In continuation of the Gold Coast chronicles, here’s bringing you the foodporn that we indulged in! Believe me when I say that we had not a single bad meal during the entire week when we were in Gold Coast. The food was really that good and fresh. No surprise that we both put on weight this trip, AGAIN.
This isn’t totally exhaustive, because there were some smaller eats (ie sushi, kebabs, pizza) that I didn’t snap a photo of, so yep. There’s a crazy abundance of pizza+kebab stores all around, and they were pretty decent! The kebabs are NOT the skewers kind, rather, they’re wraps with heaps of veggies and meat. Really sinful, but oh-so-good. And their sushi rolls are much longer than the ones that we have in Singapore – think about 3 sushi rolls put together!
Half Rack Baby Back Pork Ribs, Belly Buster’s. This was pretty good, and the meat really fell off the bone with the lightest touch of the fork! (Y)
Rump steak, Belly Buster’s. Day 1’s dinner when we were thinking that steaks would be a nice way to kick off our holiday! This was actually pretty good in terms of the meat, but sauce wise I think garlic cream sauce isn’t a very good compliment, so it didn’t turn out as well as I expected 
Nonetheless, overall the meal was a pretty decent experience (:
Belly Busters
Cavill Avenue, Surfer’s Paradise, Queensland 4217
I forgot the name of this ice cream place, but I remember that the word ‘Copenhagen’ was in it, and I remember that it’s literally at the doorstep of Cavill Mall, which is incredibly near Hotel Grand Chancellor (: Nope, I didn’t order the strawberry oreo, because I stuck to my good old peppermint chocolate 😀 And it was yummy!
C
The Seafood Place. This place is absolutely unpretentious. No kidding. It’s really just a simple little shop along the street that serves takeaway fish and chips, though for those who’d want to eat it piping hot from the fryers, there’re tables and chairs outside the shop to sit at.. And that was what we did! (: We felt we had to sample fish and chips here, for the kick, since we were here in Gold Coast..
And damnnnnnnn that was by far, the best fish and chips I’d ever had. And in general I’m not that big a fan of fish and chips – not that I dislike it, but it’s just that fish and chips wouldn’t be the first choice of food if I were at a cafe or whatever.
The fish was incredibly fresh, and there was such a generous bed of chips beneath the fish and the sides.. Talk about carbo overload.
McDonald’s in Gold Coast had rainbow bread! Oh and they had macarons too! 😀 But I didn’t get a photo of it, neither did I try it.
Margherita Pizza, Vapiano – Day 3! (A$14.90)
Carbonara Fettucini, Vapiano. (A$18.90)
Please bear with me, I need to rave about Vapiano. I was craving margherita pizza, and I didn’t want to have takeaway pizza from the street shops because I wanted a slightly nicer ambience. So we were walking around, looking to see what we could find.. We were near Soul, in Cavill Avenue and we looked up to see Vapiano’s – Pasta, Pizza, Bar, and hence we just decided to walk in. The concept is that you queue up for your food, and see the chefs cook them for you, and a buzzer is given if you order a pizza because they obviously require a tad more time to bake.
The margherita pizza was cheesy and yummy, but the carbonara pasta was DA BOMB. I’m not kidding when I say that their pasta was really, really good. Perfect al dente texture, awesome creaminess. It had the both of us raving about it big time. And the concept and layout of the place was brilliant too – the place was chill like a bar, with high stools and tables, warm lighting, good music, and the alfresco area overlooked 1 of the empty spaces within Cavill – common for buskers to entertain there every night!
Vapiano
Soul Retail, Cavill Avenue, Surfers Paradise
Taiwanese food on Day 4! Just a simple bowl of rice, hard-boiled egg and yellow pickles with chicken for me, and pork for Jem. (A$6.90 each) Had the urge to have some rice, after feasting so much on Western food the last few days. This was at Hazel Tea Shop, and around the area where this place is, there’re quite a lot of Asian eats! Though needless to say, they’re definitely way more expensive in Aussie! We also ordered some bubble tea there too, and it turned out surprisingly okay, considering that I wasn’t expecting them to be fantastic.
Hazel Tea Shop
Chevron Renaissance
Shop 8, 3240 Surfers Paradise Boulevard
Surfers Paradise 4217 Queensland
We decided to stop by Chocolateria San Churro for hot chocolate! I stuck with the iced one because it was quite warm that day.. And damnnnn was the iced chocolate milkshake good. It was so flavorful!
