Gourmet Cafe

Gourmet Cafe sits inside the Danish Flower Art complex at 10347 New England Highway in Highfields, ten minutes north of Toowoomba, where the cafe shares its grounds with bead and craft shops, gourd art displays and nursery gardens. The whole complex opens 9am to 5pm, seven days a week, and the country setting makes it a naturally easy stop with a dog in tow.

The dog setup

Dogs on leads are welcome in the outdoor seating around the garden side of the complex, which is shaded and far quieter than any highway-side strip of shops. Water bowls are sometimes put out, but bring a portable bowl so you are not caught short in the middle of the day. Well-behaved leashed dogs are generally fine walking the outdoor areas of the adjoining craft and pottery shops, though ask at each doorway before heading in, as stock rooms are not dog territory. Indoor cafe seating is for people.

Worth knowing

The kitchen is known for fresh homemade food: scones, homemade sausage rolls, sweets and a chicken burger regulars single out, backed by well-rated coffee. Around the cafe there is plenty to keep a mixed group busy, with glass and acrylic beads, designer jewellery, beading classes free of charge on Monday mornings, and the gourd display the complex is known for, with pieces from local and international artists from a dollar upward. Weekdays are the quiet stretch, and things pick up from Sunday morning.

Getting there and parking

The complex fronts the New England Highway at 10347 New England Highway, Highfields, with a free, spacious on-site car park and wheelchair-accessible entry, so there is none of the street-parking hunt that accompanies most cafe stops.

Close by with the dogs

For a proper off-leash run before or after lunch, Harris Park Dog Off Leash Area and Michael Park are both a short drive from the complex, covering the grass-and-fetch quota for the day. If you are turning the stop into a Highfields cafe crawl, The Chocolate Cottage further up the highway welcomes leashed dogs on its outdoor lawns, and Abbie Lane at the Arts and Crafts Village pairs the same browse-and-coffee format with a village setting.

More options are on the Queensland dog friendly cafes guide and the Highfields destination page.

Max: this one works best as the reward at the end of a park trip. Tire the dog out at Harris Park first, then settle into the garden tables while the scones do the talking.