69 Main Street, Kin Kin (07) 5485 4155 Executive Chef: Oscar Holgado There are restaurants you drive to because they are convenient. And there are restaurants you drive to because they are worth it. The Woodshed, at the Kin Kin Hotel on Main Street in the village of Kin Kin, is emphatically the second kind: a destination restaurant in the truest sense, drawing diners from Noosa, Brisbane and beyond to the deep hinterland, where a five-metre granite hearth burns at the centre

Shop 2A/14 Sunshine Beach Rd, Noosa Heads 0404 492 309 Executive Chef: Jake McWilliams Theo’s Social Club belongs to the side of Noosa where an evening can begin without much planning. Tucked into Arcadia Walk in Noosa Junction, the wine bar offers seats inside and out beneath a tree threaded with fairy lights. The setting suits its name: a place to gather, settle into conversation and discover that one drink has become dinner. Opened at the end of 2020, Theo’s has establishe

1/205 Weyba Road, Noosaville (07) 5324 1391 Head Chef: Matt Sinclair When Matt Sinclair finished as runner-up on MasterChef Australia in 2016, the obvious next move might have been a polished restaurant with his name above the door. Instead, he called his mates. Michael Rickard, Jeremiah Jones and Dylan Campbell had been cooking, eating and dreaming together for years. Sum Yung Guys, which opened in Sunshine Beach in 2017, was never going to be a solo project. It was always g

251 Gympie Terrace, Noosaville (07) 5446 2068 Executive Chef: Kelly Pham Gympie Terrace has always fed people. From Maisie Massoud’s fish café in 1920 to the riverside tables that line it today, this quiet stretch of Noosaville has never really stopped being about the pleasures of eating well beside the water. The Stone Bowl, at 251 Gympie Terrace, is a worthy addition to that long tradition — a Vietnamese restaurant that brings something genuinely different to the Noosa dini

5/25 Hastings St, Noosa Heads (07) 5447 3747 Exec Chef: Andrew Tomlin Season Noosa sits between two of the town’s defining attractions: Hastings Street and Main Beach. At its beachfront address, the appeal is immediate, but the experience is about more than finding a table with a view. It is about the ease of moving from a day by the water into a meal that feels like part of it. The restaurant embraces a casual, welcoming style, with lunch, dinner and a cocktail bar offering

2 Quamby Place, Noosa Heads (07) 5447 2455 Head Chef: Enrique Mancilla There is a table at Rickys, any table really, where the Noosa River stretches out in a 180-degree sweep of light and water, and the whole Sunshine Coast seems to slow to the pace you always wanted. That view, and what arrives from the kitchen to match it, is why Rickys River Bar & Restaurant has held its place as one of the great dining institutions of the region for more than two decades. Located at 2 Qua

1/104 Memorial Dr, Eumundi 0460 302 786 Executive Chef: Alex King Popina Eumundi sits quietly in the heart of Eumundi, a restaurant shaped by season, simplicity and the kind of hospitality that feels personal from the moment you arrive. It is intimate rather than showy, with a courtyard atmosphere, warm service and a menu that draws its strength from the Sunshine Coast and hinterland food bowl. Run by husband-and-wife team Alex and Penny King, Popina has the feeling of a rest

Noosa Marina (07) 5370 5754 Executive Chef: Matt Sinclair There is a philosophy at the heart of Peli’s that is easy to state and hard to execute: do the simple things well. In the hands of Matt Sinclair, Michael Rickard and Jeremiah Jones — the celebrated trio behind Sunshine Coast institution Sum Yung Guys — it is executed with a precision and warmth that has made Peli’s one of the most talked-about openings on the Noosa Marina since the restaurant launched on 12 September 2

142 Gympie Terrace, Noosaville (07) 5474 4444 Head Chef: Alessio Zichichi Noosa Waterfront Restaurant & Bar has always had one of the most enviable settings in Noosa. Tucked beside a calm inlet of the Noosa River on Gympie Terrace, it is the kind of place where the view does half the welcoming before a menu is even opened. Water, lawn, trees, light and the quiet movement of boats give the venue a sense of ease that has made it a long-standing favourite for locals, visitors, w

5 Sunshine Beach Rd, Noosa Heads 0447 809 849 New York Minute began with burgers, but Noosa has made it something bigger. When Antony Crowther first brought the Melbourne-born New York Minute brand to Noosa Junction, the foundations were clear: fast, generous, New York-inspired food built around the simple satisfaction of a great burger. That DNA still matters. Burgers remain part of the story, and part of the reason people first found their way through the door. But the Noo

Noosa Marina, Tewantin (07) 5470 2331 Executive Chef: Tommaso Belforti Some restaurants arrive fully formed, carrying a lineage so deep you can taste it in the first bite. Lucio’s Marina is one of those places. Opened in November 2021 on the banks of the Noosa River at Tewantin, it brings with it three generations of Italian hospitality — and the kind of cooking that only a family with something to prove, and something to honour, can produce. The story begins in Liguria, on t

62 Hastings St, Noosa Heads (07) 5447 5111 Executive Chef: Chris Hagan Locale Noosa brings a distinctly Italian sense of warmth, elegance and appetite to Hastings Street. Tucked into a protected corner just steps from Noosa Main Beach, it offers a different mood from the beachfront’s brightness: intimate, shaded, atmospheric and quietly transportive. It is the kind of restaurant that feels made for evening, when the pace of the street softens, and the pleasure of a long meal