From hinterland hideaways to waterfront Italian and craft breweries that genuinely earn your afternoon, the Sunshine Coast just keeps delivering. Whether you’re based in Noosa or making a long weekend of it along the coast, here are the restaurants featured on Urban List, has our own seal of approval and worth booking right now.
1. Matsos
There are breweries, and then there’s Matso’s — the crew behind Australia’s original alcoholic ginger beer, now firmly planted in the sun-soaked heart of Eumundi. Set inside a beautifully reimagined Queensland heritage pub (you might know it as the old Joe’s Waterhole), the sprawling venue is part beer garden, part restaurant, part playground — and all good times.
The famous Ginger Beer and Mango Beer are brewed fresh on-site, which makes pulling up at one of the long timber tables feel like a genuine privilege. The food leans into pub classics done well, with locally sourced ingredients and a laid-back spirit that suits the setting perfectly. Bring the kids (and the dog).
Location: 85 Memorial Drive, Eumundi
Hours: Monday to Wednesday 10am – 10pm; Thursday 10am – 11pm;
Friday & Saturday 10am – midnight; Sunday 10am – 10pm
2. Honeysuckle
Perched at the top of Ballinger Road in Buderim, Honeysuckle is the restaurant the Sunshine Coast didn’t know it needed — and now can’t imagine living without. Owner and chef Seung Joo Kim has quietly created something exceptional here: a modern Asian dining experience that blends East Asian technique with locally sourced Sunshine Coast produce, resulting in a menu so precisely calibrated it feels almost effortless.
The yum cha-style lunch banquet is the stuff of local legend — dishes arrive in waves of charred pak choy, fish dumplings with coconut and chilli oil, prawn toast with sesame and caviar. For dinner, the char siu kangaroo with Sichuan caramel and spiced pear is a masterclass in confident cooking.
Location: 1/153 Ballinger Road, Buderim
Hours: Tuesday to Saturday, 11am – 2:30pm; 5pm – 8:30pm
3. Pomona Distilling Co.
Hidden in the old bakery on Pomona’s main street — one hundred years of history in the walls, an entirely fresh energy in the room — Pomona Distilling Co. is the hinterland day out you’ll talk about for weeks. The hand-crafted spirits are the headline: a Signature Dry Gin, a Butterfly Pea Flower Gin, and a Pink Gin so good you’ll want to take a bottle home (the gin blending classes are a brilliant option if you’re after an experience with your drinks).
The food keeps pace, leaning into big, satisfying shared plates with local produce and the occasional Thai street-inspired flourish. The sprawling garden arbour and lush lawns give the venue a magic-hour quality that makes afternoon drinks stretch long into the evening. Come hungry, leave happy.
Location: 18 Reserve Street, Pomona
Hours: Wednesday to Friday 12pm – 9pm;
Saturday 11am – 9pm; Sunday 11am – 5pm
4. Peregian Beach Hotel
Locals call it PBH — a short stroll from the beach in the laid-back village of Peregian, this beautifully renovated coastal pub somehow manages to feel like a destination dining experience without losing its neighbourhood soul. The wood-fired pizzas are genuinely excellent — the garlic, parsley and mozzarella version is the standard by which others on the coast are measured.
Alongside the pizzas, there’s a rotating seasonal menu built around Sunshine Coast produce, tapas and share plates designed for long afternoons, and a Palm Springs-inspired cocktail bar upstairs that deserves its own visit. Live music, craft beer on tap, and a sprawling alfresco deck under pandanus trees.
Location: 221 David Low Way, Peregian Beach
Hours: 7 days, bar from 11am; lunch 12pm – 2:30pm; arvo menu 2:30pm – 5pm;
dinner 5pm – 8:30pm; pizza available 12pm – 9pm daily
5. Dee Den
The name is a loose translation of “something different”, and Dee Den earns that badge. Nestled in a beautifully renovated Queenslander in the heart of Buderim, this modern Asian restaurant takes familiar Thai and Southeast Asian flavours and shakes them loose from expectation. The result is a menu that feels exciting without being complicated — kingfish sashimi with grapefruit nam jim and coconut snow, betel leaf wraps with charred eggplant and lotus root chips, a twenty-hour slow-cooked beef cheek massaman that’s quietly magnificent.
The cocktail list leans into locally sourced spirits from small Sunshine Coast distilleries, and the lemongrass mojito alone is worth the trip. Dress up, settle in, and let the kitchen do its thing.
Location: Level 1, 87 Burnett Street, Buderim
Hours: Tuesday to Sunday, 11:30am – 2:30pm; 5pm – 8:30pm
6. Copperhead Restaurant & Brewery
Cooroy isn’t where you’d expect to stumble across one of the Sunshine Coast’s most thoughtfully designed menus — which is exactly what makes Copperhead such a find. Behind the exposed brick and heritage timbers, this hinterland brewpub is serious about both its beer and its food. The small-batch brews are made exclusively on-site (you won’t find them anywhere else), rotating from seasonal ales through experimental batches that give the regulars something to debate.
