Willes Fine Foods and Gourmet Workshop

I enjoyed coming in and seeing their quiches, patties (several gluten-​free ones), salads, and dessert displayed in their deli stand. Sure makes one drool…
I found their quality selections a great value. I had their turkey, cranberry, and cream cheese sandwich in a Turkish roll — using the salad garnish that comes on the side to fill in. Takes me back to having a post-​Thanksgiving sandwich. However, it didn’t totally rock my world as the turkey isn’t as fresh off the bird as one could get. In fact they use thin deli turkey slices. Not bad, but if they used fresh meat I think the ratings would increase all around.
Their coffee smells and tastes great. I don’t normally go for a Cap but I did this time and was satisfied with it. I also had their lemon meringue slice, which comes a la mode and nicely presented on a plate.
I also appreciate the staff’s friendliness and coming around to check on their diners/​customers, taking away plates as needed.
All in all, this is a great spot to catch up with friends/​family for a reasonably priced meal!
Also, they do catering, and looks like they do a fab job doing so. So if you’re looking for a caterer, check them out.

I’m not much of a salad guy, and I hate paying to eat plants, but this is the exception. Sweet chili garlic & satay sauce on some veggies that blew my skull open. one plate shared with the wife was juuuuuuuust right.
Thumbs up.

Willes has a good range of well priced breakfast and lunch options for the Oxford Street area. Crumbed Fish & Chips and Salad for $ 9.90 was one of the daily specials and they also have a number of other lunch time specials.
The salads are talked about fondly here, apparently they are delicious and fresh with some great combinations.
They stock pints of Ben & Jerry’s ice-​cream too!

For a hearty. super casual dining experience, head to the Gourmet Workshop on Oxford Street.
It’s more of a work-​stop rather than a workshop (I had in my mind a place where you craft your own culinary delights). There’s a huge variety of hot and cold foods to choose from, all pre-​prepared in the display cabinets before you. From an array of salads to lasagne, chicken burgers and banana pancakes. There’s indoor and outdoor seating and they serve up a fairly ok Grinders Coffee.

I like the idea of a ‘gourmet workshop’, and if you extend the metaphor then all the fresh salads that are on display in the front cabinet are the building materials of your meal. Indeed there’s plenty on offer here for health nuts who like to keep things raw and fresh.
But don’t let that make you think you can’t get a full-​on heart attack breakfast here. In fact, you can get the city’s biggest, most indulgent and hands-​down near impossible to finish plate of ridiculousness right here. The ‘Mega breakfast’ comes with eggs, sausages, mushrooms, tomato, schnitzel, pasta, toast & tea/​coffee. It’s the kind of meal that constitutes the cardinal sin of gluttony, so if you have a heart condition be warned that by attempting to eat it you risk not only cardiac arrest but also eternal damnation.
I’m in relatively good health and quite skeptical about the notion of an afterlife, so when I wandered in last year with a sizable hangover I was compelled to take the mega challenge. I’m not sure why but for some reason I got lasagne with my breakfast (free of charge) as well. Needless to say I didn’t finish it and still didn’t have to eat again that day.
The service is pretty good, with the lady behind the counter being quite lovely and patient with my groggy alcohol-​induced vagueness. I did however get a bit of a headache from one of the waitresses (literally) who managed to bash me in the head with a lightweight sliding fly-​screen door as I lounged back on my chair on an outside table. Considering the fragility of my condition and the fact that she had given my a slight bludgeoning, she wasn’t very apologetic.

If you want a good value lunch in Bulimba, pay this place a visit. They offer the best takeaway salads around. For around $ 7, you get a full container of salad with another piece of deliciousness. The first time I went I chose a risotto rissole type thing (yum) and a salad that featured lettuce, pumpkin and green beans among other things (yum). It’s delicious, fresh, healthy and the portion sizes are perfect. There’s usually more than a dozen freshly made salads to choose from and there are different varieties made every day.
If you’re not into rabbit food, they have hot options along with breakfast. It’s a very casual setting, which belies the quality of food, but in terms of value for money it doesn’t get much better than this.

I hate salad. In theory that is.
I’ve slowly been coming to the realisation that it is more the idea of salad I don’t like. People have always told me salad could be a lot more interesting and delicious than the green stuff next to my steak. And after my first trip to Willes Fine Foods on Oxford Street I am beginning to to think they may have been right.
The interior is nothing exciting but the cabinet that stretches the length of the place hosts enough yummy looking stuff to more than make up for it. In addition to a range of salads there are quiches, lasagnas, vegetable patties and a sandwich bar. The staff were quick and efficient and happy to jam as many salads as I asked for into the one container. It was crazy busy while I was there, no doubt due to the lunch time rush and its growing popularity. I got out of there eventually though, with a tub of salad and big coffee in tow and headed to the park just around the corner.
Ten minutes later, as I stared down at an empty container I realised that I was actually full. Not a state I had ever credited a salad with before. Perhaps there was a future for us after all.

If this place has ever been underrated, it would be only due to appearances. Willes doesn’t muck around with making the place look smart and sassy. No, if you dine there, you’ll be dining on the same kind of tables that you find at your local fish and chip haunt. But you’re not here for the spoils, you’re here for the amazing food that they serve up.
The long fridge that runs from one end of the shop to the other is full of beautiful presented, and very fresh looking goods. I hear that Peter Willes goes to the market three times a week to make sure the food in the shop is fresh. Rumour or truth, I can get behind that.
The pie, lasagne, patties, quiche section in particular looks to die for. And the salads! I’ve never craved to be so healthy as I did after looking at their plentiful, and adventurous looking creations. It doesn’t end here either– they have a most impressive menu as well. Let’s look at breakfast. Would you like the stirfry spinach and ham, poached eggs, and sweet chilli potato ($ 10.50) or would you rather the lambs fry, bacon, eggs, tomato, toast ($ 11.50)? Yum!
It seems like they do everything here. Breakfast, sandwiches, pies, quiche, lasagne, burgers, salads, finger food, chippies… everything except for dinner. But that’s when you can get them to cater! They have a big catering operation with excellent options (take a look at their website).
The in store and catering prices are reasonable, especially for what you get in return. Go and find Willes on Oxford Street. You’ll find yourself eating food that looks too beautiful to eat.