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!!

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.

The best vegan burger hands down. Also had the black bean…read morenoodle salad which was huge and delicious. They also have a great tofu scramble for breaky on the weekends. Must try!

We didn't even eat here so the rating is based upon the service and attitude from the staff. We…read morewere staying at Ambience and went down to the restaurant around 430 pm on a Wednesday. We were excited to find a vegan eatery so close to where we were staying. After looking at the menu, we planned to order 2 appetizers and 2 mains, the apps we'd eat now and the mains for later after a get together in Surfer's. The hostess told us between 3 and 5 only appetizers could be ordered but we could preorder the mains to be ready after 5. After we ordered she checked with the kitchen and said the mains we'd ordered weren't on the special Wednesday menu so we changed to 2 other slightly more expensive mains and left for coffee to pick everything up after 5. We we returned we were told that on Wednesdays only a certain number of mains were prepared and they were for dining in only. This wouldn't work for our schedule and we requested a full refund for apps and mains but because the apps had been prepared they refused to refund that portion of our bill. Too many rules! Poor communication between the front and back of the house. Poor customer service!!!!

Amazing food, very tasty! I was delight with the flavours and the place. Definitely will recommend…read moreto friends!

You do not have to be a vegetarian to love this place. Based in the centre of Broadbeach the…read moreCardamon Pod Resturant does not disappoint! With selections of hot meals to accompanying side salads you will be spoilt for choice. Great for groups or a catchup over a coffee to get the low down in all the gossip, the truly is a place to be. Friday and Saturday nights are always busy so if booking for a group make sure you speak to the friendly staff about group bookings.

Not much to say as I didn't order much (just some sushi). I was happy to discover that there is a…read morevegetarian spot in this massive shopping center. They have a bar of various asian fusion dishes, with tofu and faux meats, as well as the sushi. It's at the Western edge of the shopping center, in front of the two major grocers. I enjoyed the seaweed inari I ordered, and I'll probably update with some substance when I get around to stopping back again.

They made really good vegetarian food. Tasty & healthy. Friendly staffs. Will definitely recommend…read moreppl to go & have a try!

Raw Energy is a fairly ubiquitous health food cafe chain. This one earned a visit largely because…read moreit was at a great location and open during the holidays (albeit charging a premium as some Australian places do). They were actually out of both things that I ordered, understandable given the time of year, but getting a dragon fruit bowl instead of acai was no great disappointment, and the lentil and macadamia stuff they put in my lentil and cheese triangle instead of plain lentils was pretty delicious. The place is expensive, but you can peek one of the better beach areas in Gold Coast if you get an outdoor table. All things considered, having access to their fruity, filling menu in a place with limited options is a win.

Awesome place! We had the mex wrap and moroccan chicken wrap, both so tasty and fresh! Also a…read morecouple of juices which were great. Kids menu also very well priced inc mini shakes! Service with a smile, and pretty quick for a hot, busy Saturday here. Will return, check it out!

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.

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.

Super friendly staff! Very accommodating!…read more Worth checking out, great food menu and was quick to!

Just popped in for a cup of tea but to my surprise has a delightful range of healthy juices…read moresmoothies and super smoothies they look amazing and taste pretty good. They also have heaps for breakfast including the big breakky and eggs Benedict which looked amazing,will definitely be coming back