And there’s plenty of competition on the Gold Coast to be crowned the king of brekky.

Providore at Marina Mirage took out the Best of the Gold Coast breakfast top gong for three years running. But they’ve been knocked off the perch this year.

Who have locals voted as the best brekky for 2018? Read on!

10. Sage Cafe Restaurant

LOCATION: 5/20 Queensland Ave, Broadbeach

Head chef Nadji Parajuli has been with Sage for about three and a half years, but says it’s when new owners took over a year ago that the Broadbeach staple stepped it up.

“We have really focused on really nice, fresh produce at an affordable price,” he says.

“Sage believes it has to be quick, affordable, healthy and tasty. The thing is we cater for people who want to spend $10 and people who want to spend $25, so we have great options for both prices. We also had a lot of tourists asking us to do a buffet, so now every weekend we do a full buffet for $19.95.”

9. Elk Espresso

LOCATION: Beachside, Oasis Shopping Centre, Broadbeach

It’s been a busy six months for this iconic cafe, who were shooed out of their Chelsea Ave premises and forced to find a new location that would retain that Elk charm.

Like everything, Andrew and Jodie Whiting nailed it, choosing the spot on the outer corner of Oasis Shopping Centre facing the beach.

Now well settled in, their first breakfast menu change is in, featuring savoury waffles with buttermilk chicken, jalapeño mayo and blackberry butter; black forest French toast with charcoal white chocolate ice cream and the nourish salad with garden greens, wild rice, celeriac apple puree, roast parsnip and more with a range of add-ons.

8. The Fresh Pantry

LOCATION: 5a/100-106 Old Pacific Highway, Oxenford

Sometimes a smiling face with breakfast is just as important as a delicious meal — The Fresh Pantry co-owner Meg Mizukoshi says their little cafe has both.

“We want people to come in and feel welcome, we try to talk to everybody, get to know them — we know you, we know your order. They’re not just customers to us. We don’t just focus on one group of people, we want everyone to feel comfortable here.

“We’ve got smaller, simple options like the bacon, egg, tomato and toast or bigger options like our haloumi, avocado and egg with tomato relish on garlic Turkish toast.

“Or we’ve got sweet waffles or pancakes. Or you can come in and just have a coffee. It’s totally up to you.”

7. Double Barrel Kitchen

LOCATION: 64 Karbunya St, Mermaid Waters

With people becoming more aware of what they put in their bodies, Jess Winters’ Double Barrel Kitchen only uses seasonal, fresh produce for its menus.

“We do keep our crowd favourites on consistently, but seasonally we change to accommodate whatever fresh produce is available,” Jess says.

“We have a good mix between more detailed dishes and the staples that people love, including our rustic avo and acai bowls. We go with the trends but our seasonal meals will be a bit more up-market.” Jess says their rustic avo.

The Double Barrel version of the smashed avocado has been their best-selling dish since day one — even when avocados hit $100 per tray.

6. Cafe Tahbella

LOCATION: 11/3 Cottonwood Pl, Oxenford

Tahlia and Annabella Marsh helped name their dad’s cafe, and those family values also helped Rodney shape his breakfast menu.

“I look at what the locals like and I think we’ve found the niche for the Oxenford area. We get a lot of families in so our famous $10 brekkie is really popular.

“It comes with bacon, eggs, tomato, toast and coffee or tea.

“We sell about 200 a week in a regular week. A lot of families are on a budget and then they’ve got the kids as well, so that’s why we do ‘kids eat free’ on Sundays.”

Cafe Tahbella also specialises in paleo meals and has vegetarian and vegan options.

5. Paddock Bakery

LOCATION: 20 Hibiscus Haven, Miami

Since taking the reins at Paddock Bakery, Chloe Watts hasn’t made many changes — she’s added The Loft upstairs and will soon unveil their new Milk Bar (more on that later) — but when you’re on to a winner, why change?

“I think the best way to describe our breakfast is classic food done exceptionally well with the freshest produce possible,” Chloe says.

