Queensland: Back to GC for seconds

Miami Marketta is a thriving weekly food truck marketplace and is heaven for foodies. Photo / Supplied

It'll be a return to splendour for Catherine Smith, who had too little time to taste-test all the great eateries on the Gold Coast.

Food people can be so mean. When I asked my usual suspects for recommendations for great eats and best-kept secrets for last month's trip to the Gold Coast, there was a fair bit of unkind snorting. This was my first trip to the strip, and I was determined to find there was more to this place than theme parks and bad reality TV.

Lucky then that the Saturday I arrived, I was immediately directed to the weekly Miami Marketta. Set in a strip of graffitied warehouses in an industrial park, this thriving food truck marketplace proves that the GC is not all babes and perma-tans.

During the week, the space is known as Rabbit + Cocoon, an arts precinct housing painters, an indie magazine and more. The crowd revealed a high ratio of beards and tattoos, cool artsy clothes vintage bikes and rows of terrific street food vans and stands. The DJs, the two bars (cunningly converted containers) - this could have been any hipster community from Hackney to Grey Lynn.

Better still, the food was outstanding - fresh, more interesting variety than we see locally. My favourites were a Gnocchi Shack (choose your sauce, choose your gnocchi variety), a hot chicken wings truck complete with cool girls in bandannas, and divine Venezuelan arepas (flatbreads stuffed with beans, cheese and sauce). The pretzel dude and the women selling brick-size lamingtons were doing a roaring trade.

So far, so not what I was expecting.

I went back later in the week to meet the person behind the markets and precinct, artist-turned-entrepreneur Emma Milikins. With the help of the property owners, she ploughed through two years of negotiating with city planners to have the former workshops rezoned as the town's first creative precinct, which opened in 2011. She created the marketta to bring in the crowds, create a community, and help pay the bills.

I quickly learned to shelve my prejudices: the Surfers Paradise bit of the GC is a mere 4km of the 70km that makes up the coast. It tickled me no end that Boundary Rd in Coolangatta, is, literally the boundary of Queensland and New South Wales. I had breakfast in the surfy-Bali-chic of Cafe D Bar, on the cliffs above Pt Danger overlooking Tweed Heads: from here those Surfers towers are just dim sticks on the horizon.

There's also a new sense of urban design thinking - there were enough bike lanes and cool young things on retro wheels to put Auckland to shame, and the light rail was a revelation.

But I was here to eat. I quickly learned that the foodie community is small, but perfectly formed. The seafood, as hoped, is superbly fresh, as is the produce. Chefs don't muck about with fancy dots on plates, and everyone has time to talk enthusiastically about the region's great resources.

Restaurateur Simon Gloftis, originally from Melbourne, reinvigorated the cafe scene here some 14 years ago before opening the legendary Greek-style Hellenika at Nobbys Beach. Three years ago he opened The Fish House at Burleigh Heads - with superb views of the sea, smart service and unfussy presentation of the freshest catch (the menu changes depending on what is brought in from the markets twice a day). This is how seafood restaurants should be.

Big on reputation, small on actual mileage, Surfers Paradise actually covers only about 4km of the Gold Coast's 70km. Photo / Tourism and Events Queensland

The rest of my eating was aided by Simon's recommendations - starting with a smallish dinner that night from his cousin Peter Loftis' The Lamb Shop in the Oracle neighbourhood, and breakfast at Peter's coffee joint, No Name Lane.

Nobbys Beach and Burleigh have some cool spots, all with the obligatory industrial-meets-vintage vibe (with artsy crafts thrown in): Bskt, Canvas, Sparrow, Elk and converted bungalow Paddock (beautiful sourdough breads, fresh from the oven).

The fabulously retro/theatrical QT hotel (my favourite in Sydney) has a beach hop outpost at Surfers. Bazaar, their restaurant, travels the world with the classiest buffet (an art director visits every month or so to redesign it). Every detail is flawless.

There was more ocean food at local joint Yellowfin Seafood, just off the Broadbeach tourist strip and, one morning, I went from the sublime to the ridiculous, joining a busload of Chinese tourists to buy fresh prawns and spanner crabs straight from the fishing boats at the Gold Coast Fishermen's Co-operative before heading back along the road to the over-the-top opulence of the Marina Mirage shopping centre.

It was worth a trip across to the Isle of Capri for great Italian at Olli and Luca in a slickly refurbished industrial complex which includes a pizzeria, produce and cheese shops and more.

An equally chic food market and shopping zone, Ferry Rd, helped me understand the whole notion of resort chic.

My final night was my highlight. Recommended by everyone, Etsu Izakaya is a hole-in-the-wall joint in a bland shopping strip on the highway. The place was pumping, the food is cool Japanese, the cocktails creative and the decor of murals and handcrafted wood sublime. And wait, there's more.

So, with only half my list eaten through, I can safely say I'll go back to the GC. For the food.

TOP TIP

To get the latest on food, shopping and events, I find local blogs and newsletters. My two go-tos for this trip were theweekendedition.com.au/gold-coast (new, from the same folk who do the Brisbane edition) and foodgoldcoast.com.au.

CHECKLIST

Getting there: Air New Zealand connects direct from Auckland to Gold Coast Airport, with four in-flight Economy choices: Seat, Seat + Bag, The Works and Works Deluxe, plus Business class.

The writer visited the Gold Coast courtesy of Tourism and Events Queensland and Tourism Australia.