I am so in love with this cafe, and I am pretty devastated that after 18 months of living in Taringa, and a year before that of living in Indooroopilly, I am leaving Brisbane after these guys come to town. They have the perfect location in the Hillsdon shops and are doing an A+ job of filling the significant void of decent cafes in the Taringa/Indro area.

The staff here are so lovely, and having been there more or less weekly for the past month or so, they know my coffee order. The food menu is not huge, but is diverse and such good value (nothing more than $14). The mince is my personal favourite, but have had two friends speak v highly of the 'A few of my favourite things'.

The coffee is wonderful, and perhaps my only criticism of them is that they don't have any true lactose-free milk options - they offer Zymil but it does seem odd to not have soy on offer.

This place is so wonderful - sitting outside in the sun reading the paper and drinking flat whites is enough to set anyone's weekend on the right track from the get go. 100% worth the drive through hilly Taringa.

Approximate cost: $13

I have a favourite Vietnamese place on the very popular Hardgrave St strip in West End, however upon recommendation by my local friend, we decided to venture out and try some place new!

We just got some takeway from Quan Thanh on a Saturday night, and had friendly and prompt service from the staff. We ordered the pho and some spring rolls - both of which were lovely. The pork spring rolls were tasty and chock full of delicious meat and vegies. I was a little disappointed that our takeaway pho didn't come with the usual extras, such as basil, bean sprouts, hoisin and chilli, but it was still really good. The broth was flavoursome and there was plenty of meaty goodness.

Also, as we were leaving the restaurant nearly everything we saw on the tables being eaten by other patrons looked delish, so would be certainly keen to come back another time and try some different dishes!

Approximate cost: $12

If you are a fan of OBSCENELY delicious pork belly, you need to get down to Kwan Brothers as soon as humanly possible. I can honestly say I don't remember the last time I enjoyed a meal out, let alone an Asian fusion meal, this much.

I know that the set up might not be everyone's cup of tea - it is certainly a restaurant/bar combo with dim lighting, reasonably loud music and an open kitchen, but I think it works for them. I had heard that the service left a lot to be desired and took away from the food, but I couldn't fault our servers - the girl who took our order in particular was really lovely.

We ate the pork bao, lamb ribs and pork belly with watermelon. It was all incredible, but as I mentioned above, the pork belly is just perfection. It is so beautifully cooked that it literally melts in your mouth, and the watermelon salad with ginger, coriander, black sesame and spring onion is sublime. The pork bao was similarly amazing - soft bao, with tender belly and satay sauce. DELISH.

We had a couple of cocktails with our meal, which were also good but perhaps not quite good enough to warrant the $25 price tag that was attached to one!

I am extremely keen to come back here - the food sells itself without a doubt. It's some of the best in Brisbane. The prices are a little on the higher end of things but when the food is this good, I don't have any qualms about paying a little more. 100% worth it.

Approximate cost: $20

Super cute cafe set up in a little nondescript area of Latrobe Terrace just around the corner from the Woolworths complex. It's fairly small but they have a really expansive and diverse menu, from toasties to mince, to sticky black rice, to porridge!

Coffee was great - a perfect patten on the top usually means someone behind the machine knows what they're doing. We ordered a range of food, including the chicken toastie, the fritatta, the mince and the semolina with rhubarb and poached pear.

My partner had the mince with the toast and poached eggs - I had a mouthful and it was incredibly flavoursome. My semolina was amazing - I love the texture, and the flavours of the cardamom, pear and rhubarb was perfect.

Coffee also great, service above average. Sparkling and still water for the table was a nice touch also. Can certainly see them doing well in the busy Latrobe Tce strip with quality like this.

Approximate cost: $14

This cafe has got a pretty great location and adorable decor - the way it has been set up is really great- always a sicker for white everything and lots of glass and natural light.

I called in with two friends for a coffee - their menu is small but looks appetizing. It doesn't appear they have a full kitchen so all the food is prepared in small ovens etc. I don't think this is necessarily a bad thing, all the food we saw come out looked very yum and the menu options, particularly the Ploughman's lunch were very tempting.

However we stuck with cake and coffee - coffee was pretty good. The raspberry cake with white choc icing was good but not particularly memorable. Should have stuck with my gut and gone the brownie!

One of the great things about M&G is that they have very reasonable prices for genuinely lovely looking homemade food. There were a few little quibbles regarding the wait staff - no table service which isn't always bad, but 15 min to bring out a piece of cake? And then we asked for sugar for the coffee and they forgot. Just little things - often things that are just a one off, in my experience so I try not to put too much stead in them!

Approximate cost: $14

Was very lucky to come into Local Press on a quiet Wednesday morning, and they weren't too busy making for a lovely relaxed breakfast in their open space which has been fitted out so nicely. Lots of rustic mismatched furniture, with fruit bowls, scales, boxes of veges and fruit sitting around, it looked so nice, like I imagine my kitchen might in the future!

They have a small but interesting menu, which could do with a sweet option besides fruit toast (but this is coming from a pancake queen). Regardless, it wasn't hard to decide on the breaky plate, which was so yummy, bed of quinoa for some fetta, tsatsiki, asparagus, boiled eggs, kale and roasted almonds! So many great flavours and textures (only downside for me was the inclusion of avo, which is not listed on the menu - not a huge deal, but I specifically avoid avocado as it makes me feel sick).

