It’s pretty freaky to realise that it’s been nearly thirteen years since I last owned a car. Ten years in Hong Kong, with its incredible public transport, did a pretty good job of convincing me I didn’t need one. Brisbane has been a slightly harder to manage; but so far, I’m sticking with the plan of being car free.

Of course there are exceptions to any rule, and that means from time to time we’re going to want to wander a little further than our usual Brissie circle of existence. The Girl and I had wanted to visit Rick Shores for ages, and this was going to require a little more organisation than wandering out of the apartment and deciding where to eat. A Saturday lunch booking, a hire car, and a bit of a punt on the weather. You can book the first two well in advance but getting the last perfect is always hit and miss.

One sunny Saturday afternoon in June, it all came together. We picked up the car (it was a hybrid) and the Girl drove us down to the Gold Coast; she loves driving, while I’m pretty indifferent to the whole exercise. The drive to Burleigh did nothing to change my mind. Thankfully, what was waiting at the other end was considerably more interesting.

We were early, so after parking we took ourselves for a short walk along the beach. It was one of those sensational winter days that makes you appreciate living in Queensland. Clear blue sky, sunshine, waves breaking onto the rocks; and the simple pleasure of being somewhere other than the city. There were plenty of people around without it feeling packed. We didn’t walk far, but it felt freeing just to be there.

It had been a long time since we’d made a restaurant trip to Burleigh. The Fish House used to be one of our regular reasons to head down the coast before our time in Hong Kong, and there was plenty for us to talk about as we looked around at how much had changed. Including apparently the destruction of the quaint little house that was Fish House, replaced with an apartment tower complex…

This time, though, we were heading somewhere we’d never been.

Walking up to Rick Shores is quite something. The white pavilion building sits right beside the beach, with the waves crashing into the rocks out front and that enormous expanse of blue behind it. You hear it before you’ve even sat down. We were pretty happy with our weather gamble at this point, it literally could not have been more perfect.

The restaurant name had thrown me a little. I’d initially assumed there was a chef called Rick Shores behind the place, and trying to establish where it actually came from sent me down a bit of a rabbit hole. I’ve since found an explanation from co-owner Dave, reported in Time Out: a playful reference to Southeast Asian rickshaw taxis and the shores of the Gold Coast. No mysterious chef called Rick, then; but a little bit of an addition link to our home of 10 years.

Inside, there was an interesting contrast with the warmth outside. Exposed concrete, a modern and fairly utilitarian feel; then those huge openings framing the ocean, the clear sky and sunlight reflecting off the water. From our bench seats behind the main dining area, it looked as if the waves were crashing right against the building. A gentle breeze came through, and there was light music in the background. It was beautiful.

Given a choice, we’re normally happy to have a counter seat at the kitchen, so we can spend half the meal watching the chefs at work. Here, the kitchen was behind us, partially exposed, but it wasn’t where our attention was going to be all lunch.. How could it be anywhere else but that view outside. The whole arrangement seemed designed to turn you towards the sea. For once, I didn’t take a single photograph of the kitchen.

We’d arrived early enough to watch the dining room fill completely over lunch. You could feel the confidence of the place and the staff as it gathered momentum; it was a great vibe, and we found ourselves reflecting on how lucky we’d been to get a Saturday lunchtime booking; I can’t imagine it would have the same impact in the black of night.

Looking over the menu, I have to admit to a little apprehension. A pan-Asian seafood restaurant with a fondness for spice might seem an odd choice for someone who doesn’t particularly enjoy spicy food. But there we were, looking through the raw and cold dishes, dumplings and dim sum, smaller plates, curries and more substantial options, trying to work out what our lunch would look like. There was plenty that appealed; I just didn’t want to spend the afternoon dealing with mouth-searing, sweat-inducing heat.

Thankfully, I needn’t have worried. There were plenty of options that didn’t require me to test the limits of my chilli tolerance. We could put together a meal we were excited about and still enjoy the rest of the afternoon. As it turned out, there would be a couple of moments where that apprehension resurfaced, but there was a lot more pleasure than pain to come.

We started with Coffin Bay oysters, plump little morsels presented in their shells on a dark plate, with a jug of vinaigrette alongside. I loved the sweetness of the oysters; they were low in salinity, so that lovely sweet flavour was what really came through. The vinaigrette brought just a little tartness, giving a contrast to the oysters without taking over the palate.

They disappeared pretty quickly. In fact, we scoffed them up and found ourselves wishing we’d ordered a dozen each. It’s a good sign when you’re already thinking about more before you’ve properly got into lunch, although there was the small matter of the rest of the menu to get through. We exercised a little restraint and moved on.

The yellowfin tuna tataki was a little surprising when it arrived. I’m much more accustomed to seeing tataki cut into thin slices, where some of the texture of the fish can get lost. Here, the tuna came in substantial, solid cubes, with each side seared and the centres left raw. It gave us something quite different to work through; the contrast between that seared outside and the raw tuna made the texture a real part of the enjoyment, rather than something that disappeared in a thin slice.

The menu paired the tuna with calamansi kosho, smoked ponzu and shiso, but it was the sweetness of the ponzu that really stayed with me. There was a lingering flavour at the back of the tongue that left me wanting another mouthful; a delicious little reminder that the plate was still there to be enjoyed. The pieces were quite substantial too, which made the dish all the more satisfying. We both really loved it.

