Enjoyed my meal here. It's a Hare Krishna place, which means it's low-cost Indian-inspired food,…read morecooked for the masses and served buffet-style. Lots of curries and things like that. You pay one flat fee and it's all-you-can-eat. Govinda's is a bit more special than most Hare Krishna places, though, in that it's a little bit better quality and has way more of a range of options. It has one bar devoted to salads and their dressings (fresh green mixed salads, couscous salads, quinoa salads, etc.) and one bar devoted to hot foods (pasta, several types of curries, samosas and other fried snacks, and a sweet dessert). Govinda's is also one of the only vegetarian places in Surfers Paradise, and as it is 100% vegan, you don't have to worry about sneaky dairy or egg ingredients when you order. The downside of all this is it is more expensive than most Hare Krishna places -- the ones in other cities tend to be in the $9-12 range (even as low as $6.50 here in Melbourne). We paid $16.90 each here at Govinda's! We were hungry so it was worth it -- we filled our plates once at the salad bar, then went back and filled our plates again at the hot cooked food bar, and then finally a third time for dessert. Some of the options were better than others. I really loved the satay peanut sauce at the salad bar -- I drenched my quinoa salad and green salad in it. Delicious stuff. I also enjoyed the lentil curry, and the fried pakora was super yum. I wasn't as wild about the pasta -- it was very plain. But in general, everything was tasty. The dessert was halwa (semolina pudding with sweet sauce) -- not very pretty to look at, but tasty. If you don't want to spring for the all-you-can-eat, you can also order individual plates of things, but it didn't look like it was as good a value for your money. You can also order at an extra cost any desserts from their display case and any extra drinks as well. (Free tap water otherwise.) Service was a bit blunt as it often is in this type of place. But not too bad. Atmosphere-wise, very similar to lots of Hare Krishna places, although this one had very little religious messaging on the walls, very unobtrusive -- most people would never guess it was a Hare Krishna place. Nice enough seating and decor, and very clean. I loved all the colorful throw pillows against the benches. Definitely recommend if you're in Surfers looking for a healthy, filling meal that won't break the bank.

Excellent food! Very happy every time I go Nice variety of…read moreproducts and very tasty!!

Fantastic food. Very busy , but it was Saturday night. There is seating to wait for a table…read more Definitely worth it. Service was excellent for a busy period. Food is delicious. Vegan. Creative. Very tasty. Quite large mains. Good pricing. Licensed , nice surprise. I had the lemon myrtle iced tea with a shot of gin Our party of three had the nachos and two serves of the 'pulled' jackfruit enchilada... I can't wait to go back. 'Raw' desserts yummo

We got takeaway, delicious! The cauliflower wings were the BEST! So nourishing. Thank youread more

I went here the very first week they opened, so there were maybe a few teething problems, but I…read moreenjoyed my meal and I'm pretty sure good things will come of this place. Orchid's tucked into a little shopping arcade in between the beach and Surfer's Paradise. Not the most charming atmosphere, being in a sterile shopping arcade, but the cafe itself is cute and has nice decor. Everything here is vegetarian with a few vegan options. I would have preferred to see a few more vegan options, to be honest. I got the vegan shepherd's pie and it came with mashed sweet potato instead of regular potato -- a nice surprise. Everything tasted nice, although I felt the portion size was a little small for the price. It also took them forever to serve me -- again, I'm sure it was just teething issues as they'd literally just opened and hadn't even have their glassware and stuff delivered yet. I also got a vegan cookie from the display case containing baked goods -- average but OK. What really stands out here is the service. I'm not sure if the lady serving me was also the owner/manager but I suspect she probably was and that this place is a one-woman shop. She was incredibly sweet and friendly and very apologetic for the wait. Her awesome attitude alone would make me want to go back. It's honestly great to see another vegetarian place in Surfers Paradise besides Govinda's so definitely get out there and show her some support if you're in the Gold Coast area and want some healthy plant-based food :)

Had a chance to be at Gold Coast in dec 2017 along with my wife. We were quite eager to try out a…read morenew place for dining and were searching for a 'All Vegetarian' restaurant. Were were delighted to know that what we were searching for was just 50 meters away from where we were staying and we thought it to be a blessing that we will be able to eat all 5 days at an 'All Vegetarian' restaurant. But it was a weird moment for us when we saw 'Poached Egg' on their menu.Upon inquiry, the lady owner gave a lame response 'it is just served as part of our breakfast menu' , we are 'All Vegetarian' for the rest of the day. We could not get across this response but still we tried to ignore it for a while as we were super hungry. we had a quick glance at the menu she had put for us on the table and then chose to eat pizza.I requested the lady owner if she could bake us a Pizza but she need to make sure the cooking ware she will use doesn't have any traces of egg or items that contain egg. She didn't understand what i meant and kept on clarifying what exactly we needed. We decided to let her make pizza for us , her own way. While she prepared to bake pizza for us, we realized, she didn't had the raw material to make Pizza for us and she did quite a few rounds to the shop just next door (a Sudanese shop that sells every possible meat based delicacy) to gather the mozzarella cheese, chilli sauce. We asked for Chilli flakes, she said she doesn't keep those. And we wondered what sort of restaurant that was.The pizza made for had a pizza base with a weird taste and smelled like a rotten veggie. We somehow managed to eat what was presented as Pizza but we ended up with an upset stomach. I strongly suggest not to visit this place unless they change their definition of a 'Vegetarian Restaurant'

