Plenty

Imagine: you are asleep somewhere in your voluptuarium and you rouse slightly. Reaching for your phone, the empty bottle of Veuve Clicquot and the cheese knife from last night’s Le Dauphin are sent tumbling to the floor, startling your overweight cat. Through your groggy haze you see that it’s about an hour before the alarm is set to go off, and… you are at once filled by a scintillating excitement that moves you with pleasure as you bounce out of bed, realising that if you start now, you can insert an additional activity into your morning.
Sound unlikely? It is for me, too — *unless* through that sleepy haze, it dawns on me that I could go have breakfast at Plenty before starting my day.
O, Plenty. How I love you. How beautifully you care for me with your frequently updated, thoughtful and super flavourful breakfasts and brunch meals. Thank you for your lovely coffee, and unhesitating preparedness to pour my long black over ice in summer.
Plenty, O how I love that you have done the legwork for me to curate a selection of local produce, how you thrill me with new flavour combinations as the seasons shift, and how I can browse the choice local products at the back of the store to take home for further delectation. I even love you for selling environmentally friendly toilet paper (even though secretly I like the four-​ply stuff in pretentious plastic packaging at the supermarket).
If you’re dating a foodie, brunch here will reliably impress. :-) Plenty is also a great place to try foods you’ve not tried before — I’ve never been served anything that wasn’t utterly, utterly delicious. Enjoy without restraint!

The food here isn’t just delicious; it’s interesting and different. I’ve been about 10 times now, and that’s been true every single time.
I had the breakfast fritter topped with greens and a pureed date cream. It was the best breakfast I’ve had in quite some time. Even the coffee (long black over ice) was excellent.

One of the best breakfasts I have had! Love the rustic-​modern style, great atmosphere. Menu made up of fresh ingredients. The dish I ordered was pretty much perfect! Full of flavour and great textures.

Food was great. Coffee was mediocre. Service was almost non-​existent, I hope we just caught them on a bad day… As a first time customers the layout and operation was confusing. Two entries (no obvious signage but we assumed one goes to the take away coffee area other goes to food area). The is a small sign that directs you were to order and pay. The menu is on the wall near here, you cannot see it from most of the tables. Would hate to be that person on a busy Saturday morning holding up the queue because you were trying to read the whole menu and decide what to order…

Our West End friends have been boasting about Plenty for months so we had to give it a go:) The menu changes all the time to keep things interesting. Last weekend we ordered the Barramundi Burger and Lamb Hash– both were delicious! And my giant cappuccino was equally beautiful. All the ingredients were fresh and had a unique mix of flavors.
The one complaint is that they are not open on Sunday… The reason it took so long to get here is because everyone we have wanted to go (on Sunday) it was closed. I think they are missing out on some Sunday brunch business…

Given that I’m at Plenty almost every second Saturday to have a post-​market-​trip breakfast, it probably shouldn’t have taken me so long to review them and give them a 5-​star thumbs up! Located on Montague Rd, you can find Plenty by their large aqua signage. Plenty is in a large warehouse-​like building with high ceilings and untreated timber features and is simply but attractively decorated with pops of blue-​green acqua in the large wall mural and chairs. There’s a decent amount of seating surrounding the smaller food-​prep and counter area which is smack bang in the middle of the place. It’s got a nice comfortable, casual vibe. They used to do all of their cooking there before they expanded to have a larger kitchen in the rear. Coffee is made at the smaller counter station to the left of the entrance and if you’re just looking for a take-​away, head here.
The seasonal menu, which regularly changes on a 3-​week/​monthly basis, is written up on a large chalkboard on the left wall near the stairs. There’s always a combination of sweet and savoury options and generally includes a form of avocado on sourdough with tomatoes and mozzarella, french toast, and ham/​bacon & eggs with ketchup (made in-​house). Prices usually range from around $ 9 – 17 and price is often a good indication of size. I tend to be drawn towards their more special sounding items but I’ve had the avocado and the ham & eggs and both meals were excellent. I’ve been three times for their current menu and had the ‘Roast carrot hummous with spinach and lemon salad, poached eggs, halloumi’ (twice) and the ‘Spinach and herb omelette with Moroccan pumpkin purée, pistachio tabouli and labna’ and both were incredible. That roast carrot hummous blew my mind with its slightly sweet and crunchy deliciousness and there was just something very special about that omelette and pistachio tabouli. I’m going to be sad when that next menu change happens but I know the replacements will be equally good. Meals are huge and at $ 16.50 were incredibly good value. Both came with two slices of gluten-​free bread (extra $ 1) which was probably unnecessary to have with everything else on the plate but I still scoffed them like a starving kid. Yup, no need for lunch after that breakfast! Coffee is great and they also do a range of milkshakes and tend to have a frappé/​smoothie on special.
Plenty make all their baked goods and condiments in-​house and most are for sale like strawberry curd, strawberry cordial, tomato ketchup, zucchini relish… it takes all my willpower each visit not to just buy them all. The cakes and banana bread in the cabinet look super yummy but there’s no way I can fit them in after breakfast there. They use local, quality produce (Barambah Milk, Woombye Cheese, Eggcetera Eggs, Lick Ice Cream) and a lot of it is available to purchase too.
In case it wasn’t clear already, kind of love Plenty and if you haven’t checked it out already, what are you waiting for?! Unless it’s Sunday… it’s closed on Sunday.

