Wild Flour Bakery Banff

There are few things that excite me more than visiting cute little towns and eating at the local's favourite haunts. So when you see somewhere advertised as “Banff’s Best Breakfast!” and “Banff’s Local Artistan Bakery” – you can pretty much see me running to join the line-up.

So we got up early – not our choice – the ratbag is an early riser who can’t be trusted to play alone, and trudged through the snow to what was promised to be an amazing breakfast.

I have to say I was put off from the minute we walked through the front door.

The scowling waitress was obviously not happy to be at work and glared at us while we struggled to decide what to order. 

The reason for our struggles? What we had thought would be an artisan bakery heaving under drool-worthy baked goods and big, gourmet, “fill up the Snowboarder” style breakfasts was more of a Yuppie, Vegetarian café… and the pastry cabinet had yet to be filled...

Salt Food Wine Rosalie - Breakfast Extraordinaire

I have well and truly missed the memo.


Today, I took hubby out for breakfast – and everything was going swimmingly well, until I heard him snickering at me.

“What?” I asked him suspiciously.

“Everytime you take a sip of coffee your whole head disappears. And you don’t have a small head either”.

Since when did Brisbane start serving coffee in bowls? And in Noodle bowls no less. While I am not complaining. I’m not. I love a big coffee with the rest of them – but surrounded by all the “Ladies who Lunch” at Salt Rosalie – I felt like a moron. The bowl was literally so big that I needed 2 hands to hold it. And apparently my face disappeared with every sip. Crazy!

But the coffee was good, it was hot and it was strong. So asides from feeling a bit silly – I enjoyed every drop.

I’d heard both good and bad things about Salt. That the food was good but the service was hit and miss. That the food was average but the service was fantastic. And seeing as it is straight across the road from my Chiro – I have walked past it almost twice a week without being brave enough to venture in.

Why “brave” you ask? Because it looks swanky. It is always filled with Businessman doing deals, Ladies who Lunch dripping in pearls, Yummy Mummy’s keeping an eye on their X5’s and very few people queuing for takeaway coffee – which is what I always want. Because, being honest, coffee is how I judge a place if I want to go back and spend money on breakfast.

So finally, with recommendations from Twitter friends and with hubby for emotional support – we venture in for breakfast.

The restaurant itself is gorgeous, lovely big lounge chairs, banquettes and outdoor dining. I wanted a table outside but they were full, so had to make do with an inside table and trying to take photos discreetly.

My coffee was great – asides from the noodle bowl issue – but hubby was not impressed with his ice chocolate. Presented in a smaller than usual cocktail glass, it had ice cream, ice cubes and about 2 inches of chocolate syrup in the bottom. And there was no whipped cream. Surely this is crime against Iced Chocolate???

Our breakfasts – served quickly and piping hot – were HUGE.
H.U.G.E.

The older couple at the table next to us – who only ordered coffee – gasped when they were put down in front of us. And I swear that the gentlemen’s eyes nearly boggled out of his head. If there is one thing that you cannot accuse Salt of – that would be stinginess. They would easily win the “Most Generous Breakfast” award if ever there was one.

Hubby ordered scrambled eggs with bacon and a side of Italian sausages. His meal on it’s own was massive, large chunks of buttered sourdough with at least 6 rashers of bacon, 2 grilled tomato halves and a large ramekin housing the uber rich scrambled eggs.

The 4 Italian sausages came on their own plate, with their own garnish – and I was impressed that they did this. It’s never happened at breakfast before – when you order a side – it usually comes out on your plate. This way makes it much easier for me to pinch things AKA: Sharing.

My breakfast was fantastic – poached eggs with bacon, avocado and hollandaise sauce. Also with the massive chunks of sourdough and a huge homemade potato hash cake dripping with a deliciously sweet tomato relish.

I didn’t manage to eat even half of this breakfast – and didn’t even attempt to eat the eggs. The avocado was a sensation – seasoned perfectly and wonderfully lemon-y, it cut through the richness of the whole dish.

All in all, it was brilliant and I’m embarrassed that I was put off for so long. Hubby, despite being disappointed in his Iced Chocolate conceded that if we lived closer to Salt, it would be our regular weekend haunt. That’s high praise indeed coming from him.

The Verdict: Very generous sized breakfasts, imaginative offerings and really good coffee.

Recommendations: If you don’t fancy drinking your coffee out of a bowl, maybe start with ordering a regular sized coffee. And then another one if you feel the need. It was my “large” coffee that was deemed bowl-worthy.

Contact:
Salt Food Wine
5 Nash Street
Rosalie
(07) 3367 0775

The Pepper Lounge Jindalee - Potentially Great...