I must emphasize that their cakes are huge, in comparison to the cakes that I see in Singapore’s cafes. 1 slice could well be enough to share between 2 people!
Chocolateria San Churro
47/48 Circle on Cavill
3184 Surfers Paradise Boulevard
Surfers Paradise, Queensland 4217
We were back at Vapiano’s on our 5th night!! J missed the pasta so much and he insisted on making the trip back again.
Gamberi – linguine with prawns, tomato+herb sauce with white wine, carrots, cherry tomatoes and spring onions (A$20.90). This was not too bad, but I wasn’t used to having shredded carrots inside my pasta. However the overall taste was pretty good, and the prawns were fresh!
Strawberry panna cotta and tiramisu – what’s an Italian meal without these 2 desserts? 🙂 The strawberry panna cotta was yummy – strong strawberry taste! The tiramisu however, was a tad overwhelming in the coffee taste.
Day (or rather, night) 6: River Cruise!
Our decision to go for the river cruise was very impromptu. We were looking through random brochures at the hotel lobby and we chanced upon it, and we felt that it might be worth the experience to go for it – after all, how often would we get the chance to do so?
We walked out of the hotel to the travel information booth just slightly outside (they’ve loads of these around the area) to enquire, and the lady at the booth helped us to make the reservations. Talk about prompt and efficient service! (Y)
So we went for the Rivers Restaurant Cruises and Boat Charters company, and man was their service and food good!! We had the dinner cruise and it turned out to be 1 of the best decisions we made, after hot air ballooning. For A$69 each, it was pretty worth it.
The prawns were so incredibly fresh and sweet! I’ve always loved prawns, and even though he’s not a fan of prawns in general, he reckoned that the prawns were really sweet and he kept taking more! 😀
Last day: We went for hot air ballooning!! The best experience ever, seeing the beautiful landscape from a bird-eye’s point of view. The champagne breakfast that we had after the hot air balloon experience was sumptuous too! It cost us A$250 each, for a 30 minutes flight + champagne breakfast, but it was very well worth the money and experience.
Fun fact about hot air ballooning: After a successful flight, champagne is always served as a celebration for the success of the flight (:
It was our first time ever having a champagne breakfast – something that we’d never done before in Singapore. Breakfast was at O’Reilly’s Canungra Valley Vineyard – a truly beautiful Victorian-style place, with a breath-taking landscape because it was situated near the hills. Perhaps the only downside of it was that it was really cold, especially because it was pretty early in the morning too.
Honestly speaking, for the entire trip in Gold Coast, I had way too much scrambled eggs and sauteed mushrooms, so the frittata was a change. Though honestly speaking, I didn’t like frittata that much, because the taste of it was just a little weird to me.. Perhaps it’s just a matter of preferences! But I loved the sauteed mushrooms – I could never get enough of them!!
For those who’re considering a trip to Gold Coast/Brisbane/Cairns, the details for this particular hot air balloon company can be found at http://www.hotair.com.au (:
O’Reilly’s Canungra Valley Vineyards
Lamington National Park Rd
Canungra Valley, Queensland 4275
Back to San Churro’s for their hot chocolate, and this time round we added churros to go along with them! We kinda had a bit of dark chocolate overload though, even though the hot chocolate really warmed our cockles (:
Our very last meal in Surfers Paradise, before we boarded the bus back to Brisbane Airport to go home 😦 This was at Ocean’s by Omero’s. which is literally next to the beach. I can’t remember the names of the food that we ordered, and I can’t find the official website for it either. Mine is the one with the broccoli floret and Dianne steak (I only remember that the word ‘Dianne’ was mentioned on the menu for my meal), and Jem’s was Surf and Turf if I didn’t remember wrongly. This was really by far, 1 of the best ways to wrap up our Gold Coast trip, because the food was so good and the seafood was so fresh. (Y)
Oceans by Omeros
4 The Esplanade, Surfers Paradise
Queensland 4217
In honesty, I had done research on what are the places to give a shot at, and even made a list.. But when we reached Gold Coast, we didn’t even use the list! Have to admit that just walking straight into an eatery/cafe/restaurant could yield even greater, if not better, surprises 🙂 I miss everything about Gold Coast now, and I actually teared a bit after our last meal, because of the thought that we had to come back home.. There’s just a charm about Gold Coast somehow that made me fall in love with it the moment I set foot on it. I will go back there 1 day.
runwithperseverance 