Flute Food & Wine

I haven't had breakfast at Rosalie since before the January floods, so my family and I took the opportunity of a spontaneous weekend visit from my Sydney based brother to try out Flute Food & Wine's popular breakfast offerings. The Rosalie precinct is home to many of my favourite places to eat such as Mint's Vietnamese, Halim's Indian and Sing's Asian Kitchen but when it comes to breakfast the two major players are definitely Salt and Flute. Arriving at Rosalie just before 9am on a Sunday, Salt was already quite busy so we headed around the corner to find Flute a lightly quieter and decided we would eat here.



Menu



Menu



Upon being seated we were immediately asked if we would like drinks and placed an order for three skinny cappuccinos, two in a cup and one in a mug and an orange juice. The orange juice's arrival was near instantaneous and a single cappuccino in a cup followed suit but the remaining two coffees lingered a bit. They arrived at the table in more then adequate time after placing the drinks order but the staggered nature of deliver of the drinks was a little strange. The mug of cappuccino was an amazing serve, it was very large and resembled a small bowl rather then a mug! The coffee was Segafredo and was really really good, one of the better cups of coffee I have had in a while.

Orange Juice

Skinny cap (cup)

The menu at Flute changes with season and was completely new since my last visit. There were several options that appealed to me, the toasted oat muesli with yogurt and fresh fruit, the avocado and haloumi plate and the chocolate crepes. In the end I really liked the sound of the herbed potato & mozzarella cake with honeyed bacon, poached eggs and avocado. My mum decided she was after a traditional hot breakfast of honey roasted bacon and scrambled eggs with tomato jam and Turkish pide. My dad really liked the look of the beef bacon and cheese breakfast pie with poached eggs and my brother wanting to get something different to everyone ordered the savoury mince on sourdough toast with poached eggs.

Savoury mince w eggs

Potato & mozzarella cake w bacon

The food came out after approximately 10-15minutes which I consider light speed for a Sunday breakfast. The portions of all four meals were very generous and all plated to look extremely appealing. Fresh cracked pepper was offered and mum and I obliged. My breakfast was really delicious. Cutting into the eggs, the glossy yolk oozed out, signs of a perfectly poached egg. Looking across to the breakfast pie and savoury mince I noticed both sets of eggs were also perfectly done. My herbed potato and mozzarella cakes were well done, crispy on the outside and dense yet soft on the inside. The herb flavouring was quite strong and the mozzarella subtle but I could only manage to eat one of the two cakes. The bacon was nice and crispy and the avocado featured some sort of sweet sauce which I really enjoyed.  The breakfast pie was a massive hit, no better compliment then an empty plate. The savoury mince completely filled my brother and he couldn't quite finish it. I had a small taste of the mince and was surprised by how sweet it was, similar to the sweetness found in BBQ sauce. The scrambled eggs and bacon was also a massive serve that was thoroughly enjoyed. I love the toasted Turkish pide that was served with this breakfast and managed to sneak a piece for myself.

Bacon & scrambled eggs

Breakfast pie

 

Rosalie is a fantastic precinct and Sunday breakfast at Flute was a highly enjoyable experience. The food, venue and coffee are all fantastic and the service attentive. I will no doubt be back sooner rather then later and look forward to trying the muesli, fruit toast and chocolate crepes.

 

Campos

I haven't been to Campos in about a year, so when a friend of mine who lives at Kangaroo Point invited me to Saturday breakfast at this Wandoo St. cafe I was quite excited. Campos are renowned for their coffee, edgy food and trendy decor and are a popular weekday and weekend hang out for cafe connoisseurs, evident by the constant stream of both dine in and takeaway customers. On this particularly windy Saturday morning the three of us were able to nab the last indoor table.

