Five of the Best places to eat in Oxenford

You probably drive straight through it but this suburb, famous as the home to theme parks and movies, has some haunts that deserve star billing.

Ginger, Indian restaurant at Oxenford for Taste Gold Coast

YOU probably drive straight through it but this suburb, famous as the home to theme parks and movies, has some haunts that deserve star billing.

Terrarium

Shop 1/141 Maudsland Road

Terrarium Cafe, Oxenford. Picture Mike Batterham

After three years operating in its sunlit corner of the Maudsland Shopping Centre, owner Petrina Walker has learned it’s difficult to change up the Terrarium menu too much because customers keep asking when their favourites are coming back.

“The French toast with bacon and banana would be in that category,” she says.

She says she’s hit on a formula of serving simple, fresh, high quality food that locals appreciate and has also seen the demand for vegan and special dietary requirement foods grow exponentially.

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“I made a promise when I opened that I would cater for special diets even though it can make service harder because I would want that if it was me,” she says.

Along the way, Terrarium has made an unexpected name for itself for its cakes and baked goods, particularly the raw cheesecakes.

In fact the call for special order cakes became so persistent Petrina has finally committed to making them. “It means a double shift after I close the cafe but I just had so many inquiries,” she says. You heard it here first!

Black Sheep Bistro

2/108 Old Pacific Highway

Char Kway Teow at Black Sheep Bistro, Oxenford.

Black Sheep is making the most of its alfresco vibe, opening Thursday to Saturday nights for dinner during summer.

Owner Sian Bressolles says the dinner bistro menu features set-price nibbles, entrees, mains and desserts designed to please all tastes and dietary requirements.

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“We do a New Zealand porterhouse steak; a pork and prawn char kway teow, a tasty Malaysian noodle dish; the vegan Tijuana tostadas with wild mushrooms and there’s Atlantic salmon with a classic Nicoise salad,” Sian says.

Black Sheep is keeping up the pace with its brekkie and lunch trade as well. Sian suggests the South African bobotie savoury mince for something a little different for breakfast and says the salmon poke bowl is always a lunchtime favourite.

Cafe Tahbella

Oxenford Village, 11/3 Cottonwood Place

Fresh food offerings at Café Tahbella, Oxenford.

Cafe Tahbella is a family-friendly favourite and was one of two Oxenford gems to win a spot on this year’s Best of the Gold Coast brekkie list.

Its new $10 weekly lunch specials, four meals that change fortnightly, and its kids-eat-free on Sunday (there are conditions) tick the box for treating the family without raiding the piggy bank.

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Breakfast at Café Tahbella, Oxenford.

Owner Rod Marsh says he makes a point of catering for all dietary requirements: paleo, vegetarian, gluten-free, so no-one’s left out.

“The corn fritter stack is always popular for breakfast and I do a protein power brekkie too with chicken, fetta, eggs, spinach mushrooms and hollandaise — the bodybuilders like that one,” he says.

All the dressings, sauces and desserts are homemade and it’s open seven days from 7am.

The Fresh Pantry

100-106 Old Pacific Highway

Waffles with Nutella and strawberries with praline crumb and homemade ice cream from The Fresh Pantry, Oxenford.

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This family-run cafe flew the other Oxenford flag in this year’s Gold Coast’s best breakfast vote.

The Fresh Panty is the passion project of two chefs Glen Latchford and Meg Mizukoshi who make everything on site, except for the bread.

They’ve just launched their new menu but knew better than to mess too much with the perennial favourites.

“Our waffles are very popular so we’ve changed them a little to nutella and strawberries with peanut praline,” Glen says. We’ve kept the avo and haloumi and our eggs Benedict but we’ve brought in quite a few new ideas just to keep things fresh.”

Acai bowl with maple nut crunch from The Fresh Pantry, Oxenford.

Glen says The Fresh Pantry tries to deliver on customer experience, something he finds missing in many businesses these days.

“We get a lot of regulars and part of that is making them feel welcome,” he says. “We put a lot of love and passion into our own cafe after working for other people for many years. It was our dream to have a cafe and hopefully that shows.”

Ginger Indian Restaurant

7/141 Maudsland Road

Spiced delight at Ginger, Indian restaurant at Oxenford.

This locals’ favourite enjoys educating its customers on the wide offerings of Indian food to coax them out of their curry comfort zones.

“We have two special entrees and two special mains every two weeks,” co-owner Surinder Rana says.

“Some people can be restricted in their choice of Indian dishes so we like encouraging them to try new things.”

The quality of the food is all important at Ginger. Sauces are made from fresh tomatoes rather than canned and spices are ground by hand and specially mixed for each dish.

Entree at Ginger Indian restaurant, Oxenford.

Surinder and his partner Rajesh Sharma came from hotel management backgrounds in India and, with their chef Suresh Rathore, opened Ginger three years ago to fulfil their vision of having their own restaurant.

“We wanted it to be relaxed, for us to have good connections with our customers and to have high quality food,” he says. “That’s always very important for us.”