For those who have been fairly active on social media, it would be hard to have missed the fairly recent opening of Isle Lane in Brisbane City, next to Post Office Square. Offering cafe style food in the morning and gastro pub food later, it is definitely very versatile, and given that flexibility is such a highly sought after, there is no doubt why this venue became so popular so quickly. Always on the hunt for a good brunch venue, especially in the CBD, I decided to take an early break and go down before brunch service was over last Friday to kick start the weekend. Arriving at 11am, the restaurant was fairly empty but it still took a fair while for me to get the attention of staff to be allocated a table.
Opting for a table inside, I was given one that was inconveniently placed behind a barrier of greenery, which, whilst aesthetically pleasing, meant I had extreme difficulty in getting staff attention throughout my meal.
Menus were provided, along with water. As usual, I do appreciate menus that are insightful and provide a bit more by way of background and context, and this menu did just that, by introducing where their ingredients are sourced. I quite liked the breakfast menu, which contained a fair number of dishes that I would have liked to try, in the end of course, I could only settle for one, and after a good deal of flailing my arms in the air I was able to get the attention of the wait staff to put down my drink and food order, as it would have taken too long to call them back to put down an order a second time. 
My cappuccino came quickly enough and was fairly bold and strong in taste with a strong bitterness to it. The milk was frothy and foamy which I quite liked. I also liked how the cocoa was dissolved into the milk so as to prevent any awkward embarrassments with me inhaling and choking on the cocoa.
My food came shortly after, which was pleasing because I was comfortably able to finish my meal and get back to the office with 20 min to spare.
Anyway, back to my meal. I ordered the full english and exchanged baked beans for avocado (gotta satisfy those millennial needs). It came with a slice of sourdough, mushrooms, bacon, lamb sausage, butter, poached eggs, avocado and tomato chutney.
I had very mixed feelings about my brunch. The portions were large and generous, and being able to exchange baked beans was really quite impressive given the no alterations policy at quite a few other cafes. Having said that, the toast was overly burnt, quite bitter and hard, the eggs sat in a pool of water, and the bacon also sat in a small puddle of black oily bacon grease, which was quite unappetizing, it was also very salty. Other than that though, the mushrooms were well marinated and tender, the avocado erred on the side of being unready and was firmer than I would have preferred, but the sausage was well seasoned and quite tasty.
Another thing I felt noteworthy to mention in my experience too was that I had considerable difficulty in finding clean cutlery. Going through all my options on they table, all were quite cloudy with residual grease. Considering how hard it was to get staff attention and the fact that I needed to leave on time, I opted to go through and pick the cleanest of my options, which really wasn't ideal.
Taste: 5/10
Value: 5/10
Service: 5/10
Environment: 6/10
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