The Happy Boy team’s best restaurant isn’t Happy Boy

“That place would go nuts in Sydney.”

I remember a big-time Brisbane sommelier saying this one night when semi-idly discussing Snack Man.

In one sense, it was a redundant comment. Snack Man goes nuts in Brisbane, particularly later in the week when it forms a symbiotic relationship with neighbouring stablemate Happy Boy, mobs of revellers rolling from one to the other, then back again.

But I think I know what he meant. Snack Man would be as significant in Sydney as it is in Brisbane, and it perhaps required Brisbane people to see that to appreciate it to its fullest extent.

That was back in 2019, and Snack Man perhaps isn’t as unique as it once was. But it would still be considered exceptional regardless of where it existed: Brisbane, Sydney, Melbourne.

Cameron and Jordan Votan’s follow-up to their enormously popular Happy Boy restaurant, Snack Man opened next door on East Street in late 2018. The idea was a spin on Happy Boy’s Chinese food, with smaller plates this time matched to European small-producer wine and grower champagne, compared to Happy Boy’s focus on local drops.

The fit-out was darker and edgier, the menu would change a little more frequently, and there were cocktails and counter seating. This was the Votan brothers getting all grown up.

Snack Man took a little time to become the best version of itself, pulled this way and that by the pandemic and the subsequent economic sugar hits and hangovers. And there was a time around two years ago when it felt like it had perhaps drifted a little too far from its own late-night hospitality.

But visit in early 2026, seven years on from opening, and you’ll find this 140-seater (70 inside, 70 out) in cracking form – intentional, engaged, always consistent.

It doesn’t matter that it’s a Thursday night at the counter and the kitchen has a pump on – delicate, Shanghai-style prawn wontons land fast and pop with sesame oil and a dash of shaoxing sweetness, an accompanying basket of xiao long bao packed full of juicy pork and a heavenly collagen-heavy broth.

Each dish at Snack Man is listed with the Chinese region from where it originates. Guandong, in the country’s coastal south, is (perhaps unsurprisingly) particularly well represented.

We order fu pei gyun (tofu skin rolls) stuffed full of prawns and crisp-fried just so – served with a sriracha and kewpie mayo, it’s ugly deliciousness at its very best. They’re followed by delicate, crystal-like har gao ripe with pink prawn meat and water chestnut; if, as they say, you can judge the rest of the dim sum menu by the quality of its har gao, we can probably leave now.

But then we’ve already ordered Mao Shi Hong Shao Rou, Hunan-style braised pork made famous by being a favourite of Mao Zedong. This has been in the Votan repertoire since Happy Boy’s early days in Spring Hill. Back then, it was more of a syrupy, mahogany-coloured sauce matched to tender pork belly; I prefer this version, which is more a stew or broth that allows you to delineate the different aromatics as they hit the palate. It’s one of the best comfort dishes around.

We return on a Sunday afternoon to knock off a few more dishes: pan-fried coral trout in a soy, shallot and ginger sauce, stir-fried green garlic shoots with lap cheong, and a mini version of a Beijing-style xian bing pan-fried pie that substitutes the traditional minced beef for pork floss and spring onion. It’s all killer, but particularly the fragrant, toothsome pies – I imagine a lot of people breeze by them when perusing the menu, but this is Brisbane dim sum at its very best.

We finish with a Snack Man classic: melted chocolate in a fried bao bun finished with vanilla ice cream. It’s not nearly as heart-stopping as it might sound, but just as delicious.

Wine shares equal billing with the food at Snack Man and the selection is one of the best in town, with 500 bottles out front backed by a cellar that holds another 1000(ish) cuvees. There are 30 wines on by the glass at any one time, with 20 of them Coravin pours.

They rotate regularly (sometimes daily) but think drops such as an Alessandro Viola grillo from Sicily, a Christophe et Fils chablis, or a Lezer chilled red by influential Italian winemaker Elisabetta Foradori – vivacious, complex wines with enough character to converse with the heftier flavours of the food.

There’s no list, as such, but that’s where the Votans’ skill as food and beverage communicators shows. A lot of new-wave wine bars will proclaim they’re here to rescue you from the traditional d--k measuring of the category but, honestly, that’s been on the way out for years, and the Votans were at the forefront, both with Happy Boy and then Snack Man.

They’re more interested in telling you a story, and taking you on journey. That applies with the food too, of course – hence all those regional notes. A question about a dish often leads to an answer regarding its origins, evolution and how it might fit into what you already understand to be Chinese food.

It illustrates the Votans’ excitement about what they do, and the genuine hospitality at the heart of it.

Good Food reviews are booked anonymously and paid independently. A restaurant can’t pay for a review or inclusion in the Good Food Guide.