Best of the Gold Coast 2017: 13 healthy food cafes in the city

SPRING cleaning your diet doesn’t have to be a chore. Here’s 13 cafes on the Gold Coast that make healthy eating a piece of cake (a refined-sugar-free piece).

Grocer and Grind does a mean healthy meal

SPRING cleaning your diet doesn’t have to be a chore.

Chantay Logan finds 13 cafes that make healthy eating a piece of cake (a refined-sugar-free piece)

Blendlove

LOCATION: 1/253 Ferry Rd, Southport

Blendlove’s cheezecakes, which are vegan and free from gluten, wheat, refined sugar, dairy and soy, use organic rice malt syrup so they don’t spike your blood sugar levels and cause the dreaded post-treat crash.

You’ll have trouble choosing from the array of flavours. Also roll up for rainbow rolls — beetroot vermicelli noodles, avocado, mint, cucumber, carrot, marinated ginger tofu steaks and capsicum wrapped in transparent rice paper — and better-for-you burgers.

Blendlove in Southport has created a healthy gluten free, dairy free, vegan burger

Berry-Licious Pancakes at Blendlove Cafe. Picture: Jerad Williams

Niche & Co

LOCATION: 4/449 Golden Four Drive, Tugun

We fell in love with their acai bowls first, but there’s a whole(food) lot more going on at this southern health hub.

With no fryers or over-processed ingredients in the kitchen, owner Haines Osborne takes the guesswork out of ordering. “Our vegan poke-style lunch bowl has been popular and the favourite in the frozen bowl world is the salted caramel acai bowl.

It combines the antioxidants of acai with dates and vegan protein and also boasts our vegan chocolate mousse and caramel sauce, which is to die for.”

Wash it down with the prettiest pink tea latte — a sugar-free strawberry-infused tea made with macadamia milk and a beetroot and hibiscus flavour booster — or the Coco Deluxe, a shot of espresso dropped over ice into a fresh coconut.

Niche & Co have created 'Vegan Eggs' that look like eggs, has a yolk, and has the same texture. Photo: Steve Holland

BSKT Cafe

LOCATION: 4 Lavarack Rd, Mermaid Beach

Developing a healthy obsession with CocoWhip is pretty much a Gold Coast rite of passage and the vegan bio-fermented soft serve is just one of the things we have to thank this beachside institution for.

Housing everything from yoga classes to smoothies and superfood bars, if your body is your temple, BSKT is where you worship.

They’re continually innovating, but that doesn’t stop us coming back for classics like the Navajo native breakfast.

BSKT Cafe’s salmon poke bowl. Photo: Two Birds Social

Stones Throw Cafe

LOCATION: 1823 Gold Coast Hwy, Burleigh Heads

Sugarloaf cabbage, fenugreek and sweet potato waffles loaded with avo, greens, a poached egg and whipped fetta — the savoury breakfast dish is just a taste of chef Cameron Chartres’ creativity.

“I eat healthy and I like to pass that on through my cooking … and I’m really into spices.”

For lunch try the poke bowl or hoke bowl (“that’s sort of the cooked version of poke with teriyaki salmon and pickled veg”), or the bibimbap with warm, crunchy brown rice and braised beef.

Stones Throw's dish the Bimimbap. Picture: Jerad Williams

Caffe Republic

LOCATION: Bronberg Plaza, 1/138-162 Slatyer Ave, Bundall

There’s nobody we’d rather trust with our tastebuds than Caffe Republic’s Peter Dufty.

“We only use real ingredients and we make a lot of our more interesting menu items in-house from scratch, so we know exactly what goes into them. We offer something for everyone whether they need to be gluten or dairy free, free of refined sugars, low carb, high fat, paleo, keto, vego, vegan or have absolutely none of the above parameters.

Caffe Republic at Bundall. Picture Mike Batterham

“Regardless, the No. 1 priority for our food is taste. No diet or lifestyle choice should come at the sacrifice of flavour, freshness or quality.”

TOP 10 BEST RAW FOOD SPOTS ON COAST

The perks of that philosophy include pork belly with cauliflower nasi goreng, “clean” gluten-free karaage chicken and a body-loving burrito.

“The coconut tortilla is made daily in-house then it’s filled with pulled, slow-cooked chicken thighs and cauliflower rice that we season with a combination of smoky tomato salsa and raw chipotle sauce made from blending up soaked cashews.

“The sauces make it creamy, tangy, spicy and rich without leaving you feeling bloated or sickly like traditional oil-based mayonnaises.

“We top it with lime-scented guacamole and a jalepeno and organic quinoa salsa.

“It will satisfy that junk food craving without leaving you bloated or sick in the stomach.”

Drop in after a workout for a 97-calories-per-serve scoop of CocoWhip.

“We use it in smoothies or on the side of our homemade vegan raw cheezecakes,” Peter says.

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Goji Granola Bar and Cafe

LOCATION: 7/60 Santa Cruz Blvd, Clear Island Waters

This comfortable cafe is all about options.

Its menu sprawls from vegan, gluten free and dairy free dishes, cold-pressed juices and vegan sweets to the full bacon benedict experience.

Goji Granola Bar

“When you have different preferences to your friends or family, you can still come to us together as we offer something for everyone,” owner Monica Tjong says.

