Gold Coast dining comes of age

It's Queensland's infamous Glitter Strip, the nightclub capital where fast living, fast cars and fast food rules. But it appears that in the past five years or so, the Gold Coast, the renowned party capital widely regarded as having filed for cultural bankruptcy, has been undergoing a quiet revolution.

Outside the glitz of the heaving Surfers Paradise nightclub precinct, a vibrant dining scene has emerged.

But it's not just an improvement on late-night kebabs or McDonald's runs. We're talking serious food for serious diners.

"I think Brisbane will definitely hold the mantle for the state's best food but the Gold Coast won't be treated as the poor little cousin anymore," said Simon Gloftis, owner of the Coast's most celebrated restaurant, The Fish House at Burleigh Heads.

"We are no longer the joke down the road. We're a city where you can get a proper, world-standard meal that is not just good for the Coast but good for anywhere."

Gold Coast restaurants emerged as arguably the year's biggest winner in this year's Brisbane Times Good Food Guide 2016, which was officially unveiled this week at Fortitude Valley's Lightspace​.

For the first time, in the coveted hat stakes, regional restaurants outscored their urban counterparts, with 32 hats awarded to venues outside Brisbane, compared with 29 in the capital.

Of the regional hats awarded, 14 were in the Gold Coast region, Brisbane Times Good Food Guide 2016 editor Natascha Mirosch said.

"The performance of the Gold Coast this year has been particularly strong," she said.

The buzz is largely centred south of Surfers Paradise, with a high concentration of restaurants that made the Guide in the Burleigh, Broadbeach and Mermaid Beach areas.

To the north, Main Beach remains the foodies' area of choice with a smattering of quality diners in that area listed.

In addition to the two-hatted The Fish House, Gloftis also owns Greek-influenced diner Hellenika in Nobby Beach, which he started six years ago and fell just short of attaining a hat in this year's Guide with a score of 14.5.

The standard of dining has taken a quantum leap in that time, he said.

"You used to come to the Gold Coast you would walk around and everything was the same – veal with mushroom sauce," he said.

"I think when Hellenika opened people realised you can do restaurants as good or better than the big city and people will come the Gold Coast to eat there," he said.

"The Coast was hungry for it. Not many people who were born here, stayed here when I started, but they are staying now."

Like Gloftis, Kylie Mitchell-Smith is a former Melburnian, motivated in part to open her restaurant to lift a dining scene where the hallowed benchmark of many a foodie applied.

"I couldn't get a decent latte," she said, of her arrival on the Coast last decade.

Mitchell-Smith opened the Spanish-inspired Pablo Pablo in 2012 with her business partner Leeroy Donily and the Palm Beach diner made its first appearance in this year's guide.

Like Gloftis, she credits the Gold Coast's dining coming of age to both the influx of people with extensive hospitality experience opening businesses, but also to a growing number of people born in the region staying there to do the same.

"That real movement of food has started in the last five years, for someone like me, I think I've been seeking it out and finally went, 'screw it, I'll do it myself'," she said.

"But I think it's also the younger generation staying here and taking more pride in their city.

"There are the locals who have in the past been afraid that people still laugh at them if they say they are from the Gold Coast and that is what is changing.

"Young people are staying here, taking things to the world and being proud of saying they are from the Gold Coast."

For Gloftis, it's now a regular occurrence to have people travel from Brisbane or interstate specifically to dine at The Fish House.

But the restaurant boom doesn't just extend to fine diners, he said – a thriving cafe culture that is helping underpin it.

"The Gold Coast per capita has the best coffee in Australia, there are guys here who have really taken it to the next level and I can't think of anywhere with as good coffee in Australia," he said.

"There are a lot cool places that have opened up and they seem to be popping up everywhere.

"The standard will continue to go through the roof. At first it was baby steps. Now it's coming fast."

Pick up your copy of the Brisbane Times Good Food Guide 2016 for $7.99 from participating newsagents or online at brisbanetimes.com.au/goodfoodguide for $9.99 including delivery.