Kookaburra Cafe

It’s been some years since I last ordered. They still have the most amazing medium rare steak I have ever tasted. Extras serving size is still yet to be desired but other than that amazing food!

We were visiting Brisbane on holiday and ordered their food for delivery one night. Everything we ordered was absolute garbage. We order chips-​fries, they weren’t even cooked, all blonde in color and soggy and gummy. We also order two small pizzas we took one bite and threw everything away. Literally the worst pizza, delivery food we’ve ever had. $ 60 down the drain!

The +:
kangaroo meat is on the menu
Family business
Location
Really cool old cash register
Lot s of potential
The -:
Décor of courtyard
Odd feel to the place. Needs some background music perhaps.
Food was average at best. Spice it up!
This place feels like a trip back in time when the northern suburbs were considered outback. Matter of fact this place would do really well if they played that aspect purposely and with some swag and some more rustic décor instead of the 70 s furniture. Hang up some crocks, play some diggy music and update the menu focus on Aussie stuff

This is my 100^th review and it just so happens to be my 100^th day in Brisbane! :) My friends wanted to try a place in Paddington so they picked a Brisbane institution with the largest pizza in the city.
I had never been before but all the reviews prepared me for not so outstanding pizza (which the reviews were right). We ordered a party pizza ($ 60) that gave us the option to order four different types. This was plenty for 5 of us to share and we couldn’t even finish it completely. We had the kangaroo, chorizo and jalapeños, butternut pumpkin, and tropical heatwave. The butternut pumpkin was probably the most decent.
Service was nice and they were happy to let us split the bill. I don’t think I would go back again but it was a nice experience to go to a place that many locals have had at one time or another in their lives.

As others have pointed out, the Kookaburra Café has both its charms and drawbacks — it’s a unique Brissie institution; the Queenslander house façade is charming; service is slack and/​or long; it’s lost it’s charm.
I love my food. I’ve never been fussy, and there’s very few foods I don’t like (e.g. jersey fudge caramels certainly come straight from Hell). However I have never, ever enjoyed the pizzas from here. And I’ve been trying for ten years.
My issue is that the pizzas, though they’re meant to be experimental, are just «OK.» Even when they try to mix it up, it just tastes like an ordinary pizza — and for the price, you’d expect much more than average in terms of quality.
I did have lamb shanks here years ago and that was delicious, but since then I’ve only eaten pizza from Kookaburra — primarily because someone will buy takeaway and bring it home. For my money, the pizza at Tomatoes (Paddington; Rosalie district) are much better and the best pizza in Brisbane.

Alas the Kookaburra Café has lost it. And I feel sad, because I, too, have grown up with this Brissie icon, housed in its shabby chic «cottage» in the heart of Paddington.
But after a hugely disappointing family dinner there last night (and a virtually identical experience a couple of years back), I don’t think I’ll be returning any time soon. Possibly it’s because they really can’t cope with massive groups of people for dinner (there were 25 of us and we weren’t the only big group there).
The staff are lovely, the atmosphere fun, but it was really disorganised. Not only did it take hours for us to even get to place our orders (we arrived at 7pm, and our food orders weren’t taken until 9pm), but when the food turned up it was just…“meh”. Lukewarm and average.
And it doesn’t seem that the pizza menu has changed in decades either — and while I’m normally a fan of all things retro, I couldn’t help feeling a little bored by the tired selection.
Sorry, Kookaburra, you’ve well and truly fallen off your perch.

I don’t think anybody cares that the Kookaburra Café’s pizza is a bit dated, a bit 70s style ‘wow, who knew Italian food was a thing?’ because this place has been around for as long as anyone can remember. The Kookaburra Café is an icon, perched proudly at the junction of Given and Latrobe terraces, looking down over Paddington’s hilly streets. The big yellow Queensland-​style house with it’s wide awnings is one of the first things you see as you crest the surrounding streets, and I swear it’s a Brisbane-​specific pavlovian response that the sight of that cute little Kookaburra in his captain hat causes your mouth to water.
Not only does the Kooka offer nostalgia, retro-​style pizza, and a back courtyard that’s ideal for a roaring function, they do the hugest takeaway pizzas I’ve ever seen. In highschool, whenever there was a special occasion at school the Kooka would provide us (hundreds of hungry girls) with boxed and boxes of these beasts. I reckon their diameter would’ve been at least a metre.
Ah, I do love the Kookaburra Café. If you want an authentic taste of Italy, it’s probably not your best bet. But if you want an authentic taste of Brisbane there’s nowhere better.

This would have to be THE iconic Pizza place in Brisbane. It’s another one of those long standing restaurants in Paddington that everyone knows about as it is a bit of a landmark. The building itself hasn’t changed much over the years and has kept its original charm. When I first moved into the area I would order from here quite regularly but it seems over the years the quality and taste of their pizzas have gone down hill. One thing hasn’t changed however and that’s the value for money, they are very generous with their toppings and the pizzas themselves are larger than average. The value isn’t limited in the pizzas though, as all of the menu items follow suit.
The best thing about this place is the Party Pizzas as they are the size of a dining room table (literally). Just one of these bad boys could feed 10 – 12 people and so it should as they claim its the biggest in Australia! One of them will set you back about $ 60 and its worth every penny.

I love the fact that The Kookaburra Café is essentially an old Paddington house. I love it. It’s been there so long it looks quite dishevelled and faded but like all good things, you can never judge a book by its cover. The Kookaburra Café is such a great place for just about everything. You can have a romantic dinner, group dinner, birthday party, whatever, and it’s so versatile it will create the perfect ambiance for all.
It mostly does a range of Italian cuisine with pizza, pasta, and mains as well as dessert that is unrivalled. The sticky date pudding and profiteroles in particular are winners. And you don’t have to dine in to take advantage of these delicacies, you can dash in and take away with ease.
You’ll pay more for the bigger mains such as chicken, barramundi, and steak but trust me, it’s worth it. I’d gladly fork out $ 30 for a good meal at The Kookaburra Café because the quality is ridiculously good. The pizzas are also their trademark because they are huge!
You’d also think that in such a location they’d have pretty limited space. Well, yes and no. The entrance is a little bit of a squeeze but as you walk through the inside restaurant you see a whole other outdoor area protected my sheeting that is open and inviting.
The staff are so friendly and accommodating and I have never had a bad experience at The Kookaburra Café. Take the family or take someone special and indulge a little here with its amazing food and historic location.

The Kookaburra Café has been around since I was in school. My friends and I came here for their famous huge pizza’s when we had a birthday or a school event… it was always a good pizza place. They do Brisbane’s largest pizza which has 50 slices for catering and parties as well… that’s pretty big.
As I got older, I took my boyfriend now husband there just for the BBQ ribs. Good golly miss molly, these ribs are on a plate with vegies and chips and I swear the table for 2 is never big enough. The ribs are always nice, tasty and they’ve never taken that long to come out. The décor is rustic, the house is getting older every year, but the ribs and pizza have always been consistently yummy through the years.
Compliments to them on their lemon lime and bitters too, just the perfect mix. Think large tasty pizzas, think Kookaburra Café.