Mooloolaba Surf Club: Why eat at this Sunshine Coast?

The Mooloolaba Surf Club offers relatively cheap food and drink on the Sunshine Coast, with a fantastic setting next to Mooloolaba Beach.

What is the Mooloolaba Surf Club?

The Mooloolaba Surf Club is one of the best places on Queensland’s Sunshine Coast to get a relatively cheap meal and affordably-priced drinks. The surf club’s location overlooking Mooloolaba Beach doesn’t exactly hurt, either.

What to pre-book in Mooloolaba

A sunset cruise along the palm-lined waterways
The Aquaduck tour – it’s a bus tour, and then it’s a cruise, all in the same amphibious vehicle.
A canal cruise – on a historic wooden ferry.
Sealife aquarium tickets – visit the biggest aquarium on the Sunshine Coast.
In season, a whale-watching cruise – get close to the migrating humpbacks.
Your accommodation.

What are surf clubs in Australia?

Surf clubs in Australia are considerably more than lifeguard huts, and this is very much the case with the Mooloolaba Surf Club. It rolls a restaurant, bar, coffee shop and entertainment venue into one.

Like many other Sunshine Coast surf clubs, such the Noosa Surf Club, Maroochydore Surf Club, Sunshine Beach Surf Club, Caloundra Surf Club and Coolum Surf Club, the vibe is egalitarian. Surf clubs in Australia are not where you come for high end sophistication. They’re where you come for solid quality but relatively cheap food and drink.

To understand why, you need to know what a club is in Australia, and how they’re different from pubs. Registered clubs – be they golf clubs, RSLs, bowling clubs or surf clubs – are not-for-profit organisations. They operate under different licences to pubs, and more pertinently, get tax exemptions.

12 fantastic Sunshine Coast experiences to book now

Taste coffee and ginger, do rainforest walks, and visit the best lookouts on a highlight-packed hinterland tour.
Take a serene Noosa Everglades cruise along the mirror-like waterways – or canoe through the Everglades.
Learn to surf at a Sunshine Coast surf school – or try paddleboarding instead.
Combine sight-seeing and thrills on a fast boat tour.
Go e-mountain biking on the downhill trails of Tewantin National Park.
Kayak with dolphins as part of a beach 4WD tour.
Explore the Sunshine Coast from above on a seaplane flight.
Take an indigenous cultural tour – with bush tucker tasting.
Visit the region’s best craft breweries and distilleries on a drinks tasting tour.
Go jetskiing through the gorgeous Pumicestone Passage.
Taste wines, cheeses and chocolates on a hinterland food tour.
Watch migrating humpbacks on a whale-watching cruise.

Temporary memberships to surf clubs

Theoretically run by the members for the members, a club can issue temporary memberships to anyone who lives more than 5km away. Members can also sign non-members in as guests. So, to all intents and purposes, anyone can go to the club for a drink or a meal.

The not-for-profit tax exemptions mean that the clubs can sell food and drink cheaper than pubs and restaurants. Often considerably cheaper. And this is often why clubs are so massive – everyone knows they can get a cheap beer there, and the money goes back into expanding the facilities.

The Mooloolaba Surf Club follows this pattern, and has the benefit of a beachside location. No wonder it’s popular.

Boathouse Restaurant at Mooloolaba Surf Club

The Boathouse Restaurant and Bayview Bar pretend to be different entities, but serve up pretty much the same menu. There’s an emphasis on seafood – it’s $26 for fish and chips and $30 for a seafood basket. But there are plenty of other options too, none of which venture too far from the classic burgers ($22), risotto ($22) and chicken parma ($26) roster of Aussie classics. Full menus are available on the Surf Club website.

Fish and chips by the beach at the Mooloolaba Surf Club, Sunshine Coast, Queensland. Photo courtesy of Tourism and Events, Queensland.

While in Mooloolaba, tour options include whale-watching cruises, high-speed adventure rafting and the bizarre Aquaduck Sunshine Coast.

Top Mooloolaba accommodation choices include the seaside Landmark Resort and the Mantra Mooloolaba apartments.

Other things to do on the Sunshine Coast include swimming at Mudjimba Beach or Gardners Falls, submarine tours, and bushwalking at Mount Tibrogargan or Conondale National Park.