Overview
It might be the Gold Coast's most popular stretch of sand, capping off the city's busiest tourist strip — but no matter how many times you've seen it, Surfers Paradise's beachfront always knows how to stun. Here's another way to peer at its coastal expanse: from new dining and drinking venue Coast Beach Bar & Kitchen, which will open its doors on The Esplanade in early August.
Come Friday, August 5, the latest addition to the new Ocean by Meriton precinct will start welcoming in patrons, with 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 boasts 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 will be 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 will 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.
Sprawling over 750 square metres on level one of the building, Coast takes a glam approach, style-wise, but still embraces its beachy surroundings. So, here Tasmanian oak furniture sits alongside rattan, leather, brass accents and marble fixtures, with earthy hues and sea-inspired blues and greens featuring heavily.
Coast Beach Bar & Kitchen will open on Friday, August 5 at Level 1 of Ocean by Meriton, 86 The Esplanade, Surfers Paradise — operating from 11am–10pm daily