Menu

Latte

Once seated we were able to immediately place our drinks order before looking over the weekend menu. I ordered my favourite skinny cappuccino where as my friend went with a skinny caramel latte. No coffee for our third breakfaster as she doesn't like the taste - shame on her! Reading over the menu I was tempted by most of the options. Being around 10.30am I wasn't sure whether to order a breakfast option or to go with a more lunchy type meal. I have had the Campo's version of the big breakfast (the fry up), the muesli and the fruit toast before and loved all of them. One of my breakfast companions raved about the Cinnamon & Sugar potato doughnuts and we all liked the look of the chicken ciabatta and the chocolate ricotta pancakes. In the end my friend decided she felt more like lunch so went with the Chicken Ciabatta with avocado, bacon, tomato accompanied with chips & aoli. Recently, I have started to really enjoy porridge so I decided to branch out from my trusted muesli and fruit toast and go with the Vanilla & Custard Porridge with caramelized strawberries but I did get a small side of Greek yogurt to go with my porridge. Our third diner, who was visiting from Sydney,  had heard both of us rave about Campo's muesli so straight away her mind was made up she would be ordering the Toasted Macadamia muesli with rose water berries and Greek yogurt.



Skinny Cap



Porridge



 After a short wait our coffees arrived and were well and truly up to the high Campos standard. About 15 minutes later our food arrived. All three dishes were presented spectacularly, which made them even more inviting. The porridge was delicious, easily the best porridge I have eaten. The caramelized strawberries were soft and sweet and the porridge had nice flavours of vanilla with hints of cinnamon. The side of Greek yogurt I swirlled around the top as I enjoy the contrast of warm savoury porridge with cool, sweet yogurt. The porridge was such a massive serving I probably ate around half before being to full to continue! The chicken ciabatta met with a similar fate. It was a massive serving of fresh ciabatta bread, chicken, avocado and bacon and could only be half consumed before my friend reached bursting point! The muesli was probably the smallest breakfast and was just able to be finished by our remaining breakfast guest. She loved the rose water berries and yogurt and was full for most of the day from the meal!



Chicken Ciabatta



Muesli





Campos is a great cafe whether you are in the mood for a takeaway coffee or a long weekend breakfast. The menu has its trusted staples such as the fry up, muesli, fruit toast and eggs Benedict but also is ever changing and mixes things up based on produce and chef's creativity. They also offer delicious sweets such as honeycomb cheesecake, chocolate and beetroot mud cake, chocolate afghan biscuits and rocky road. We all really enjoyed our late Saturday breakfast and I definitely am not going to let another year go by before visiting again!

Eurovida



 It's no secret that I love breakfast and as anyone who has ever travelled to Asia knows it is pretty much non existent. Don't get me wrong, of course they eat breakfast but you won't find cereal, toast, muesli or bacon and eggs on the menu. In this part of the world breakfast, lunch and dinner are all very similar with rice and dumplings standard breakfast items. So after spending two weeks in China it's safe to say I was having serious breakfast withdrawals. Two friends and I decided to try somewhere new for Saturday morning breakfast and ended up at Eurovida in Paddington.



Toasted Muesli

 

Menu

Eurovida is situated on Given Tce directly opposite Fundies Organic Cafe and Pandemonium. On arrival we had the choice of sitting inside or outside and as it was a pretty miserable day we opted for inside away from the cold and rain. As we were seated our drinks order was taken, two skinny lattes and one skinny cappuccino, and we began looking over the breaky menu. I thought Eurovida had a good breakfast menu, with a selection of both hot, cold, sweet and savoury options available. A couple of options grabbed my eye, particularly the corn and dill cakes with salmon, sour cream and rocket and Euorovida's toasted muesli with yogurt and mixed berries. One of my dining companions immediately decided on the muesli which made my decision of corn and dill cakes easy because I like when everyone orders something different. However, I asked to substitute the smoked salmon for leg ham but was told the kitchen only had enough leg ham for the egg's Benedict so the salmon became bacon instead. Our remaining diner also quickly decided on his order of the baked savoury mince, egg, cheese, flaky pastry and tomato relish. We also convinced him to get the orange ricotta crepes so we could each have a little taste.


