Just two hours north of Brisbane, the blue-sky resort town of Noosa conjures up images of tourists twirling spanner crab linguine and clinking glasses of chardonnay in a crisp, white dining room beside the beach. While this holiday scene still plays out, especially around the main tourist thoroughfare of Hastings Street, Noosa’s culinary horizons have broadened considerably.

A night out in Noosa now might involve working your way through wagyu beef and lotus root potstickers from a Hong Kong-inspired dumpling bar or smashing mortadella-stuffed chicken parmigiana and natty wine in a hostel courtyard.

For a long time, Hastings Street was the start and end point of a Noosa holiday, with visitors rarely venturing beyond its many restaurants, cafes and boutiques.

These days, some of the best venues are scattered about town – and, like the bush turkeys that freely roam the footpaths, you’ll need to wander to find them.

Turn away from the Main Beach and head up Noosa Hill to the town’s bustling business district, Noosa Junction (aka “The Junga”), a hot spot for lively spots such as Light Years, Somedays Pizza and Sabrosa Dim Sum House.

Across town, the industrial estate in Noosaville is having a moment of its own, with new distilleries, breweries and roasteries injecting cool, urban energy into the surrounding lowlands.

Whether you’ve booked tickets to the upcoming Noosa Eat & Drink Festival – an annual event showcasing what the region has to offer – or you’re chasing the sun, sand, and surf for an endless summer, here are the best spots to eat and drink on your next visit.

Head to Gympie Terrace for Mexican

Bandita

Spanner crab pasta might be a Noosa classic, but the K’gari crustacean works just as well in a taco. At Bandita, the sweet, delicate meat is doused in a fermented green chilli sauce and served atop a crunchy Dona Cholita tostada. Specialising in wood-fired Mexican cuisine, Bandita is one of several fresh additions to Gympie Terrace, a buzzy eat street along the Noosa riverfront. Owner-chef Jason Jones, who ran the Mexican restaurant Mamasita in Melbourne, makes all the hot sauces from scratch. “Locals will bring in chillies from their backyard, and we turn them into sauces, which we name after the grower,” he says. Any remaining chillies are dehydrated into a salt, and used to coat the puffy pork chicharron or rim the spicy margs.

Unit 3, 271 Gympie Terrace, Noosaville, bandita.com.au

Noosa Industrial Estate is a hub for drinks and coffee

Seabourne Distillery

Seabourne was the name of a family-owned boat that once connected school friends Hayden Weir and Dylan Campbell, who lived on opposite sides of the Noosa River. Now, the duo run Seabourne Distillery together in Noosaville’s industrial estate, with Campbell as head distiller and creator of the award-winning Coastal Dry Gin. Inspired by the rugged coastline, the signature spirit is awash with native river mint, and a spiced undercurrent of sunrise lime, sea parsley and pepper leaf. Tourists come for a tasting or tour, while locals use the umbrella-fronted warehouse as a cocktail bar. The seasonal cocktails change every three months using produce sourced directly from farmers. When we visited, they were pouring a guava cocktail made with strawberry guava (sourced from a mate) mixed with Poolside Gin and a dash of verjus.

9 Rene Street, Noosaville, seabournedistillery.com.au

Land & Sea Brewery

Noosa’s first craft brewery, Land & Sea, opened in 2018, and its beachy, laid-back vibe and sun-bleached branding makes it feel very 1970s. Take a tour or pull up a stool in the open-air beer hall, where you can try four brews via a tasting paddle. Light, crisp beers, like Japanese rice lagers, are popular in the region, and Land & Sea’s version, brewed with 20 per cent rice, has a light body and subtle sweetness that makes it highly sessionable, as is the Juicebox IPA, which tastes like a pineapple popper. This is one of three Noosa breweries making up the “beermuda triangle” – the others are Heads of Noosa and Boiling Pot Brewery.

19 Venture Drive, Noosaville, landandseabrewery.com

Clandestino Coffee

This warehouse cafe and roastery in the Belmondos Organic Market is coffee-obsessed, if you can’t tell from the multiple grinders and high-tech brewing apparatus. Coffees are made on their easy-drinking Magneto house blend, but you can also choose from a selection of single-origin, regional and seasonal roasts. Then there are the batch brews, pour-overs, nitro cold brews, myco mochas (with mushrooms), and a tiramisu iced latte capped with a cold milk foam and savoiardi biscuit. Sit inside the bustling market, or take your espresso out to the leafy terrace, where locals sit with their dogs. While there’s no food on the menu, the Clandestino team also owns the adjacent Belmondos Kitchen, a wholefoods cafeteria where you can build your own plate. The precinct includes a bakery, as well as the fantastic Eumundi Meats butcher, which sells organic, ethically farmed meats.

Level 2, 59 Rene Street, Noosaville, clandestino.com.au

Noosa Junction for smart dinner and bar options

Sabrosa Dim Sum House

Noosa lacked a good Chinese restaurant for years. That was, until Nathan Ramsay, of nearby Somedays Pizza (which serves top pizza alongside easy-drinking natural wines), opened the glowing red Sabrosa Dim Sum House. Head chef Kaung Htet Nyein (previously a dim sum chef in Myanmar), makes his own baozi filled with shredded hoisin duck, and prawn toast made from youtiao (fried Chinese dough stick) filled with minced prawn and a fruity mango mayonnaise. There are only a handful of wine distributors in the region, prompting Ramsay to source his own from wholesalers. The restaurant has a wine room (complete with DJ booth), where you can browse the many natural and biodynamic drops on offer. Like the playlist, the 2024 One Armed Scissor Chardonnay from Margaret River has just the right amount of funk, and enough acidity to cut through the char siu pork and lap cheong fried rice.

