Five of the best: Oxenford restaurants and cafes
THE perfect compromise between country and city, where a friendly smile and hearty homemade goodness are a given. Here are the foodie favourites in Oxenford.
Best of Gold Coast
Don't miss out on the headlines from Best of Gold Coast. Followed categories will be added to My News.
THE perfect compromise between country and city, where a friendly smile and hearty homemade goodness are a given. Here are the foodie favourites in Oxenford.
Terrarium
1/141 Maudsland Road
Petrina Walker started Terrarium just over a year ago and the cafe has given her a taste for the local lifestyle.
“Thirteen years I’ve been on the Gold Coast and this is the first time I’ve felt like a part of a community,” she says.
“I guess what really stood out to me here is the outdoors lifestyle of our customers; conversations are about their animals or horses or veggie gardens or fruit trees.
“They don’t talk about other people unless it’s positive and supportive.”
Terrarium’s menu revolves around the classics.
“Our food is simple, honest, fresh and wholesome,” Petrina says.
“We have two chefs and it basically just comes from what we want to eat when we go out.
“The cakes have quite a cult following, which is funny – I had to learn to bake because I had an empty cake cabinet.”
Black Sheep Bistro
2/108 Old Pacific Highway
Sian Bressolles opened Black Sheep Bistro in December 2013 after realising Oxenford was missing out on the foodie fun its neighbours were enjoying.
“I worked on the Gold Coast for seven years and in Brisbane for 13 years so I’ve seen the city and I’ve seen the beach and the people in between get left out,” Sian says.
“We chose Oxenford because we saw that there wasn’t any alternative dining here at the time. It was very cookie-cutter style cafe, restaurants and franchises.
“There was nothing unique, nothing that catered to the market.”
Sian prides herself on creating a cafe environment that’s inviting, friendly and serves good wholesome food.
“We’re not here to set any trends we just want to do great quality food – comfort food
and traditional family eating,” she says.
“It’s fresh country-style food but made modern and everything’s prepared on-site and from scratch.
“We’re busy all the time so nothing sits around.”
Cafe Tahbella
Oxenford Village, 11/3 Cottonwood Place
Cafe Tahbella is the love child of Rod and Emma Marsh, so aptly named after their two little girls, Tahlia and Annabella.
Their focus on family recently won them best kid friendly cafe in Gold Coast Bulletin’s Best of the Gold Coast series.
“We’re about half paleo here, so the kids will eat the muffins and they don’t realise there’s zucchini and carrot in them,” Rod says.
“Or they’ll eat my paleo chocolate beetroot cake with cacao and say they like it better than the actual mud cake.
“They’re happy eating food that’s actually good for them and not realising it and their parents are happy because they see we’re not just feeding their kids chicken nuggets.”
Good value is also high on Rod’s list of priorities.
“Kids eat free every Sunday when an adult is eating, so parents can come in and get good-quality food cheap for them and free for their kids,” Rod says.
The Fresh Pantry
100-106 Old Pacific Highway
Family-run cafes tend to be effortlessly warm and inviting and that’s exactly the vibe The Fresh Pantry radiates. No wonder Margot Robbie chose to pay them a visit last month.
“We’re a small family business, my partner Glen (Latchford) and I are chefs and my brother in law Ayden (Latchford) is the barista and waiter,” says co-owner Meg Mizukoshi.
“I was at Royal Pines and my partner Glen was at the InterContinental – we’d make food for thousands of people but we’d never get to see them or talk to them.
“Here we can talk to everyone and say ‘Hey, how are you?’ and get to know people. We can make people happy.”
Being their first venture and completely family run, Meg says all three of them pour their heart and soul into it each day.
“Because we’re a small business we take a lot of pride in what we do – make sure everything is perfect,” she says.
“We get a lot of local customers; they’re very friendly and nice always helping and supporting each other. Everything here homemade and they enjoy that.”
The Fresh Pantry boasts scrumptious cakes and slices, but Meg says the customer’s favourite would have to be the high tea, with sweet and savoury goodies at about half the price of similar establishments.
Ginger Indian Restaurant
7/141 Maudsland Road
Rajesh Sharma and Surinder Rana decided to open Ginger Indian Gourmet Restaurant after a long history in hotels and hospitality.
“Me and my partner are from the hotel industry and did hotel management in India where we worked for five years in five-star hotels,” Rajesh says.
“When we moved here we did our Australian hospitality study then worked here in hotels again, but I decided I wanted to do my own thing, for my career to go ahead.”
Close friend Suresh Rathore is the head chef in the kitchen and does things a little differently to many Indian restaurants to ensure customers eat authentic food.
“The main thing is we don’t compromise with the food, everything we make fresh here,” Rajesh says.
“We don’t buy the big cans of tomato purees – we have 60-80kg of fresh tomatoes delivered and make the puree fresh. All the spices we grind here so you get the really nice flavour and all the vegetables we don’t buy frozen we do it all here.”
Despite not being on the Gold Coast for long, all three men have found Oxenford to be a warm and welcoming place.
“The clients are locals so it’s just word of mouth and they’re really happy with what we’re doing,” Rajesh says.
“Oxenford is a really nice place and the response from people is very good. They really seem to love our food.”
The convenient compromise between country and city, Margot Robbie was on to something when she chose to lunch at Oxenford, write Sally Coates
Blueberry facials, black salt coat treatments: Doggy spa named as best on the Coast
A luxurious pet spa has been named the best dog groomer on the Gold Coast, securing 21 per cent of the Bulletin reader-voted poll. See the top five.
Top five burgers on the Gold Coast named
This northern Gold Coast burger joint has been named the best in the region for the second year in a row. Find out who won.