TL;DR: Look here, it has a heap of potential that it is already more or less making strides to meet. They have a good design to the place, the location in Coorparoo Square will work as an advantage with residencies just on top, and the quality and standards of the fare are certainly aiming at a good level. Just the service needs work, some training, and a bit of fine-tuning, and adding it to the general friendly demeanour, there could be another solid winner here.
Here we are, as of writing this review, at the latest development in Brisbane's suburbs to combine the retail with the accommodation, called Coorparoo Square. This is looking to be a hub for a whole lot of retail, and becoming a dining precinct within a suburb that is already pretty solid in competition with plenty of places to eat. One of the places is where we are at today, a combination of a pub mixed with a breakfast/brunch spot - Beyond the Pale.
By coming here, it was on two separate occasions - both involving getting to some grocery shopping afterwards. To me and my dining buddy, that always means finding a place to get some coffee. First time around, it may have been just after the Christmas holidays and it was a little before the new year. Things were not generally open around then, or if they were operations were scaled back. It was the case with Beyond the Pale, where the kitchen was closed and the coffee machine was on - so just getting a couple of coffees the first time around. Getting to it later, it needs to be said of the bat - this was some great coffee here. Not sure if I have tried it before, Dramanti Coffee, however I have heard a lot of good things about it from my house mate/dining buddy and he was pretty on the money. This is a strong sucker.
Regardless, just as long as the coffee was good, it did not matter by how much, that a return visit to here was going to be on the books. This time around, it was the Sunday morning, and with a wake-up call from my house mate, he had a couple of aces up his sleeve for where to go, and it ended up being a revisit to get a better turn this time around.
What was apparent from the second visit here was that the service aspect of the experience does need quite the degree of improvement, and definitely could benefit from some fine tuning in several key areas. This place was busy at the time, that is not going to be denied, however some of the best places with customer service manage with several times the number of clientele that have managed it lithely without any apparent troubles. Then, to give it some fairness as well, at least in the demeanour of the service, there was the well-meaningness behind it all, so some encouragement is encouraged.
To put it another way, a bit of better organisation will go a long way. The method of many basic aspects - taking the orders, bringing the orders to the table et al - was haphazard in delivery. At times it is natural for some drinks to arrive before others, and some food as well, yet between my dining buddy and I, the more complex version of the food and coffee came first each occasion and one of the waitstaff required being reminded about the orders. It wasn't through apathy, or a perfunctory mentality, but all these aspects to add up, and wholly transform a place for better or worse.
Taking some cues from an English pub, mostly via the name, it serves food that combines the wholesome aroma of a food, solid feed from the pub, with some modern day inventiveness that can easily be integrated into that same setting. Breakfast is pretty much all hot, with a lot of eggs being used. As far as it goes, this is the conservative time of day where it is all straightforward. Getting onto the lunch time rush, and the food becomes more substantial with a range of bar snacks, and classic meals. The poke craze is here, with several kinds of bowls, and the cabinet has the sweets and sandwiches to go. The selection of drinks is quite extensive, first off having Dramanti as the brew for coffee, and its cousin tea there as well. In addition to that, they have cocktails, pitchers, wines of all sorts, then the beers, the spirits and everything else that is non-alcoholic - juices, and sodas. It is audience pleasing, and the type of place to go and socialise.
It was already mentioned, but it bares repeating, the brew chosen here is from Dramanti. This may well have been the first time I drank this brew, but from what I have heard beforehand, there was some hype to be met.
Both of the visits involved getting the same beverage - they trusty old doppio - and between the two times, both blends were given a whirl. Those blends were the Edith, and the Clara. First time around, it was the Edith blend which came with a bit of a warning from the barista that it was much stronger than Clara, and possibly more suited to different kinds of drinks - it did not deter me to here that it was incredibly strong, if anything that was more of an inducement to try it out. Edtith had a bit more of a chocolatey note than the Clara one, which was a smoother and more refined sort of brew, having a slightly mild flavour that was a bit like cinnamon. To make matters even better, the presentation of the cups was really good, and made it look a little more classy - just something about their aesthetic, how they feel in your hand, the way the cup and saucer matches up. This might be a first, but the match up not only worked by being a similar colour scheme to each other, but also by the looks of the texture and the material used.
Let's just say that I will be keeping an eye out for their name at other coffee shops. This is the right sort of blend here, one that does have a balanced taste profile while still delivering that great caffeine buzz that keeps you awake.
For the meal that I had, this really makes it a pity that not everything else was operating to such a high extent - since this was definitely one of the tastiest breakfasts that I have had in ages, as well as being good value, and something that is a bit different. There were two slices of hashed potatoes, which were a good combination of creamy and crispy, then the pickled onion they had was done to the right sort of texture, and exuded a taste that was somewhat sweet from caramelisation, and the cream cheese added a nice touch as well. All of this was right on complimented with a generous amount of smoked salmond, that was tender, fresh, and well sliced. As something a bit different from the norm that I have for breakfast, it was surprisingly pretty good and memorable. I left satisfied.
From the way it is set up, to the quality of the food, to the attention to detail with each bit of produce they provide, just as much attention should have gone into the service. While that is not something that is always going to shoot down a place, in regards to Beyond the Pale, with the vibe that they are going for, it is going to need some semi-decent service via organising a streamlined mode of delivery. It should be a place that has a 4.5, or even a 5.0 if everything else on the menu is good, since the food itself will be given credit, what mars it down - as it has been mentioned already - is the apparent amount of improvement, even for somewhere that is green, required with the service.
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