TOP 10 BEST EGGS BENEDICT ON THE COAST

“At the core of it is making bread on-site in our woodfire oven and a lot of food is based around that bread and baking. We’re about taking a classic dish to the next level and not trying to be too fancy.”

Falling perfectly within that category is Paddock’s iconic Dippy Eggs.

Chloe says people are also partial to a fresh-baked breakfast doughnut.

4. Hot Shott

LOCATION: 3/17 Tedder Ave, Main Beach

With Jenna Finch taking care of business out front and Kelly Rolfe working her magic in the kitchen, Hot Shott has become a well-oiled machine serving fun but balanced breakfasts.

“Kelly travelled the world for eight years, so knows what she’s doing,” Jenna says.

“Her style is playful and elegant but still approachable, not pretentious.

“Like our smoking trout dish with the cloche, it’s not just food on the plate or eating, it’s a whole experience that makes food fun.

“You eat with all your senses so we try to wrap it all up in one.”

The smoking trout dish consists of rainbow trout with smashed avo and more on sourdough, covered with a dome so the aromas burst out when the customer lifts the lid.

3. Mr Brown’s Tuckshop

LOCATION: 5/7 Brown St, Labrador

This Labrador gem is self-described as a “tuckshop for big kids,” featuring a menu that is reminiscent of a childhood canteen, but developed with subtle Japanese and Chinese influences.

“We’ve got all the favourites — eggs benny and a big brekkie — and everything is made from scratch. We don’t want people to eat stuff that we don’t know what’s in it,” owner Robert Barker says.

“And my partner Chee (Ling Yap), her mum is Japanese and her dad is Chinese, so we have dishes that incorporate that too.

“The Chinese style fried rice is one, with egg omelette and oyster sauce gravy and the rice is bacon and shiitake rice so it has a breakfast feel to it.”

Robert says their healthy breakfast bowl with Asian dressing is their bestseller and their coffee is “exceptional”.

2. Bam Bam Bakehouse

LOCATION: 2519 Gold Coast Hwy, Mermaid Beach

It’s an all too familiar scene.

Hungry breakfastgoers line up to order at Bam Bam’s counter, right beside a tauntingly delicious cabinet full of freshly baked pastries and cakes.

They order their breakfast and upon losing an inner battle with their self discipline, add to the end

“And a salted caramel eclair to go!”

Dessert for breakfast is perfectly acceptable at Bam Bam, but owner Ursula Watts says their croissant creations are still No. 1.

“Our eggs benny on a croissant is still our bestseller and that’s what we’ve become known for. But there’s no laurel sitting, we are constantly creating new items. It’s very much a creative outlet for us.”

1. Cardamom Pod

LOCATION: Brickworks, 3/3 Brolga Ave, Southport

The breakfast dishes at Cardamom Pod are not only worthy of winning best breakfast, but they could also take out a prize at an art show.

With a 100 per cent plant based kitchen, the dishes produced at the cruelty free eatery dispel every myth about vegan food being bland and boring.

While the restaurant is owned by Sean and Manju Pinnell, Sean attributes the food success to head chef Manju.

“Most of the creative ideas come from head chef Manju,” he says.

“What she does is watches shows, keeps up with things that people are doing all around the world and uses those ideas and innovations, but veganises them.

“One of the things she does really well is what she calls pretty food, really works on creating dynamic colours.

“Certain mixes that brings out a certain tone — like a food artist.”

Almost every dish on the breakfast menu is a canvas of edible colour and texture, with dense flavours and substantial servings.

But Manju has had to get very creative to achieve these colours using only natural colours — vibrant royal blues, striking pinks and purples, even strong oranges and yellows — no colour is unattainable.

“We live by the mantra ‘eat the rainbow’, so we use lots of colours and flowers,” Manju says. “Things like blue spurillina, pink pitaya, turmeric, ube (purple yam), beetroot and unique flavours from maca, coconut sugar, Lucuma and doterra essential oils.

“The most popular would be the Snickers and original acai bowls, the avo benny, waffles and pancakes.

“The presentation is very pretty and Instagrammable, it tastes as good as it looks, everything is homemade from scratch and a we use a lot of healthy ingredients.”