When did Gold Coast dining get good?

Ask local operators, and many will tell you it goes back to the Global Financial Crisis in 2007 and 2008, and the subsequently high Australian dollar, which caused the backside to fall out of the tourist market.

The city pivoted to focus on servicing locals, and a bunch of new precincts began to coalesce, bringing with them a new wave of restaurants, bars and cafés (which then in turn helped attract tourists back to town).

It’s still two steps forward and one back at times, with venues sometimes disappearing as fast as they arrive. But you could argue that’s just the Australian hospitality industry right now, and there’s little doubt the food and drink scene in the country’s sixth-largest city has never been better.

Here’s what you need to check out the next time you’re on the Gold Coast.

In the morning…

The Bread Social, Tweed Heads

This place heaves from the early morning, punters queuing out the door for Tom Scott, Sam Saulwick and Paul Giddings’ flaky, buttery pastries and organic sourdough.

There’s a clutch of seats inside and out but perhaps consider this a grab-and-go place for a quick breakfast and coffee (although, fair warning, the one espresso machine has trouble keeping up with the avalanche of orders, so anticipate a wait at busy times). At lunch, a short menu of imaginative sandwiches, pizza, parcels and a daily bagel takes over.

Paddock Bakery, Burleigh Heads

What started as a mere bakery in 2014 is these days a Gold Coast institution. Set in a fabulous old window-lined weatherboard house, Paddock deals in a variety of fresh breads, croissants and doughnuts.

There’s also a brunch menu that features dishes such as a toad in the hole in a semi-sourdough scotch loaf, a Benedict bagel and a double bacon cheeseburger. Locals will often grab and go but a seat in the shady front yard makes for peak Coast people watching.

Tarte Bakery and Café, Currumbin

There are two Tartes, one in Burleigh and one in Currumbin, but the latter is the pick. A seat at this sprawling weatherboard venue, watching locals jump from Thrower Drive Bridge into Currumbin Creek, is pretty much a must-do on the Coast.

You have options here: Tarte Beach House with its elevated brunches is the more formal affair, and you’d be wise to book ahead. But stopping by the walk-in bakery on the lower level for a speciality pastry and coffee is just as charming – it’s busy but the tables turn quickly.

Stable, Tugun

Set inside the Richards and Spence designed Cornerstone Stores is this slick café, which has become a local go-to based on a breakfast menu that includes dishes such as bush dukkah avo on toast, a Szechuan chilli scramble and a smoked salmon tartine with dill cream cheese, pink pickled onion, capers and lemon cress.

Coffee is by Melbourne’s Seven Seeds, and it’s backed smoothies and freshly squeezed juices. A seat in the courtyard followed by a peruse of the natty speciality stores elsewhere in the precinct is Gold Coast go-to.

Elk Espresso, Broadbeach

Look for the twin mint-green coffee machines on Surf Parade and you’ve found this heaving café. There are no bookings but don’t sweat it: the tables turn quickly on the back of its efficient service. Dishes are produce-driven and change seasonally, and boozy brunches kick off from 10am. Coffee is Elk’s own blend by Brisbane’s Parallel, plus there’s a regular rotation of guest roasters. Staying in Broadbeach? Make this your regular.

Bam Bam Bakehouse, Mermaid Beach

Hidden beneath an unprepossessing building in Mermaid Beach is this French-style bakery. Bam Bam’s three-day made croissants come in a bunch of varieties, and there are also Nutella chow bombs and an array of tarts.

More substantial menu items include a barbecue bacon and egg banh mi, a sourdough Benedict, sweetcorn fritters and nasi goreng. Settle in for breakfast and take away a stack of pastries for the afternoon.

In the evening…

Restaurant Labart, Burleigh Heads

Labart may not live among Burleigh Heads’ Instagrammable beachside stars, but then it doesn’t need to, given Alex Munoz Labart and wife Karla Labart’s eponymous restaurant is among the Coast’s very best.