My husband's logic defies even me sometimes.


“It would be better without the egg”, he says – eyeballing his breakfast pizza, and poking at said egg with his knife.

“True” I admit, “but then it probably wouldn’t qualify as a breakfast pizza?"

Shrugging his shoulders as he scrapes the egg off – “It would still be better without the egg” he states. And that is that.

And so began our breakfast at Pepper Lounge in Jindalee – despite driving past it almost every weekend – we had yet to venture in for breakfast despite a phenomenal amount of whinging about how bad the local offerings were.

So after deciding to branch out and try somewhere other than K and K – we grabbed a stool and prepared ourselves for yet another Western Suburbs Culinary Disaster.

Magnolia at Brookwater - Expect the Unexpected...

I've never really been much of a "Brand" girl - I'm quite low maintenence, I sleep in til 8am and still make it to the Office by 9am (as long as traffic is kind). I don't wear heels and I probably couldn't pick Nicole Ritchie out of a crowd.

A memory that has been scorched into my mind is when the Louis Vuitton store first opened in Brisbane - not really my kind of thing (I mean really - a handbag that costs more than my mortgage??) but J wanted to have a look. So I politely hung around, "ohhed" and "ahhed" at all the overpriced luggage and then - actually spied something I liked.

Not that I would have bought it anyway - but I innocently asked the Sales Girl how much it was - only for her to look me up and down, raise an eyebrow and spit out "If you have to ask, you can't afford it" - before spinning on her 6" heels and sashaying back to the Cash Register.

That event has pretty much scarred me for life. It was the first time that I had ever been so blatantly judged and dismissed by someone who didn't know me.

Watt Modern Dining - Watt The???

I've been out of the game for a little while now. It's been about 4 years since I pulled my last beer, cleared my last table and yelled at my last Chef. But I'm fairly sure there's a few things that haven't changed:

1. You should welcome guests into the Restaurant, not look at them and wonder if they are lost. Then look at them again like they are something you found on the bottom of your shoe. (Something brown...)

2. If said guests order a bottle of champagne at 10:05am, and your liquor licence doesn't start until 10:30. The answer is not "No" with a head toss. Can I suggest instead "Our licence doesn't start until 10:30 but I'll order it now for you and bring it over when I can". Just a suggestion...

3. When the menu says I should get pinenuts with my Mushrooms and Polenta, then I think I should get them...

4. When FIL asks for poached eggs, I think it is reasonable that he actually gets poached eggs - not the scrambled eggs you somehow thought he would enjoy more.

Christopher's Fine Food - Very Fine Indeed

While I don't like to brag (too much) - I have acquired a very well trained husband. (This is not to be confused with the rare breed of Perfect Husband - see: Onion Jam Post for details on where his shortcomings lay...)

I'm yet to have an opinion on whether my Mother-in-Law trained her husband, or whether he is naturally a bit of a Romantic - but I love that between the two of them they have raised a boy who randomly buys his wife flowers because "he loves her", cooks dinner "because it's his turn" and takes me out for dinner because he's decided that "It's Date Night".

I was reminded of this recently when we spontaneously decided to take MIL out for breakfast (She's a hairdresser and my hair was looking particularly "Side Show Bob"...) and found out that it was also her and FIL's 37th Wedding Anniversary. Too cute for words was the massive bunch of flowers he had run home during his coffee break and left in the kitchen with a note that said "Came home for a quick kiss".

So feeling celebratory - we decided to forgo the pedestrian Coffee Club and Toscani's in lieu of Christopher's Fine Foods. 37 years deserve something a little bit special, and for the South Side - Christopher's is the definition of special.

The Chelsea Cafe - A Comedy of Neglect

“Is that sausage cooked?” I asked hubby tentatively, “Probably not” he grumbled. A pink middled sausage was really just the final straw for him, after a comedy of errors – he was all out of patience and was beyond caring if his snags were cooked or not.

As a Diner – I think one of the most frustrating things is to be waiting for a table and watching other people get seated before you… especially when they arrive after you.

To console ourselves that our holiday was almost over – I took hubby out to breakfast to The Chelsea. I had heard good things about The Chelsea, and considering we have eaten at almost every other Restaurant at The Barracks  - I didn’t really think we could go wrong.

To start with – they didn’t have any tables – but for Saturday morning breakfast, I’m happy to wait for one. We sat at their bar area while we waited… and waited… and waited. And proceeded to watch 3 other couples get seated before us. We asked the waiter again if we could get a table and were told that he would seat us as soon as one became available… we watched another couple take that table – and then just resigned ourselves to staying put.