Skinny Lattes



Skinny Cappuccino

The coffee came out shortly after placing our breakfast order and was Piazza D'Oro blend. I have heard mixed reviews about the coffee at Eurovida but thought my skinny cappuccino was quite good but perhaps a little too much froth. Our food came out a reasonable time after and looked rather impressive. The corn and dill cakes were well cooked, having a crisp outer layer but still moist on the inside. The combination of the cakes, sour cream and bacon all went really well together and were filling and delicious. My only slight criticism is some kind of relish might have been a nice accompaniment just to had a little bit of sweetness to cut through the salty and savoury flavours. The muesli looked quite good, served layered in a tall glass with yogurt and milk. It met with no complaints but the mixed berries appeared to be frozen. The savoury mince was a big winner, not lasting long at all. It resembled a pie on the plate which was not at all what I expected the dish to look like. On cutting into the flaky pastry, the mince, fried egg and cheese were clearly visible and the tomato relish received a big tick of approval. The orange crepes were both visually and taste wise the least impressive meal of the morning. I have a massive sweet tooth but found the crepes to be completely one dimensional and unappealing. There was no sweetness to the dish which was needed to cut through the overwhelming citrus flavours. The crepes were meant to be accompanied by a vanilla bean sauce but this was either missing or overpowered by the sourness of the orange.

Baked Mince

Corn and Dill Cakes

Orange Ricotta Crepes

All in all breakfast at Eurovida was an enjoyable experience. The cafe has a great location and views of the city from the back portion but is situated around tough competition. The breakfast menu was strong but a further two or three options would have been nice. If you like savoury breakfast then I recommend giving Eurovida a try but if you are a sweet breakfast fanatic either chose another cafe or order there warm bread and butter pudding!

Lure on Latrobe

 Lure on Latrobe is my favourite place to go when I am in the mood for muesli. They serve what I consider to be one of Brisbane's best breakfast muesli's, 'The Breaky Trifle'. But instead of breakfast I ended up heading to Lure for lunch and was quite excited to see what the menu had to offer. On arrival we were greeted by a friendly waiter who is a fixture of the Lure floor staff (he knows my breakfast order off by heart) and we were seated in the undercover area. Lure's dining area is a converted Queensland style veranda with wooden tables and patio chairs which gives it a real homely feel.

Lunch Menu

As we were given our lunch menus, we placed our drinks order of a skinny cappuccino and a latte then began the tough process of deciding what to have to eat! Lure offers both a set lunch menu and a blackboard menu of specials. The specials on this particular day included a goats cheese and caramelized onion quiche, chicken chowder soup, root vegetable salad, Mediterranean vegetable salad, chicken and cos salad and a salmon and Greek salad. I found myself being drawn more towards the set menu, particularly towards the BLAT, chicken burger and veggie burger. I have been trying to branch out a little lately and as I nearly always order chicken I decided upon the veggie burger. My dining companion also found himself in a similar situation, liking the look of the quiche, beef lasagna and chicken burger. In the end he went with the chicken burger and a bowl of hand cut chips with aoli.



Latte



Skinny Cap

 The coffee came out quickly and was delicious. Lure use my favourite blend, Genovese coffee and I could easily have three or four I think they are that tasty but I controlled myself and stuck to the one. Our lunch arrived promptly, probably within 10 minutes or so of ordering. The veggie burger can take on many forms and combinations varying from cafe to cafe. Lure's came as a home-made veggie patty with tomato, beetroot, carrot, roasted capsicum, grilled eggplant, cucumber, sweet chill, pesto & yogurt on a Turkish bread 'bun'. It was completely delicious, more so than I anticipated. It had a great combination of salty and sweet and the veggies were fresh and well cooked! The chicken burger met with so-so approval, it was good but not great was the feedback. The bowl of hand-cut chips on the other hand didn't last long and  before I knew it my guest had demolished them. I believe his exact words were 'sorry if you wanted chips but they were just so tasty'!



Chicken Burger & Chips with aoli



Veggie Burger

I really enjoyed lunch at Lure and would definitely come back. My only criticism would be that the lunch menu wasn't huge and a couple more options on the set menu would be nice. Lure also had a deli cabinet displaying cheesecake, choc-hazelnut delice, banana & raspberry bread, muffins and chocolate brownies which all looked delicious. If you love coffee, muesli and veggie burgers then Lure is definitely the cafe for you! Actually, even if you just love coffee and quality food Lure is still for you!



