Shouk Cafe

I love you Shouk Café.
Lately I’ve TRIED to be on a health kick (key word: tried), but boring salads just don’t do it for me.
My partner and I hit up Shouk Café for lunch. We each got a salad: the falafel salad (which is gluten free), and the lamb salad. The falafel salad had a really nice spicy salad dressing. The lamb salad was also very tasty, the lamb was cooked to perfection, and you could taste the spices in the dish (cumin).
I also had a limonana: a blended drink with lemon, mint, and ice. It was very refreshing and tasty.
I can’t wait to try other things on Shouk’s menu– can’t wait to be back!

Had a really good breakfast here in shouk. Service was exceptional. Really liked the brightly lit interior of the café. The Middle Eastern spices gave the breakfast an edge over those offered by other cafes. Definitely one of the best cafes in Brisbane.

Been here a few times, the coffee is great, food is awesome, i like their Shakshuka (turkish baked eggs) 5star service. Its worth it!

People will travel anywhere for good food — it’s crazy.
— Rene Redzepi
Well I don’t think it’s crazy, finding a good food spot and enjoying a taste sensation with friends is extremely satisfying. Well this weekend on my ritual post gym Saturday breakfast with Nick I was super satisfied to have chosen Shouk Café!
Now, can I just make a BIG SHOUT for Shouk on a very simple offer that many Brisbane restaurants seem to ignore. Its called «all day breakfast». That’s right restaurant owners of other establishments… ALL DAY… not when you or your chef decides that you want to cook and serve it. Yes I really don’t want to drag my bottom out of bed at 7am on weekend just to make it to your strict breakfast serving times… I actually like to sleep in after a week from hell at work… I do want to do my Saturday gym sesh at a reasonable time before I don’t have to go to work afterwards and then once I have showered and got ready to start the day I want to reward myself with a top notch breakfast and that may mean I rock up at 10:45−11am and yes, don’t look at me as if I am mad, I want to eat now… not when you reopen your kitchen at midday and no, I don’t want lunch… I want BREAKFAST!
Thanks for that… I feel much better now… I will now carry on…
Don’t be fooled by the small front seating area, there is a huge seating area to the rear and yes, they are so good they pack out all the tables. I would therefore recommend that you book as this place is always chock-​a-​block because everyone knows how good it is. You can, like me though, just rock up and take your luck and wait for a table to become free. To my surprise we hit it lucky and got a table straight away.
The interior is pretty cool too. A converted Queenslander provides the space and a quirky interior design… gave me the impression they had taken some inspiration from Delftware.
A super friendly waitor got the coffee orders in and later took our order. Don’t be in a rush if eating here… a packed restaurant means the kitchen is under the pump and the waitor did advise that there may be a 20 minute wait which simply means more time for great coffee!
When the food does arrive oh you won’t be disappointed! There are enough pictures on Unilocal to help you see that breakfast can look stunning and your tongue tells you it is certainly as good as it looks.
I don’t need to write any more… stop thinking about where to go for breakfast, you have just found the perfect choice!

One of my favourite places for weekend brunch. The staff are adorable and the latkes are so so yummy.

Great food and even better service. The latke stack was delightful and the coffee was fab! Best to book a table if you’re coming on the weekend, but having said that the wait staff try their best to accommodate everyone in the quickest time as they possibly can. Plus they do it all with a smile on their dials. What can be better than that? Two thumbs up!

Delightfully different! Finally made it here for a late weekend brunch and glad we did. The menu is extensive and with a lot of unusual options, as well as some standard ones (eggs benedict) and healthy choices.
I had the Latke Stack — Polish pancake fritters with cream cheese & dill, pickled onions, 2 poached eggs and a choice of salmon*, bacon, avocado* or haloumi (* my two choices). Nicely presented. Tasted well but I found the fritters a bit too oily and thin (i.e., more fried edge than soft inside). Eggs & salmon were excellent.
Since we arrived close to 11, we had access to the brunch menu and one of us ordered the Chicken Shank & Persian Fig Tagine. The chicken was done pefectly and fell off the bone. Interesting flavors and the figs were great too. I was a big fan of the pistachio & orange rice, but it is worth noting that this dish was rather sweet overall (both rice & chicken).
The Haloumi & Pumpkin on Toast, with 63-​degree eggs & spicy zhoug sauce (& w side sausage) was our group’s favorite. Colorful, juicy, a little spicy & delicious.
We also had an order of Shakshuka (see photos) but I didn’t get a report or bite.
A few additional notes:
— Friendly, happy & efficient servers & serving.
— Excellent coffee.
— No milkshakes or smoothies.
— Fingers crossed you get a seat in the back room (lots of natural light & a view)
— The wait out on the sidewalk in heat ain’t great, but the call-​back system is very nice.

