Egg Bistro

Maybe it’s the hyperactive post-Easter weather we’re having: sunny one minute, pouring rain the next. Or perhaps it’s the colour scheme of taupe walls, black trim, and rich dark wood furniture.

Whatever it is, perched up on a couple of high-set chairs in East Brisbane's Egg Bistro, we feel decidedly as though we’re in Melbourne.

Such a statement can be controversial in today’s modern, confident Brisbane. As the city has shed its little-brother inferiority complex, being tagged ‘Melbourne’ has gone from being a compliment hinting at sophistication beyond Queensland’s scope to being more likely to raise hackles: “What’s Melbourne got that we haven’t?”

But the next stage of culinary adulthood is surely self-confidence, and so the metaphor stands. Egg Bistro wouldn’t look out of place on Chapel Street or Bridge Road; the fact it sits up the suburban end of Stanley Street, between a nursery and a servo, is another reminder how good food continues to permeate its way beyond Brisbane’s city centre.

It may be elegant, but Egg remains comforting, like a well-lived-in home. Fresh flowers and cake trays adorn the bar, behind which the shelves are filled with jars of fresh pickles, cookbooks and rows of wine glasses. Whether the refined, European fitout will feel alien come summer might be interesting. But it’s then that the covered courtyard hidden away out back will come into its own.

Having opened in December, an early plan to serve three meals a day has already seen dinner jettisoned. But the bistro is near full on our weekday late breakfast sitting, meaning Egg may have found its niche in daytime fare.

A welcoming breakfast menu contains a collection of regular suspects interspersed with a sprinkling of distinctive alternatives.

Top of that list is eggs shakshouka, an exotic north African hotpot of eggs baked in a rich sauce of tomatoes, green capsicum, spices and, in this version at least, chorizo. It makes a mouth-watering start to the day for those who don’t mind a bit of spice in the morning.

Eggs Benedict with smoked salmon is of a high standard but, to our taste at least, let down by a side of soft, white Vienna-style bread which lacks the rigour of either the original muffins or the more common modern accompaniments of sourdough or Turkish. Would a choice of breads be too much to ask?

No such problem with the juice list, however, where a list of ingredients invites diners to come up with their own combo. The coffee, too, is very much up to the mark.  

Staff are attentive but content to let you flick through a small pile of magazines uninterrupted – two crucial qualities in any daytime venue.

For lunch, a diverse menu stretches from hearty (hamburgers) to haute (quail), with salads or a sardine ceviche for those who prefer to graze on lighter fare in the heat of the day.

Self-assured, without no sense of ego, Egg Bistro is a grown up venue of considerable charm. Like Brisbane, really.