The Brisbane cafe where big portions rule

If you like your breakfast to be big and great value for money, this inner-Brisbane cafe delivers the goods... but bring your elastic-waisted pants.

Anooska Tucker-Evans

2 min read

February 12, 2021 - 10:00AM

QWeekend

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If big portions are the way to your heart, Smoked Paprika in Rosalie is set to be your new love.

The Hungarian-leaning cafe was a Bardon institution for more than half a decade, before chef-owner Gabor Traub packed up the breakfast and lunch eatery and moved a spice sprinkle away down the road last November.

The interior dining space at Smoked Paprika in Rosalie. Picture: David Kelly

Taking over the space formerly occupied by restaurant Salt, the new Smoked Paprika offers roughly twice the seating as the original, with a no-frills timber and white interior leading onto a terracotta tiled deck with banquette seating, which sits above footpath dining.

It’s all very simple and fuss-free, but it gets the job done. And it seems customers aren’t too interested in the lack of photogenic design angles either, with the place packed on a Saturday visit. In fact, customers queue at the door as the young, mechanical wait team buzz around like bees, waiting for their instructions from the queen bee maître d’, who ensures tables are turned over with cyclonic speed.

The outdoor dining space at Smoked Paprika in Rosalie.

Drink orders are taken first with coffee from Brisbane’s Dramanti Roasters arriving light and acidic, while a mango, passionfruit and raspberry smoothie is more like a frappé – bright and slightly icy – great on a hot summer’s day. There’s also the likes of juices, iced coffees, milkshakes and other flavoured smoothies served in mason jars.

But it’s the big portion sizes that really draw diners in. Expect to be clutching your stomach and wishing for elastic-waisted pants as you masticate your way through the gluttonous volume of food in dishes such as the banoffee pancake stack ($17) comprising choc chip pancakes, banana, caramel sauce, berry compote, cookies and cream ice cream, praline and fairy floss; or the signature Smoked Paprika breakfast ($20) boasting Hungarian beef goulash,

Crepes filled with chicken paprikash. Picture: David Kelly

Turkish bread, poached eggs, hollandaise, cherry tomatoes and grilled haloumi. The slow cooked brisket ($20) is another example with a mudslide of butter-soft beef spilling across a duo of sweet potato hash cakes crowned with two poached eggs smothered in bernaise sauce. If that’s not enough, it sits alongside a handful of haloumi chips and a forest of shrivelled mushrooms. The dish is enough to feed a couple – or one hungry rugby union player – and intensely rich when the sweet barbecue sauce flavouring the brisket meets the bernaise.

Slightly lighter but by no means less generous are the crepes ($20). The dish is like the answer to a challenge of how many ways paprika can be used in one plate of food, with the flaccid crepes filled with chicken paprikash (minced chicken flavoured with Hungarian paprika); alongside the paprika-laden sausage chorizo, and paprika-stained hollandaise. To cap it off, there’s a final flourish of the spice across the plate, just missing the sweet potato puree, goat’s cheese nuggets and poached eggs. While it might sound like a lot, the repetition of flavour brings the elaborate dish together.

With generosity at its core, this is clearly a cafe with loyal fans and the move has just opened it up to a new audience.