Bringing a slice of New York City's Lower East Side to Brisbane's sunny - and equally trendy - Paddington, The Chelsea Cafe, housed in the new Barracks complex, is a chic inner-city diner. The space is light and fresh with olive-green booths juxtaposed by a diffusion of white-veined ochre marble and polished brass fixtures.
The food available is typically mod-Oz with breakfast offerings - such as Turkish toast with herbed avocado and lemon and hotcakes with caramelised nectarines and ricotta - already boasting a small, but loyal following. For lunch, lighter fare includes the chilli-salt squid and a salad of Asian greens with seared salmon.
Open
m
t
w
t
f
s
s
Breakfast
O
O
O
O
O
O
O
Lunch
O
O
O
O
O
O
O
Dinner
O
O
O
O
O
Late
Daily 7am-4pm Tue-Sat 5.30pm-10pm
Modern Australian
Mains: $4.50-$30
Payment accepted: MasterCard, Visa, Diners Club, American Express and EFTPOS
Licensed. Wine is available by the glass.
Children's menu
This venue accepts bookings. Group bookings are not accepted.
Seats 90
Outside dining area
Wheelchair access
and wheelchair-accessible toilets
All reviews and ratings are the expressed opinions of our users, and in no way reflects the opinions of yourRestaurants, its staff and its affiliates.
Posted by:
ninanoo
|
20 June 2010, 11.42am
Unfortunate
My husband and I went to The Chelsea for dinner last night. Although the staff were friendly enough the service was bad, they needed to be prompted for everything; to order wine, place an order, find out when our table was ready, etc. For a quiet night in the restaurant we had to wait a long time for a table. The food was also disappointing, my husband had the duck confit, which was dry and tiny, you would expect the leg of the duck, but he got a small drum stick with a minimal veg, for almost $40. I had the veal which was not bad, cooked well and tasty, but again not worth the almost $40. Decor of the restaurant is nice but missing on the atmosphere.
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Visit: Sat 19 June 2010
Mealtime: dinner
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Posted by:
aedney
|
31 March 2010, 3.15pm
Charming little place
I love this place - i'm disappointed to hear of the poor experiences of others as all mine have been great. Staff are always friendly and engaging and the meals are a gorgeous cross between NYC and Paris. The atmosphere is also very inspiring and relaxing and reminds me of all my holidays in Europe.
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Visit: Wed 31 March 2010
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Posted by:
Reviewed
|
24 March 2010, 8.45am
Disgraceful Service
We went to The Chelsea on Sunday morning for breakfast. There were a lot of people there and quite a number waiting on tables. There were however A LOT of empty tables which had not been cleared by the staff who were walking around the restaurant aimlessly. After 20 minutes of standing there without so much as a look from one of the staff we approached someone to request a table. She advised that there were a lot of people waiting and that she would need to get the host. 15 minutes later the host had still made no effort to come and speak with us. A group of people then arrived and they were obviously in the know as they were seated straight away - ahead of people who had been waiting over half an hour. Per previous reviews, The Chelsea does not take bookings. What a joke! This service was absolutely disgraceful and easily the worst I have ever experienced. I have been to Chelsea before for breakfast and, to be brutally honest, with service that poor the food is certainly not worth hanging around for.
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Visit: Wed 24 March 2010
Mealtime: breakfast
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Posted by:
jacku
|
15 March 2010, 3.10pm
poor everything!
We went there to try it, but definately wouldn't go back or recomend it to my friends. I took 5 clients to the Chelsea before the Bronco's game, because of the locality, if everthing was even just fair we would go back.
2 of the people at our table had prawn and muscle currie, the prawns were not peeled and were very difficult to eat, the flavour was good just not practical. The steak we had was very good quality meat, all 6 of us had the steak as a main. We couldn't get vegetables with our steak, the sellection of side were very ordinary in taste. The wine menu was less than average, We're in Australia and have some of the best wines the world has to offer, Why do these resaurants persist with poor international wines. the bill for 6 peaple with not expensive wine was a little shy of $600, way too much for what we got.
Just 1 tip guys at Chelsea, when a paying customer askes for a small change in the menu, don't say no we're not able to make any changes, because we won't come back.
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Visit: Sat 13 March 2010
Mealtime: dinner
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Posted by:
30 Cent Cone
|
15 February 2010, 6.24pm
Heads Up! - Don't Bother
Don't know why this place has received positive reviews ??? Last two reviews may have been written by restaurant staff ???
Arrived at 8:45 am, restaurant was not incredibly packed. Was told that the wait was 20 mins. Turned into 30 mins and we noticed two other couples were seated as soon as they arrived. (Chelsea does not take Breakfast bookings).