Forages Deli Cafe

I received a Sunday lunch invitation from my parents which usually means dining at their favourite cafe, Gossips at Toowong. I was slightly shocked when my mum asked me to recommend somewhere for us to go. Taking into consideration my Dad's conservative pallet and my desire to not have to wait for a table I began to think of cafes slightly off the beaten Sunday breakfast/brunch/lunch track which meant the exclusion of my beloved Paddington and Rosalie. Suddenly, I thought of Forages Deli Cafe, which I pass nearly 20 times a week on my way to and from university and work, so off we went ready for a good meal.



Skinny Cappuccino



Zucchini & Dill fritters



Forages Deli Cafe is located in the Gailey Fiveways complex along with King Of Cakes Bakery, Tippler's Seafood, Clancy James Butcher and Naturally Fruity fruit store which are all great businesses. You order and pay at the counter then table service applies. At about 12pm on Sunday Forages was probably 3/4 full with a short line of people ordering food and drinks. After perusing the menu mum decided upon the 'ham special' which was ham, cheese, tomato, pesto and avocado on your choice of panini, foccacia or Turkish bread. Mum went with the Turkish bread and opted for it to be toasted. My dad liked the look of the ham special but also had his eye on the open grill of turkey, bacon, cheese, avocado and mayo. Mum told him to go with the open grill so they had something different to each other and could 'compare notes' haha! I had trouble deciding on what I was going to order. I am an absolute sucker for all day breakfast which Forages offers, but I also liked the look of the variety of foccacias, paninis, Turkish breads and homemade burgers that were available. In the end I continued on my recent branching out streak and went with the zucchini and dill fritters with smoked salmon, sour cream and caper relish but I did substitute the smoked salmon for ham. A round of the standard skinny cappuccinos was the beverage of choice.



Turkey Open Grill



Ham Special



The coffees came out fairly quickly but there were only two placed on the table rather then the three that were ordered. After a couple of minutes the waitress came back and apologized about the missing coffee informing us it got knocked over on the way out and was being re-made. I am not sure what type of coffee Forages uses but it was pretty good and well made. The remaining coffee appeared with the food which came out very quickly, impressively fast actually. The servings were generous and the produce used was fresh. The ham on both mum's Turkish bread and accompanying my fritters was from the bone and delicious. I thoroughly enjoyed the zucchini and dill fritters as they were slightly crisp on the outside but soft on the inside. The caper relish had a strong tangy flavour which gave the fritters a nice zing but I only needed a tiny amount otherwise found it a bit overpowering. Overall I loved my meal and would definitely order the fritters again. The turkey and bacon open grill was an impressive looking lunch and my Dad raved about how delicious it was. The ham special Turkish bread met similar praise from mum.

Forages Deli Cafe is a great place to have breakfast, lunch or a sweet treat in between. They also have a deli cabinet with an abundance of cakes, muffins and slices as well as quiches, filos, salads available to take home. If you ever find yourself in the Indooroopilly/Taringa/Toowong area I highly recommend stopping in at Forages!

Poppy's Basket Bakery Deli

Today I ventured to Southbank to catch up with two old friends for lunch. As I haven't ventured to this side of town in a long time I wasn't sure where was good to eat (apart from Max Brenner's). I didn't have any particular food craving at the time and as we were standing outside Grill'd and opposite Toscani's and Poppy's Basket Bakery Deli these were our three options. I'm not sure how we came to the decision but we ended up crossing the road and having lunch at Poppy's.



Chicken Roll



Skinny Cap

Poppy's Basket Bakery Deli has a small breakfast and lunch menu but majority of the lunch is either specials of the day, design your own sandwich/rolls or pick from options such as filos, quiches and salads on display in the deli cabinet. I decided I would design my own bread roll and went with chicken, avocado with full salad (lettuce, beetroot, carrot, cucumber, tomato) on a whole grain roll and of course my standard skinny cappuccino. This meal was really quite pricey coming in at just over $13 for a bread roll and small coffee. My lunch companions ordered the Italian roll which had tomato, salami, cheese with a latte and the daily special of bruschetta with toasted bread, olive oil and balsamic vinegar with an affogato.