3/26 Sunshine Beach Road, Noosa Heads, sabrosa.com.au

Atelier

You can’t help but peek inside this svelte, sand-coloured studio on Sunshine Beach Road and wonder what they sell. Designer shoes? Hand-poured candles? It’s actually wine, with the entire list – all 150 bottles – available by the glass. Little wonder the dining room looks so polished – it was originally established by Jared Clout, a fashion designer, and Chris Earngey, a property developer. The venue has since changed hands and is now run by former winemaker Mark Smith and his brother, Harry. Inspired by European wine cellars, the venue features a dramatic curved ceiling with shelves of wine flanking a long communal table, and a sheer curtain separating the interior from the street. The focus is on rare and exclusive drops available as a 75ml tasting pour or 150ml glass. There are wine-friendly snacks, including cheese, charcuterie, and fancy toasties.

Shop 3, 9 Sunshine Beach Road, Noosa Heads, atelierwinebar.com

Theo’s Social Club

Amid a sea of glamorous night spots, Theo’s Social Club stands out as a laid-back, unpretentious wine bar where you can drop in as you are for a drink or a bite. Owners Jake and Gabby McWilliams source small-batch, minimal-intervention wines in limited volumes, so there’s always something different to try. Jake was a former chef at the legendary, and now-closed, Pope Joan cafe in Melbourne, and Oakridge in the Yarra Valley, where he worked alongside influential chefs Matt Stone and Jo Barrett. His menu is relaxed and share-friendly, centred on fresh pastas and elevated toasts with toppings – think prosciutto and peach or kale pesto and pecorino, with produce sourced from nearby regenerative farm The Falls in Mapleton. It’s one of Noosa’s few late-night hangouts.

Shop 2A, 14 Sunshine Beach Road, Noosa Heads, theossocialclub.com

Somedays Pizza

If you’re looking to try the famous “Noosa Red” tomatoes while you’re here, Somedays is the place to do it. The late-night pizza joint, by Nathan Ramsay of Sabrosa Dim Sum House, uses the Doonan-grown truss tomatoes in its marinara sauce. The pizza dough is fermented for two days to develop a light, chewy texture, then topped with local ingredients – including that prized red sauce – and hand stretched mozzarella made with buffalo milk from nearby Maleny. While the pepperoni pizza is the most popular, Ramsay’s favourite is Lost in a Forest, a pizza bianca topped with sauteed porcini and brown mushrooms with goat’s cheese, chilli and lemon. Any uneaten crusts can be dipped in a ranch-inspired garlic and dill dipping sauce. There’s an impressive selection of craft beers and lo-fi wines, but if you want to blend in with the Noosa crowd, order the limoncello spritz with fresh basil.

Shop 2, 3 Sunshine Beach Road, Noosa Heads, somedayspizza.com.au

Noosa Heads for secluded dining close to the beach

Halse Lodge

Named after the former archbishop of Brisbane, Reginald Halse, this 1880-built backpackers lodge still welcomes travellers, with beautifully renovated dormitories and new private suites. But even if you’re not staying in this pale blue Queenslander, you can still kick back at the outdoor restaurant and bar. The menu is just as Aussie as the wraparound verandah and stained-glass windows, with pub fare such as a chicken parmi that trades ham for mortadella, and Mooloolaba prawn cocktail roll, lined with gem lettuce and marie rose sauce. Inside, you can shoot pool, play a round of table tennis, or put on a record in the retro-inspired lounge room.

2 Halse Lane, Noosa Heads, halselodgenoosa.com.au

Tewantin for riverfront views

Lucio’s Marina

The quickest – and most enjoyable – way to reach Lucio’s from town is by ferry, with fresh air and lapping waters to sharpen the appetite. Lucio Galletto operated his eponymous restaurant in Sydney’s Paddington for 38 years, before relocating to Tewantin in 2021. His two children, Matteo and Michela Galletto, are now at the helm. The menu features Lucio Galletto’s signature “green noodles”, last year named one of 40 defining dishes from 40 years of The Sydney Morning Herald Good Food Guide, brought into the here and now by Matteo. The latest rendition leans local with a few subtle tweaks, including a crab-stock crumble for texture and a crab-stock jelly to punch up the flavour.

3/2 Parkyn Court, Tewantin, luciosmarina.com

When to visit

Noosa has a subtropical climate, making it a pleasant place to visit year-round. The region attracts two million tourists a year, with school holidays, particularly in spring and summer, drawing the largest number of visitors. For smaller crowds, consider visiting in May or June, when the days are still warm enough to swim and the evenings remain mild.

For the full Noosa experience, time your visit to coincide with the annual Noosa Eat & Drink Festival, held this year from May 29 to June 1. The four-day festival showcases the best chefs and ingredients from the region, as well as top talent from around the country. This year’s program features chef’s tables, long lunches, beach parties and masterclasses, held by high-profile chefs from around the country, such as Louis Tikaram, Martin Boetz, Andy Allen and MasterChef fan favourite Rose Adam, among others. View the full program at noosaeatdrink.com.au.

The writer was a guest of Visit Noosa.