Coast Beach Bar & Kitchen

Overview

Surfers Paradise's beachfront always knows how to stun, no matter how many times you've seen it. Here's another way to peer at its coastal expanse: from new dining and drinking venue Coast Beach Bar & Kitchen on The Esplanade.

The latest addition to the new Ocean by Meriton precinct boasts multiple spaces for Gold Coast locals and visitors to choose from. If you're keen for a meal, the 110-seat restaurant awaits. If you're in the mood for a drink, hit up the 160-seat bar. Either way, the venue sports uninterrupted views — aka the kind of vista that's worth dropping by for alone.

Also part of Coast: a lounge area as well as the main dining room, a sizeable outdoor bar, and booths to get cosy in with your mates or date. Drinks are whipped up at the eye-catching 14-metre-long marble bar, while dishes are cooked in the Spanish-style Josper oven.

For vino lovers, your tipples hail from the venue's 2000-bottle wine cellar, which unsurprisingly takes price of place in the restaurant. There's around 120 drops on the menu, with about 80 percent skewing local. Feeling flush with cash? Coast also boasts the Penfolds Grange Magnum Collection, which is valued at over $60,000.

Thirteen signature cocktails are on offer, too, including banana daiquiris, plus a 'Coast Espresso' made with vodka, coffee tequila liqueur and creme de cacao — or you can order all the classics instead. The spritz lineup spans four types, such as rhubarb, quince and lavender versions, and there's also five mocktails available.

Owners Justin and Elizabeth Allie, veterans of Longboards Laidback Eatery and Bar in Surfers Paradise, The Fish Shak in Southport and catering company Gourmet en Counter, have enlisted chef Rhett Willis (ex-Jellyfish and Cha Cha Char) to oversee the modern Australian cuisine menu. It hews share-style; think: coal-roasted yogurt bread with smoked eggplant pate; beef fillet tartar with shoyu, avocado and miso-cured yolk; and wasabi leaves with sand crab, chilli, lime and caviar — as well as prawns with XO butter and truffled baked potato chips.

Oysters from Stradbroke Island are also on the menu, and mains include cauliflower steaks, lamb shoulder, wild mushrooms with silkened tofu, and a 120-day, grain-fed, dry-aged tomahawk — the restaurant's signature dish.

Can't decide? Opt for one of two set menus — a three-course version, or a four-course feast that ends with a banoffee eton mess for dessert.