I must admit I never expected to be writing a food based post off the back of instructions from my dentist to consume mostly liquids with a slow migration to soft food over the coming days. Time to get creative! I’d heard great things about the quality of food and drink in Gibson’s and I wanted to make sure that I didn’t miss out. Fortunately I had my bottomless pit boyfriend with me who could finish off any scraps, although I’m pretty sure every server at every place we ate at must have thought I hated the food because I always took so ridiculously long to finish anything. 

Over our short weekend in Gibson’s we dined at some cracker places and there is still a lot left to be desired (all of which I’ll mention below).

For any coffee lover, Beachcomber Coffee is hard to miss. Not only is the interior decor amazing, even more importantly the coffee is top notch. I had a cold brew and Andy had a cortado and both of our drinks were just so smooth tasting and easy to drink. To top it off, the Sunshine Coast’s Deadly Donuts was running a pop up shop on the first morning we went. I wasn’t sure if I was going to be able to finish one less than 24 hours after my tooth extraction, so I let Andy choose the flavour (otherwise I would have totally gone for the chocolate and Nutella flavour).

Of course, as always, he chose the cinnamon donut (which to be fair, looked amazing and was half dipped in chocolate) and I have no hesitation in saying that I think it’s the best cinnamon donut I have ever had. The next morning, I couldn’t resist going back for another cold brew – and surprise! They had more donuts. This time I chose the chocolate Nutella donut, as well as a souvenir of coffee beans.

This caffeine hit gave us the boost we needed to walk up the hill and along the main road to Persephone Brewery. It has a real farm focus, which I really appreciated, meaning that they aim to really use and cultivate the land around them, growing wheat and barley (and other beer related goodies?) as well as vegetables and produce for the food they serve and community initiatives. It was a very pleasant space, and would be a gorgeous spot to spend the afternoon on a sunny day – there was lots of grass space and outdoor games. 

We tried 8 different beers by way of two flights – the standouts for me were definitely the hazy IPA, the cider and the Peach Hefeweizen (unexpected last choice by me, but it was great). We also took pause for lunch – tacos, calzone and pulled pork sliders. I can’t pretend I didn’t struggle here! I successfully ate a calzone (letting the bread soften in my mouth before trying to chew) and it was really fresh and well put together. The pulled pork in the sliders was succulent and smokey, but I just couldn’t relax trying to munch through the slightly crispier bun. Unsurprisingly the tacos were too much, I had a wee taste before letting Andy finish it off. It was yummy and Andy’s favourite dish at Persephone, so no issues there!

Homeward bound, but not without another pit stop at Tapworks. We had stopped here the night before for Andy to grab some dinner and a nightcap (in the form of a beer). He had previously ordered a pepperoni flatbread of which I was too scared to try and a pretzel. He loved the pepperoni flatbread, perfect ratio of cheese to meat to bread, but wasn’t such a fan of the pretzel. The reason for this being that it was absolutely laden in salt, to the point where even after he’d scraped the bulk of it off, he still didn’t enjoy it. My turn to mop up his leftovers there – I found it soothing to suck on the hot doughy bread and feel the saltiness spread through my mouth – it was flavour that did not make my mouth sting! 

On our second visit to Tapworks we were just there to soak up the atmosphere. This time we left the cosy downstairs couch by the fireplace and headed upstairs to the patio, where there was a live band and stunning views over the water. I’d had a cheeky taste of Andy’s hazy IPA the night before and was keen to have one all to myself because it is definitely one of the better beers I have tried in awhile. It had great ambience and was a relaxing spot to chill out. 

Dinner that night saw us head to Buono Osteria. We were taken back by the floor to ceiling windows looking directly out over the water; what a romantic spot. The prices were very reasonable and the food was good value – especially for the setting. We enjoyed our first ‘date night’ in what felt like way too long and I loved every minute of it. We both ordered pasta (accompanied by garlic bread) as I thought it would be softer than pizza, and I wanted to be able to try Andy’s too! We ended up being too full for dessert, despite having looked forward to it for the better part of the afternoon. It was a cute spot and there is definitely something on the menu to please everyone. 

For brunch the following morning, we wanted to visit Drift Cafe with its huge open patio, but unfortunately they were all booked up. Instead we headed back down to the famed Molly’s Reach (from the Beachcombers TV series) where we still managed to nab a seat outdoors. I had the fish and chips classic (cod, although salmon was available too) and Andy got the chicken burger, and at my request swapped his fries for soup. Obviously qualifying as soft food, the mushroom soup was delicious. Everything we ordered tasted great albeit all quite basic. 

Unfortunately this was all we had time for on this particular trip. If I had more appetite for crunch, I have no doubt that we would have visited Lunitas, a waterfront Mexican restaurant that looked great and was basically next door to our house. Right by that was Smitty’s Oyster House, specialising in all things seafood and was certainly popular. We had hoped to make it to Drift Cafe, perched on the hill with its panoramic views and for an easy coffee/sandwich option, Black Bean Cafe sure has its place in the market. Most of the options in Gibson’s Landing appeared to be good ones, we just didn’t have time to visit them all!