I came here hungry and hopeful and left stuffed and satisfied. This cute little spot appears to be a Paddington staple, and I can see why. Its located on the most unassuming of corners, easily missed if you’re not looking for it. The interior is minimally decorated, letting the diners bring the colour and interest into the room. What I appreciate the most is probably the thought that has gone into creating the menu. I wholeheartedly respect and appreciate new takes on old classics, even if it is simply swapping out your good old ketchup for some spicy tomato relish. The thyme roasted mushrooms and the garlic kale in particular led me to believe whoever was back in the kitchen was respecting these vegetables, not just using them as a garnish, a side, an afterthought, or a plate filler. I would totally recommend this joint and look forward to visiting it again.

ADORE. I adore this place. With a family brunch on the menu for the good olé Saturday morning, the destination was left up to me… I guess I’m the one obsessed with food and more so, cute brunch places. Having heard of this place a while ago, and being reminded by a recent Instagram post, I decided that it was time to finally check this place out and boy, did it NOT disappoint! It’s rare you come across reviews for a café that have multiple 5 star ratings but this place definitely deserves it.
Keeping in mind that we may have to wait to get in on a Saturday morning, we were expecting queues. While the place was packed out, we happened to nab a table for four down the back, with a nice greenery view. We were informed that there would be a 25 – 30 minute wait on food = no problem when you’re actually warned :) I have no issue waiting a while for food if I’ve been told it’s going to take a while.
The staff there are divine… the perfect combo of happy, helpful and efficient which is what I love. They were quick to serve us and bring out our coffees and other drinks, keeping us distracted with marvellous coffee while we waited. The menu is sophisticated, exotic and mouth watering… decisions as to what to eat are the hardest thing you’ll experience at Shouk. There are so many options so I know I’ll just have to come back. I had the Panna Cotta, mainly because I wanted to see the awesome plate presentation everyone had raved about. It did not disappoint. Their plate presentation for all of their meals is «on point.» A lot of thought has gone into that, I can tell. The Panna Cotta was lovely — not something I would usually be able to stomach for breakfast. It’s incredibly sweet (and I have a sweet tooth) but if you’re anything like me, and want to see this beautifully designed masterpiece in person, you’ll order it anyway. Our table also ordered the waffles — delicious and sweet too; the potato stack with salmon; and Eggs Benedict. Everything was great.
Parking in Paddington is always a bit of an issue, but with some side street parking and a bit of a walk you’ll be fine (worst case scenario). It’s well and truly worth the trek out there if you’re not local. It won’t disappoint. It has something on the menu for everyone and you can order lunch items after 11am.
Go check it out!

