Driving through Burleigh, the lines of people curving around the street corner would make you think there’s a designer sale or perhaps the entrance to a trendy nightclub. Yet it’s the swarms of people waiting to dine at Tarte cafe. We can certainly understand why, for the food is incredible.
Forward-facing European esque tables and larger picnic style tables line the street. It’s a little Parisian with its woven chairs, mosaic floors and hanging vintage lights and we love the decor. However, I’m not sure that their dining system is the best, there’s no booking or number system to put your name down, so basically it’s a free for all, where you eye off a table nearing clearing their plates in a hope you can claim it before the next person. It’s somewhat reminiscent of a car park at Christmas. We score a table after about 30 minutes and order at the counter. Our coffee comes out in good time and we snack over some of the amazing pastries while we wait for food.
The baked goods are the feature of the front vintage theatre style counter, with loaves of bread, babka, cinnamon scrolls, strawberry custard tarts, cookies and more. We have a few, including a dulce de Leche cruller and also a regular cinnamon crueller. These are basically a hybrid of a crispy pastry on the outside with a soft donut style filling. The custard strawberry tart made with crispy flaky pastry is also of a high standard.
The cafe’s brunch menu is stellar and they are also massive in the portions too. Think filled bagels, topped tartines, salads and burritos. We love the miso scrambled eggs which are atop a thick slice of sourdough, sprinkled with parmesan, chives and togarashi.
We also have a Bullseye Bang with of free range double smoked bacon, free range poached eggs, rocket and house hollandaise on Tarte’s NYC inspired “Everything bagel”. The salmon baked, served on a bagel cut in half and topped with pickled cucumbers, salted onion, crispy capers, cream cheese was also on an everything bagel and beautifully presented as well.
We thoroughly recommend visiting tarte for the food, but suggest an early start.
1748 Gold Coast Highway
Burleigh Heads Qld 4220
Hours
6:30am-3pm daily