Barbecue in Australia
The BBQ Atlas maps 23 barbecue venues across 22 cities in Australia. From Texas, Korean and Modern, it's a snapshot of how Australia cooks over live fire. Browse by city below, or dive straight into the venues.
Big Don's Smoked Meats
Perth, Australia
The business has run since 2017 as a low and slow wood fired operation with no walk-ins and no exceptions. Orders open Tuesday evenings at 7pm via the website; the address arrives after you've committed. It's the opposite of convenience, which is precisely the point. You'll find them in Bayswater on Saturdays. Bring patience and a plan.
BlackBear BBQ
Wetherill Park, Australia
This is low and slow done properly — brisket, ribs and pork belly spending up to fifteen hours over ironbark, the Australian hardwood standing in where post oak would in Texas. BlackBear started in 2017; this Newton Road location keeps the same rhythm, opening early most mornings and running through to evening on weekends. The Hungry Bear Box and beef and pork belly egg rolls sit alongside the expected cuts. No bookings required — turn up, order, eat. Private events and large reserved areas are available if you need them. It's Texas method transplanted to Wetherill Park, and the smoke does the talking.
BlackBear BBQ
Blacktown, Australia
BlackBear cooks low and slow over ironbark — up to fifteen hours for brisket, ribs and pork belly — out of Western Sydney's Blacktown, where it built a cult following after starting food-truck-and-festival style in 2017. Expect early hours (six most weekdays), Friday-night dinners with live music, and oddities like the beef-and-pork-belly egg rolls. Closed Sundays.
Blackiron Barbecue
Inglewood, Australia
Blackiron Barbecue does brisket and sausages the Texas way — wood-fired, sliced to order, priced by weight. Jason Linto runs the operation from Inglewood, open Thursday through Saturday with limited hours that reflect the pace of things done properly. Order what's ready. Pay what you take. When it's gone.
Frankie's Smokehouse
Woolloongabba, Australia
Frankie's is a family-run Texas-style smokehouse on Stanley Street in Woolloongabba, opened around 2020 by siblings Tristan and Tamika — home to one of Brisbane's biggest visible outdoor smokers. The menu is nearly all gluten-free, there's a dog-friendly garden, and it's a short walk from the Gabba. Weekdays from half-five, weekends from midday.
Full Throttle BBQ
Beresfield, Australia
Full Throttle came out of the competition circuit — a first place at Meatstock Sydney — and turned that into a Texas-style café and barbecue shop in Beresfield, run by Mick Tyrrell's group. It was one of Australia's early brisket-pie makers, and still pairs a café with barbecue retail and custom work. Serious barbecue with a competition pedigree.
Low & Slow American BBQ
Port Adelaide, Australia
The barbecue is Southern-style, cooked low and slow, and served in 90-minute sittings. Bookings are handled through the website; takeaway requires pre-order by email or phone, and the kitchen discourages walk-ups during dinner service. They've been at it since 2013. Smoked sausage rounds out the menu alongside the main proteins. The place operates evenings most nights, with lunch and dinner sittings on Saturday. It's the kind of operation that asks you to plan ahead — a small courtesy that usually means the food is worth the arrangement.
Phat Boyz
Walloon, Australia
Phat Boyz is a smokehouse and kitchen on Parkland Drive in Walloon, going since 2021 — brisket and pulled pork the foundation, with mac and cheese and BBQ maple wings alongside. Low and slow, midday until half-eight most nights, nine on weekends. Order, eat, move on.
Reardon's BBQ
Taree, Australia
Connor runs this place. It exists, it cooks, and people find it on Instagram and Facebook when they're after barbecue in the region.
Ribs Lane
Forrestfield, Australia
The Forrestfield Ribs Lane, on Strelitzia Avenue, opened in 2026 with its own microbrewery and a playground — ribs and smoked brisket from a Perth group that runs late on Friday and Saturday. Ring ahead or check the site for what's ready. Ribs and a beer brewed on the spot.
Ribs Lane
Mount lawley, Australia
Ribs Lane is a restaurant on Beaufort Street serving American-style barbecue ribs, burgers, and seafood. The kitchen keeps late hours on Friday and Saturday — open until 4 a.m. — and standard service the rest of the week. It's a straightforward operation: you come for the ribs, and they're ready when you are. This is a chain operation, which means consistency across locations and a kitchen that knows its brief. Order the ribs. The phone number is (08) 6163 5600 if you need it; the website and Instagram will tell you what else they're running on any given night.
Ribs Lane
Subiaco, Australia
Ribs Lane keeps it narrow and does it well — smoked ribs and brisket, seven days, 11 to 10 — from a Perth group that's one of the few in the city smoking both daily. On Station Street in Subiaco. One thing, done right, on repeat.
Seoul Garden Melbourne
Melbourne, Australia
This is a Korean BBQ buffet on Little Bourke Street in Melbourne's CBD, where the ritual matters as much as the meat. You order, you grill, you eat — no standing around waiting for someone else's timing. It's the kind of place that trusts you with fire and lets the food speak for itself. Seoul Garden is part of a larger operation, but this outpost does what Korean barbecue does best: strips away pretence and puts the work in your hands. Bring appetite and patience for the coals to heat properly. Everything else follows.
