The 10 best cafés on the Gold Coast

It’s hard to find a café with better real estate in Broadbeach than Elk Espresso. This gorgeous green café is an Instagrammer’s paradise, with hanging plants, black and white striped umbrellas and ripper waterfront views. Elk’s seasonal dishes don’t just look picture-perfect, they’re packed with fresh flavours too. Think cheesecake-glazed hotcakes, fancy avocado toast, tempura fish tacos and a southern-fried chicken banh mi croissant. Pair your brunch with Elk’s house blend coffee, which has notes of dark chocolate and hazelnut, or indulge in a crème brûlée latte or Turkish Delight white hot chocolate.

Hamptons cool meets Parisian elegance at this bustling bakery and café, located on a leafy corner in the heart of Burleigh Heads. Tarte’s breezy outdoor seating is perfect for people watching over a double-smoked bacon breakfast burrito or miso scrambled eggs on toast. Meanwhile, the takeaway window is ideal if you just want to grab a bagel and a custard shake to go. No matter how you order, getting a pastry (or five) is non-negotiable. Baked in-house and delivered fresh from the oven throughout the day, the line-up includes flaky passionfruit curd tarts, creamy vanilla cruellers and their signature berry muffin tops. Need to go back from round two? Tarte also has a dog-friendly café in Currumbin.

Just a short walk from the waterfront in Broadbeach, No Name Lane is one of the most popular spots on the Coast for coffee, croissants and cracking all-day brunch. For a healthy start to the morning, go for the pretty-in-purple acai bowl or the harvest bowl with roast pumpkin, quinoa, feta and poached eggs. Need a little indulgence (or a hangover cure)? The Biscoff cheesecake hotcakes, matcha French toast or chicken karaage benedict, served in a pillowy steamed bao bun, have you covered. Alongside top-quality coffee, you can sip on housemade iced tea, cold-pressed juices or Bloody Marys from 10am.

The Winey Cow is an absolutely legen-dairy brunch spot on the Gold Coast. Nine years after opening their OG café in Victoria’s Mornington Peninsula, the team unveiled a second spot in Main Beach – and it’s been a smash hit ever since. The GC outpost features plenty of their classics, from caramelised banana waffles and teriyaki chicken bao to Scandinavian eggs and a chilli scramble croissant. Hot tip: The Winey Cow’s $55 boozy brunch is one of the best on the coast.

Bam Bam Bakehouse captures the maximalist, fun-loving nature of the Gold Coast in the form of baked goods. Sitting a block back from the crashing waves of Mermaid Beach, the popular bakery and café is all about rich flavours in fun vessels, like their popular, positively oozing Nutella cruffins. Traditionalists won’t be disappointed here, though, with to-die-for almond croissants that they also sell in bake-at-home form. If you’re after something more brunchy, you can also grab bacon and egg croissants, acai bowls, sweetcorn fritters and karaage chicken burgers.

The Cardamom Pod might be a vegetarian café, but that’s not why people go (or keep coming back). The food here is damn right delicious, and is totally ’gramworthy too. They’re known for serving up some of the best acai bowls on the Gold Coast, which taste oh so satisfying on a hot summer’s day. Alongside big healthy nourish bowls and blinged up avo toast, The Cardamom Pod is also famous for its weekend special: an Indian street food waffle, which comes with potato peanut fritters, pumpkin pakoras, mango chutney and more.

With more than 100,000 followers on Instagram, Paddock Bakery is far from a hidden gem – but it’s definitely a gem worth visiting. You’ll find this charming Burleigh Heads café in a white Queenslander cottage, offering plenty of seating across the garden, loft, barn and rooftop. Coffee comes courtesy of Single O, while the bread and pastries are wood-fired in-house. If you’re dining in, go for Paddock’s signature bagel served with cultured butter and herbed cream cheese, or the Toad in the Hole, featuring two eggs fried into their semi-sourdough scotch loaf. Of course, there are sausage rolls, pies, pastries and doughnuts – the Thai vegetable green curry pie is our fave. 

Just a ten-minute drive from Broadbeach, this pet-friendly café has an all-day brunch menu to satisfy any hungry Queenslander. First up: check out their board (is it black?) for single-origin and filter coffee specials, or go for a milk-based brew, always served at a satisfying 65 degrees to fully complement the flavour of their beans. If that’s not proof these guys know what they're doing, the ace brunch menu certainly is. Split between toast, bowls and buns, the menu has something to fuel you no matter the time of day. Our top pick? The Blackboard Benny, featuring two poached eggs on crispy hashbrowns, smothered in hollandaise. 

This gorgeous café in Worongary has a timeless charm, along with a big suite of awards. Throughout the years, locals have voted it as the best spot for coffee, eggs Benny and pet-friendly dining across the city. Le Vintage’s DIY brekkie menu is a big hit – start with your choice of eggs and toast, then pile on bacon, chipolatas, hash browns, grilled haloumi or even a 150-gram ribeye steak. The lunch menu is just as stacked, featuring plenty of pub classics like burgers and salads. Don’t be shy to pop by for a sweet treat too, or go all out with the chef’s choice high tea for $40 per person. 

Aussie brunch classics get a Southeast Asian twist at this popular Southport café. Take the smashed avo toast, levelled up with edamame and lotus roots, or the egg and bacon roll, served in a banh mi-style brioche bun. Vietnamese flavours shine on the drinks menu, featuring everything from sweet Vietnamese iced coffee to a hot cacao coffee with creamy egg yolk.