Mado Cafe & Restaurant - Brisbane

I've been here twice now and the food was great on both occasions.

It's hard to review this place without bursting out in capital letters. But screw it.

Went for a dinner with closed friends. Love the ambience and setting of the restaurant, with antique decorations placed inside the restaurant. If you are antique enthusiast, this is the restaurant to go. The staffs are friendly and helpful too. I ordered Turkish lentil soup as starter, Pirzola as the main dish and the sweet rice pudding (sutlac) as dessert. The foods are delicious and the portion is just nice for one person. The sutlac gonna be my favourite dessert so far! not as sweet but it was so yummy!

I love the atmosphere here, always feel comfortable and welcome. I love that they offer shisha as well and have had shisha many times here and it is very fun to do after a meal, although you do have to purchase a meal in order to have shisha. The food is always great but the wait times can sometimes be long.

Went here for lunch after hearing about the good reviews. Must admit though when you first get near the restaurant the place is a bit off putting as they have put all these signs around about the awards they have won in big orange banners! It just made the place look a bit desperate for attention. We sat outside as it was a nice day and we were served fairly quickly. Ordered two mains, the chicken shish and the mixed grill platter. The food came out within 15 to 20 mins. For the price I did expect a bit more meat but the dish did come with some rice, salad and bread. The salad was nothing exceptional, just some salad leaves with one slice of cucumber and tomato. The bread was warm and crispy but the pieces were too small. The rice was really really good, one of the best I had tasted. Was cooked to perfection with so much flavour. The meat too had lots of flavour and was very tender, pity there wasn't more of it. However you get full from the rice so not much room for meat, don't know if this was done on purpose. After that we ordered two desserts, a baklava and a semolina cookie. Both were overly sweet, the baklava especially was bathed in syrup and didn't taste fresh at all which was disappointing. The inside of the restaurant was done up quite well but it could have been better if they didn't have trinkets for sale just opposite the cashier and placed promotional material all over the place from the napkins to the menus. It's a good place to try once in a while but for the price and the parking fee that you have to pay for the city I think there's much better places to enjoy a similar cuisine.