Finally had a chance to drop by Shouk Café in Paddington & we now understand why it is held in such high regard by everyone who recommended we visit. The Israeli focused & modern café dishes inspired by the marketplaces of the middle east are absolutely divine. I also get excited that «breakfast» is available all day (the all day menu). It is, after all, a very important meal! It means i can miss brekky after a big night, sleep in, & still have it anyway. Winning!
Arriving in a small group after a certain time is always going to be a challenge, especially at a café as popular as Shouk Café. The host at the front door was so friendly & added as to the waiting list. We used the time to explore a cute bookshop nearby & not even 10mins later received a call to come back as our table was ready. We were seated at the back of the café where, thankfully, it was air-​conditioned. The café is clean, well spaced, & relaxed with plenty of natural light. It was suggested by the waitstaff to try the lemonana. A concoction of mint, ice, sugar syrup & lemonade. It was just perfect & fresh for a hot spring day. Loved it. Ordered some of their veneziano coffee & again, it was just perfect. The menu is a showcase of wonderful middle eastern & Israeli favourites, with vegetarian & gluten free options, as well as featuring many of the spices you would expect.
We ordered the:
1)Tunisian style eggs baked in a rich sauce of tomatoes, capsicum & spices. Served with toasted challah & olives.
2) Lemon & thyme chicken tagine. Spiced chicken thighs slow cooked with olives, thyme, lemon, garlic, served with Persian rice.
The verdict:
Shakshuka is a flavoursome dish, perhaps a little «tomatoey» but we should have added the merguez sausage to the order. The eggs were cooked perfectly.
Lemon & thyme chicken tagine was amazing! Coming out in an authentic cooking pot, the chicken thighs melted in your mouth, blending with the beautiful spices & the aromatic Persian rice just topped it off! Its easy to imagine you are in a marketplace, if you close your eyes as you inhale the smell of your dish, take a bite, & listen to the cacophony of conversations.
Next up, we had to have dessert. The pear fritters served with rose water syrup, & a pistachio & halva semifreddo won out. Best decision ever! Speechless. We should have worn loose track-​pants, because we would have eaten another 10 serves of that dessert. Yum! Had a great day at Shouk Café. Excellent flavours, awesome service & atmosphere, as well as mind blowing dessert. Will definitely have «breakfast» here again, or lunch!

Shouk is an absolutely fantastic dining experience!
We came here as a group of five for brunch and were met by an incredible bevy of staff who were as helpful as they were really, ridiculously good looking. As a coffee snob, I was wowed by the fresh long black coffee I ordered, plus a mint/​lemon frappé to cool me down.
I wasn’t particularly hungry so I just had the smashed avocado on toast, which met all of my brunch-​related needs. Definitely recommended to anyone — great atmosphere and delicious food.

Excellent place for breakfast if you’re into something different. They serve pretty gpod middle eastern fare. Go for the shashouka or panna cotta. Great coffee too.

I was excited to try a new breakfast destination this long weekend, and I am so glad we landed on Shouk.
Managing a busy dining space must be a nightmare, but the Shouk team manage with grace. It’s really refreshing to arrive somewhere busy and be treated really warmly without some of the pretentious attitude you might often get. So, an immediate tick for FoH.
Coffee was good another tick.
I ordered the big breakfast and the waitress wasn’t wrong I was never going to finish it all, but it was a great way to sample a few different Shouk flavours including the latke (YUM!).
It was a really pleasant experience — the gorgeous view on a perfect Bris winter morning another tick.
I would definitely recommend.

Everything great you’ve heard about Shouk is true. Just off La Trobe Terrace on Collingwood St, the modern Middle Eastern influenced café is housed in a warm blue-​grey corner shop that has seen a modern extension out the back, thus providing guests seated at the back of the café an almost bird’s eye picturesque view of the little suburbia towards Jubilee Terrace.
Arriving just before 8:15am, we took advantage of the plentiful empty tables to position ourselves in the front end of the café. It wasn’t long before the tables filled and staff were offering table-​less patrons the option to order coffees (or some breakfast) while they waited for one to become available.
The Jackson is Shouk Café’s interpretation of the big breakfast and they were not sparing anything or anyone with this menu number. Two eggs done the way you like it, mer guez sausage, crispy bacon, herb roasted tomato, garlic butter braised kale, latke and two slabs of toasted sourdough — take that, hunger pangs! This would definitely be the one for the massive hangover.
Of all the elements making up The Jackson, the bacon was the plainest. After tasting both the spicy mer guez sausage and gorgeously buttered mushrooms, the scrambled eggs looked deceptively dry and overcooked, but turned out very smooth, soft and tasty. Shouk Café have some of the best mushrooms we’ve ever tasted. If you don’t like kale or something else in The Jackson, ask for more mushrooms. I don’t think you’d regret it.
The Latke Stack is a triple Polish potato pancake stack with either smoked salmon or shaved leg ham, served with two poached eggs, cream cheese, dill and pickled red onion. I have never tasted an authentic latke stack, but if this were just a shadow of the original, then I would probably cross desserts for the real deal. The potato pancakes had been cooked till the edges were crispy, so it speaks of the chef’s patience (I often pull fritters and pancakes too early for them to crisp up properly).
Layered between each pancake with a smoothering of cream cheese, I opted for the smoked salmon, which complemented the thin slices of purple pickled onion. It helped cut through the richness, so I wasn’t left feeling sick afterward. The dish was also finished with a scattering of sumac and homemade dukkah.
Shouk Café was certainly a winner with us and I am definitely looking forward to dropping in again to try their Goats Milk Date Panna Cotta and Olive and Lemon Chicken Tagine next.

