I have not (yet) had the food here so there is no comment on that. The coffee though is worth reviewing alone. So far I have purchased a cafè macchiato and one of their coffee frappes.
The frappe is coffee poured over ice with added vanilla sweetener, with the entirety then being blended into a smooth liquid texture. It is basically the same as a Starbucks frappuccino, or a blended sweetened version of a standard iced latte. What makes the frappe at Mocha Lounge better than most cafés is the effect of the vanilla sweetener. The sweetener removes the bitterness of the coffee but doesn't actually change the flavour. With most other cafés it is the sweetener that you end up tasting, not the coffee. Mocha Lounge uses vanilla by default which is better than most other cafés which offer a choice between vanilla, hazelnut, chocolate or whatever. The advantage of vanilla is that a syrup is a relatively natural form for vanilla, not so much for chocolate or hazelnut. To my mind, this showed that the owners had put a fair amount of thought into their menu.
The macchiato was similarly expertly made. Far too many cafés don't understand that a macchiato is simply an espresso with a small dash of milk and a stain of foam on top. It often ends up being a small flat white or latte with some foam and even chocolate on top. The macchiato at Mocha Lounge was exactly what the definition of a cafè macchiato should be. It was short enough to not be confused for anything but what it is, an espresso with a small addition. There was enough milk to change the colour of the coffee, but not too much to overpower the taste of the coffee. Similarly the foam on top was small, but adequate, and perfectly white. The perfect aesthetic matched the taste on every note. One nice, albeit small, touch is that the cashier will ask if you want sugar added to your coffee when ordering. I never understood why more cafés don't do this in Brisbane, but I think it further adds to the attention of detail at Mocha Lounge.
The one thing that is missing is speciality roasts and single origin coffees that you can get at boutique cafés, but if you don't care too much about getting a special blend, then Mocha Lounge is one of the best cafés in the city. read more