Great concept, executed poorly.
Coffee is average at best, just because it’s sustainably farmed, doesn’t mean the person roasting it and extracting your espresso on low quality equipment is going to make you a good coffee. Invest in some better training for your staff and give them the tools to make a quality product.
A ‘please wait to be seated’ sign is for a café that has table service. Making your customers wait in line for a table, then have to leave said table to walk over to the only menu board (which can’t be seen from all the tables) in the café and then to another area to order and pay is plain stupid. If you go with a central board then it’s a free for all for tables, or on the flip side, print menus and have table service. It’s a simple and tested business practise. Further, if you want the sustainable, environmentally friendly option of a chalkboard, either put it in a place where everyone can see it without having to get up separately or put another one in another spot — not very social to have to split up a group or couple so people can tag team choose what to eat before trekking to the counter.
Food is beautiful produce, yet each meal isn’t complete, and always lacking one of the 5 flavours. Easy fix again with an experienced chef or consultant or feed back from customers.
Hopefully they fix the little things to make this place go from good concept to great café.

Plenty looks hipster but doesn’t act or taste hipster. It’s genuinely innovative, genuinely tasty, and genuinely cool food. With an ever changing menu, I’d be hesitant to talk about specific dishes, but I will say that in general they do eggs and they do ‘em good! The dishes are large and satisfying, without leaving you needing a nap. I haven’t come across a dud in the ingredients list, and the service is very friendly. In fact, the awesome guy at the register graciously went on a kitchen hunt to track down the type and provider of a specific cheese I fell in love with in my dish that day (scamorza from NSW). Also, El hub was thoroughly impressed and gives Plenty five stars and two enthusiastic thumbs up! I’m looking forward to upgrading this review to five stars myself, but wanna give Plenty a couple more shots before doing so. They are totally on the right track!
As suspected, today I upgrade Plenty to a five star joint. Just as an update to my earlier review, our office held a lunch at plenty this afternoon. We sat at the large table in the back and much to everyone’s delight, the chef personally gave us a sampling of the delicious hazelnut and chocolate brownie after he saw me not so subtly eyeing up the newly baked goods. It’s little touches like this that really separate plenty’s service from other establishments.

Pure win all the way!
Since opening in November, Plenty has been steadily gaining a following from quite an eclectic clientele. Weekdays there are all types of customers, ranging from bohemian to business types. I can only guess that this diverse demographic shares the love of good food. For now, I’m just glad that not too many people have discovered the joys within (I’m not a huge fan of queues) but this phenomenon is sure to end. Set on Montague Road and nestled amongst other commercial properties it’s quite inconspicuous, but well worth any effort to find.
The ethos behind the «Brand» is to source the best product they can find, treat it well and keep it simple. There must be a mix of extraordinary talent here, as everything they make is absolutely delicious. From salads to the sweets behind the counter, it all bursts with the flavour that only fresh quality allows.
Excuse my lyrical waxings, I do realise we’re all about the coffee so lets talk beans. The Beans are roasted in Sydney by a new roaster called «Eco», the brew it creates I would describe as having a medium body with medium acidity and displays a dark slightly nutty flavour with a strong finish. The coffee is well made and served without flourishes, of note however is the muscovado sugar on every table that accompanies it. The sugar is unrefined and of course irregular constancy, adding a brown sugar/​molasses flavour to the brew.
In summation if you find yourself in West End or around South Brisbane, you will want to find time a plenty for the delights of Plenty.