This is a second location for the Cardamom Pod, a vegetarian (apparently vegan) brunch place (the…read morefirst is south of here at Broadbeach). The location itself I'm not a huge fan of. It's not close to the beach or on the tram line, so it wasn't the easiest thing to get to. Moreover, because it took a while to reach, I arrived just after their breakfast had ended and their lunch started. Looking at the breakfast menu, this was a tad disappointing. That being said, the crunchy tofu rolls I ended up were ethnically indiscernible but tasty, combining a Vietnamese presentation with a very Indian-ish dipping sauce and some marinated mango. They were amply spicy and sweet, and with avocado accompanying the tofu, reasonably filling. Their menu on the whole is quite lavish (and expensive). And yet, despite being a pricey pure plant-based restaurant at a non-ideal location, it was kind of busy. Gold Coast, man, I'm telling you. Most parts of the world, there aren't too many fancy vegetarian restaurants and the ones that exist sometimes struggle, but I just can't stop running into them here, and they're doing fine. I imagine I'll be back for some of their chickpea flour breakfast dishes sometime.

Decided to give this place a second chance after trying it during the COVID pandemic when they were…read moreonly doing take away, their food was not to their usual standard. Sorely disappointed with the service this time and didn't even get a chance to eat. From the time of ordering to leaving waited over an hour. Full story is we didn't have an appointment but me and my friend wanted to see if they had seats anyway. There were two tables opening up but the hostess told us to wait and gave us some attitude about it. We shrugged it off and waited about 10min for the table that was just empty the entire ten minutes. When we sat down we looked over the menu and then ordered about 5 min later with the same hostess lady. She unkindly told us that the gnocchi was sold out which is fine but she still had an attitude about it. Then after ordering we waited about an hour and saw people who had come order ate and left. We had been chatting and had ordered a big meal so thought maybe our food took longer to prepare but after an hour we were hungry and impatient and asked the hostess about an update and she said "what food" and we reminded her that she took our order and she just said "omg I forgot" she had not put the order in. In the hour she had not checked on our table even tho by this time half the restaurant tables were empty they weren't that busy. Terrible service. The food however does look and smell amazing from the tables next to us.

This is a great vegan spot. Great food. I ordered the "Macho Nachos" ($18), it was good. I am not a…read morecapsicum fan and didn't realise there was capsicum in it... it was diced so couldn't take it off (it didn't say there was capsicum on the menu either). The nacho chips were amazing, the sauces and toppings were all fresh and tasty. I also ordered a Banoffee Espresso Smoothie which was great. Would be good to see some more eco-friendly packaging though. I think being a trendy little vegan cafe it would be handy to have photos of the items on the menu. It's located in Southport and tucked away just by Flannery's. Overall, has great options and I would return. I am excited to try some other items on the menu! Great Breakfast, Brunch, Lunch, Afternoon Snack and Dinner options! Meals are filling and worth the price. Inside outside seating is also a plus to get some fresh air!

Absolutely the best place for a vegan breakfast! The meals are very flavoursome and filling, The…read moreprice is well worth the quality.

The menu for actual food is pretty small-- there are quite a few options, but not many raw or super…read morehealthy food options. They're more along the lines of a more decadent vegan meal, but... every single thing I had was perfectly done. Delicious, well-flavored, and interesting. I started with one of their coconuts-- with milk thistle tincture and chlorophyll. It was good, perfectly cold. Enjoyed the olives for a starter-- generous portion but at $9 still scary. $21 for a very small Caesar salad was also scary. Yummy, but scary for how tiny the portion was. Enjoyed a turmeric latte-- delicious. And also a cacao maca latte-- even more delicious than the turmeric latter. Both were some crazy price as well. $65 for a dinner for one. Not much food. Luckily, I wasn't that hungry. Note: they DO NOT have free wifi or wifi of any kind-- which is disturbing given the touristy nature of Byron Bay, but alas. For whatever reason, nope. The waiter and manager were exceptionally nice-- really lovely people. I will go again, not look at the prices, and enjoy the food. :)

My partner and I had the best experience at elixiba!!…read more It was the first restaurant we went to in Byron bay and it did not disappoint! We're from central coast and there is hardly any vegan options so it was a great feeling knowing everything on the menu was vegan. The nachos and burger we had was absolutely delicious and the mock tails were soooo yummy. The staff was also incredibly nice and welcoming! Highly recommend!!!