Smoky Sue's Barbecue
Brookvale, Australia
Sydney-based American-style barbecue operation with a smokehouse in Brookvale offering dine-in, takeaway, pop-ups, food trucks and catering. Known for low-and-slow smoked meats including brisket and short rib platters prepared with a signature blend of classic American technique and French influences. Operates primarily on weekends with events and custom bookings available across the Sydney area.
Surly's
Surry Hills, Australia
Surly's runs American barbecue with a dive-bar attitude in Surry Hills — hickory smoke on one side, a proper bar on the other. It opens for lunch Wednesday through Sunday and stays late, the flagship of a small Australian group. Smoke and a stool; that's the pitch, and it's an honest one.
Surly’s BBQ & Dive Bar
Newcastle, Australia
Surly's is what it says — American barbecue and a dive bar on Newcastle's main drag, hickory through the pit, open seven days from noon to late. Smoke, a bar, and the sense that "dive" is a compliment when the meat's done right.
Third Wave BBQ
Moorabbin, Australia
Third Wave's Moorabbin outpost, at 20 Station Street, cooks the way the brand always has: over wood, without shortcuts. Beef brisket leads — twelve to sixteen hours over hickory until the bark sets dark and the fat turns to silk, Texas thinking in Melbourne's south-east. The rest spans the American traditions: dry-rubbed pork ribs, pulled pork, and a flavor-forward, Kansas City-style house rub with more going on than most, rounded out with maple and applewood smoke. Then the Thor's Hammer lands — a huge bone-in smoked beef shank, carried out to turn heads. It is barbecue for people who understand that the good stuff takes time, and is worth every minute.
Third Wave BBQ
Ascot Vale, Australia
Third Wave's Ascot Vale room, on Mt Alexander Road, runs on the same conviction as the rest: barbecue is a thing you cannot hurry. Beef brisket takes twelve to sixteen hours over hickory, emerging with a dark, peppery bark and fat rendered soft — Central Texas in spirit, Melbourne in postcode. The rest of the board travels the American South and Midwest: pork ribs finished with a dry spice rub, pulled pork, and house rubs built thick and flavor-forward in the Kansas City manner, with maple and applewood folded into the smoke. And the Thor's Hammer holds court — an outsized smoked beef shank, bone and all, carved at the table. It is the sort of dish you order once and talk about long after.
Third Wave BBQ
Melbourne, Australia
Third Wave BBQ built its name on patience. At the Albert Park flagship on Victoria Avenue, beef brisket goes over hickory for the long haul — twelve to sixteen hours of low, steady smoke until the bark turns dark and the fat renders to butter. It is Texas thinking, cooked in Melbourne. The menu reaches across the American map. Pork ribs come dry-rubbed in the Southern manner, pulled pork alongside, and everything carries the mark of a flavor-forward, Kansas City-style house rub built from more spices than most kitchens bother with. Maple and applewood round out the smoke. Then there is the Thor's Hammer — a single, enormous smoked beef shank on the bone, hauled out like a trophy. It is the dish people come back for, and the clearest statement of what this kitchen is about: big, honest, wood-fired cooking with nothing rushed. Come hungry, and come ready to wait for meat worth waiting for.
Third Wave BBQ
Applecross, Australia
This is Third Wave's Perth outpost, carrying the same patient craft across the country to Canning Highway in Applecross. Beef brisket is the headline, smoked over hickory for twelve to sixteen hours until it gives with a nudge — Texas method, Western Australia address. Around it sits a tour of American barbecue: dry-rubbed pork ribs in the Southern style, pulled pork, and the kitchen's flavor-forward, Kansas City-leaning house rubs. Maple and applewood do the quieter work behind the beef's hickory. The showstopper travels too — the Thor's Hammer, a colossal smoked beef shank on the bone, is as much spectacle as supper. It is barbecue that rewards an unhurried table and a real appetite.
Third Wave BBQ
Officer, Australia
Third Wave gives Melbourne's south-east the full low-and-slow treatment from its Officer venue on Siding Avenue — brisket smoked over hickory for twelve to sixteen hours, pork ribs in a dry Southern rub, pulled pork, and house rubs in the Kansas City vein. The centrepiece is the Thor's Hammer: an enormous smoked beef shank on the bone, equal parts meal and spectacle. Bring an appetite and a little patience.
Third Wave BBQ
Hawthorn East, Australia
On Riversdale Road in Hawthorn East, Third Wave keeps to the long game. The brisket is the argument: hickory smoke, twelve to sixteen hours, a bark you can hear crack — Texas technique, cooked in Melbourne's east. From there the menu ranges wide. Pork ribs come dressed in a dry Southern rub, pulled pork alongside, and the house blends run flavor-forward and layered, the Kansas City way, with maple and applewood shading the fire. The Thor's Hammer is the flourish — a giant smoked beef shank on the bone, theater and dinner in one. Come with time on your hands; this is meat cooked to its own schedule, not yours.
Wildfire Craft BBQ
Newcomb, Australia
A barbecue venue in Newcomb that keeps a tight schedule—open Friday and Saturday lunch and dinner, Sunday lunch until sold out—and takes orders through the website alone. No phone calls, no walk-ups. This is a place that knows what it wants to be and isn't interested in being anything else. Find it on Watsons Road. Plan ahead.