For over thirty years, Yamagen has been a major contender in Japanese dining on the Gold Coast. Established for the opening of Daikyo’s Gold Coast International in 1987, the restaurant was a celebration of the Gold Coast’s flourishing relationship with Japan. An integral part of the city’s first five-star hotel, Gold Coast International heralded a...

Sometimes dreams take us to unexpected places. At least, so it seems for Thai Mudgee’s owner Siranee Hocheuay, known to her guests as ‘Boo’. After moving to Sydney from Central Thailand, Boo fell in love with the Gold Coast when visiting friends. “It was just like my home town,” Boo tells us. “In King Street,...

There’s a feeling of excitement when travelling, entering a new town and seeing a market set up in the square. Not only is there the stimulation of lush sights, sounds and colours, perhaps we will also discover something completely new. Bazaar at QT Gold Coast embodies the concept of an interactive marketplace comprising ‘help yourself’...

Every so often something radically different comes along in the dining scene – an idea that, while generated from elsewhere, is given new life in our present-day culinary context. The Collective at Palm Beach is just that. A restaurant version of a food market, The Collective is a family business blending the complementary skills of...

Southport’s star continues to rise with the opening of the Jasmine Room Chinese restaurant. Owned by Chinese restaurant royalty, the Cheng family (ex-Landmark, Sunnybank), who also own the very successful Dragon Cove, Jasmine Room is situated on the second level of the Meriton Sundale building, Southport, overlooking the Broadwater. In this peaceful, relaxed venue, diners...

Owned by Jake and Clifford Gutierrez, Kubo’s Café Bar & Grill in Australia Fair Metro is a rare Filipino food presence on the coast, finding its audience immediately. “We’re really happy to bring Filipino food to the Gold Coast,” Jake tells us, “especially food we love eating at home.” Inside under a wallpapered wall of...

Hidden away behind a rather bland concrete-rendered façade, Hideaway Kitchen & Bar is the latest addition to the Gold Coast’s Asian street food scene. It’s the dark backstreets of Asia that co-owner Scott Imlach visits in his latest restaurant; those shady alleys with overhanging awnings and neon sign lit dodgy bars, with hawker food carts...

“Good morning, Vietnam!” Jimmy Wah’s brings a huge smile to our face. Not only is it a sideways nod to the local GI bar in the 1987 movie Good Morning, Vietnam, but its combination of talented owners – Jake Cooley, highly regarded former head chef of Social Eating House + Bar and Shelly Greaves, former...

Saffron is without doubt the most elegant and luxurious Indian restaurant on the Gold Coast. Its position in Broadbeach is situated directly opposite Pacific Fair and the Broadbeach South light rail station within easy reach of Jupiter’s Casino, the Convention Centre and major hotels. Sridhar Penumechu opened Saffron in 2005 in a bid to take...

Sitting pretty amongst laminex diners, Izakaya Ichi is as cute as a Ningyō Kabuki doll. With fairy lights winking and the dining wagon calling, there are lots of reasons to check out this little gem. Owned by Young Hun Cha, owner of the Sushi 1 chain, the bar opened in late 2015, the flagship (he...