I have to say the nicest experience was borne from a small mistake with my drink order - the chai was ordered with soy and came out on regular milk. Both the waitress and barista apologised to me directly and assured me it would come off the bill, which of course was over the top but it's just a demonstrated of how such small and simple gestures by a cafe facilitate such a huge amount of good will. So many cafes just can't seem to make those kind of connections with their customers. It was very lovely to experience.

Upon leaving, I bought one of their pressed juices and a brownie for later on. Both were amazing - the brownie in particular was exceptionally good.

Prices here are a little more than your cafe/brunch average I would say, but everything is of really high quality, and the food is quite obviously fresh and locally sourced too, I believe. So I think that justifies a price that is a little more than average. This is on top of the frankly picturesque location that has you overlooking the lake.

Really had a great morning here - would come back in a heart beat.

Approximate cost: $18

The Cupping Room kind of comes of as like the coffee mecca in Canberra, based on my newbie opinion. Coffee is the focus of their cafe and I believe it is a concept cafe put together by some coffee aficionados who run other cafes in Canberra.

The cafe layout is lovely, all timber and cosy-like - you're across the road from the Reserve Bank and the Australian Federal Police, so there is plenty of people watching to be done too.

Staff were extremely lovely, the woman who served us came up to tell us what the kitchen was out of straight away 'to avoid broken hearts' which I thought was really nice. It was 11am at this stage so I didn't think we had much right to be upset about anything being sold out.

My partner and I ended up both going with the barley mushrooms to have with our house blend coffees. Coffee was excellent, and went really well with soy milk. Brunch was good too, only minor complaint is that the mushrooms were a tad bland. But there was still plenty happening on the plate, so I don't think it was a major detractor. Lance said both times he'd been there the homemade crumpets had been sold out, so they must be something special!

Very minor issues overall - pricing a little at the higher end of what I consider good value, but our meals had ingredients such as macadamias and gourmet mushrooms, which I know don't come cheap. So I didn't mind so much in this case.

Happy to come back here again next time I'm in Canberra, especially if it's just for a coffee.

Approximate cost: $17

Hailed as Canberra's best burger, my partner and I were very excited to eat here after a long day spent at the snow. A bit apprehensive given the reputation for being super busy with long waits, but we were really happy with the turnaround (probably not as much as an issue given we weren't eating in).

What makes the burgers so great is hard to pinpoint since they come across as very simple - just a fresh, white roll with a beef patty, your choice of cheese, onion, tomato and lettuce. However, I think it's really their aioli that makes them so good. It was really, REALLY good.

Bit pricey, burgers are all costed around $15 and you pay for any fancy extras like pickles, jalapenos etc. And you pay $2.50 for chips as a side, which are just shoestrings fries. Super tasty but not particularly discernible from your classic Maccas chip.

However, I would go back in a heartbeat. Once you have a menu and know what you like, there's nothing to stop you calling up and ordering ahead for speedy takeaway to prevent long waits. Can't comment on the eat in experience yet!

They're licensed too, and had a range of drinks including Rekordelig cider. Their veggie burger is allegedly very tasty with the inclusion of haloumi and their menu seemed to suggest they were very open to any alterations for dietary requirements, pregnant women etc. Always nice to see.

Will look forward to my next big feed here!

Approximate cost: $15

Had heard lots of great things about Elk and Pea, so it was an easy choice for me to stop in when I was in Canberra on the weekend. Their decor is great, and had a warm, bustling vibe. Staff were courteous, but I have to say we did feel a little forgotten about - my coffee took a good 15-20 minutes to get to us (food probably another 10 min) and my boyfriend's coffee was forgotten altogether. When we asked about it, we think the server thought we were just ordering another, so it was another 10-15 minutes. We were halfway through our brunch before he got a coffee.

That aside, the food was really yum - I really enjoyed the coconut and cinnamon muesli, and my bf enjoyed the mexican-style breaky. I would say the overall pricing of the menu is slightly at the higher end of the usual brunch spectrum.

Overall, it was a bit underwhelming, especially considering when we paid, we saw the extra coffee had been forgotten when they tried to charge us for three (we had assumed that they may have not taken the order). They took it off the bill, as they should, but I still don't think it was handled very well.

Good food, decent coffee but customer service a little underdone.

Approximate cost: $17

Hard to believe it has taken me so long to try Plenty in West End! Beautiful big warehouse space, with a great vibe right across the road from the West End markets. Having come here to meet a friend on a kind of full stomach, we passed on lunch and decided to have a couple of the cakes to share. I was told by the staff that they don't have menus, and all the food options were listed on a blackboard. From what I saw, everything looked delicious!

We tried the raspberry frangipane tart and a pear and gingerbread cobbler - both of which were DELICIOUS. They had a HUGE range of homemade bikkies, cakes, tarts, cheesecakes etc etc it all looked so tempting.

I didn't try a coffee and went with the choc chilli chai instead. I was hoping for a tea leaf chai brewed with milk, instead it was tea to serve with hot milk. Looking back though I'm sure they could brew it with milk for you if you asked. Very yummy.

Would love to come back and try one of the salads or sandwiches one day soon, as well as seeing if the coffee is any good!

Approximate cost: $7.50