The coastal town of Yeppoon is a popular holiday spot on Queensland’s tropical coast for many reasons. It’s located between the Southern Barrier Reef and Rockhampton, the beef capital of Australia, so it’s not surprising that it’s easy to find some fantastic food experiences here.
We recently spent several weeks in the area enjoying some of the best Yeppoon restaurants and cafes, these are some of the favourites we discovered and a few other options you might want to consider for enjoying local produce around the region.
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As always, we’ve only included places we’ve visited personally on the list so we can genuinely review and recommend them based on our own experience. Conversely for those that didn’t make the list so far, it’s quite possible we just haven’t made it in to try them out yet.
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The Waterline Restaurant has an attractive position on the marina in Rosslyn Bay. It offers a fusion menu of modern Asian and Australian flavours crafted from fresh ingredients with strong support for local producers.
The tropical climate is well suited to dining alfresco at casual tables under the veranda or amongst the gardens overlooking the marina. Service is friendly and efficient, a comfortable mix of regional warmth and professionalism.
They are open for breakfast, lunch and dinner and they also have a Sunday afternoon sesh with live music out on the lawn, you can sit back with a drink and soak up the atmosphere while enjoying the great views and tasty share plates. We headed down on a Saturday night and despite being busy each dish was impeccably prepared and presented.
The 10 Best Restaurants In Yeppoon (updated July 2023)
The dumplings with local Keppel Bay bugs are served with a flavour-packed XO sauce and were a stand out of the night for me. The steamed wrappers were light and translucent encasing a generous chunk of the delicately flavoured crustacean.
Not having eaten crocodile before but knowing it’s farmed just down the road at Koorana Farm I made the decision to try the smoked crocodile spring rolls. Another excellent decision, they were succulent and packed with flavour. If I hadn’t just picked it from the menu, I probably wouldn’t have guessed it was crocodile but for those that had told me crocodile tastes just like chicken, I wouldn’t have picked that either. It’s a very light seafood flavour somewhat like squid but with a texture similar to chicken, it paired perfectly with the chilli and ginger jam.
For mains, we choose to try both the reef and beef that the area excels at but in separate dishes. All beef served in the restaurant is locally sourced from the family farm at Banana Station, the rib fillet was paired with
Best Restaurants In Yeppoon
Sauce and Japanese potato salad and we added the kimchi coleslaw which was delicious and went well with both mains. We paired that with the market catch, which was pan-fried King Snapper served on a green papaya salad with chilli jam and crispy shallots.I love the presentation and pairing it with a nod to Thai flavours was delicious.
Waterline was an excellent choice for dinner and with more time I’ll definitely return for a leisurely lunch overlooking the marina or a chill Sunday blues session to try more of their house-made dumpling selection.
Whisk lives up to its byline of ‘simply good food’ with a modern cafe menu, great atmosphere and relaxed setup on James Street just a short walk up from the beach in the heart of Yeppoon.
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Open from 7-2 it serves all-day breakfast, lunch options, a decadent cakes cabinet, good coffee and a solid drinks menu. They even offer multiple options on the puppy menu if you’re here with your fur family.
In the end, I settled on the smashed potato benny with wilted spinach, a generous serve of bacon, 2 poached eggs, hollandaise and a generous drizzle of balsamic glaze that cut through to balance out the richness perfectly.
Drew went with the chicken, bacon and potato pancakes served with poached egg and chutney. The spice blend used on the crispy chicken tenders is delicious and it pulled everything together into a cohesive and delicious dish. The serving sizes are generous here, definitely sized to keep us going throughout the day.
Of The Best Places To Eat In Yeppoon
As a lover of a good benny I was spoilt for choice with an entire section in the menu dedicated to the brunch staple but there was also a range of other delicious savoury options and sweet breakfasts for those who prefer that.
I don’t often opt for a sweet breakfast (Indulge Cafe in Bundaberg being my exception) but if it wasn’t for the eggs benedict lineup I think their banoffee doughnut french toast would have won the day. The entire menu came across as interesting and creative, based on good quality fresh ingredients that were well prepared. Definitely, a spot that would be on regular rotation if we lived closer.
Emu Park is a gorgeous spot about 15 minutes south of Yeppoon. The ANZAC memorial follows a scenic clifftop walkway, the singing ship monument stands at the top of the hill, there’s a children’s park, a popular local swimming beach, picnic and BBQ spots and a surf lifesaving club on the waterfront.
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The Honey Bee Collective is our favourite cafe here. It’s right under the Surf Club and makes a darn good coffee or chai and it has some of the best cafe views and ambience you’ll find anywhere. We liked to pull up a blanket and cushions under the palm trees and look out to the Keppel Islands and sparkling water beyond.
Open from 7 am until 2 pm they were our pick for a morning cuppa several times during our visit but if you are looking for something more they also serve a few food options including hot toasted banana bread, muffins, savoury croissants and toasties.
Something we are often on the lookout for when we are travelling is a lighter lunch option. As much as we enjoy a full-on brunch or lunch menu, sometimes there is just something else you want to be doing or maybe you don’t have the appetite for restaurant portions in the middle of the day.
Best Places To Eat In Yeppoon
Lure Living has a fabulous spot across the road from Yeppoon beach and a gorgeous casual coastal vibe. It has a reputation for serving incredible coffee which is always a good reason to try it out but its unique and inviting styling is equally what initially tempted me to stop by.
The coffee is great, the hot chocolate was pretty darn good too and these toasties were just what we wanted after a morning exploring Lammermore beach and native gardens. Simple and fresh, these are nothing like the nasty toasties you get in many places. They were on wholemeal bread, loaded with juicy chicken, cheese and a thick layer of fresh-cut avo. Seriously yum and the location opposite Yeppoon Beach is pretty darn good too.
They have an all-day breakfast menu with a healthy twist to most dishes. There’s a range of acai bowls, the waffles are free of lactose and refined sugar, the rosti stack is made with cauliflower, not potato and you’ll have no trouble finding keto, dairy-free and gluten-free options on the menu.
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The Bungalow has a super cute beachy aesthetic all whites, light wood and aqua. It’s open from 7 am through to the last call in the evening. Whether you stop in for a morning coffee, breakfast, happy hour, dinner or drinks it’s got something for everyone.
Their coffee is great and it is a lovely spot to sit out in the morning. If you’re passing by in the afternoon there’s happy hour from 3 pm until 6 pm with an interesting range of discounted beers on tap. Then there are nightly themes like Thursday is parmy with a paddle, there’s a taco night and an Asian Street food night and on the weekend it’s Tiki Sunday with all your favourite colourful island cocktails from 3 pm. Basically there’s something here to keep you entertained most nights of your stay.
We have a strong interest in knowing where our food comes from and in minimising food miles as much as possible so we were excited to join the morning tour at the Koorana Crocodile Farm followed by lunch at their restaurant. The tour here is excellent and I’ll link the article about our experience but it’s the restaurant I specifically want to call out for a mention here.
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The only option for dining at Koorana is as an addition to the tours, it’s not open independently, so if you just want to try their crocodile you can do that at some other local spots like Waterline Restaurant and the Keppel Sands Co-op. If you have the time however I’d suggest you make your way out here.
When we travel, I will generally try any local dish or unusual produce at least once, some become favourites, others not so much. I hadn’t actually eaten crocodile before this trip so the farm was the perfect spot to get to try it with zero food miles, they are hatched, raised and processed on the property.
With crocodiles, the skins are where the