K&K Austrian Bakery

It constantly amazes me just how hard it can be to find a decent breakfast... even more so now that we have moved out to the 'burbs.

So when I saw a glowing review for the K and K Austrian Bakery at Sinnamon Park, I just had to give it a try.

So this morning, with hubby sporting a mammoth hangover, we ventured out to try and find our new "local". It's tucked away fairly discreetly in a small strip mall but definately worth the trip. We had a quick look at the baked delights while we sussed out whether it was an "order at the counter" or table service - not finding any special treasures on display, we took a seat and flicked through the all day breakfast menu.

While there's nothing out of the ordinary on the menu - all the usual offenders are there - croissants, bacon and eggs, French toast, Omelettes etc. Hubby is usually a big breakfast man and despite his assurances that "my omelettes are always the best" - he decided to give K&K's a go. I tossed up between the French Toast and Eggs Benedict - but the pull of Hollandaise was just too strong.

We also ordered a coffee and iced chocolate - the latter getting high praise from hubby as one of the best he's had. My coffee was good... extra hot, the way I like it, but the coffee (once it had cooled past scalding) tasted smoky - not in a bad way, and I actually quite enjoyed it - but a little bit odd.

Our brekkies arrived and mine was not quite what I expected. A large, thick piece of toast with fresh ham, 2 poached eggs and frissee lettuce was quite literally swimming in the palest, and runniest Hollandaise I have ever seen. I will be 100% honest here and admit that asides from Oktoberfest and one dinner at the Blackforest Cafe in Wooloongabba - I don't know that much about Austrian or German food. So maybe this is how they do Hollandaise? I don't know - but it was weird. It tasted okay, but it certainly wasn't the rich, creamy and slightly zingy sauce that I have grown to love over the years - but it was okay.

Hubby on the other hand did something that he rarely manages to do... he out-ordered me. His Iced Chocolate was great, and they had used real ice cream AND real cream. It wasn't ridiculously chocolate-y, just a perfectly blended chocolate milk. Simple but wonderful. He also ordered the omelette and declared it the best one he ever had outside of my Jamie Oliver pan. I snavelled a taste - and he was right - it was beautifully light and fluffy while having LOADS of red onion, shaved ham and tasty cheese. Garnished with fresh chives and cracked pepper - I had food envy.

We will definatey go back, next time I will have the French Toast and we might even grab a couple of pastries to take home...

The Verdict: It wasn't Hollandaise sauce - but it definately wasn't a failure - we'll be back!

My recommendations: The omelette, the ice chocolate and something noice to take home...

Contact: K and K Austrian Bakery

Brasserie on the River - Best Brunch in Town

So it was time to meet our mate's new girlfriend - and what better way than over Brunch at one of Brisbane's nicest Hotels?

While Bill and Bec are no longer an item, the Brasserie on the River
has firmly placed itself on our favourites list for Brunch so we're grateful to their short-term union for that fact alone!

For me, while I love the traditional things in life - when it comes to a good quality Brunch - there has to be variety. Variety is the spice of life, and variety is also the mark of a damn fine Brunch.

Let me explain - there should be at least 3 types of eggs; preferably poached, scrambled and fried - but I'll also accept boiled. There should be a nice selection of sides - tomatoes, bacon, sausages, hash browns (must be crunchy or don't bother), home made baked beans etc. The bread basket should have different styles of bread - and I don't mean the same bread shaped differently - I mean sourdough, rye, bagels, Vienna loaf.. you know, different bread!

But most of all, there should also be a selection of sweets... real French pastries, croissants, waffles, pancakes and ice cream.

Now - the Brasserie had all of these things and more. And I sampled most (read: all of it, and went back for seconds...) of it. But what won me over completely... was the Museli station. Thats right - they had a whole bench for museli. Fresh and toasted, fruit and non-fruit and best of all... Bircher. But I'm not finished... NO! They also had at least 10 different kinds of fruit, fresh and dried, poached and stewed all sitting happily next to the nuts... WOW! Who ever thought of a museli bar - the Stamford, that's who. And that's why they're #1 on my Brunch list.

The Verdict: WOW. It was everything I expected and more, so much more. I can't wait to go back - at $50 a person, it's not cheap and it would be wasted on a hangover - so plan in advance.

My Recommendation: The coffee here is good too, but order the minute you walk through the door because they aren't quick, but it's worth waiting for. Start with the savoury (bacon and eggs), move on to the sweet (pancakes and waffles), end on something healthy so you feel positive about the day (fruit and museli) and then, because you never really finish a buffet when you should - order another coffee and much on some French pastries while you admire the view. Don't forget your Sunnies, it's pretty glassy out there.

Contact: Stamford Plaza - Brasserie on the River