Brisbane Eats – Tome Cafe, Getta Burgers, Mister Fitz & Eat Street Markets

Bianca: Though not technically not in Brisbane, Tome Café in Maroochydore was the sole reason we booked our spur of the moment Queensland trip. Honestly what loons plan an entire holiday around a cake? Food obsessed crazies that’s who! A two-hour drive from our hotel in Main Beach saw us getting into the quaint small town just after 9:30am.

Safe to say all discussions about what a crazy idea it was to drive all that way for a cake were put to rest as soon as we laid eyes on it. A Peanut Butter and Nutella 4 tier cake with vanilla frosting and salted caramel drip, adorned with edible flowers and macaroons and coming in at a cool $52. We then had to lug around the cake all day in Brisbane for its grand photo shoot the next day back at Palazzo Versace. We’re mad, go with it.

With only a coffee from Tome to tide us over, we were in need of sustenance. And thus came to my last ‘allowed’ burger on our trip. Getta Burger has four stores across Brisbane, so they’re clearly doing something right. Starting a day with a burger is pretty much the epitome of life goals for me, Alejandro not so much. He was already in a sheizer mood, it was raining, his hair was getting ruined and a certain backpack had a few droplets of water on it. Unimpressed central.

We had a few eating targets in the span of 10 hours in Brisbane so wanting to keep things at a respectful minimum we shared one burger and a sample of the brisket. Going for the classic, the Getta Cheese –w/ a beef patty, double cheese, onion, pickles, mustard, bbq sauce $10 + bacon $2 and fries on the burger $2. Not overly memorable, the patty whilst flavourful was overcooked and the plain white roll with sesame seeds didn’t do much for me. The cheese was abundance so big tick there, while I did choose to add the fries to the burger it wasn’t the wisest move on my part, it made the whole thing dry. For the FBAS crowd, a 3.2/5 pickles.

What is worth the trip? The Brisket… I asked to try some as there are a number of burgers with brisket on the menu but I wanted to go the more classic route. The brisket was tender, melt in the mouth with the glorious burnt ends. The cheese slice was random considering there was no accompanying bread. But midway through the burger it got so boring taste wise, I ended up adding some brisket. So that’d be my suggestion.

Our Brissy sightseeing was unfortunately close to nil due to the rainy weather but we did get in some serious shopping which led to some ludicrous impulse buying. And after some stomach rejuvenation we made our way over to Mister Fitz in Fortitude Valley. Another food empire for Doughnut Time entrepreneur Damian Griffiths.

This time around it’s Ice-cream cookies. The basic gist, you pick your ice-cream, you pick your cookie of choice then you add your toppings and sauce. Ice-cream sandwiches start at $8 and then $1 for each topping.

I’ll tip my hat to Mr Griffiths, he’s certainly hit the nail on the head re concept and no doubt he’ll make a killing when Mister Fitz hits Sydney. But like Doughnut Time, the product isn’t exactly stellar.

We were particularly looking forward to our next stop but unfortunately the rain seriously dampened what would have been a fantastic foodie experience. Set in an old container wharf is Eat Street Markets, a huge outdoor market offering varying cuisines, live music, trinkets and a drive in movie. We had a dinner reservation at Esquire and knew we were pushing it for time and stomach space. But that didn’t stop us from admiring all the fantastic looking/smelling food wafting all over the joint.

With almost every cuisine under the sun, you’re virtually spoilt for choice. Luckily ours was an easy one…getting out of the rain. But with a mental note filed for a future Brisbane weekend. The Eat Street Markets is one to keep in mind.

And with that and looking more like a drowned rat with each passing second we made our way over to Esquire for dinner.

Bianca

Photos by Alex