Bruschetta

The service was very quick with our food appearing a few minutes before our coffees. My bread roll was really fresh but was quite small. The coffee was smooth and well made but had a little too much froth. The bruschetta and Italian roll met with no complaints. All in all, Poppy's Basket Bakery Deli is a nice place for a catch up over coffee and a morning or afternoon tea snack. For those a bit more serious about their breakfast and lunch cafes I would recommend looking elsewhere.

Comfort At My Table

Comfort at My Table is one of my favourite breakfast/lunch cafes in Brisbane. Everything from the menu to the decor is superb and I am yet to have a bad meal or coffee at this Milton located cafe. It is obvious from the size of the takeaway coffee line during work-days that it is a favourite to many professionals in the area, often extended from the counter to the front door! The breakfast menu offers a large variety of hot and cold as well as sweet and savoury options which is my idea of a perfect balance. The menu undergoes slight change depending on what produce is in season and there are daily specials to keep things exciting.

Skinny cappuccino

Hot Choccy Bowl

On this particular winter morning, a large group of us ventured to Comfort At My Table in celebration of a friends birthday. As it was a particularly cold morning hot drinks were the popular order of the morning with most of the boys tucking in to bowl sized hot chocolates while others went with regular hot chocolates, cappuccinos, lattes and English breakfast tea.One lone wolf of the group ordered a berry smoothie, if they weren't so delicious I would have questioned his sanity for ordering a cold beverage on a winters morning!  The hot chocolate in a bowl is pretty amazing, a cereal sized bowl of hot milk with froth and chocolate powder, accompanied by a shot glass of pouring chocolate, whipped cream and marshmallows to add at your own leisure...pretty much a meal in its self! The coffee is of the Vittoria blend and is always perfectly made. It comes in three sizes, cup, mug and bowl but after seeing the size of the bowls I chose to stick to the cup size!



Nim's Eggs

French Toast







 After umm-ing and aah-ing over the many tempting breakfast options we were all ready to order. I decided to get something completely different from my usual order of muesli and went with the Nim's Eggs; poached eggs, pesto, roast tomato and bacon on sourdough with banana chutney. As odd as the addition of banana chutney sounded it was delicious. The chutney added a sweetness that balanced against the saltiness of the bacon, pesto and eggs much like the addition of BBQ sauce or maple syrup to bacon. The boys in our group ordered either the waffles with lemon curd, yogurt and strawberries or the french toast with bacon, ricotta, maple syrup and pistachios. The waffles were a massive winner with the boys who praised the deliciousness of the lemon curd and the crispness of the waffles. Having been to Comfort many times I understood what they meant because in passionfruit season the waffles and fruit salad featured a passionfruit curd which was unbelievable, I wish I'd had a jar of it to take home. The french toast met with similar praise but on this occasion I think the waffles won the battle of sweet breakfast supremacy. 

Waffles

Avo on Toast







Other breakfast orders included the muesli which was gluten free cranberry and macadamia muesli with sugar baked apple and yogurt. Being a muesli connoisseur I am pretty sure the muesli used in this dish was Brookfarm which is one of my favourites. It was a good combination and perfectly presented but was a bit dry because the serving of yogurt was a bit small. In the past the muesli has been bircher or a trifle which although less pretty was more enjoyable. The avo on toast served with grilled lemon, fetta and tomato relish was another winner, a simple dish done really well. The tomato relish really sets Comfort's avo on toast apart from other cafes, another condiment I wouldn't mind taking a jar of home. Remaining orders included the savoury mince with spinach, grilled lemon and poached eggs, the apple and cinnamon porridge with strawberries (special of the day) plus about 5 servings of banana bread for the table. Comfort's banana bread is some of Brisbane's best, served toasted with butter it is crisp on the outside and moist on the inside, a must order!

Banana bread

Muesli

Comfort At My Table is definitely one of Brisbane's premier cafes. It serves large, seasonal and high quality breakfast portions for exceptionally low prices (Nim's eggs & coffee for $15, bacon & eggs with hot chocolate and banana bread $18). The staff are extremely friendly and the service is always quick, meaning long waits for food and coffee is nonexistent. Every time I finish a meal at Comfort, I already can't wait to come back! p.s their lunch menu is pretty fantastic too!