Simon's Gourmet Gallery and Cafe at Chapel Hill

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I have to admit that I need a fair bit of encouragement to do household chores including food shopping. Occasionally though I find a market or shop that makes this task far more enjoyable. Simon's Gourmet Gallery with its own cafe is one of those places. This allows me to combine buying sensible useful food like meat, fruit and veges with the odd treat for dessert while rewarding myself afterwards with a coffee and brunch at the cafe.



I am not really a big meat eater but as far as I can tell this is a fully stocked butcher shop with plain good quality cuts of meat for customers to work their own magic on including a range of offal for the more adventurous. In addition, there are lots of value added options such as home made stir fries - thai chili and satay being our favourites, handmade sausages, beef rolls, family size gourmet beef and chicken pies and a selection of tagines. All the meat is sourced from Australian producers. The chicken is hormone and steroid free, the beef and veal is from high quality Australian producers such as Stockhaven Beef just outside Gympie, Stockyard Wagyu Beef and Barcoo Beef and the pork is from Australian producers, Murray Valley Pork, in New South Wales and Victoria. I always think its nice to know where your produce comes from and it's great to support Australian farmers.



In addition, Simon's has a range of gourmet pies, pastas pizzas, vegetable rolls, quiches and everything you might need to complement your main course. The area between the butchers and cafe is full of gourmet delicatessen products such as marinades, sauces, chutneys, jams, condiments, dressings, oils, dried pasta, rices, cous cous and so on. If you are having a dinner party and want to impress this is the place to shop. Dessert is even covered as there is also a range of ready made desserts from fruit tarts, tira misu (highly recommended!), ice creams as well as a range of to die for chocolate items. One of my favourite treats from Simon's is yoghurt muesli cookies. I try to save them as a treat because I find it very hard to stop at just one or two.



Once I've done my shopping and spent way too much money and bought just a few too many treats I move on to brunch at the cafe. The seating area which backs on to Moggill Rd is screened nicely so you can forget about the passing traffic and even the seating which is adjacent to the car park is sufficiently far away to make it a pleasant area. Simon's serves Dancing Bean coffee, a locally roasted brew which I have really enjoyed. The breakfast menu is available all day while lunch is available from 11.30-2.30. My favourites are the Herb Rosti and the Vego breakfast although when I am just there for coffee I can't resist a macaron or other sweet treat. There is also a kid menu and range of smoothies, frappes and milkshakes for the hotter weather.



I always find getting out of bed on Sunday morning is much more palatable if it is for brunch and a bit of food shopping rather than the other way around. Its all in how you sell it to yourself.

#cafes
#chapel_hill
#delicatessens
#inner_suburbs
#shopping
%wnbrisbane