Lucky Duck Cafe & Bar

I just love this place! I am from Sydney and whenever I arrive in to Brisbane this is always my first stop for a Posto Posto with an egg and a seriously great coffee! Have been coming here for about 4years and can’t recommend it enough for its good vibes, chilled manner and great food and coffee! Always thankful! Big love! Lucky Duck!

Great little café, on Gladstone Rd but with a big deck out the back — the perfect spot for a ‘morning after brekky’. Just serving 1 egg — thank you Lucky Duck, I’ve been waiting for a 1 egg café! Delicious brekky, laid back and hits the spot!

My favourite café in Brisbane. Great service, unique but delicious food and good coffee. The atmosphere is chilled out during the week so a great place to do a bit of work at if you’re by yourself. During the weekends it’s busy but still manageable.

This place is actually now a café and soon to be bar.
Staff were super friendly and chilled out people; a lot of fun to just chat too. They were kind enough to still make us some food even though the kitchen closes at 1pm … and we got there at 12:58pm.
I had the Bull’s Eye (egg in a hole, bacon and avocado). The egg in a hole was perfectly cooked and all yolk-​y, and it’s one of the few places in Australia that does crispy bacon as well as the Americans do…

Absolutely awful staff. My friends and I rocked up to this café around 1pm on a Sunday.
We were greeted by an unbelievably rude dbag behind the counter. He was wearing his aviators (inside) and proceeded to say «okay, were done with food right! Food finishes at 1… which is, like, now… okay. If you want a coffee, fine.»
This was before anyone suggested what we were after (be it food or coffee) to him and a simple «sorry guys, the kitchen is closed but we are still taking coffee orders» would have been far more pleasant. The attitude was so rude, this guy should not be in hospitality.
I have been to this café a few times over the last year, the food is great, and after such a rude experience with this guy, I will not be returning again. Unfortunate.

People need to stop dishing out the word ‘hipster’ (and associated jargon) when discussing this place. If you replaced these words with witchcraft terms, it would sound just like Salem, Massachusetts in 1692. I’ll show you what I mean:
«Ok, so let’s face facts. There are a lot of witch hangouts popping up all through Brisbane, filled with witches and oodles of witch-​art.» — Ellie W.
«Witch kids with witch garb, broomsticks and engorged noses can be seen sitting on the stools out front this wretched little café. That’s the kind of place it is.» — Emma H.
«I had the chance to see this quirky witch hangout in all its glory: vile conjurers feasting on a giant altar, a clique of teenage witches inside discussing their favourite spells and a wretched pair of femme-​necromancers stirring a fiery cauldron and dishing out chalices of human blood.» — Oliver H.
Let’s end this ridiculous witchhunt and talk about what matters: the coffee. The coffee at Lucky Duck is excellent. The food is good too. I recommend it.

Ok, so let’s face facts. There are a lot of hipster hangouts popping up all through Brisbane, filled with quirky baristas (see Hipster Barista meme) and oodles of graffiti. But this is the first for Highgate Hill, and probably the only one in Brisbane (or anywhere nearby for that matter) with giant duck-​art.
There are the usual wooden stools to perch on lining the shop front, which never cease to intrigue the passers-​by to become customers. Which is good, because the coffee here is pretty darn tasty. They serve up Genovese coffee, which, as a long black, is beautifully strong and smooth.
Their ever-​changing menu looks pretty interesting as well (haloumi features a fair few times; always a crowd-​pleaser), so I’ll be sure to make a return visit to suss it out for myself.

I’d never set foot in this place but had often noticed its vibrant rubber ducky icon as I drove or walked past, that is until I stopped by for my Sunday morning coffee fix after getting some bakery items from Golden King Bakery (also on Gladstone Rd).
Suffice to say I’m really glad I stopped in because I had the chance to see this quirky hipster hangout in all its glory: trendy couples tucking into decent looking breakfasts on the footpath tables, a clique of indie girls inside discussing the evolution of their favourite TV series and a cool pair of femme-​baristas dishing out the crema and banter with equal measure.
I love the eclectically shambolic décor here, with star wars figurines on the front counter, ghetto-​fabulous wall murals and the pièce de résistance — a genuine boom-​box such that Vanilla Ice himself would proudly hoist over one shoulder.
Oh and the coffee is good too…

Cool kids in skinny jeans, fitted button-​up shirts and well coiffed hair can be seen sitting on the stools out front this quirky little café. That’s the kind of place it is. Coolness aside, they do a reliably good coffee and big portions of delicious breakfast and lunch dishes.
Service is a bit mixed, depending on who you get. The vibe will be relaxed and casual if things are running smoothly, but I’ve been there once when they seemed understaffed, and the service was a bit strained.
If you like watching cars go by, you’ll happy to pull up a stool on the footpath; however, be warned, it gets hot out there during summer. Even inside it can start to swelter a bit. That would be my only complaint. But, Lucky Duck wouldn’t have the same appeal if it were tucked away in air-​conditioning. It’s just a bit more pleasant during the cooler months.

I rarely walk over a kilometre for my morning coffee, but sometimes I just want to treat myself. On these occasions I’ll brave the brazen sun and burning bitumen and walk along Vulture Street just to chill at Lucky Duck Espresso, or Lucky’s for short.
It’s a hole in the wall café like so many others in the area, but this one is better than the rest of them. It’s cute, quirky, wild and bad arse all at the same time. I swear it’s the only place I’ve been where I could genuinely laugh along with staff when my dog decided to piss in the communal dog water bowl. I was mortified but the girl laughed and squealed «nah, man. That’s awesome!» while cooing at my dog holding a ice cream container of dog piss in her hands (against my efforts to take care of business, she refused, and came back with a clean dish).
Anecdotes aside, when you walk in, look to the left. There’s a painting of a pretty green and brown duck with two heads. It’s adorable and menacing at the same time. It seems to sum up the place perfectly. When you meet the girls at the counter, you’ll feel like you’re hanging with childhood friends. Straight off, we were playing the ‘ahh– ahh– too slow!’ game, making ugly faces at each other, and referring to each other as «Gorgeous, sweetheart, darling pie». From what I’ve seen, I think everyone gets this treatment, too.
The coffee is great. Some regard it as the best in the area. I’m of the opinion that in the inner south, it’s worth more mention if the coffee isn’t up to scratch. Lucky Duck is such a treat because of it’s atmosphere and character. They’ve got cute, random paintings of duck related things all over the walls, obscure toys planted along the counter, and any rad cafes’ obligatory poster wall of gigs and other not to miss events. Don’t forget their kitsch array of books and magazines to rummage through while there. You’ve got old Mad mags, old Frankie editions, graphic design and architectural publications, and much more.
This is, by miles, my favourite café south side of the river.