Brunswick Street Mall — Attraction in Brisbane City

It's going to be hard to cover everything in Brunswick Street Mall and the Valley neighbourhood, but here goes. One of my favourite spots, is the Five Dogs takeaway, near McDonald's. You could still get a few hot dog varieties and a drink for the lowly price of $5.00, last time I visited. Also, there's the Chinese bakeries along the back walkway at McWhirter's near the fruit barn. I've shopped at all three of those outlets. A sausage roll and a cold drink run out at around the same price at one bakery. Then there's Julie's Salon, in the other direction, just around the corner in Wickham Street, from Chinatown Mall, with men's pensioner haircuts from $10.00. There's a few of my other favourite spots in that part of town, but I'll save them for another review...

UPDATE 20-04-2018: So, here's those extra spots I promised last time we met... One of the best take aways is the 'Fresh To Go' inside McWhirters, run by a lovely Chinese couple. They used to be on the other corner, closer to the stairs, but moved down to the overpass end with much better results for their business. Once more, you can buy a basic sandwich and drink for around the $5.00 mark here, and also roast meat rolls and sandwiches plus a drink are not that much more in price. Service is efficient and friendly and the place is always packed at lunch time - so be early, or go hungry...

While the local Foodworks mini mart inside Valley Rail is no 'super saver' discount store, it has a wide variety of food, beverages and extras on site. They rearranged their whole front end of the store last year in order to give easier access. Staff are friendly and you don't stand in a queue at this store for too long, as extra staff make themselves available to shorten the length of any queue with haste...

Central Brunswick Bakery is one of my famous, but out of the way pit stops. I won't buy pies and sausage rolls anywhere else! Run by Danny, a Vietnamese baker of many years experience, even his most basic 'plain' pie is well worth having. There's lots of overpriced and exotic pastries in other nearby places, but you won't catch me paying $10 or so for their product, when there's a great Aussie style pie and sauce to be had at a very reasonable price at Danny's place! Central Brunswick - located on the corner of Ivory and Brunswick Streets, one block away from the Storey Bridge......

Not much of a 'mall', however the hot dog place is cool as their food is cheap and they offer special deals. Occasionally one can enjoy hearing local musicians playing live in the bars and pubs, and there are Asian grocers selling fresh fruit and vegetables.

At the end of the street, there is a Hall of Fame dedicated to 10 Brisbane bands/musicians that enjoyed major international success (Bee Gees, Go-Betweens and others). While walking there, I thus got the chance to snap a photo of the plaque dedicated to my idols Savage Garden (a happy coincidence being that the photo was actually taken in May 2013, shortly after the birthday of Savage Garden vocalist...

Too many empty shops. Promises of new developments that never happen. Dirty concrete and dirty concrete seating. Council and police on the weekends roam in packs collecting revenue by fining foreigners and young kids $240 for dropping a cigarette. And now with the new laws on mandatory ID scanning affecting smaller venues, creating long lines for entry and embarrassing Queensland when prominent foreigners are refused entry. The walkway from the train station to the Mall is a disgrace and the council claim the are powerless to address this. Bring on the sale of the Waltons building and fingers crossed the new owner is someone with vision who...