FoodMeUpScotty: Breakfast Series

http://www.urbanspoon.com/r/337/1360653/restaurant/Brisbane/Flute-Fine-Food-Coorparoo

I've been hitting the usual breakfast locations of late, especially in the inner city suburbs, so I though about going a little further afield for breakfast this weekend. There are a few cafes just a little bit further out of the city that are forging really good reputations and I wondered how some of them would compare. Part of the trick is to figure out which cafe to visit. This is where Urbanspoon can come in handy, not to mention reading recent bloggers posts. So after doing my research I decided it would be the southern suburbs and a little diner called Flute Fine Food.

Coorparoo is not really that far away from the CBD, but it is outside of my normal stomping grounds so it was a bit of an adventure to find Flute Fine Food and with the help of Google Maps, we were soon pulling into the car park. Flute is in a little strip of shops on Cavendish Road and I was quite surprised to see that the car park was full and most of the tables already taken up at 8am. We've been getting to some of the most popular breakfast joints in Brisbane at this time and very rarely have the cafes had so many people already eating their breakfast.

Flute Fine Food opens up pretty early on the weekends and had clearly been in the swing of things well before we turned up. While Coorparoo is not really suburbia, there is just enough of the suburban lifestyle that people get up early on Sunday morning and apparently all head over to Flute for breakfast! While I was parking the car, SC rushed over to get a table and took a seat outside the main dining area which was mostly protected from the elements by huge awning and plastic coverings to keep the wind out. As I joined her, I was surprised to see the location she had chosen as the wind was quite fresh and SC hates the cold. Choice made, it was too late to change over as the other tables were filling up fast.

Leather bound menus were brought over to the table and our waiter, who was sporting an iPad, asked us what we wanted for our drinks orders. SC ordered a half strength latte and I had a choice between a banana or mixed berry smoothy. After considering my options, I went for the safety of a mixed berry smoothy and when it was delivered, was super happy I did.

Our drinks arrived and the first thing we noticed was that they were big, really big. SC's latte came in a cup big enough to have a bath in and my mixed berry smoothy was immense. The latte was actually pretty good and since there was a lot of it, SC was able to settle in for a warming cup of joe. My mixed berry smoothy was more like a mix between a yoghurt cup and a smoothy and came in a massive container with the thickest straw I have ever seen and a spoon. Yup, I had to actually eat my smoothy with the spoon to begin with before any of it melted. It was quite unusual, and I really loved it, but I wonder how many calories were in the beast.

The menu at Flute Fine Food looks lovely, it runs with some very contemporary offerings but also looks to keep it simple as well, with some fairly traditional options available. It took only seconds before SC decided that she would have the warm sweet pancakes with cinnamon banana and vanilla bean infused ice cream, chai raisins and Persian floss. The pancakes, when they arrived, were beautifully presented on a snow white plate, which had quite an impact on the white table and white cup containing the ice cream. The overall feeling was of pure freshness, which was enhanced by the white fairy floss and the white banana cream, finished off with a sprinkling of icing sugar. While the dish looked stunning, it didn't measure up, with the pancakes mostly cold and a number of them heavy and quite dense. The flavours were nice, especially with the banana cream, but there was not enough of the cream to balance out the texture of the pancakes. If they were just hotter and fluffier, they would have been amazing.

I was really happy to see that the first item on the menu was called simple fare bacon and eggs with semi dried tomato and toasted turkish pide. I looked over the breakfast additions to see what else I could add and unfortunately didn't see mushrooms or chorizo. Fortunately, I did see chorizo on another dish and after confirming with our waiter that they would provide some chorizo on the side, I was all set. When presented, I noted that the same precision and care with plating had occurred with my breakfast and it looked quite striking. But, presentation is only a part of the game and the breakfast has to taste great too. I was conflicted about my breakfast, I really loved the eggs, but they were not really scrambled eggs, there was so much cheese cooked into the eggs I can only describe them as being an omelette stuffed into a cup. The bacon that came with the dish was pretty awful, it was stiff and tasteless and had heaps of melted cheese cooked with it, I mean, melted cheese with bacon?? The big disappointment was the tomato, which was cold semi dried tomato, not the cooked version I was hoping for. I will admit that I didn't ask if the tomato would be cold, but I just assumed that it would be hot, like with every other breakfast I have ever had. The best part of the breakfast for me was the huge pile of chorizo that came on the side, it was really good chorizo.

The breakfast at Flute Fine Food was one of the weirdest I have had, with some amazingly large drinks and meals thrown into the equation, along with some tasty bits and some not so great bits. We were really disappointed with the cold pancakes, and when we noted the pancakes were cold when paying, we got a comment that they would let the kitchen know. I was also staggered with the cheesy bacon, it was not good at all and miffed about the cold tomato.

There were some great points too, I loved the mixed berry smoothy, which took the concept to a new level and the chorizo was beautiful. We received excellent service from all of the wait staff and we particularly liked the use of iPads to get orders underway while at the table. The biggest shock of the day came when paying, it was the most we had paid for a breakfast in a long time.

Flute Fine Food is a cool looking cafe inside and is no doubt a popular spot for breakfast for the people of Coorparoo and surrounding suburbs. I'm not sure it compares that well with some of the cheaper and more accessible cafes closer to home and I worry that the food is just a little bit too fancy. I also question the use of cheese on the bacon and in the eggs, there was really no benefit for doing that. While it's unlikely we would make the trip south again for a revisit, I'll always have the chorizo moment from this meal.

@FoodMeUpScotty