“We also have a coconut-based dog ice cream that is made with natural ingredients, dairy free and sugar free.”

Goji’s head chef creates his own coco soft flavours, inspired by his grandpa in Italy who owned an ice cream shop.

They include the hangover-busting charcoal (which tastes like its coconut-water base) and the exotic ube (purple yam).

“Not many people here know what ube is yet,” Monica says.

“We use it a lot in Asia to make cakes, ice cream and desserts. Ube is actually a root vegetable with a subtle nutty flavour and deep purple colour, containing lots of nutrients, vitamins and minerals.”

Cardamom Pod

LOCATION: 1/2685-2689 Gold Coast Hwy, Broadbeach and 3/3 Brolga Ave, Southport

This plant powerhouse uses colour and creativity to change perceptions of vegetarian fare.

Head to the Brickworks cafe for impossibly beautiful a la carte dishes and hit up Broadbeach for wholesome lunch and dinner options (try the rainbow party salad), plus weekend a la carte breakfasts.

Both do smoothie bowls that will blow you away. To sweeten the deal, the Broadbeach base incorporates Mylk Bar, serving up sundae-style sensations with no gelatin, eggs, milk products, sugar, preservatives or anything artificial.

French toast has become the top seller at Cardamom Pod Brickworks. The chia drenched French toast with roast green apple ice cream, blackberry compote, salted caramel sauce and Anzac cookie crumble. Picture: Jerad Williams

Grocer & Grind

LOCATION: 1/1 Sunshine Blvd, Broadbeach Waters

Does eating healthy ever make you feel like you’re missing out?

Grocer & Grind has an array of appetising antidotes for your food FOMO, starting with mud-cake waffles.

Feast your eyes on banana protein pancakes piled with fruit, flower-strewn smoothie bowls and sunrise-shaded juices. They also do dinner next door … at NXT Door. That’s where you’ll find cocktails made from cold-pressed juice (sugar free apart from natural nectars) and organic wine.

Ever feel like a cocktail but know it's not good for you? Grocer and Grind is coming to the rescue of healthy alcoholics with their cold pressed juices which can be made into fancy cocktails for a guilt free but still highly enjoyable drink. Picture: Glenn hampson

MRKT strEAT Cafe

LOCATION: 6/43 Hillcrest Parade, Miami

MRKT supplies around 35 local cafes with their gluten and dairy free delights, but you can go straight to the source for a slice of heaven.

“We don’t bake, fry or cook anything, it’s completely raw, so every product contains the maximum nutritional value and captures the flavour of the ingredients,”

MRKT owner Tomas Frana says of specialties including cherry ripe, peanut butter, choc mint, tiramisu and caramel slice.

“The majority of ingredients are organic from Gold Coast farmers or surrounding areas.”

MRKT is a Gold Coast superfoods company who make delicious and healthy desserts.

Marie Anita’s

LOCATION: 2364 Gold Coast Highway, Mermaid Beach

This Mermaid cafe bakery is home to the most comprehensive gluten-free menu on the Gold Coast.

Absolutely everything, from the buckwheat pancakes to the raw organic spaghetti bolognaise, is free of gluten and refined sugar.

If you’re hunting for gluten-free bread, their range of beautifully flavoured artisan loaves rise to the occasion. Check out the cabinet for raw cakes and paleo treats

Gluten-free cafe and bakery Marie Anita is at Mermaid Beach. Photo by Richard Gosling

Nude Sisters Whole Food Kitchen

LOCATION: 3/90 Markeri St, Mermaid Waters

Life’s too short, eat the cake. Scrawled on a whitewashed wall, it’s a reminder to those visiting Nude Sisters to get their priorities straight … you’ve got to be quick to get the pick from this tempting treat cabinet.

The rich range of raw, vegan cakes and desserts is the main attraction at the base of best friends Georgia Homer and Bec Askey.

A vegetarian breakfast, lunch and drink menu expands on the sweet specialty. Munch on house- roasted coconut and maple granola, DIY Vietnamese roll-ups or a veggie burger and choose from nourishing brews.

Nude Sisters Whole Food Kitchen.

Raw Espresso

LOCATION: 59/73 Meron St, Southport

While this Southport stop has got you covered when it comes to a convenient coffee or cold brew hit, that’s just scratching the surface of the cafe’s liquid assets.

Sip a soothing organic Prana Chai latte, fuel up on fresh juice or swap your standard cuppa for one with a healthy twist. Matcha, for example, has 137 times more antioxidants than a standard cup of green tea. Raw Espresso does yummy acai bowls too.

Raw Espresso offers different coloured coffee. Picture Mike Batterham

Meraki Whole Food Kitchen

LOCATION: 55 Brooke Avenue, Chirn Park

We all know hollandaise is the most important part of eggs benedict and you can enjoy it without the guilt thanks to Meraki’s house-made vegan, sugar-free cashew version. It gets better: chocolate for breakfast. Tuck into gluten-free chocolate protein pancakes drizzled in a decadent sauce. The menu’s handy index of calories, carbs, fat and protein helps in making those executive decisions.

Meraki Whole Food Kitchen’s eggs benny. Picture Glenn Hampson