Dining on the Gold Coast

There are lots of dining options on the Gold Coast, but we find that most of them have places unlikely to meet the needs of our customers. We’ve tried to give you some guidance.

Using a dining guide is rarely as easy as it should be; location within the area becomes important; breakfast, lunch or dinner have different focuses, and a family night out whilst on holidays is quite different to a special occasion dinner for two.

This is the section that has proven the most difficult for us to put together. There are lots of dining lists, but we find that most of them have places unlikely to meet the needs of our customers.

We’ve tried to give you some guidance, we have left out all the fine dining options because you can easily find good restaurants if price is not a factor.

Surf Clubs

We’ve identified 20 surf clubs which provide wholesome bistro style meals at reasonable prices, with special kid’s menus and (in most cases) very impressive views. About 10-12 years ago, I had a blog topic of finding the Gold Coast’s best steak sandwich – things may well have changed since then, but my top picks then were Rainbow Bay Surf Club, Tallebudgera Surf Club and Currumbin Vikings Surf Club.

Other Clubs

Coolangatta Tweed Golf Club famous for its family seafood buffet, this club should be on everyone’s holiday dining list.
Twin Towns Services Club with seven different dining experiences, there is sure to be somewhere here where your taste buds will be satisfied.
Currumbin RSL Club with Alley’s Restaurant and The Deck Creekside, this club has got dining out sewn up, but it also has dining at home taken care of with their La Bocca pre-prepared meals to take home and heat up!
Club Burleigh is a pub with a club (Burleigh Boardriders) within it and with lifetime membership at just $1, you are a winner with your first meal or drink.
Southport RSL Club has just about the best value daily specials line up on the whole Gold Coast, no wonder they get good write-ups!
Southport Sharks just the place to go for a feeding frenzy!

Fish 'n Chips

Almost every family holidaying on the Gold Coast has at least one fish and chips dinner whilst they are here, so we used The Weekend Edition to help us set up a special section just about the humbled “wrapped in paper” meal.

In Main Beach, there’s the renowned Peter’s Fish Market, where you can get your order and take it home, eat under the umbrellas just outside their shop, or go to one of the nearby parklands.

In Labrador there’s Charis Seafoods and in nearby Broadwater Parklands you’ll find Cafe Catalina, both with close by picnic facilities.

In Burleigh Heads, there’s Red Hot Cod and Fish Mongers, where you might be tempted to eat in nearby Justins Park at the beach. If you are in the park at dusk, you will hear a cacophony of sound from the thousands of lorikeets which gather in the pine trees every evening. Don’t worry, unlike seagulls, they won’t steal your food.

A little bit out of the way is the Jolly Roger at Mermaid Waters, well worth trying if you are in the Mermaid – Miami area.

And down at Tweed Heads, you can’t go past Get Hooked.

Restaurants

We have placed other individual restaurant links within our various locations pages, but we thought that as the following two are quite different from "usual", we'd put in a link for Miami Marketta and for Halal food.

Miami Marketta

Miami Marketta offers live music, seating for 650 people. Wednesdays (8 vendors 5pm-10pm), Fridays (20 vendors 5pm -10pm) and Saturdays 20 vendors 5pm-10pm). Miami Marketta has Spanish, Italian, Thai and French street food – as well as boutique local beer and wine, a dessert hall and live music.