Having kitted out some of the smartest restaurants in town (think Etsu and Mamasan), Jess Winters had plenty of ideas for what she wanted in her first cafe, so her partner Peter Tutton learned new skills to complete the vision, the pair harnessing some great talent to be part of their team. So, Double Barrel...

Every so often you meet someone whose enthusiasm is the driving force of an establishment. So strong, in fact, that it’s like a magnetic field, drawing you into its energy. At Mockingbird Café, Kingscliff, that force is Jo Jackson. We’d first met Jo at her very successful restaurant, Signature Dish in Varsity, where she not...

Steampunk brings something different to Surfers Paradise: a retro industrial world that exists only in the imagination. Opened in April 2017, the venue brings us the age of machines, of retro-futuristic inventions, robotics and air travel, recreating a world of science fiction inspired by the steam-powered industrial period of Victorian England. Modelled on the Romanian...

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,...

If there’s a position worth coveting, it’s that of Glass. You could embark from your luxury yacht anchored on the sparkling Broadwater just beyond the windows, or fly by helicopter to the helipad at the end of the jetty… so it seems as we dine at Glass Restaurant, overlooking the Gold Coast at play. In...

Gold Coast café culture has done well from the downward shift in fine dining culture. Hot Shott is no exception. An example is owners and business partners, Chef Kellie Rolfe and Barista Jenna Finch, who took the opportunity to move from their jobs at Palazzo Versace to open their own business in Main Beach in...

There’s always been something special about Mudgeeraba – a village feel that embraces locals as family. Typical of that spirit, Woodchoppers Inn, Mudgeeraba’s original restaurant and bar, has been family owned since 1995. A stayer in the local food scene, their recent change of menu direction has given the venue new interest. Built in 1906...

It doesn’t seem that long ago that Evergreen was all the rage for a family breakfast or brunch for ‘ladies who lunch’. A verdant wild jungle in the middle of busy suburbia, replete with overflowing water fountains and voluminous plants, owner/chef Robert Powell and his wife Lynne employed a bevy of young wait staff to...

If you’re looking for a lighter alternative to the usual yum cha, stop in to the Easy House and let Mary Tsang convince you that, as well as being excellent for your health, vegetarian food can taste fantastic. Open since 2010, Easy House forms part of a small recently renovated suburban shopping centre which also...

You don’t have to travel far to enjoy a taste adventure. In fact, it’s possible to stay on the Gold Coast and journey via your tastebuds to the exotic Middle East, dining on the authentic cuisine of one of the oldest cultures in the world: Persia. Influenced by many surrounding countries through trade and migration,...