Labart has loosened its tie a little in recent times, expanding the menu to include more snacks and entrées, and adding an outside dining area, but the fundamentals are still the same: produce-driven plates cooked via a clever mix of techniques, and served in an Euro-inspired dining room of teal walls, tanned leather banquettes and semi-industrial light fittings. For drinks, there’s a wine list broad in its appeal and the effortless, knowledgeable service is some of the best around. Essential.

Palette, Surfers Paradise

Gallery restaurants aren’t meant to be this good, but HOTA’s in-house Palette is 100 per cent the real deal. Chef Dayan Hartill-Law’s menu is innovative but uncomplicated, and refuses to get in the way of the local produce it presents on the plate.

The menu changes frequently, but you might eat dishes such as Northern Rivers pipis in an XO sauce, Magra lamb with heritage carrot and garlic, or Sanchoku wagyu served three ways. The wine list is stacked with killer drops from Australia and overseas, service is laidback but precise, and the classy digs are a comfortable, colourful place to spend a dinner or long lunch. Keep an eye out for Palette’s regular dining events, which often tie in with exhibitions in the gallery next door.

Big Papi’s Cocina, Coolangatta

Former longtime Miguel Maestre lieutenant Kevin Freddes has a new lease on professional life following his departure from his Paella Y Pa’Mi restaurant (now closed) in Coorparoo. There’s nothing fancy at his Big Papi’s Cocina in Coolangatta – no tricks or deconstructions – just an efficient menu of luscious Latin-American and Spanish-inspired plates.

You might order tuna tostadas with a toasted sesame seed salsa, chargrilled octopus skewers, seafood paella packed with squid, prawn and octopus or whole chicken finished on the coals and served with a smoky aji amarillo yoghurt sauce. Drinks are an approachable South American-leaning wine list, cocktails that put a signature spin on the classics, and a clutch of beers by the bottle. The digs themselves are a charming, open air affair, with old school rap music and Latin American beats on the stereo.

Kost, Broadbeach

This is the kind of Gold Coast venue that once could’ve put its feet up and depended on the Broadbeach tourist trade that comes and goes in the Peppers hotel towers that loom above, but owner Dave Galvin (formerly QT Hotels) has instead worked to create a lively diner with a menu that pops with imaginative touches.

Highlights include blackened hispi cabbage with pistachio and lemon, chargrilled octopus with an almond tarator and an nduja dressing, and a steak tartare with house salt and vinegar crisps. For drinks, Kost leads with a cracking list of signature and classic cocktails, but there’s also a carefully curated wine list that favours coastally grown drops from around the globe. The restaurant itself is classy without straying into needlessly flash, and fast-paced service rarely misses a beat.

Rick Shores, Burleigh Heads

Rick Shores refuses to lean on its by now iconic surf-side location, executive chef James Brady dealing in imaginative takes on coastal pan-Asian dishes such as prawn and roti toast with spicy egg sauce, lobster and prawn jade har gow with truffle, smoked honey and chilli oil, and barbecue rainbow trout with maple ponzu and Thai aromats.

The menu changes regularly but – never fear – the restaurant’s celebrate bug roll and duck red curry are eternal. For drinks, there’s a 200-bottle wine list designed to complement the range of flavour in the food. Yes, it can be hard to get in, and harder still to nab one of the prized window spots with the breakers gliding by just metres away, but it’s absolutely worth the effort.

Bar Evelyn, Coolangatta

Simple to a fault, Bar Evelyn deals in a straightforward selection of pasta and woodfired pizza, and just one salad. But the names above the door are chef Nick Stanton and Mark Catsburg, known in Melbourne for Ramblr, Leonard’s House of Love and Leonardo’s Pizza Palace.

So while this restaurant and bar doesn’t do much, what it does do is always inventive. The menu changes regularly but for the house-made pasta you might eat a bucatini amatriciana or a vodka sauce conchiglie, and pizza toppings include confit garlic potato, mozzarella, talleggio, caramelised onion and rosemary on a garlic oil base, and pork sausage and maple with ’nduja, mozzarella, fior di latte, onion and pecorino. The drinks menu of cocktails, wine and beer is just as tight, and service, even at the busiest times, is first class but always friendly.

