There may have been a slow start for food and drink at Queen’s Wharf after the highly anticipated area opened to the public at the beginning of August, but three months later the openings are getting increasingly busy.

The area features casual eateries and bars like Babblers and Cicada Blu, both located on the Sky Deck, while old favorites like Luke Nguyen’s Fat Noodle have moved two blocks from the Treasury.

But there are also a number of fresh (or revamped) concepts and high-end restaurants coming from new (at least until The Star) operators.

Here are five to check out.

Sokyo

Sokyo Brisbane is a different beast to its dark, moody and famous sister venue in Sydney.

Design firm Hassell gave the 160-seat restaurant a lighter, brighter look that will make the most of floor-to-ceiling windows overlooking the river and South Bank over the motorway. All light wood screens and detailing, two signature elements: a sleek, circular private dining room and a long sushi bar backed by black flooring.

In the kitchen is gun-toting sushi chef Alex Yu, who spent eight years at the Sydney restaurant before heading to Yugen in Melbourne, helping him earn two chef hats.

Yu’s menu consists of starters, tempura and robata grilled items on one side, and traditional sushi items including nigiri, sashimi and specialty nigiri and sushi rolls on the other.

There is also a Sokyo signature tasting menu, a banquet set menu and a vegetarian set menu.

For drinks, a special cocktail list and a sake menu including sparkling sake are available. The wine list totals around 110 bottles and favors local producers, but includes a long selection of champagnes.

Black Skin Steak and Seafood from Gambaro

The new Black Hide replaces the date night vibe of the previous Treasury model with something lighter and brighter.

S.SHYNE’s Lisa Henderson oversaw a layout that featured plenty of wood, cream curtains and long teal banquettes designed to reflect the new restaurant’s prime location overlooking the river.

It now suits a menu with a wider range of seafood.

As a starter, you can order the tuna tartare served with umeboshi sauce on a rice cracker; grilled scallops with garlic parsley butter and pangrattato; and tuna tataki with wakame and shiitake mushrooms.

For mains there’s lobster linguini with tomato, parsley and lemon zest; grilled Mooloolaba prawns with parsley, garlic butter and lemon; or lobster from the tank grilled or poached with lemongrass and garlic butter. There is also a cold seafood platter.

Steaks are refreshingly simple, split into a selection of three-point cuts of Angus and five-point cuts of Wagyu, and the menu is rounded out with a 1200-gram Angus tomahawk priced at $240 (designed to feed up to three people).

Aztec

From Potentia Solutions Leisure (Lina, Soko Rooftop and others) comes Azteca. The band’s most well-realized venue to date.

Blackbox Design Co’s Ann Huntington’s 126-seat design (40 of which are outside overlooking the river) feels like an evolution on the Peruvian-inspired Soko, with its wind blocks, mosaic tiles, heavy wood features and vibrant hanging greenery. But this is a restaurant first, a bar second, and draws inspiration from various parts of North, Central and South America.

The menu includes starters such as yellowfin tuna tacos with kimchi carrots and Yarra Valley salmon roe; bone marrow with braised kangaroo tail, yuca fries and shiso chimichurri; and coral trout ceviche.

Larger plates include Elgin Valley free-range half chicken served with dark chocolate mole sauce and line-caught coral trout with baby corn, scallions, pickled onions and huitlacoche.

Cachaca (a Brazilian spirit made from fermented sugarcane juice) is used as the cornerstone of the drinks menu; It fuels a caipirinha menu that ranges from a classic with sugar syrup and lime to numbers with pomegranate and hibiscus, watermelon and jalapeno.

Elsewhere, there’s a tight 60-bottle wine list and Coravin’s selections by the glass, with plenty of room for specialty cocktails and wines from Argentina and Chile.

Alorea

Star refers to Aloria as the high jewel in Queen’s Wharf’s crown.

Twenty-three floors up, it stands out for its glass brickwork, wine-filled cabinets, blush pink furniture, and dazzling river and city views.

But Chef Shayne Mansfield’s menu isn’t about flash.

Instead, it focuses on local produce presented at its best, whether through pickling, fermenting, maturation or the simple application of wood fire and smoke.

Aloria’s menu includes wood-roasted oysters with white soy emulsion; tiger prawns with fermented chili butter; miso-roasted cauliflower with burnt leeks, toasted yeast cream, The Falls Farm radishes and chive oil; and 90-day dry-aged bone-in sirloin served with confit garlic and bone marrow sauce.

There’s also a 270-bottle wine list compiled by sommelier Damian Danaher, ranging from approachable local producers to some rare European bottles, including a 1982 Chateau Lafite-Rothschild bordeaux priced at $20,599.

Luke Lac

Luc Lac is the newest venue from Ghanem Group (Donna Chang, Blackbird, Byblos and others). Kitchen? High Vietnam and Thailand.

Ghanem’s regular collaborators Space Cubed Design gave the restaurant an impeccably detailed, long wooden bar, tiled walls, rattan furniture and richly patterned fabrics and wallpapers.

A treat as colorful as the food from group chef Jake Nicolson and head chef Dann Rowell.

There’s nuoc cham, grilled beef (beef wrapped in betel leaf) with fried rice, charred lemon and watercress; hand-caught Port Fairy whelk with ginger and garlic; wagyu beef with campot pepper bo luc lac (the traditional “beef jerky” dish that gives the restaurant its name), cherry tomatoes and red peppers; tiger prawns with hot and sour sauce and fried shallots; pan-roasted spicy John Dory with groom’s egg, cucumber and sawtooth coriander; and lemongrass braised pork belly with baby tiger abalone, kohlrabi and apple.

Drinks are cocktail-forward, with a focused list of signatures as well as twisted classics like a variant of Tommy’s mixed with green chili nam jim and a Sidecar with tamarind and toasted red rice.

The wine list is a relatively short 140 bottles, favoring floral drops that can communicate the spice and flavor of the dish.