If you're planning a road trip from Melbourne to Byron Bay (or vice versa), here are the best stops to make along the way.
Food & Wine
Best restaurants in the Noosa hinterlands
Noosa’s best foodie spots
Add a gourmet dimension to your beach escape with a visit to one of Noosa's best (and most scenic) restaurants.
Noosa might be best known for its pristine beaches but look below the surface and you’ll also find a thriving restaurant industry. With access to the best the ocean can offer, Noosa is replete with dining venues full of freshly caught seafood as well as dishes championing Southeast Asian cuisines and European fare.
Plus with a number of breweries scattered throughout the town and hinterland you’re never far from an ice cold beer either. Round out your stay with artisanal produce from one of the many local farms and makers and you’re likely to be leaving Noosa with a full stomach.
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The best restaurants in Noosa
No visit to Noosa is complete without dining at ALBA by Kuruvita. After nearly a decade leading the charge at Noosa Beach House (also well worth a visit), renowned chef Peter Kuruvita has moved onto a new venture spanning multiple dining spaces. The main event is the restaurant where you can dine on fresh seafood and modern Australian fare combined with Sri Lankan flavours – including Kuruvita’s beloved Sri Lankan Snapper Curry. There’s also a casual café, pizzeria serving sourdough pizzas and a providore stocking local produce, wines, spirits and ready-to-eat meals.
Bang Bang is a favourite among group travellers for its pan Asian dishes designed to share (think everything from roti chanai through to Korean fried chicken and massaman curry), as well as their slick cocktail list. If you’re craving yum cha, head to Embassy XO where chefs blend traditional Chinese cookery with inspiration from their diverse team. The restaurant even has its own farm which grows organic produce that’s featured in every dish.
For a meal with a view, you can’t go past either Ricky’s or Bistro C. Located on the Noosa River, Ricky’s offers spectacular water views alongside a menu that prides itself on local ingredients and expertly cooked seafood. Meanwhile Bistro C is known for its proximity to the ocean – you can literally open the dining rooms onto the sands of Noosa Heads Main Beach.
Bistro C opens right onto the sands at Noosa Heads Main Beach: Image: Tourism and Events Queensland.
The best breweries in Noosa
The Sunny Coast’s fine weather and finer food demands a fitting thirst quencher. Thankfully, the coastal craft-beer scene is booming. Boiling Pot Brewing Co beer is made in Noosa and inspired by the beauty of Noosa, with the name coming from the first headland in Noosa National Park.
Brothers Lance and Craig first started brewing in a Brisbane garage. Now they're running a 40-staff member, 1700sqm brewery in Noosa. Noosa Heads Brewing Co specialises in lagers which you can sample alongside burgers and small bites in their taproom.
Other local hop-stars include Brouhaha Brewery, which combines paddock-to-plate dining with refreshing ales in the hinterland town of Maleny, and Land and Sea Brewery, who have the honour of being Noosa’s first craft brewery. Another inland beaut is Eumundi Brewery, in the town’s century-old Imperial Hotel. And at Moffat Beach Brewing, south of Mooloolaba, Matt and Shaz Wilson pour tank-fresh brews metres from the sand and surf.
Noosa is blessed with a number of local breweries, including Brouhaha. Image: Tourism and Events Queensland.
Best restaurants in the Noosa hinterlands
It’s hard to prise yourself from those sea vistas, but the hinterland rewards the effort. Tucked among tropical gardens in Yandina, Spirit House is one of Queensland’s most beloved dining destinations. Since 1995, the restaurant and cooking school has worked with local farms and fisheries to deliver Thai-inspired fine dining in an idyllic setting. It’s here that you can sit overlooking a lagoon lined with verdant palms and ferns as you dine on dishes like gai ping grilled chicken satay, green curry with tamarind-glazed beef short ribs, and a mango sticky rice take on Eton mess.
In Maleny, The Tamarind at Spicers Retreat also crafts innovative Asian cuisine in verdant surrounds. A short drive away at Montville’s plush Spicers’ Clovelly Estate, The Long Apron offers acclaimed European menus on a terrace shaded by jacaranda trees. From a jaw-dropping Montville property, Flame Hill Vineyard waves the flag for Queensland wine and uses its own working farm for its fine-dining fare.
Spirit House has been an idyllic Thai-inspired dining destination since 1995. Photo: Tourism and Events Queensland.
Local makers and markets in Noosa
To prepare your own hinterland feast, head for the hills. Cheese fiends should roll on in to Maleny, where Maleny Cheese and Maleny Food Co offer a fromage smorgasbord. In season, berry lovers can pick their own strawberries at Gympie’s Cooloola Berries or McMartin’s Farm in Bli Bli (near the Maroochy Wetland Sanctuary).
Sweet tooths are advised to drop into the Noosa Chocolate Factory, a palm oil-free confectionary operation that's been running since 2009. The chocolatiers specialise in chocolate-coated delicacies - their signature product is their rocky road which features handcrafted marshmallow and strawberry jelly that's made and sold fresh every day.
Of the coast’s many markets, Eumundi Markets rules the roost. Running since 1979, it attracts more than a million visitors annually with stalls peddling handcrafted creations and gourmet goodies. It's become one of the largest markets in the southern hemisphere and is open every Wednesday and Saturday.
