing the number of families visiting can often provide a better sense of whether a place is right for you than simply looking at a map.
Therefore, the Queensland Government's "All the Best" list is not just a list of great weekend destinations, but also a list of observations on community life. For those preparing to relocate, considering buying property, or comparing different suburbs in Brisbane, these places voted on by locals provide a more relevant perspective on daily life.
Buying a property is not just about buying bricks and land; it's about buying the living environment you and your family will experience every day in the future.
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