Next came the BBQ duck spring rolls with char siu glaze and red vinegar. They looked lovely on the plate; the brown of the rolls against the pink of the sauce and the grey of the plate made for a simple but quite stark presentation. There wasn’t a lot of fuss to it, just a set of colours and shapes that worked really well together.

The rolls were crispy, with a robust duck flavour that gave the dish plenty of character. We loved the combiation of the crunchy texture as well as the robust flavour, and then the sauce brought back that little question of spice. It did have some heat, but thankfully it was eminently bearable for me, with a little sweetness helping it along. Given my initial apprehension about the menu, this was much more the sort of thing I was hoping for; enough going on to make the dish interesting without the heat becoming the only thing I could think about.

The fried Moreton Bay bug roll was the dish that left me with the most mixed feelings. It’s a signature of the restaurant, so naturally I was expecting quite a bit from it. I was also a little nervous about the sriracha mayonnaise and asked for it to be served on the side. Yes, I know; go to a restaurant with a fondness for spice, then start worrying about the sauce. It is something of a contradiction.

There was a lot to like about the bug itself. The batter was lovely and light, golden and crunchy, with that contrast against the brioche bun making it an appealing roll. But I found myself wanting a little more from the dish as a whole, and I suspect my own reluctance to add the mayonnaise had something to do with that. The Girl loved hers, which made me wonder whether my caution was getting in the way of enjoying the roll as intended.

I did dip little bits of the bun into the sauce, and was surprised that it wasn’t as strong as I’d feared. The Girl pointed out, though, that the heat built as you ate more of it; so I suspect having it inside the whole roll would eventually have been too much for me. A slightly frustrating dilemma, because I could appreciate what was there while also recognising that my attempt to make the dish suit my palate might have taken something away from it.

Our main was the butter-poached snapper with Spring Bay mussels and kaffir lime emulsion, presented in a shallow bowl and bathed in a wonderfully generous amount of that sauce. The snapper was expertly cooked; flaky and just delightful to eat. Scattered across the fish, the mussels were poached perfectly too, with a lovely texture that added a little extra bite alongside the flakes of snapper. Get the fish, a mussel and some of that emulsion together, and it was a mouthful that made us very happy indeed.

And that kaffir lime emulsion. Insanely delicious is probably the best way I can describe it. We loved it so much that we joked with our waitress that we could have a bucket of the stuff and be quite happy. She told us it was very popular and that everyone loved it; we could absolutely see why. Beautifully cooked fish is one thing, but when the sauce and the little additions make you this excited about eating it, that’s when a dish really stays with you.

Alongside the snapper, we’d ordered the roasted carrots with honey soy emulsion and black vinegar peanuts. Cut into little rounds, they reminded me of small fondants, and the sauce underneath was just beautiful; deep, rich and sweet, with a slightly more viscous texture than the kaffir lime emulsion. It gave the carrots their own character on the table, and there was a lot to love about the dish in its own right.

But it was the combination with the snapper that really got us. The richer sweetness of the carrot sauce alongside that lighter kaffir lime emulsion was just insane; the two dishes worked so well together that we both thought it was one of the highlights of the year from anything we’d eaten. I love being surprised like that. We’d come down for a lovely lunch by the ocean, and here we were getting this excited about the combination of a fish dish and a plate of carrots. It was a very good reason to make the drive.

Dessert was sticky tamarind pudding with miso caramel and vanilla ice cream; an interesting variation on the more traditional sticky date pudding. I’d never had the tamarind version before, so I was curious to see how it would compare. It was sweet, with a flavour that was a little mild, although I don’t mean that in a bad way. We very much enjoyed it; I just found myself hankering a little for the classic version. Sometimes a familiar favourite is hard to get out of your head, even when there’s nothing really wrong with the alternative.

I would have loved a little more of the sticky sauce too. There is something particularly enjoyable about mopping up a good caramel sauce with the pudding, and there wasn’t quite enough to go as far as I’d have liked. The vanilla ice cream was creamy, smooth and really lovely, so there was plenty to enjoy on the plate. A good dessert, just one where I couldn’t quite shake the thought that sticky date pudding is a classic for a reason.

The Girl had a couple of glasses of white wine, which meant the drive home was mine. Our usual arrangement: she gets the drive down, which she enjoys, and I get the drive back, which is really a bit of a chore for me (but that’s all part and parcel of being an effective team). Lunch came to around $300 all up, and I thought it was really good value.

Rick Shores has a score of 13 in the Australian Good Food Guide’s 2026 awards, which gives it a single Hat (barely). Personally, I think the food deserves more recognition than that suggests. It was better than a lot of two-hat restaurant meals I’ve had in Queensland, and the snapper and carrots alone would have made this a memorable lunch.

But what made the day was how it all came together. We’d made a little more effort than usual to get outside our Brissie circle of existence, and it had paid off beautifully. A short walk on the beach in that glorious winter sunshine, a dining room opening towards the ocean, and food that gave us plenty to get excited about. The view might have been what held our attention when we sat down, but there was more than enough happening on the plates to make lunch memorable in its own right.

We were already talking about how we’d get ourselves back down there. There are dishes I’d happily eat again, and that combination of snapper and carrots would be a very good place to start. I still don’t love the drive, but a day like this makes a fairly persuasive argument for putting up with it occasionally. The Girl gets a drive she enjoys, we get a lovely lunch by the sea, and I get to work out how to justify that bucket of kaffir lime emulsion.

Was Rick Shores good enough for us to hire a car for again? A hundred percent. Good enough to buy a car? Let’s not get carried away haha.