All hail New Farm's King Arthur Café, the latest venue from those who brought us South Brisbane's beloved Merriweather. We gave Merriweather the royal thumbs up and we're giving King Arthur the same.
We doubt there's anywhere else in Brissie where you can start the day with goat kofta and crisp, pickled radish, eggplant, eggs and dukkah. Even soft-boiled eggs with rye are taken up a notch and come with the salt and zing of bottarga and lemon. Then there's Mount Cotton mushrooms, pan fried and scattered among golden-on-the-outside, oozing-on-the-inside corn and cheddar croquettes, soft poached eggs, sprigs of watercress and acid-rich pools of salsa verde. For those not up for a king-size breakfast, there's house maple granola wet down with almond milk kefir and topped with berries from the Sunny Coast, or a thick slice of fruit loaf pulled from the ovens at Sprout Artisan Bakery, served with ricotta and honeycomb.
Smoked ham hock and brown-rice congee is a menu stand-out, which is different enough to be interesting yet still remains approachable. This soupy, XO-laced congee is filled with a cache of smoky hock meat and batons of slippery shiitake mushroom topped with leafy coriander, fried shallots and a soft poached egg whose yolky innards trickle down and become one with the rest. It's a noble dish.
Front of house don't miss a beat as they tirelessly ascend and descend the domed, aircraft hangar-like upper level with cup after cup of Coffee Supreme brand espresso. It's our drink of choice with a wedge of house-made, nutmeggy Russian Love Cake, dense with ground almonds and topped with a rocky crop of chopped pistachios, and just one of the reasons we've crowned King Arthur the new café ruler of New Farm.