Tropic at Burleigh Heads delivers fabulous views and food to match

When a restaurant’s balcony furniture needs moving because the waves drummed up by Cyclone Oma are threatening to ruin it, you know the venue’s pretty close to the ocean.

The Tropic at Burleigh Pavilion on the Gold Coast.

When a restaurant’s balcony furniture needs moving because the waves drummed up by Cyclone Oma are threatening to ruin it, you know the venue’s pretty close to the ocean.

The Tropic is above pan-Asian success story Rick Shores in the freshly revamped Burleigh Pavilion, right on the beach at Burleigh Heads on the southern Gold Coast.

The view out past surfers riding the swell and north to the distant saw-toothed skyline of Surfers Paradise is the type of jaw-dropping panorama favoured by tourism commercials.

The 200-seat Tropic opened in January, following the rest of the Pavilion, which began trading just before Christmas, and it’s all going off like, well, the surf in a cyclone.

The Tropic at Burleigh Pavilion offers stunning coastal views.

The Pavilion’s casual bistro, adjacent to The Tropic, has counter service (prawns on ice, pizza, fish and chips, steak and burgers), and a terrace with picnic tables and umbrellas and it’s hectically busy on a recent Sunday.

A central kitchen services up to 550 diners across the outlets, with Guillaume Zika, former head chef of London’s Michelin-starred Hibiscus and Sydney’s Cottage Point Inn, at the helm.

The Tropic is close to full on our visit but far less frenetic; it’s a Florida-meets-Mexico, pastel-hued haven enhanced by various clusters of cactus in terracotta pots.

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Inside it’s mainly mint green chairs at wooden tables, while beyond the folding glass doors on the terrace, pink cushioned banquettes at wooden tables line the balustrade, with the rest of the retro-styled seating clustered beneath festooned party lights.

The menu is as relaxed as the sunbaking locals pegged out on the sand between the flags a few metres away.

There’s an evident decision to take good produce and let it speak for itself.

Starters include kingfish tartare with citrus dressing, dill oil and finger lime, or watermelon with curd, mint and lime.

Chunks of cured trout are decorated with tarragon leaves and accessorised by an arc of lemon yoghurt topped with little outcrops of trout roe.

Chunks of cured trout ($25) the colour of Donald Trump’s “tan” are decorated with tarragon leaves and accessorised by an arc of lemon yoghurt topped with little outcrops of trout roe.

It’s a very straightforward, fine warm-weather opener, in a similar vein to the school prawns ($23), which are crisply fried with just a very light smear of batter and served with lemon and a small pot of preserved garlic aioli.

Larger dishes include grilled lamb with coal-roasted pumpkin, goat’s curd and onion juice, and king prawns with dry vermouth butter, shellfish oil and basil.

Spanish mackerel was the market fish of the day but is served with a variety of accompliments.

Market fish, in this case seared Spanish mackerel ($36), sits over a cloud of white bean tahini amid a sea of slightly too-hard peas flecked with chives and dill.

Calzone ($23), filled with pulled pork and preserved vegetables, zucchini and fermented chilli sauce to add kick, arrives charry and hot from the wood-fired pizza oven, and is a meal in itself.

Wait staff in blue-striped aprons are welcoming, if rather rushed as lunch reaches full-pitch, although our guy is keen to make suggestions from a relatively clipped wine list that traverses the globe but keeps it accessible with more than two dozen available by the glass.

For dessert, a wedge of pineapple that’s been roasted over flame is sliced to let its sweet caramelised juice ooze into a puddle of whipped vanilla rice pudding scattered with lemon thyme.

For dessert, a wedge of pineapple that’s been roasted over flame is sliced to let its sweet caramelised juice ooze into a puddle of whipped vanilla rice pudding scattered with lemon thyme ($12). It’s terrific, while roast peaches teamed with coconut ice cream and showered with seeds and chopped pistachio ($12) is bigger flavoured but no less appealing.

The pared-back food isn’t pushing any boundaries but it’s a match for the locale and, on a blue-sky day with the waves providing the soundtrack, it’s hard to imagine a better lunch spot than The Tropic’s terrace.

The Tropic is a pastel-hued haven and inside it is maintly mint green chairs at wooden tables.

THE TROPIC

Burleigh Pavilion, 43 Goodwin Tce, Burleigh Heads

BOOK

burleighpavilion.com/the-tropic/

Ph [phone]

OPEN

From noon daily for lunch and dinner

MUST TRY

School prawns

VERDICT

Food 8

Ambience 10

Service 7

Value 7

OVERALL 8/10