Gold Coast five of the best: the city’s top winter warmer dishes

Fact: We burn more calories in winter, so Best of the Gold Coast has found five of the best comfort dishes for keeping the hunger pains at bay.

Fact: we burn more calories in winter, so Amber Macpherson has found five of the best comfort dishes for keeping the hunger pains at bay.

Beef pho

Can Tho Kitchen, Runaway Bay

Can Tho Kitchen's beef pho is a delicious winter warmer.

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Can Tho Kitchen owner Tara Nguyen says the drop in mercury has diners slurping beef pho by the bowlful. “Over the last couple of weeks when the cold hit, our noodle soup has been going off,” Tara says. The steamy soup is a 48-hour slow cooked broth made from beef brisket, bones, charred onion and spices, and is garnished with bean sprouts, basil, shallots, red onion and lime. “We had a group of Vietnamese people in a few days ago. They were a bit reluctant to order it, as they always are — they think no one’s going to cook pho as well as at home,” Tara says. “They didn’t expect it to be so good. This is home cooked pho, it’s hard to replicate.”

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Spicy curries

Kokum, Palazzo Versace, Main Beach

Indian restaurant Kokum has a range of mild and spicy curries to heat you up from the inside out.

Is there anything more satisfying than a hot curry in winter? Main Beach Indian restaurant Kokum has created a trio of dishes especially for warming up when the chill hits. “Some of the options are kadai chicken, Kashmiri lamb, paneer makhni,” Kokum chef Sabir Merchant says. “They are all made with locally sourced fresh baby vegetables. They are rich in clarified butter, onion and tomato gravy, whole spices like black cardamom, cinnamon stick and saffron. We use lemon myrtle, pepper berries and lemon aspen in these curries to balance the chilli and sugars in the recipes.”

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Lamb cutlets

Nahm Kitchen and Bar

New Broadbeach restaurant Nahm Kitchen and Bar — smoked lamb cutlets in a choochee curry sauce with snake beans and kaffir-lime leaves.

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Broadbeach newcomer Nahm Kitchen and Bar serves up a menu full of sizzling and spicy Thai food, ideal for raising the body temperature from the inside out. There’s plenty of classic curries and stir fries to whet your appetite, but the smoked lamb cutlets dish is the cream of the crop. Resting in ChooChee curry sauce and cooked with snake beans and Kaffir lime leaves, its flavours will stay with you until summer.

Beef and Guinness stew

D’Arcy Arms, Surfers Paradise

Beef and Guinness stew from Irish pub D'Arcy Arms.

Even at the best of times Ireland is a frosty country, so trust its inhabitants when they say they’ve got the real deal warm-up meals. Surfers Paradise’s D’Arcy Arms Irish pub is serving the Celtic nation’s beef and Guinness stew all winter, a saucy, slow cooked supper with roast vegetables and crusty bread for mopping up every morsel. Enjoy it by the pub’s fire for a cozy winter wind down.

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PP’s pasta

Mr PP’s Deli and Rooftop Bar, Southport

Southport restaurant Mr PP's is known for its Italian delights, including the beef cheek ragu fusilli.

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Permission to eat carbs. Winter is here and you need the energy to get you through the frosty nights, so Mr PP’s Deli and Rooftop restaurant has a dish that’s just what the doctor ordered. The Southport restaurant’s fusilli pasta comes with beef cheek ragu, onion, blistered tomato, lardons, rich pan juices, Grana Padano and basil. But wait, it gets better — purchase a drink on Wednesday nights and you can eat all the pasta they’ve got for $20. Challenge accepted.