Cha Cha Japanese

Cha Cha in Broadbeach is our other dining room. There’s a saying in our house, ‘Let’s eat at Jack’s tonight.’ We’re talking about Jack and Maiko Suzue’s restaurant ‘Cha Cha’. It’s our home away from home, not in the ‘dress up, let’s celebrate’ sort of way, more like the place we can rely on to […]

Social Brew

NOTE: The Richards family sold Social Brew early in 2017. “Everything the Richards family touches works really well,” a friend once confided. From what we’ve seen it’s certainly true. We’ve followed the Richards family (a family team of parents and three adult children) in awe as they opened and operated a string of successful ventures: […]

Mudjira Village Eatery

It’s the case of ‘the girl least likely’ marrying royalty; a fairly pedestrian café in an outer suburban shopping centre scoring seasoned hotel and restaurant owners Graham and Kate Bennett (ex Helm Bar) as its new owners. Mudgeeraba should be so lucky! But we didn’t know about the hometown queen when, after hearing really good […]

Miami Marketta Street Food Market

UPDATE May 2015: The crowds have settled a little, but The Marketta Street Food Market is still a happening event. There’s been the welcome addition of a souvlaki stall and there’s a real family feel happening in this now twice-weekly event (Friday and Saturday nights). Our favourite dining time is still early enough to avoid […]

Mecca Bah Gold Coast

Food and love…even the mention of Mecca Bah brings me warm memories of a first date, journeys to far distant lands, exotic and elusive, but loaded with promise. Once more, I’m unable to resist its charm. Mecca Bah Gold Coast forms an essential piece of the multicultural mosaic of Oracle Boulevard, Broadbeach. In this sophisticated […]

Wazen

You know how it is… you’ve tried to choose a healthy meal, only to find you’re half starving at the end of it. Perhaps you’d decided on a couple of share plates and drawn the shortest straw, or maybe that plate of sashimi cost $28 for five pieces of fish? Then you weren’t at Wazen. […]

The Source Bulk Foods

OK. I’ll admit it. I’m a fan of ‘clean and neat’. A clean freak, even! Somewhere in my handbag, there’s a little plastic bottle of hand disinfectant, alongside the tiny torch. Girl scout! And if you say to me just as I’m finishing a meal, ‘But did you see the kitchen?’ with one of those […]

Chef Profile – Peter Dufty, Caffe Republic

‘Paleo Pinup.’ Peter Dufty would be really uncomfortable with that tag, but there’s an element of truth in it. From Versace to raw (and we’re not talking clothing), Pete’s one of Gold Coast food’s quiet achievers – a classically trained ‘master chef’ who has jumped the culinary fence from haute cuisine to healthy eating, leaving […]

The Woodbox Café

I walked into the Woodbox Café at West Burleigh and felt right at home. There’s that spacious ‘earth mother’ vibe going on which is rare on the Gold Coast: that of a large open country kitchen, where the bread is freshly baked, the heady aroma of coffee wafts through the room, produce picked in the […]

Govindas Pure Vegetarian, Burleigh Heads

It’s the lunchtime rush at Govindas Pure Vegetarian, Burleigh Heads, and the line runs past the counter of bain-maries to the back of the shop. We’ve heard that the food is fresh and extremely well-priced, and on a cold day we feel hungry enough to tuck into some decent vegetarian food. We’re in a group […]