By David McKenzie McKinnon
This review is actually going to have review of past reviews to help me choose a winner; Living in Logan will be presenting an award to the best overall café or restaurant in Logan from the past reviews. I want everyone who reads this to know that I am grateful you take the time and interest. I hope you have found some interesting and wonderful places to visit and maybe a favourite from my choices here.
If you have read all the past reviews then you will understand how hard this was going to be for me to choose one to win a prize for the best overall. They are all so diverse and varied with the food they create and how they present it. The service can also be very different in perhaps only small ways between them but excellent regardless.
There are places I go where it is just about relaxing and having a great coffee and some that are great to meet up with friends just to spend some time talking. There are times when visiting the same café can be a different experience each time due to time of day, staff on that day or perhaps even how I am feeling on the day. All have passed the test of being consistently excellent regarding food and service, the things that usually remain the same are the atmosphere and the cleanliness.
I have visited all of the places in the past reviews numerous times, sometimes it’s because I just happen to be in the area or passing that way and some I have gone out of my way to visit. This did play a part in choosing one and helped narrow down my choice.
My most recent review was Montes Ale House which is obviously not a café but when it came to great well priced food I thought how can I not write about this. Salt and Soul is a café but there is so much more to them than just a great place for coffee. I experienced the salt rooms for myself and have no problem recommending them for the health benefits and so much more for spirit, mind and body.
Then there is Mitre 10 Mega Café; this is a café I have been going to for years but to be honest I didn’t truly appreciate how the wonderful food and super friendly service was until I started writing for Living in Logan. There were times I went there and took friends and had no interest in buying hardware.
Another was Wake Me Up that I had seen on Facebook. This café amazed me with an interesting and relaxing atmosphere and matched it with great coffee and food and exceptional service. When I go there I don’t like to leave.
Cafe 107 we found accidentally but more than happy to go back over and over. Also great food and service and they have an extensive menu that I want to work my way through.
Simply Beans was very different; being a supplier of coffee to many other cafes means they know what coffee should taste like; again impressed by the food, service and the wonderful coffee. One day I will do one of the barista courses they have on offer, not that I want to work in a café but just so I can make better coffee at home.
I spend a bit of time at Riverlakes Seafood Café when I am over that way. It may appear to be just a take away bit it’s so much more than that. The food and coffee are excellent and sometimes I find the menu so big I get lost deciding what to have. Again you will get amazing service and wonderful food be it take away or eat there. I really do love their coffee.
I travel through Jimboomba quite a bit and years ago I actually lived there before it became part of Logan. I remember when the only place you could get food was the pub or the servo. These days there are more than enough places to get a feed and I’ve tried most of them over the years. So when in Jimboomba I choose to eat at Auras, the service is consistently excellent and friendly and fast, the food and coffee is second to none in the area and not just Jimboomba. This is of course why I chose to write a review about them; they repeatedly impressed me every time I went there.
Now I have come to my overall favourite despite the fact I do not get to go there anywhere near enough. That place is The Dale Espresso Bar and Café in Rochedale. They are not a big café but they are big on quality no matter if it’s coffee, service or food.
I think I wrote in the review that if I lived close then I would spend way too much time there and it’s still true today. I like to take family and friends there and it’s nice to know when you tell someone about a café or restaurant it is what you say and no bad surprises. I can honestly say I have not spent time in a better café.
I’m looking forward to reviewing more great places to eat and have coffee over the next year. I have already chosen several that stand out with what they offer the public in and around the City of Logan.
