Cafe Bema

Café Bema is a cool tropical garden café nestled out front of a Paddington cottage, serving out-of-the-ordinary breakfast and lunches prepared by an award-winning chef.

Occupying the space that for years housed popular local Lure, Café Bema makes an inviting place to drop in for a delicious bite in the breezy courtyard garden under a shady tree.

On the Breakfast menu are dishes such as Smoky Ham Hock and Pesto Cous Cous, Sweet Potato Rosti Egg Benedict, Quinoa, Sweet Corn & Zucchini Fritters, a Brekkie Burger (samoky bacon, haloumi, fried egg, smashed avo, butter lettuce & tomato on black seeded bun) and lighter options like Toasted Muesli or French Toast and house Specials Crabmeat & Celery Eggs Benedict or Chilli Crabmeat Scramble (mild spicy crabmeat scramble, truss tomatoes, kale salad, lemon, sour cream and sour dough).

For Lunch (served from 11.30) customers can opt for one of the Burgers (Beef, Chicken, Sticky Pork Belly or the highly recommended Soft Shell Crab), Soupe de Jour, a choice of ‘Fryers’ (Calamari or Tempura Battered Fish and Chips) or a Salad such as Grilled Haloumi and Pumpkin, Avocado and Pesto Cous Cous or Quinoa, Kale and Root Vegetables.

As for drinks, there’s Genovese coffee, a selection of teas, Smoothies (Banana Green, Berries & Flax or Mango, Pineapple and Coconut) or decadent designer Shakes, which are a practically dessert unto themselves: Muddy Caramel (caramel ice-cream, honeycomb, caramel popcorn, whipped cream, saletd caramel sauce and peanut butter snow), Lamington (vanilla ice-cream, lamington, crushed oreo, shaved coconut, Chantilly cream and chocolate sauce or a Charco Choc (chocolate ice-cream, crispy charco slice, crushed oreos, fudge sauce, whipped cream and topped with black sesame snow).

Children are very welcome here and there’s a special 'Kiddy Menu' for Breakfast (Ham & Cheese Toasty, Egg & Bacon with sour dough or French toast with maple syrup and ice-cream scoop) and Lunch (tempura Fried Fish, Crumbed Chicken or Ham and Cheese Toasty with chips) and room to navigate and park prams.

Need to know – Café Bema is dog friendly, with a place to hitch dogs to the fence under the treet out front and a bowl of water provided.

Nice to know – Chef Benny Loh has a long history in prominent Brisbane restaurants, starting as an apprentice in well-known 1990s restaurant Cloak & Dagger as well as one time Executive Chef at Joseph Alexander’s and then at Drift, Milton. Along the way he collected many awards.