La Cantina, Surfers Paradise

Had a lovely quiet late breakfast at La Cantina. Hard to find a breakfast as good as this on the Gold Coast. Poachies on wholemeal, with crispy bacon, avocado, tomato, spinach and mushrooms, and scrambled eggs on Turkish toast with crispy bacon and tomato. Yum. I'll be back.

Domanis Cafe Restaurant Bar

This morning was wonderful. We were up at 6, in the car at 6.30, and in Tedder Ave on the Gold Coast an hour later. Originally we wanted to try the breakfast offerings at the Main Beach Delicatessen, which I was very impressed by when we had lunch there a while ago. But as it turned out, they don't open until 8 or 8.30, and we wanted to have a swim earlier rather than later. So, instead, we went to Domani's, a couple of doors down, already open and full of corporate suits at one end and roadworkers in orange vests up the other. It was a clean, cloudless, gusty day, tough icy dumpers screaming in onto Main Beach, the usual GC posers doing their thing (and a lot of Americans down there at the moment. Why is this?), kids in rash shirts, clear green water, big rip, the usual. I love it.
Anway the breakfast was GREAT. Menu looked really good, so it was a perfectly good consolation prize for missing out on the deli. Good coffees too. The three of us had the Healthy Bee (fruit toast, yoghurt, and fresh fruit for my annoyingly sporty and healthy friend), the pancakes with maple syrup, icecream and a side of bacon, specifically requested to be fruit-free (I wonder who could POSSIBLY have ordered that) and the eggs benedict for me (if only I could resist a nice benedict in the morning. Unfortunately, I cannot). My poachies were lovely, soft, ham good, non-smoky, hollandaise slightly foamy and not the best ever, but still freshly made so can't complain, plus they came with a bonus of some slices of pan-fried potato. Nom nom nom. I enjoyed it.
Another review here.

QLD Restaurant and Catering Awards

The 2008 awards for various categories, as chosen by the 2008 Restaurant and Catering Queensland HOSTPLUS State Awards for Excellence:

Best Alfresco Dining
Watt Modern Dining, New Farm

Best Asian Restaurant
Wasabi Sunshine Beach

Best Breakfast
Alto Cucina and Bar, Broadbeach

Best Chef Owner
Brents Restaurant, Toowong

Best Chinese
Zen at Conrad Jupiters

Best Coffee / Tea
High Societea, Clayfield

Best European
Gianni's Restaurant

Best Family Establishment
Omeros Bros Seafood, Main Beach

Best Fine Dining
Urbane

Best Indian
Oberoi's Taj, Broadbeach

Best Informal Dining
Baguette Bistro and Bar, Ascot

Best Italian
Lindoni's Ristorante Italiano, Noosa Heads

Best Modern Australian
E'cco Bistro

Best Pizza
Red Rock Waterfront Bar and Grill, Hope Island

Best Pub Restaurant
Deery's Restaurant at the Story Bridge Hotel

Best Winery Restaurant
Lurleen's at Sirromet

Best Seafood
Wasabi Sunshine Beach

Best Steak
Moo Moo the Wine Bar and Grill, Broadbeach

Best Thai
Mons Ban Sabai Thai Garden Restaurant, Camp Hill

Restaurant of the Year
E'cco Bistro

Luxury at 200 metres

We enjoyed a one-night stopover at the Marriot Surfers Paradise recently. It was rainy, cold, grey and blustery. We had a room on the 21st floor, with views to the icy ocean with big storm clouds rolling in.

Later we swam in the lagoon with the tropical fish and its waterfall.

The highlight may have been when we were down in the lounge bar having cocktails (French 75, and an original creation they call the Oasis... lychee, cranberry, Belvedere and lime) when I realised the weird tattooed old guy next to us was Tommy Lee. Yeah, him, the guy who used to be married to Pamela Anderson and now no one knows what his job is.

He looks so much older and weirder in real life, and especially next to normal, average people. Still cool though. I also saw him at the breakfast buffet the next morning, at a very civilized 9am.

Main Beach Delicatessen

During our fabulous, luxurious and rainy trip to the Gold Coast, we needed somewhere to stop for lunch. Food Bling provided the expertise I needed to find out about cute cafes on the Coast, so we chose the Main Beach Delicatessen for our lunchly requirements.

It's a small but perfectly formed little spot on ritzy Tedder Avenue (well, there's ritzy, and then there's ritzy, isn't there. There's ritzy like the Champs-Elysees in midwinter, covered with fairy lights, and then there's ritzy like Hastings St at Noosa or Tedder Avenue. The ritziest thing about it is probably the fact that the post office has its own little replica brick cottage with awnings) among the over-tanned dried-up old dragon ladies with their white/pastel twinsets and minidogs and enormous bug-eyed sunglasses and 30 grand's worth of showy yellow gold jewellery.

So having set the scene, the deli is amongst all this. A small oasis of sanity, if you will.

Along one wall is a cornucopia of the usual deli goodies, $60 bottles of truffle oil, squid ink pasta, fancy salts, a big range of T2 teas, fresh baguettes, those big orange tins of snails in brine (one of these days...), the real jars of goose fat and all the rest of it. In the cheese cabinet is some really top-quality stuff, including a massive slab of imported Pont L'Eveque for $90 per kilogram. Great, expensive cheeses. Totally worth it.

And for lunch? Well, they have some little tiny tables with little tiny stools and little tiny menus. Gorgeous. I ordered the risotto (remember, it was raining) with leek, peas and Grana Padano parmesan. Porkface had the linguine with bacon, chili and herbs. Both were excellent. They came out in these cool asymmetrical bowls. The risotto could have been a scrap firmer for my liking, but really, why nitpick? This lot make great grub and they take it seriously.

Over near the door (I noticed as leaving) they have a cute little cabinet full of tartlike cakelike goodies that would be just perfect with coffee too, if you weren't going for lunch.

I'm so pleased to have found such an awesome cafe on the Coast. Must return.