Fish Lane is the lane everyone ends up on. Messina at one end, Lune around the corner, Brooki now sitting down halfway along. Goodside is the newest name on it, and the surprise is who is behind it: the Fanda group that runs Rick Shores, Southside and Central, doing a morning cafe instead of a dinner room.
It opened on 26 June 2026 on the old Kiki kiosk site, tucked under the motorway where Fish Lane runs behind Melbourne Street. Two weeks in, it already has a queue most mornings. The menu is chef Benny Lam's, and it reads more like Hong Kong and Taiwan than a flat-white-and-toast cafe.
The room.
A fern garden under a motorway, which is the part reviewers keep photographing.
The space is doing a lot of the talking. The old kiosk sits in a courtyard packed with tree ferns and palms, with the raw concrete underside of the motorway as the ceiling, so you get a jungle and a piece of infrastructure at the same time. Along one wall is a run of wavy mirror tiles that warp the garden back at you, which is why half the photos out of here are people standing in front of it. It is a morning spot, so the light through the ferns is the reason to sit outside rather than grab and go.
What reviewers keep ordering.
Goodside is two weeks old, so this is the shortlist that keeps coming up in the early reviews, not our own verdict.
The cold foam iced coffee
The drink that gets named first. Reviewers keep calling it the best cold foam in Brisbane, balanced rather than sweet, with the foam sitting thick over the coffee instead of turning it into dessert. It comes under the yellow smiley sticker that is becoming the shorthand for the place.
Lu Rou Fan
A Taiwanese braised pork rice bowl, glossy and dark over rice with a soft egg and greens, and it is gluten free. This is the one reviewers say takes them straight back to Hong Kong and Taiwan, which is not a line you hear about a South Brisbane cafe very often.
The prawn har gow katsu sando
The sando people flag as a must try. Prawn har gow flavours crumbed and pressed into milk bread, sitting in the row of sandos Goodside sends out in the smiley boxes. If you order one thing off the sandwich side, the early consensus points here.
The sweet corner
For the table to share, the baked coffee bun and the cappuccino custard are the two that get mentioned, the kind of thing you add on the way out rather than plan the visit around.
Goodside
Morning cafe from the Rick Shores group, in the Fish Lane garden under the motorway.
● 63 Melbourne Street, Fish Lane, South Brisbane · @goodside_cafe · Get directions
What to get. Start with the cold foam iced coffee. Add the Lu Rou Fan if you want the plate reviewers rate most, and the prawn har gow katsu sando off the sandwich side. Finish with the baked coffee bun or the cappuccino custard.
Going. Open daily, 8am to 2pm. It is a morning and lunch spot, no dinner, and it has been busy in its first fortnight, so earlier is easier. Walk in.
A note on the pick.
Goodside opened on 26 June 2026, so it is two weeks old as we post this. Everything here is checked against the venue's own page and the early reviews, not a visit of our own, and the picks are the ones locals keep naming rather than a verdict. A room this new will move its menu and its hours, so confirm before you go.
The right handle is @goodside_cafe. Photos are via @goodside_cafe.
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