Gods of the Sea (Gold Coast, AUSTRALIA) ★★★★☆

For the past few weeks, Jelloman and I have been going back and forth on whether to embark on a side trip to Gold Coast during our stay in Brisbane. The sticking point was when and where to pick up and drop off our rental car (if we decide to rent one). But once we learnt about GoGet from her cousin, there was no turning back!

By the way, GoGet is truly a brilliant concept. More on that here.

Gold Coast is just a 50-minute drive from the Brisbane CBD if you happen to be a crazy driver like Jelloman. We originally planned a couple of attractions before lunch but thought better of it. Let’s enjoy a relaxing lunch first. That was the final plan.

Gods of the Sea is a hatted restaurant in Gold Coast and one of the few that opens on a Sunday. They made my choice a little easier with their 100% Australian seafood centric menu and the water view across the Gold Coast broadwater certainly didn’t hurt the cause.

Finnish co-owner and executive chef Jon Nurminen started his career as a dishwasher at the age of 16, and following a meteoric rise to sous chef, he eventually took the helm at The Fish House where he made a name for himself. At Gods of the Sea, chef Numinen aims to deliver a menu with emphasis on sustainably caught seafood and native Australian ingredients using his creative cooking techniques.

Beetroot carpaccio – Thin slices of beetroot topped with dabs of smoked tomato emulsion, crunchy pickled carrots and leaf salad.

The beetroot and carrot really surprised me with their different degrees of crunchiness; and I thought the mix of smokiness from the tomato emulsion and acidity from the pickled carrots came through nicely. The dish came with a very distinctive flavor, both salty and fragrant (minty), which Jelloman thought was spearmint leaf (香花菜) but I wasn’t entirely sure. My guess would've been shiso leaf.

But this I know, it’s a very simple but well-designed and executed dish that set the tone the rest of the way.

Grilled tiger prawns – The prawns dusted with coriander, were served with a fermented chili and lime sauce on the side. Pretty happy with the smoky flavors from the prawns and their charred shells. Again simple but pretty delicious.

Charred octopus – Very tender. Thought the salad of confit capsicum, shallots, celery and tomato vinaigrette was pretty Asian.

Not quite the size as the one we had in Santorini but fairly close.

Grilled rainbow trout – At first, I was a little hesitant to order this dish when our server mentioned a “whole trout”. That sounded like a lot of fish and I am not a fan of fish. But as soon as she suggested us sharing this together as a main course, I was content to give it a try. And so glad I did.

Turns out the rainbow trout was much smaller than I thought, and having it deboned, just music to my ears!

This looked like a dish we could do at home. The trout was steamed and later garnished with a fennel and herb salad. A buttery lemon beurre blanc was served up as a dip and it was so good that I ended up finishing the entire bowl (and almost asking for an extra one!).

We have a pretty jam-packed schedule in the afternoon, so there will be no dessert for us just the bill.

The relatively short food menu was one that both of us have enjoyed tremendously here at Gods of the Sea today. The dishes were simple yet beautifully presented. If their objective is to simply let the ingredients (seafood) shine, they were very successful at that this afternoon.

Food Rating: 6.5/10

Price: $$$

Address: 74 Seaworld Drive, Shop/16 Marina Mirage, Main Beach QLD 4217, Australia

Tel: +61 452 652-215

Website: www.godsofthesea.com.au

Opening Hours: 12:00pm - 3:00pm (Tue - Sun), 5:30pm - 10:00pm (Tue - Sat)