First of all the space here is wonderful. Layout is perfect. Open and airy and delightful. Loved it. Sat in the corner with a friend listening to the amazing music they were playing while deciding what to chow down on. Menu is extensive and everything looks delicious. I considered eating things that I hate with a passion because they made it look so appealing. I decided on the corn beef hash with fried egg and goats cheese. Coffee came out within minutes and was so, so good. I’m the type of annoying person who orders their coffee extra extra super duper lose my ability to talk due to a blistering throat kind of hot and they did exactly as I asked. Meals came out within about 15 minutes of ordering, if that. The meal size was perfectly portioned for a breakfast. The corned beef hash could have used a little more seasoning but as long as I grabbed a bit of goats cheese with every mouthful of it, I could make up for the seasoning myself. The egg was a perfect sunny side up which I’ve never seen before in my life so massive kudos to your chef. My delight meter was pretty much peaked at that stage. Ordered another coffee to go as we paid our bill and grabbed a salad from the cabinet to take with for lunch. Nearly hyperventilated at my desk while I was eating it because it was so damn good. I know they rotate their menu a lot but I would highly suggest you keep that roasted cauliflower, pomegranate and fetta salad on the rotation. I’ll smell it from here and be in every time you serve it. Service was sublime. Both girls I spoke to were lovely and adorable to boot. And did I mention this entire experience including ²⁄₃ of my daily meals cost me less than $ 40. Very bloody happy customer indeed. Much love to you Plenty. I’ll become a regular no doubt.

I had a late brunch at Plenty with 3 others today. The place was buzzing and we had a short wait before ordering. The menu was fantastic with loads of fresh, bright options on offer. I opted for an iced latte & a roast chicken, pumpkin and green bean salad that was packed full of dill & chervil. Super tasty, fab service!

Dear Plenty Peeps
This is just a draft review. I’m going to visit again in the new year 2014 for a full review. Please take this as business advice in the meantime.
West End has been hanging out for something ‘like” Sourced Grocer (Tenerife).
When I heard you were opening I sang Hallelujah. Driving to your location I was breathless — imagining cool people sitting around nursing beautiful coffees, devouring inspired snacks, and customers laden with baskets of gourmet delights ready to whip up a memorable meal.
Instead I found emptiness. And I blame your haste in opening without having the right stuff in place. Your shelves are empty, your cooking preparation area looks underutilized and hesitant, your customers look confused and your marketing is nonexistent.
How are «the cool people» going to know you even exist? Or perhaps you’re not ready for them to know.
Please get ready. Get Plenty.

Plenty by name, plenty by nature. Having seen a West Endian Unilocaler pop up photos of Plenty and reading of it in another weekly digital digest, my interest was piqued. A friend I ran into while there this morning said, «I hope this becomes the Sourced Grocer of West End.»
And they kind of are already on their way to being just that. Wholesome, delicious food. Sourced locally and with a small grocer attached. They’ve not been open long so it’s still a work in progress and you can see they’ll grow into the space as time progresses. There were still workmen preening as I arrived this morning. No problems — it kind of just added to the atmosphere.
This morning I ordered the baked eggs breakfast which came with beetroot relish, roast pumpkin and fetta. Plenty by name, plenty by nature. There’s no walking away feeling hungry after eating this meal. Yet, you won’t feel heavy and weighed down either. It was a great balance of everything. Paired with a pineapple, mint and coconut water ‘frappé’ and I was set for a busy Friday.
It is such a large space yet it doesn’t feel empty. It feels like there’s just the right amount of furniture (bonus points for no milk crates), the high ceilings give a breezy-​Queensland feel and everyone seemed fairly relaxed. It’s counter service and the menu exists on a blackboard by the main counter.
There coffee’s brewed from a counter at the front of the store making it easy for customers popping in for a take-​away only.
It’s definitely quickly going to fall into my category of cafes that I can visit, pull up a table and watch people come and go as I tap away at my laptop.