We had a pleasing breakfast at Shouk Café this morning. The young man dealing with seating was polite and efficient. We waited in the sunshine for a little while and he ensured we all got our tables in a timely smooth manner. We noticed later that some young ladies were given a complimentary minty slushie style drinks while they waited. This was a nice touch and something I’d like to see more Brisbane cafés employ.
Our order was forgotten or confused but before we could highlight our growing impatience a delightful manager (could he have been the owner?) came to apologise, reassure us that the meals were now 2mins away and offered us free coffee and the delicious minty drinks I’d seen earlier. Again, a nice touch — a preemptive strike before customers get antsy.
Our breakfast food was delicious and beautifully presented. Our coffees by Veneziano were nicely made and just OK.
The highlight of our trip to Shouk was the professional manner with which customers were dealt with. This is usually a weak spot in Brisbane dining so good to see!

What a fantastic find!
Shouk is a new comer to the paddington area, one that’s already filled with great cafés, but that hasn’t deterred Shouk. Once Siri came to terms with the venue’s name, we arrived (parking is tough, especially in the mid morning) and were seated in the back area, a once open balcony that’s been finished with massive windows that overlook the Mt Cootha area.
The coffee was great, and served quickly, nothing to rave about, but smooth and creamy none the less.
Where we were blown away however, was with the eggs benedict. Good *god* these were amazing. The sweetbread, kale and herbed hollandaise was a combination that is utterly inspired. The serving size was perfect, and the ingredients played off each other extremely well. There was much «mmm’ing» and «aaah’ing» I think both our plates went back clean.
Shouk doesn’t redefine the genre, and they don’t shock (sorry) and awe, but what they do, they do well — and that’s a reasonably priced, and memorable breakfast. Will be back for sure.

I actually can’t believe this place is new! From the feel of them, this café has been standing there for all of time. They know what they’re doing. From the front, it looks teensy but then once your inside you see how large the space is. It’s a beautiful space. Simply decorated with lots of natural light in the back and a casual but cool atmosphere that I really enjoyed.
The staff were pretty special. We were served by a total of three waiters and they were all incredibly lovely and very good at their jobs. We were seated immediately, we had water on the table in minutes, menus in hand, coffee on the way. That, my friends, is how it’s done! They have a couple of interesting choices on the menu but I went with my tried and true avo on toast. It wasn’t just any avo on toast though. With the addition of an amazing dukkah and pomegranate molasses it was something a little different. Add 2 perfect poached eggs and I was pretty happy.
The pricing is very reasonable. The thing that usually gets my goat in cafés is how much extras cost. $ 6 for bacon, $ 5 for mushrooms, $ 5 for a quarter avocado but not at shouk. Pick a side, any side– $ 3. Pick two sides, any two sides– $ 5. Way to win me over. Add braised mushrooms to anything you order if you know what’s good for you. The coffee was pretty darn good too. Paying the bill, I had two breakfast with two sides a piece and 4 lattes and the total was $ 50. Can’t complain with that. I’ll definitely be back to Shouk. I’ve already eyed off your lunch menu.

