Pearl Cafe

Pearl is still doing things right. Dinner tonight and thoroughly enjoyed it. Indulgent rustic starters followed by one really full flavoured chicken dish and a pan seared yellow tail king fish from the sunny coast. I reckon the only possible improvement that could be made would be an extra fancy beer or two on the menu.
Quality food prepared well, with a nicely relaxed vibe.

Just an FYI they stop Breakfast at 11am and don’t serve Lunch until 12.
Have been here on previous occasions and food is very good.

Great service & delicious food.
The black figs dessert with Maple ice cream, salt & walnut biscuit and caramel is divine!!!
Juicy, fresh figs, smooth ice cream with amazing flavour, crunchy biscuit with just the right amount of salt and lovely dark caramel. Probably the best dessert I’ve ever had!

Came here for a valentines day lunch. Fairly small menu but it doesn’t matter when you get food like this. The fish was melt-​in-​your-​mouth and the combination of pork and peach with a sweet sauce was divine. Couldn’t have had a better time.

Always reliably great food and coffee! Love it for a meeting or catch up with friends. Their weekend breakfasts are fantastic. Lovely interior and great service.

Went to Pearl for dinner last night after wanting to try it for some time. Huge disappointment. After waiting one hour and ten minutes they were unable to produce our mains of fish and potatoes in spite of assuring us earlier they were ‘three minutes away’. So we left hungry. Most overrated restaurant in Brisbane. Won’t be returning. Ever.

Pearl is one of those Woolloongabba staples, it’s been around for what feels like forever, yet it still manages to have a waiting line every weekend, so they must be doing something right.
We went on a busy Sunday morning, and, as usual had a roughly 30min wait time, not unexpected as Pearl is deceptively small, with a single internal room and very limited outdoor seating. We shared coffees before being seated, and as usual it was a good, but not great cup.
I recommend sitting inside, as Pearl’s worked hard to establish a feel good cosy atmosphere, with exposed brick walls, subtle lighting and a really wonderful open plan bar and pastry shelf area.
I’ll preface this by saying I’ve only ever eaten brunch at Pearl, but that’s what I’ll remember. Wonderfully inventive seasonal menus, ranged with fig pikelets, 3 cheese toasties with braised leeks, and beef brisket. The flavours they work with are always complimentary, and the servings are well sized, but not huge.
The 5^th star? Service and wait time for food, mainly. I’ve been to Pearl several times, and on most occasions found myself glancing at my watch around the 30min mark and wondering if I should order another coffee or check my phone for the 10^th time.
Pearl is reliably tasty, well situated, and lives up to expectations, but maybe bring a good book, or someone who can hold a conversation before you dig into those eggs.

Pearl is a well established and well known classy café/​restaurant in the Woolloongabba precinct. On the Sunday morning my partner and I attended we were quite relieved to be offered a table without any waiting as queues are common on weekends.
The menu offered a number of appealing choices and I eventually settled on the Croque Madame while my partner chose the Lemon Verbena Crumpets with Mandarin Compote and Goats Cheese. Both were scrumptious and if you can photos of these and other Pearl dishes and the décor either here or on Instagram.
Our meals and two coffees were around the $ 50 mark, so at the higher end of the brekky price spectrum but Pearl is always worth the effort and $

I love the Pearl. It’s up there in my top 5 places to go to for a great breakfast, lunch or dinner in Brisbane. This place knows how to source good produce and consistently puts a whole lot of love into the preparation. On the many occasions I have been there, the wait staff were friendly and knowledgable.

I went to Pearl for Mothers Day.
The food was nice — it was a set menu for M-​Day and the vegetarian option was a gnocchi. They didn’t actually tell me anything about it or what was in it but I’m fairly sure it was meant to be a gnocchi, kale and hazelnut with a sage and burnt butter dressing.
There was a fair bit of butter and it wasn’t taken as far as I would have liked it but overall the dish was very nice.
The service was exceptionally friendly and efficient.
We ate outside but when I ducked inside to have a look around it was magnificently decorated and I would definitely come back on a normal business day!

Coffee this morning.
Undecided about this one. We had takeaway coffees this morning and although the soy was delicious, I’m not sold on the bean. Definitely give it a second shot though.
I love the décor of this place, beautiful glass windows, sweet staff.

Some friends and I decided to get swanky (not wanky. Wanky would have been going somewhere with a coat check) for a recent birthday celebration, and took our party of four to the Pearl Café. It’s not the cheapest of evenings out but oh boy, the flavours are worth it. The balsamic vinegar and olive oil which came with the bread for starters was so tasty we sneakily licked out plates, and that was just the beginning. We had pork and lamb entrees and sampled duck sausages, oxtail ragu, beef shin and mushroom pasta for mains. I highly, highly recommend the mushroom pasta as the best. The staff were lovely and tolerated our lack of class, as well as making us drinks not on the menu. Thanks guys! A great restaurant for a tasty night out, especially if it’s a special occasion.

I brought a friend here for a birthday breakfast and everything we ordered was delicious. He went with the smoked salmon, scrambled eggs, and cornbread ($ 18) and a vanilla bean milkshake ($ 6.50). He’d woken up in a foul mood that morning, but by the end of the meal he was beaming. I had a sip of the vanilla milkshake and it was creamy and frothy. It had been served in the stainless steel metal cup in which it was prepared, just like at milk bars, which put us both in a nostalgic mood. As did the beautiful interior; the brick walls and wooden chairs give Pearl café an incredibly warm and homely vibe. I ordered the porridge with banana and brown sugar ($ 10) and a fresh grapefruit juice ($ 5.50). The porridge had a perfect consistency and wasn’t too sweet. Pearl also opens for lunch and dinner, and they use local and free-​range ingredients as much as possible. Also be sure to try one of their homemade cakes — the pear tea cake and the cheesecakes are amazing.

Pearl is located in a rather hidden, picturesque part of Logan Road. This is a place where you are guaranteed a relaxed dining experience — if you can get a seat. It is very a popular place, so if you haven’t made a reservation (which is not possible for breakfast), beware.
Here you can get delicious, modern meals, amazing cake and a range of tasty hot and cold drinks. With the former owner of The Gunshop Café behind it, it is obvious that the food at Pearl is going to be amazing. I haven’t tasted it myself, only dropping in for morning tea, but I was jealous of the people beside me who ordered a simple sandwich that was presented masterfully and smelled divine.
The setup itself is great. It is a relatively small space, but the raw brick and old chairs hanging from the walls combine well with the low lighting to provide a very pleasant ambience. There is also seating outside. Since Pearl is in an old terrace house, you can imagine that the exterior of the building is also beautiful.