Waterfront dining on the Gold Coast is a favourite pastime of locals and always a great pleasure for visitors. Let Michael Von Backstrom take you on his waterfront gastronomic journey.
Tipplers Cafe
I fell in love with an old favourite all over again, thanks to Rebecca, Scott and their team who have been serving up soul-warming meals to the boating community, local families and visitors to the Gold Coast since its reopening in 2012. Like many Gold Coasters, I’ve had a longstanding love affair with Tipplers Cafe. Perhaps it’s not as flamboyant as other restaurants on the Gold Coast. But in my view, it definitely has the most idyllic and picturesque address. What a perfect boatie eatery! A family-friendly (licensed) destination with live entertainment, great Vittoria coffee and delicious food (whilst totally) engulfed by nature.
With every cruise to South Straddie, I am forever drawn to Tipplers due to all it has to offer, whether you’re dropping anchor, pulling up on the sand or mooring. ***The kids play in the sand, the water and run around on the island while mom and dad sit back, enjoy the entertainment and soak up the nature while eating great food with their toes in the sand. It is indeed a very relaxed atmosphere where time almost stands still.
The Café is open seven days a week (week days 9am – 8pm and weekends 7:30 – 8pm) and offer an impressive range of menu options for breakfast, brunch, lunch and dinner. Some great seafood options like fresh local snapper (prepared in a number of ways), calamari, and let us not forget the café’s Fisherman’s Basket.
Overall, the whole experience of pulling up on the sand with the sun on your back and soaking up the utopian tropical island beach atmosphere with the entertainment in the background, some ice cold refreshments, and then having a burger make your toes curl up in the sand under one of the many picnic-style tables in the shade of a huge palm tree. The whole shebang is something I highly recommend to anyone and everyone out there. This should be one of your bucket list activities, and remains one that I’m not ticking off just yet.
Glass Dining & Lounge Bar
If the perfect backdrop with award-winning dining and impeccable service you’re after, look no further, because Glass Dining & Lounge Bar at the Marina Mirage is the answer.
Having perfected the art of intimate meals, award-winning fare, and great service, Glass is also home to one of the most sought-after views of the Gold Coast. By day or by night, the iconic views over the Broadwater from this harbour establishment are simply stunning. The fully stocked cocktail bar, extensive wine list and stunning sunset views are the ideal complement for dining either inside the restaurant or al fresco on the deck overlooking the marina.
The range of different luxe spaces at Glass Dining & Lounge Bar makes an ideal venue for events of any nature—big or small—from private intimate dinner parties, wedding or birthday celebrations to large corporate functions for up to 220 guests.
And then there’s the food. Executive chef Ben Armstrong heads the illusion of magicians in the kitchen who prepare “modern Australian dishes”. Ben adapts the menu with each change of season and presents an inspiring range of fresh seasonal produce, finest meats and fresh local seafood.
Artichoke
Artichoke Restaurant on Ephraim Island at Paradise Point, one of the Gold Coast’s most stunning locations, is one of the region’s most standout dining venues. Floor-to-ceiling glass affords sparkling water views on all sides of the restaurant, providing a memorable backdrop to any occasion—be it a special function, a light lunch with the family, or just a glass of wine with that special someone. Artichoke also offers a private dining room that can be used for functions or a private dining experience. Menus can be constructed to personal specification or price structure. Wine tastings, business meetings or any other kind of event can be hosted with a tailored menu to suit.
Owner, operator and executive chef Grant Madgwick takes food and the dining experience to the next level, reinventing the foundations of beautiful cuisine and presentations. The menu incorporates fusion of mainly French, Italian, Indian and Asian cuisines in almost a molecular gastronomy or modernist cuisine cooking style. It is good to see that Grant and his team have not taken their experiments to the extreme (unlike others who have, running around like crazy scientists in lab coats and cooking in test tubes over Bunsen burners to produce liquefied mushrooms or venison vapour). He incorporates very modern experimental cooking styles and explores new flavour combinations, enhancement and presentation, revolutionizing traditional methods into a new sensory experience with a modern edge. In these moving times,it is very gratifying to come across chefs who challenge themselves, their produce and traditions by stepping it up a few notches, making them inventors, trend-setters and leading them way ahead of the following pack.
All dishes on Artichoke’s three-page menu (roughly twenty dishes without the daily specials) are roughly 250g in weight making them slightly larger than the average entrée. This encourages a multi dish dining experience second to none and most patrons enjoy up to six, or even seven, of these unique dishes during one sitting, taking them on a mind-blowing gastronomical journey.
Each and every dish was absolutely gastronomical and uniquely different. The colours, textures and flavour combinations took me on an amazing culinary roller-coaster ride. And if only I could, I would have worked my way right through the whole menu. They will definitely see me again soon—before the menu changes—to take care of some unfinished business. I strongly urge everyone to do the same. Thank you for having us, Grant, and for leading the industry in such a different direction.
vie Bar+Restaurant
Palazzo Versace Gold Coast is everything you would expect in a hotel from the world of Versace: an exclusive waterfront setting, spectacular architecture, Italian craftsmanship, extraordinary service and an ambiance of pure opulence. It is home to three award-winning restaurants of which Vie Bar+Restaurant stands out the most for us due to its breathtaking views of the yachts, the marina and the Broadwater.
The Vie menu is contemporary, with some classic French and Italian influences that offer a touch of modern pizazz.
(For the full review, read our August-October 2016 edition.)