Norte, Mermaid Beach

The Rick Shores crew’s brand new Latin American eatery feels like a step change for Gold Coast food and drink. The dining room, by the award-winning Brisbane-based J.AR Office, is spectacular, the menu clever and surprising without disappearing up its own posterior. It’s rare for a new venue to be this well realised.

For food, you might order a Mooloolaba spanner crab churro with cucumber, apple and jalapeno, an al pastor-style Moreton Bay bug taco with pineapple, or grilled coral trout with koji butter, guacachile and green pico de gallo. The food is backed by 150 bottles of wine, with almost half the list occupied by Central and South American drops. Just be sure to book early.

Franc Jrs, Coolangatta

When everything else on Griffith Street is quiet, Franc Jrs will inevitably still be busy, diners drawn by this American-Italian styled pizzeria’s menu of 13-inch and 16-inch pizzas, many of them vegan or vegetarian.

You might eat the Sage Against the Machine (blended cheese with fior di latte, roasted mushrooms, pancetta, sage and pecorino), the Hair of the Dog (vodka sauce with blended cheese, Calabrian chilli and fresh fior di latte) or the larger Pepperoni Pie (pepperoni, tomato sauce, mozzarella, parmigiana reggiano, oregano and basil). All pizzas can be ordered with extra toppings. The restaurant itself is relatively small, with much of the seating outside. There are no bookings here, for either walk-ins or takeaway, so arrive early if you can.

To drink…

Paloma, Burleigh Heads

From the Labart team comes this slick, cosy wine bar, which deals in a diverse selection of wines and cocktails matched to a menu of small plates.

What’s available changes regularly depending on what’s in season but expect dishes such as fried pork terrine with herb aioli, a beef tartare served with hash brown and tomato, and baked scallops with garlic and yuzukosha butter. Eternal, though, is wagyu beef burger that’s one of the best in town – match it to a well pitched glass of red for the ideal late afternoon snack.

The Cambus Wallace, Mermaid Beach

Taking its name from a ship that wrecked on Stradbroke Island in 1894, The Cambus Wallace was one of the bars that helped light a fire under the Coast’s drinking scene.

The drinks menu goes large on whisky and rum, as you might expect, but different craft beers also rotate regularly through the venue’s taps, and there’s a small plate menu that includes houseman meatballs with Napoli sauce, parmesan and toasted ciabatta, panko crumbed arancini balls, and pumpkin and sage gnocchi. Try to time your visit for Wednesday or Sunday, when the venue hosts live music.

Rosella’s, Burleigh Heads

You know you’re onto a good bar when its bathroom is plastered with pics of Ray Meagher (aka Alf Stewart from Home and Away). That Australiana theme runs deep at Rosella’s, with imaginative signature cocktails powered by a backbar that’s sourced entirely within local shores. It’s the same with the wine and beer lists, the latter of which includes Foster’s, VB and Power’s Gold. The food is great too: expect bug and prawn sandos, a stripling steak and zucchini fritti with a smoked onion dip.

Kirra Beach House, Coolangatta

This sprawling venue is a new contender for Australia’s best beach side bar. Outside, there’s a north-facing terrace with three bookable cabanas, plenty of greenery and knockout views towards the beach and Surfers and Broadbeach beyond. Inside, in the wine bar, it’s all mosaic tile floors, terrazzo bench tops, fluted bar fronts, arched entranceways and booth-style seating.

Drinks are led by cocktails, with a big focus on signatures and twists on the classics, but there’s also a relatively tight but thoughtful wine list. For food, there’s everything from share plates and bowls to wood-fired pizza, main plates and items from the grill. Fair warning: it gets pretty hectic at peak times, but the approachable service tends not to miss a beat.