In many ways, Mooloolaba on Australia’s Sunshine Coast is your typical tourist town, replete with tacky souvenir stores, expensive surf shops, and a plethora of tourist trap restaurants, bars, and cafes.
Allow me to save you from those crappy eateries at least. Here’s a list of the good ones…
Rice Boi
You may have to wait a while to get in to this dope pan-Asian joint at Mooloolaba Wharf, but believe me when I tell you that it’s well worth the wait. The food at Rice Boi is superb, the décor is funky, and the service is swift (it has to be to keep up with the demand for katsu curry fries, yellow curry spring rolls, and delectable duck bao!).
The Dock
When I’m not blogging about travel, I’m blogging about craft beer over at Best Beer HQ. So you can trust me when I say that The Dock is arguably the place to go in Mooloolaba for craft beer. It has a lot of great stuff on tap and in the fridge, plus a solid list of cocktails for non-beer drinkers. Best of all, it’s stunningly situated on the end of the Mooloolaba Wharf, so the views are superb.
Saltwater Fish and Chippery
Saltwater Fish and Chippery is a fancy Hamptons-style fish and chip shop down at the Mooloolaba Wharf, where Mrs Man vs World and I chowed down on a cheap-and-cheerful chip butty, deep-fried chicken bites, battered fresh-caught flathead, and chunky chips with tomato sauce. It was reasonably priced AND delicious.
Lot 104 Espresso and Wine Bar
The only place that we ate or drank at along the Mooloolaba Esplanade that I felt was worth writing about was Lot 104, where we had a brilliant breakfast on our last day. The service was swift, and the coffee was perfect. You could do a lot worse than park yourself here and enjoy the view.
While you’re here, check out these 5 surprising things about Australia Zoo.