Stop whatever it is you are doing and get thee to Shouk immediately. Oh my goodness. I’ve been keen to get here since reading of a breakfast Panna Cotta in Natascha Mirosch’s review of the place. And, just quietly, I was quite intrigued by the general idea of Isreali-​inspiried breakfast. As we Unilocalers know, Brisbane is the breakfast capital in this great land of AUS, but it can be hard to find something truly different. Shouk Café delivers in spades and has, in one visit, secured top spot on my list of go-​to places in Brisbane for breakfast.
We visited on a late Monday morning (I fancied that hubs and I were on a bit of a date) and easily scored both a park right outside the café and a table with a view in the back of the café. Highly recommend sitting in the large open space filled with heaps of natural light and view over the hills of Paddington. I loved how the café is decorated and fitted out. Beautiful bold blue paint and tiles and bright white walls with dark wood tables and chairs. Spacious seating arrangement made the place feel so relaxed and comfortable.
Service was attentive and helpful. Their «soft-​launch» menu (the café is only just in its 4^th week) was so tempting in each choice & i couldn’t make up my mind. When asked for a recommendation, our waitress was, at first, non-​committal but ultimately came around and suggested the Lamb Shwarma was really quite delicious with it’s soft, slow-​cooked meat. I was sold. Hubs had the Eggs Benedict and commented on its unique take using braised kale. Together, we agreed to share the Goat’s milk & Date Panna Cotta with fruit salad.
OH MY YUMMMM. Everything was great! Lamb Shwarma was melt-​in-​your-​mouth savoury, meaty goodness served over a schmear of creamy hommous with rocket, pickled onions, marinated artichokes and dill. Hubs’ Eggs Benedict was true to the classic in its presentation, but the sumac hollandaise was perfectly paired with the bitterness of braised kale. And words can not describe the wonder that was the Panna Cotta. Hubs got first bite and tried to convince me away from it — we very nearly could’ve had a punch up over it. Food porn, indeed folks.
Free wifi is on offer — just ask for the password. Staff is friendly and happy to answer questions. EG — We were sat next to a large, slightly tattered map of the Middle East region and I noticed Israel wasn’t on the map. Our waitress advised that the map was dated to 1946, before Israel had been formed and the map had belonged to a grandfather of one of the owners, hence the tatters. Delightful!
3 breakfast mains & 3 cups of coffee totalled $ 54. Upon leaving we asked about the menu being «soft-​launch» and were advised the chefs had put it together as a trial to gauge reaction and determine what would stay as a more permanent feature. We were assured the panna cotta was already a favourite and would remain.
As for us, both hubs & I are trying to get back ASAP.

What an absolute gem of a location for breakfast. Pleasant surrounds and friendly staff. Planning the return visit to try the other items on the menu. It’s a good thing I have a couple of extra days later this week to return.
I ordered what turned out to be generous serving of the Eggs Benedict w braised kale and sumac hollandaise was a clever twist on the classic dish.
The wife and I shared the Goats Milk & Date Panna Cotta. First spoon ful for me and stern words to the wife back away from the Panna Cotta — you don’t want any of this
FEKKIN’ AMAZING !!!

Brisbane doesn’t NEED another café, but at least Shouk Café, which has opened in Paddington where Jazz Cat used to be, is offering a menu that is serving up fare a little different from the norm. The menu, although still featuring popular choices like avocado on toast and eggs benedict, has also thrown in a Middle Eastern /​Israeli twist to each item making it difficult to choose just one! Hello panacotta for breakfast!
I arrived at around 9:30am on a Friday morning and it was fairly quite. I took a seat at a table in the back room with views looking out over suburban Paddington. It’s breezy and very light in this area which makes, in my opinion, the dining experience even greater. I ordered the Latke Stack — potato stacked with poached eggs and smoked salmon. It was light and I would have loved to have perhaps amped up the potato (rostis?) a little with some cumin or similar.
The coffee is Veneziano and they use Maleny Dairy milk. Like most cafes it isn’t the coffee you come for, rather the menu but Shouk is actually delivering highly on both. I also ordered their lemon and mint drink which was a refreshing and cleansing sip to finish my breakfast off with.
Most breakfast items ranged from $ 14-​$ 18 so I’d allocate about $ 20-​$ 25 including a few coffees for your meal.