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7:20PM Sunday 07 September, 2008 Sunshine Coast weather Mostly sunny min 10° - max 23°

Local restaurants win awards

17 July 2008

| By Mike Garry

Two Coolum restaurants picked up gongs at this week’s Restaurant and Catering Queensland Hostplus Sunshine Coast Awards for Excellence.

Harvest Restaurant at Element on Coolum won the award for best modern Australian restaurant and Sandbar Beachfront Bistro at the Coolum Surf Club won the best pub/tavern/club restaurant award, with the Peregian Springs Golf Club also a finalist.

Wasabi Sunshine Beach was named the restaurant of the year, as well as the best Asian restaurant and best seafood restaurant.

Yandina’s the Spirit House, was named best themed restaurant and best tourism restaurant.

In the best chef/owner restaurant category, won by Woombye’s The French Room, the Naked Italian Restaurant at Twin Waters was one of the finalists.

Harvest owner-chef Gary Skelton said because of the large number of restaurants competing in the best modern Australian category, including finalists Maroochydore’s The Wine Bar Restaurant and Platinum Restaurant, he was surprised by the win.

Gary said shifting from Noosa to Coolum in December 2005 had been a good move.

“We’ve loved the response to the restaurant that we’ve had down here,” he said.

“ We thought the people in Coolum would be a bit more receptive to what we wanted to do.

“There a saying in the game that places get the restaurants they deserve. Maybe Coolum’s the place that deserves the best restaurant on the Sunshine Coast.”

The Sunshine Coast winners will join those from far north Queensland, north Queensland, Darling Downs, the Gold Coast and Brisbane awards at the state finals.

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