First Impressions: Miss Kay's - Brisbane CBD

With the trend of American style food and craft beer continuing to explode in Australia with very little end in sight it makes sense that Brisbane's city centre would start to get more of these venues and Miss Kay's is a continuation of that trend.

However rather than being on the Riverside where almost every other trendy food place is, Miss Kay's is located at the Casino end of Queen Street mall which puts it in a great spot for a week day lunch for me with it being less than a 10 min walk from work.

Having been open just over a week I figured I'd waited long enough before heading down to check it out, it's a nice spot with some out door seating, indoor seating and even a loft area with exposed brick, tiles, wood and a clever use books and book shelves.

Upon entering there is a nice diner style vibe to the place with red neon signs, a big long wooden bar and a vibrant and large menu to read from.

The menu has fries, onion rings and even chicken wings but what everyone wants is the burgers and there are some great sounding food here and all fairly decently priced.

Burger's range from Cheeseburger's ($10) to a food challenge that consists of a 5 patty burger and a pile of fries for $35 although if you eat it in 15 mins you get a $30 return voucher and a photo on the wall of fame.

All week I knew I wanted the Mac Daddy, a burger with beef patty, mac n cheese, fries, bbq sauce, mayonaise and a lettuce leaf but I did also add maple bacon.

extreme closeup!

The burger was super more-ish and totally smash-able with the mac n cheese gushing out everywhere and fries getting stuck in the cheese, oddly enough the piece of lettuce on it offers up just enough crunch to balance out the creaminess and adding bacon just amps up the meaty goodness and adds some smokey sweetness from the maple.

This burger is a meal on it's own, you don't need a side of anything and if you wanted to eat it that way add another patty for an extra $4 and you have a mega burger to keep you full for hours.

The buffalo wings I had were pretty tasty, a tiny bit of spice but I didn't get any bite from a vinegar or a citrus in there but enjoyable enough and it's great to see a portion size like 6 wings as an option as many places either give too few or too many for insane prices (wings really aren't expensive, come on!).

My work colleague had the pulled pork and seemed to very much enjoy it, we both however agreed that whilst the chips have a special seasoning they aren't that tasty but they do compliment rather than over power the burgers.

As for the drinks there is plenty of options, soft drink, cock tails, as well as a fairly good amount of taps just unfortunately none of them are local craft but don't be disappointed because there is some great local Brisbane beer in bottles which is a win as far as I'm concerned.

Hopefully as time goes on some of the ample tap room can be taken over by local and national craft beers.

So the food is pretty damn tasty, the drinks aren't too bad but there is one issue..

There is only 1 entrance, enough room for 2 people to get through but unfortunately to order your food you line up at a counter that forces the line out the one entrance and down the street which inadvertently blocks the foot traffic and causes some confusion from people just trying to get by.


This is also the same entrance staff have to bring food out so it does need to be fixed.

I witnessed this at 11:45am on a Friday so I can't imagine what it's like at 5:30pm at night, hopefully a solution can be found, possibly having 2 ordering stations could negate the issue somewhat.

For a business that has barely been open a week, Miss Kay's seems to be kicking ass and punters are enjoying themselves and I look forward to going back for another tasty burger.