The menu more than holds up: seared scallops with miso mayo, stout-braised lamb shoulder, a Brewer’s Table experience where the kitchen takes the wheel entirely. Mid-century modern interiors built from reclaimed timber, Green Cathedral oak furniture — this place has been considered at every turn.
Location: 52 Kauri Street, Cooroy
Hours: Wednesday to Sunday 11:30am – 9pm
7. Spirit House
Tucked into tropical gardens in Yandina, built over a lily pond, surrounded by the kind of lush greenery that makes you forget you’re in Queensland, this multi award-winning restaurant and cooking school is one of the region’s great dining institutions. The food is contemporary Asian — bold, precise, layered with flavour — and the setting is genuinely transportive. The whole fish is a dish that gets ordered, remembered, and ordered again on every subsequent visit.
The Hong Sa Bar next door serves Asian-inspired cocktails and a bar menu for those who couldn’t get a reservation in the main restaurant, which is a generous consolation prize.
Location: 20 Ninderry Road, Yandina
Hours: Monday & Tuesday, 12pm – 4:30pm;
Wednesday to Saturday, 12pm – 4:30pm & 6pm – 11pm; Sunday, 12pm – 4:30pm
8. Fellowship Drive Cafe
For something a little more casual, this open-plan hinterland cafe in Doonan has rebranded and grown into something a little bigger than just great coffee — though the coffee, roasted on-site from carefully selected specialty beans, is still the best reason to drive out here. The industrial-tin shed interior, recycled timber fit-out, lush greenery and warm community energy make Fellowship Drive feel like the kind of place you discover, then tell everyone about.
The food is seasonal, local, and genuinely nourishing — slow-cooked lamb burgers on sourdough, creative twists on breakfast classics, and an outdoor space that’s dog-friendly and completely irresistible on a sunny morning. Open early, which means it’s the perfect start to a hinterland day.
Location: 9 Fellowship Drive, Doonan
Hours: Monday to Friday 6am – 2pm; Saturday & Sunday 6:30am – 2pm
9. Canteen Kitchen + Bar
Perched on David Low Way with views north toward Noosa and a surf break just metres from the front door, Canteen Kitchen + Bar has been doing the coastal dining thing properly since 2016. The all-black interior with concrete benchtops and exposed pendant lights sits in cheerful contrast with the breezy terrace and salt air drifting in off the beach.
The menu covers serious ground — Cajun fish tacos for lunch, crispy-skinned pork belly for dinner, blue corn tortillas at breakfast — all built on locally sourced produce and a kitchen that clearly cares. The cocktail list is strong, the craft beers rotate, and the Sunday session vibe is exactly what it sounds like. A genuine all-day venue that earns every hour of your time.
Location: 1748 David Low Way, Coolum Beach
Hours: Sunday to Thursday 6:30am – 9pm; Friday & Saturday 6:30am – late
10. Land & Sea Brewery
Noosa’s original craft brewery has grown into something that deserves far more than a quick pint — it deserves an afternoon. Home to the Noosa Heads Distillery under the same roof, Land & Sea is part brewery, part gin bar, part community gathering point, with up to 16 taps pouring beers made with premium local ingredients and what they call “quality local sunshine.”
The aesthetic is relaxed and a little surf-rustic — vintage motorbikes, surfboards, pinball machines, fireplaces for cooler nights — and the food is better than you’d expect from a brewery. Chicken wings, burgers, share plates. Dog-friendly outdoors. Brewery and distillery tours on weekends.
Location: 19 Venture Drive, Noosaville
Hours: Tuesday to Sunday, 12pm until late
11. Junk Asian Restaurant
Junk doesn’t pretend to be anything other than what it is: the best Asian street food on the Sunshine Coast, delivered with confidence and a side of Korean fried chicken that will ruin every other version you’ve had. The concept was inspired by the junk boats that travel Asia’s waterways, bringing communities fresh, local food — and from the moment it opened on Ocean Street in 2014, it’s been a Sunshine Coast institution.
The JFC (Korean fried chicken wings in sweet and spicy sauce) is the order, every time. The Gangnam fries — spiced, loaded with kimchi, nacho cheese sauce, nori and spring onion — are a very close second. Casual Asian-motif fit-out, loads of seating, fantastic for groups. Order everything.
Location: Shop 3/12–20 Ocean Street, Maroochydore
Hours: Monday to Wednesday & Sunday 11am – 9pm;
Thursday to Saturday 11am – 10pm
12. Mr Jones & Me
Tucked away from the Noosa River on Weyba Road, Mr Jones & Me is the restaurant that regular visitors to Noosaville kick themselves for not discovering sooner. The room is casually sophisticated, the service is warm and attentive, and the kitchen delivers bistro classics executed with real precision.
The seafood linguine and duck pancakes are the signatures that keep people coming back, though the pumpkin and sage arancini and the chicken ricotta run them close. The cocktail list is a genuine highlight, and the coeliac-friendly options are handled with rare care.
Location: 301 Weyba Road, Noosaville
Hours: Monday 5pm – 8:30pm;
Tuesday to Saturday 12pm – 2:30pm & 5pm – 8:30pm