The region is fast emerging as a foodie lovers dream, with craft breweries, gin distilleries and coffee roasters are making a name for themselves among the talented creatives that call this place home. We take a look at some of the best.
Why not pop into Popina?
Popina, Eumundi
Dining at Popina is an experience your tastebuds will never forget. Using seasonal produce from the Sunshine Coast hinterland and surrounding areas as much as possible, Popina is the epitome of refined fine dining. No details have been spared here.
With pared back flavours and exquisite preparation, you’ll appreciate the super fresh, local produce and culinary care put into each dish where ingredients like Mooloolaba Prawns and Fraser Isle Spanner Crab made the heroes. Do yourself a favour and book!
Eat, sip, repeat at The Imperial Hotel
The Imperial Hotel, Eumundi
The Imperial Hotel is pretty hard to miss in Eumundi. It’s the boisterous, big-shouldered lad dominating the corner of the main streetscape, where it’s watched the world whirl by since 1911.
Despite its impressive scale, The Imperial has somehow created an eccentric and cosy vibe with its bustling beer garden, brewery, distillery and dining areas, each guaranteed to make you feel at ease.
Enjoy a famous Eumundi frothy or wind up your week with knock-off drinks and relaxed bite to eat with some live music. Even the toilets are an experience with off the dial murals and other eccentricities. Get amongst it!
Yipee! Coffee
Coffee at Gun Cotton Coffee, Yandina
Whether you’re travelling on the Bruce Highway and need a pitstop or planning a chilled morning exploring hinterland towns, we’ve got your fix sorted.
Eumundi and surrounding towns are awash with good beans and top nosh, including Flying West Coffee Roasters. What started as a small gig selling coffee at Eumundi Markets, has expanded into a dedicated roastery producing specialty grade coffee, plus café and store. Open seven days a week in nearby Doonan, read the papers or take some time out from your day in this industrial-minimalist space where the coffee roasting aroma will greet you at the door.
Tucked behind the main drag of Yandina, Gun Cotton Coffee Roasters is a hidden gem. Having transformed a quintessential Queensland heritage building into something special with a beaming red façade and white umbrellas, there’s heaps of space to get comfy with the fam or your squad. Serving an all-day brekkie and lunch with loads of local farm produce, plus Sunday sessions (12-3pm), get amongst the good vibes! Dogs welcome.
Get lost in Berkelouw Bookshop & Cafe
Berkelouw Book Barn, Eumundi
Book lovers rejoice. You have arrived at the temple of books! Ever seen a movie where the bookshop seems to go on and on forever with an old-e world charm to it? That’s Berkelouw Bookshop and Café.
As Australia’s oldest book shop, opening in 1812, you’ll feel transported to another era and lose time among the shelves which seem to go on for days.
Here you’ll find everything from children’s books to rare collectibles, second hand eccentricities and brand-new crisp bestsellers and a range of enticing gifts. To top it off, you can start reading your new books in the in-store coffee shop serving lovingly prepared local fare.
Take your tastebuds on an adventure at Spirit House
Experience exceptional dining at Spirit House
Prepare to have your tastebuds catapulted to a new dimension at the award-winning Spirit House, an ultra-fancy Thai-fusion restaurant in Yandina. Hello flavour!
Arguably one of Australia’s best dining experiences set among lush tropical gardens around a tranquil pond, prepare yourself to go on a food journey well beyond the plate.
With bubbling waterfalls, tinkling wind chimes and the sounds of nature surrounding you, this is truly a dining ‘experience’. Book well in advance at this treasure trove of deliciousness.
Sample the good ale at Terella Brewing
Terella Brewing
Brewing fun times and big flavours, the Terella Brewing crew have meaty aspirations and draw their inspiration from science, a serious devotion to beer and a genuine connection to the local land.
Based in picturesque North Arm, Terella means “Little Earth”. With more to discover than just thirst-quenching brews, your inner curiosity will be piqued here.
The brewery is centred around sustainable practices and takes a circular economy approach. For example, they use the water biproduct from their neighbours at Vertical Farm and share brewing biproduct with them for their farming purposes.
Chomp the day away at Big Heart
Nestled in the foothills of the Mapleton National Park ranges, Big Heart Bamboo is an unexpected 100-acre plantation founded in 1989, and is one of the largest in Australia.
With more than five species of bamboo, all offering different taste and texture properties, Big Heart have carved a niche for itself with specialty condiments bursting with flavour and nutrition, using locally sourced flavour sources like tea tree and red gum.
Take an edible eco-tour through the majestic bamboo groves swaying in the breeze and learn all there is to know about this versatile Asian superfood. We guarantee you won’t go home empty handed.
Feel the history of Yandina Hotel
Yandina Hotel
Serving up a yarn and some coldies since 1889, Yandina Hotel was built by Australian pioneers as a staging depot on the route between Brisbane and the Gympie Gold fields.
A lot of thirsty work was going on in the area during the gold rush era with road building, railways, cane harvesting and land clearing all in full swing. As one of the Sunshine Coast’s oldest pubs, the place has been buzzing ever since!
Cool your heels here and chow down on some typical pub fare like chicken schnitty’ers (schnitzel) and steak and learn more about the intriguing stories surrounding this place.