Fika

Coffee Anthology is the yardstick for specialty coffee in Brisbane’s CBD. But what happens when you take the brand’s precise eye for all things caffeinated and apply it to food? The answer is Fika, Anthology owner Adam Wang’s breakfast and lunch eatery inside Midtown Centre’s Intersection food and drink precinct.

Named after the Swedish word for a catch-up over coffee, Fika sits high inside the building’s indoor “laneway”, which runs from Charlotte Street through to Mary Street. Breeze past Anthology’s coffee bar, climb a few steps and you essentially walk into its dining room – a place of brick walls, strong concrete features, comfy leather booths and plenty of greenery.

Chef Eugene Lee combines European and Asian techniques to create a sophisticated breakfast and lunch menu – in the morning you might order coronation scrambled eggs on toast with smashed cucumber; jjajang baked beans with chorizo and a fried egg; and avo on toast that includes mushy peas, fried enoki mushrooms and a citrus extra-virgin olive oil.

Lunch dishes include a variation on a niçoise that combines torched tuna with green beans, potato and fried dough; a beef cheek kare-kare (a thick Filipino stew) with Chinese broccoli and Sichuan chilli oil; gnocchi served in a lamb goulash; and Thai-basil and chilli prawns with marinated pumpkin and bottarga.

Coffee Anthology’s usual rotation of top Australian coffee roasters – think Padre, Proud Mary, Almanac and Passport – is available alongside a tight selection of craft beers and international wines by the bottle and glass.