Anouk

So you know what you shouldn't do as a highly anxious and tired person after night duties and widespread flooding? Tell no one where you're going to breakfast, lie to your mum and say you're going to breakfast with friends but go by yourself, go to an area you've never been to before and in an area with no reception. As you can guess, this is the story of how I got lost in Paddington shortly after the Queensland floods of 2013 ended.

I had good plans in place to not get lost this time. I had planned my route well, get into the city on whatever bus/train was up and running, stop at the cultural centre, grab the 385 bus to Paddington/The Gap, catch the bus for a few minutes, then hop off at Given Terrace and walk to Anouk. Unfortunately I was browsing on my phone and thought I had lost connection to Vodafail/Telstra 3G when I went underground. I actually had no connection signal from then onwards, which made tracking my progress via Translink all but useless.

ONE BAR IN THE CBD. COME ON

So while I was frantically trying to reconnect to the internet to see where I had to hop off, I was trying to call anyone I knew to tell me where to go. Unfortunately, Thursday mornings at 7am is not a good time. I called my Boyfriend but he didn't pick up for at least 8 minutes by which stage I had already stayed on the bus for 20 minutes. I was in Bardon, I didn't even know there was a suburb called Bardon in Brisbane.

This is a map of where I went, the black dot is where I ended up and the little A is my actual destination, 121 Given Terrace. I think I might have ended up even further out then there, because I was in front of Mundo Churrasco at 63 MacGregor Terrace.

Yeahhhhhh, I'm shit at directions

So long story short, I spent a lot of time panicking, snapping at my Boyfriend, who had been vacuuming his room and telling him I hated him and I was going to die in the north side of Brisbane. He managed to give me directions brokenly over the phone, because the Sunshine Coast had lost a lot of their phone towers after the floods, as had Paddington which has no reception. He also texted me directions, which were, head down Latrobe and you will end up at Given Terrace.

He didn't send me a map and I was too wary of buses to hop back on one. It started raining a few times and I was lucky that I brought an umbrella along. Each of the lines represents a false start getting to Anouk.

It took me almost an hour and ten minutes to walk there, even with my lousy sense of direction, Google Maps says it takes an hour and a half walking normally. Just goes to show, how fast I walk I guess?

When life gives you lemons, pretend its a date? #foreveralone

I was really relieved to finally get there, I waited at the door for a bit before being seated next to this massive basket of limes and lemons. I got asked what I wanted and ordered a drink and my meal almost instantly. Here are the menus, they have a very extensive drink menu as well as a very interesting breakfast/lunch menu, there's also additional choices on the mirrored wall that was behind me but I was unable to get a photo of it.

Drinks

Food!

While I was waiting I noticed a few interesting things, I couldn't photograph most of the things because there were way too many people there to do it discretely.

Classy?

They've not quite discretely hidden their brooms above the mirror. I wonder if anyone would have noticed this beside me?

Hidden almost.

There's a little shelf holding a few metal jugs and multiple glasses of water. I'm not sure when these come out, odd, since that they weren't offering anyone drinks of water. I suppose most people were ordering coffees and that sort of thing but still.

The glass kept frosting up, this is after I wiped it twice

Cakes and biscuits

Museli and muffins

They have a really large glass cabinet full of cakes, slices and salad for takeaway. The glass is very frosty, despite my constant wiping. The offerings are gorgeous, well presented, appealing and completely regular from cake to cake. Even as a non-sweet eater, I was enticed by some of the cakes.

Like a lava lamp

I got a mango, strawberry and pineapple fruit shake. I thought this sounded like a nice combination of flavours and when it came out I was entranced by the swirling colours. At first it seemed overly mango flavoured, a sweet, honeyed flavoured one with no sour notes. Then I got a hint of sweet strawberries and a lovely sourness from the pineapple, all of these were separate hints of flavour. Then I had a stroke of genius and mixed the glass.

Fantastico!

Much better! I can't even describe how delicious this drink was, it was like the first time I'd ever had fruit juice, ever, after growing up, never having ever had anything besides water and avoiding fruit. It was a party in my mouth, I would've had another drink except I hadn't received my food yet and had a feeling I would be almost uncomfortably full afterwards. I was right.

Lovely wilted spinach, so vibrant!

I ordered the miso scrambled eggs, pork tonkatsu and roti pratha, with a side order of garlic spinach. I had this idea that the spinach would be sorely needed as the dish would otherwise be like fifty shades of brown and it was. Crunchy brown tonkatsu, a soft, pillowy and stretchy roti and beige eggs. shades of brown and no greenery besides my lovely add on of garlicky spinach.

I tried to make a wrap out of it, too dry ):

The combination was interesting, but it would've been too much without the spinach. The pork tonkatsu was super crunchy with a light breadcrumb, the pork was perfectly cooked but very lightly seasoned, I'm a fan of brining my pork beforehand. The miso scrambled eggs were pale, fluffy and the miso wasn't particularly noticeable. It was a bit more flavoursome, more eggy somehow, probably since miso is such a massive umami flavour improvement. The roti was a touch greasy to the touch and scorching hot at first, but it had a lovely flaky texture with a wonderful chewy bite.

I went back here with my Boyfriend several weeks later. He ordered an iced caramel, which came out in a tall glass with a blob of a really tasty vanilla ice cream. Milky and not particularly sweet with a great caramel. He wasn't a fan of the drink and said that mine was significantly better.

Greeeeen

I got a mint and lychee cooler, an amazingly green drink that was very cooling and refreshing. I normally despise mint in drinks as a lot of places just go nuts and put it everywhere, and this was almost on the edge of overload, but it was saved by the lychee. Quite a sweet drink though, with no other elements to save it, I found myself flagging towards the end, but my Boyfriend stole the glass and drank it.

Crusty

 I ordered a spanner crab omelette, a hand picked spanner crab stuffed omelet, with herb salad and a ponzu dressing, not really sure why they said herb salad since it was just thai basil and slivers of red capsicum.

Heaps!

It was a very, slightly overcooked omelet with that slightly dry edge you get. There were huge chunks of sweet spanner crab there and the ponzu dressing was lovely, acidic and sweet. I felt like it could've been better seasoned. I ate it but wasn't particularly impressed.

Really small

My Boyfriend wanted something light and got the poached eggs with balsamic tomatoes and turkish bread. To say he was unimpressed would be an understatement, he still complains now when we talk about uncooked foods. He hated the tomatoes and thought they were still too hard for oven roasted tomatoes, and quite watery too. The skins look just barely wrinkled and otherwise completely solid. I can't really comment since I dislike solid cooked tomatoes, I have a tendency to burn my mouth on them, toasted ham, cheese and tomato sandwiches are the worst.

Meth.

Not even once.

The poached eggs appeared perfectly cooked, round and glistening white balls. They oozed yolk when cut but also had a lot of uncooked egg white floating around. Pretty much just exploded egg whites there. The turkish bread was good though.

On the way home, I noticed this awesome sign.

Anouk:
Atmosphere: 7, busy bustling cafe. Not sure if I like the whole broom/mirror thing.
Service: 8, the waitresses were lovely and super attentive.
Food: 8.5 for drinks, 6 for food. The drinks are absolutely delicious but I'm not particularly fussed by the food, I'd rush here for drinks, but the food? Not so much so.