Around the Sunshine Coast
Destination restaurants, rural breweries and cafés from Yandina to Maleny.
19 editorial picks. Unpaid and unranked.
Contemporary Asian food served among tropical gardens, ponds and pavilions. This is one of the Coast’s clearest destination meals: allow time to explore the setting rather than treating it as a quick dinner booking.
Guide price band: $$$$. Check the current menu.
Modern Asian street food tucked into Koorawatha Lane, with assertive flavours and a relaxed, compact room. A strong casual option when you want the hinterland without linen and ceremony.
Guide price band: $$. Check the current menu.
French-influenced dining in the grounds of Spicers Clovelly Estate, pairing refined technique with a quiet country-house setting. Best saved for a meal where time and service are part of the value.
Guide price band: $$$$. Check the current menu.
Modern Thai dining at Spicers Tamarind Retreat, surrounded by rainforest outside Maleny. The draw is the combination of destination setting, controlled spice and polished resort service.
Guide price band: $$$$. Check the current menu.
A community-minded hinterland pub with a kitchen that takes local sourcing and whole-animal cooking seriously. It is the rare pub worth choosing specifically for the food, not just the view or a beer.
Guide price band: $$$. Check the current menu.
Traditional German and Austrian dishes, imported beer and wide Glass House Mountain views. Go for schnitzel, pork knuckle and a setting that is cheerfully specific rather than fashion-led.
Guide price band: $$$. Check the current menu.
A modern Australian restaurant at Crocodile Hunter Lodge using native ingredients across an accessible resort menu. It is most useful as a polished meal near Australia Zoo, with a strong sense of place.
Guide price band: $$$. Check the current menu.
A rustic hinterland stop for breakfast, coffee and casual meals in a timber-lined setting. It works best as part of a Range drive rather than a destination for cutting-edge coffee.
Relaxed hinterland café with fresh breakfasts and garden seating.
A Woombye café and caterer built around locally sourced produce and genuinely house-made baking. Come for seasonal breakfast or lunch, but leave room for the daily muffins and gluten- or dairy-free cakes made on site.
Cosy Maleny café serving crêpes, breakfast and sandwiches.
Relaxed Maleny café for coffee, juices and casual meals.
A Maleny café-bistro that shifts from espresso and brunch by day to wine, cocktails and European-leaning share plates later on. Strongest for a polished hinterland meal where the drinks list matters as much as the coffee.
Montville espresso bar and breakfast stop.
Family-run rural café using local produce in handmade bakes.
A Yandina roastery-café where the house coffee is the clear reason to stop. Good for beans and a focused brew before continuing into the hinterland.
Famous for oversized doughnuts and novelty challenges, but also a useful classic country bakery stop. Go for cheerful excess, not delicate French restraint.
A rural brewery with expansive grounds, food trucks and family-focused weekends. Pick it for an afternoon outing with space to roam, not for a quiet, beer-geek tasting at the bar.
A working hinterland distillery near the Big Pineapple producing gin, vodka and cane spirit, with tastings on site. The polished visitor setup makes it the easiest introduction to Coast distilling.
Check opening hours, current menus and access with the venue before travelling.