Sat down at 9:15, ordered by 9:25, ( 1 omelette and 1 Poached eggs & sausage) Recieved the meal 45 mins later!!! Small portions.
The omelette literally had half a rasher of bacon (not chopped) in it, with way to paprika and off-looking zuchini. Jeez. Poached eggs were hard and sausage would not feed a munchkin. Nice
Paid $37 to be disappointed and frustrated, thanks.
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Visit: Sun 14 February 2010
Mealtime: breakfast
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Posted by:
Terraillon
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5 February 2010, 6.51pm
Fanastic place
I agree thankgodforfood - the chelsea is a fantastic place - with the right mix of casual elegance needed for a cafe that can go from breakfast to lunch and right through to dinner. I have breakfast there most weekends and have never had a bad experience - coffee, food and service is top notch...keep an eye out for their tagine on the dinner menu too..yum! Brissie needs more of the what the chelsea delivers - get with the program people and check it out!
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Visit: Fri 5 February 2010
Mealtime: breakfast
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Posted by:
thankgodforfood
|
30 January 2010, 11.22pm
At last somewhere to eat in Brisbane
Amazing food Great Coffee Perfect Atmosphere
Its hard to find a place worth while getting out of bed for in Brisbane BUT not any more.
The Chelsea offers Fresh delicious food with ease (& a smile to boot even though its busy.
Thank You Chelsea Team for making our day. Keep up the good work, we will be back and bring all our friends.
P.S To all those negative coments out there - get back to Mac Donalds, breakfast is waiting for you.
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Visit: Sat 30 January 2010
Mealtime: breakfast
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Posted by:
Onebite
|
10 January 2010, 9.56am
Pretty ordinary overall
I've ended up here for brekky twice in the last few weeks but will probably not come back. The food's ok - nothing innovative here but decent quality. They use good bread, but the fact that the toast was the best part is an indication that what came with it was unremarkable! You need to sort out your baristas guys! On the first occasion 4 of us ordered 2 coffees each over the course of the meal and there was a huge inconsistency in quality in those 8. Both of mine were quite good, but two of my dining partners reported that their second coffee was woeful compared with the first. Alas, on my visit yesterday my latte was sooooo red hot I couldn't touch the glass without burning my fingers. The waitress handled this well and arranged another for me, which was just fine. Service is another inconsistency though it seems - from what I could see the female staff members seem friendly and efficient but the 20-something male we had both times is a most charmless, unforthcoming character who is ill-suited to working in hospitality.
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Visit: Sat 9 January 2010
Mealtime: breakfast
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Posted by:
Michelle01
|
24 March 2009, 3.55pm
Great lunch - Not so good breakfast
My first visit was for lunch before a movie. Food was great and the coffee was wonderful! Service was also great, admittedly it was towards the end of lunchtime though and most of the rush was over. The staff were lovely. My second visit was for breakfast and we were disappointed with the coffee and not terribly impressed with the breakfast - a bit on the small side. Also it took AGES to get our meal. Yes, it was packed, but I still don't expect to wait that long. I don't wait that long at other cafes and they are also packed for breakfast. Definitely recommend it for lunch though!
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Visit: Tue 24 March 2009
Mealtime: breakfast
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Posted by:
Chipili
|
20 March 2009, 2.54pm
Not Paddo
The origin as far as I can see of the twee pretension among the tenants at the Barracks that they are in Paddington. Can't see how they can be as they are 300 m from the City / Milton boundary on the City side. Breakfast very ordinary.
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Visit: Fri 20 March 2009
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Posted by:
Biddy + Jimmy
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16 March 2009, 9.56am
Great food, okay coffee, friendly service
Four of us visited Chelsea on Sunday for breakfast. They were being "slammed" as the friendly waitress pointed out, yet she seemed to make time to find hot water for us to heat a baby's bottle and make us all feel very welcome. The coffees were slow to arrive (20 mins) and they were watery...not worth ordering at all. The food arrived another 20 minutes after that- and was well worth the wait. The truffle oil omelete was a hit with Mr 1 as were the smoked salmon and poached eggs with Miss 2. Mr 3 enjoyed his poached eggs and bacon however thought the meal size was on the small side. I found the side orders of slow roasted tomatoes, wilted spinach and tomato relish to be the perfect accompaniment for poached eggs. Good sourdough toast as well. Again it must be said that we had very friendly and accommodating service, however if they get a decent barista then the points raise to 8 out of 10.
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Visit: Sun 15 March 2009
Mealtime: breakfast
Service:
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