I had a negative experience with this business. They franchised a location in Columbus, OH. This…read morelocation closed, but they sold my mom a gift card a week later. On behalf of my elderly mother, I have contacted the primary Gold Coast location about this at least 5 times over the past 6 months. They have never emailed me back. However, I noticed that they always watch my stories on Insta so I called them out and eventually they did respond to me on insta saying they will "look into it" and trying to blame the franchisee. Obviously, the Columbus location is closed and the right thing to do is for the primary business to return my mom her $80. They apparently just want to take advantage of senior citizens.

This was a lovely little bar on the main street in Coolangatta. In fact it was one that I simply…read morestumbled across as I was wandering around here during the evening. Okay, it was rather quiet when I came, and it is probably more a restaurant, though they do have a bar area out the front where you can sit with your drink. As well as having a nice selection, I also found that the staff were really friendly. Yeah, I actually really liked this place.

The new train line has opened, and this place which was once a massive pain to get to by transit is…read morenow walkable from a train station, so it seems like a good time to update the review. Logistics aside, I've been consistently intrigued. Malaysian cuisine is not a thing where I'm from. The basic elements are what you'd expect from any vegetarian Asian cuisine: noodles, rice, saltiness, soy products, etc. However, there is something slightly different; perhaps most notably when I ended up with some fried "chicken" product and watermelon juice and thought in my head that I might be eating comfort food from the American South. Among the many options I've sampled all have been palatable, and I'm still waiting to get around to the more recognizable names like nasi goreng and laksa. I've ordered differently every time, and if I were to repeat an order it would probably be for the roti chenai, a curry with fried bread that was much more delicious than the ones I've tried elsewhere. You can't go wrong with the noodle dishes either. It isn't the cheapest, but things are cooked fresh to order, and they're worth ordering. They also offer super cheap loose leaf teas. The worst that can be said of them is that once I came and they had closed during the slow hours on a weekday afternoon (inconsistently with their posted schedule), which in my experience is unthinkable for an American business, but not uncommon by looser Australian standards. Otherwise, the service and food have been on point, and I'm quite happy to have found them. I suspect vegetarian Malaysian will be a new thing for most diners as it has been for me, but I would suggest trying it.

22/2/2013 - "Get a dog in yah!"…read more Looking for a quick meal? Well, it's as easy as 5 Dogs in Brunswick Street Mall in Fortitude Valley. I don't know how I ever missed this place in previous visits, especially being an unmissable yellow stand with attention-grabbing signage and flavoursome pictures of their product. Their product is of course Hot Dogs and the concept is simple. 5 different Hot Dogs to choose from (hence the name "5 Dogs"), the NYC dog, the Chilli Dog, the German Dog, the Beef'n'Gravy dog, and the Snack Dog. There's also a selection of "sides" to choose from; fries, cheese fries, poutine, nachos, "sausage on a stick", as well as "extras", just in case you didn't have enough sauce, or want more sausage. All Hot Dogs are $8 except for the Snack Dog, which is $6. I decided to go for the Combo ($11.50) NYC which includes fries and your choice of soft drink. So what's to like? The service is great, especially the girl "Aa-mee" who served us. Everything is fresh, made to order and very tasty. The NYC Dog was as flavoursome as it looked, caramelised onions, mayo, tomato sauce, and delivered on their promise of "100% top grade meat". Just perfect for those days you want to give your body extra calories it doesn't need and junk out. Tables and chairs outside are helpful if your talents aren't walking and eating. I like that their menu offers a "vegan sausage" and that all their meat is preservative and gluten free for those who need that option. Despite this, I can't help but feel as though something is missing. Perhaps, its the size of the bun (slightly bigger than a 6inch sub), or the fact that I know for $11.50 there's a ton of other food options in the mall. Overall, 5 Dogs is well placed to meet the needs of the hungry masses, especially on weekends, after a big night out! Admittedly, I'd be one of them :)

If you like hotdogs, this is it. This is the mecca of the best you will find in Brisbane in the…read morehotdog category. The meat is quality, you can taste it because it's not that much fat... which is a good thing. They boast and have a fantastic chilli dog if you've ever had one before, it's quite exciting to have one to the same standard as the one in NYC right here in Brisvegas. They use rump for their roast beef and they have over 10 different types of hot sauces for those of you who are crazy for hot and spicy hotdogs, or just crazy in general. I chose to stick with my tomato sauce and mustard. For something different, it's a great place to get your munch on.