Choofas Smokehouse & Seafood — Restaurant in Gold Coast City

The most overpriced unseasoned or poorly seasoned proper food I've ever experienced in my 50 years on planet earth, unfortunately. The staff are so wonderful and beautiful and kind but that can't take the place or make up for a nonsensical garbage chef that's truly a detriment to the business. So before the food arrived a dish of salt and pepper was placed on the table that I thought was curious but after eating the unseasoned food, I could see it was intended for literally everything; the potato salad, the coleslaw and even the salad. Fortunately the side of ketchup made the French fries french fries. The atmosphere is perfect, the music and the background is perfect, the location is perfect and the waitress turned on the heater next to our table so literally everything was perfect except for the food.

Dishes Ordered: 1/2kg beef ribs w/ potato salad and a garden salad. The beef was cooked perfectly and was the perfect softness however you could tell it was not properly marinated prior or had seasoning added to it while it was cooking. The chef decided to smother a perfectly cook beef rib with what seemed to be store bought barbecue sauce, and that was pretty saddening and disgraceful. The potato salad was absolutely horrible. It looked like potato salad but unfortunately tasted like boiled potatoes without anything added, hence the sLt and pepper brought to table prior to food being served. I'm trying to wrap my head around how that's even possible. I literally had to add salt and pepper to eat some of it which is hard to wrap your head around because potato salad is a mayonnaise-based dish that comes flavored when the "salad" part of the dish is made. The vinaigrette dressing in the chef salad was so horrible that I could not eat any of it. Two forks of that disgusting mess and that was enough for me to know that I probably won't come back and the kitchen staff are inept. I even stressed to the waitress how bad the dressing was and I have a feeling that was made in house.

Tasmanian Salmon was served with french fries and coleslaw. The coleslaw looked perfect and I do enjoy a good coleslaw however the only thing we could taste was the flavor of cabbage. I don't know how it's possible to make the dish look like a proper dish without any added flavor, but so was the case. Looked like magazine serving but tasted like cabbage. Mayonnaise base dish but had absolutely ZERO flavor and a complete disappointment and left me completely perplexed. Literally, if this place served this "American" food in the States, they would be out of business in the first few months. And what's worse is that salmon has the best most healthiest oil on planet Earth, naturally, and the taste-budless chef decided to add a cheap oil to the filet cook and ruined the most healthiest protein put on planet Earth by God. Of course the seasoning was lacking, too.

I literally, and kindly, expressed to the awesome waitress that their chef should be fired immediately. I spent $120AUSD ($75USD) and it was the most hopeless flavorless food I've ever experienced. Worst than when I was young and learning how to cook. I'd love to visit the place again because the wait staff and atmosphere is so great but I can't spend good money after bad, consciously.

I understand they (Aussies) might not have much experience with American base foods and flavor profiles but to serve a completely flavorless food from a proper eatery doesn't even seem possible. I want to stress how great the place is if it had someone in the kitchen that could actually cook. I hate to even leave a negative review because the wait staff are just so...

Very disappointed - had looked forward to this for weeks as we love our smoked meats and especially ribs. Unfortunately it didn't live upto the hype. For starters we were there for a while and as we didn't get any service went upto the bar and got our own drinks.... only to be told not to as there was table service...... well not at our table there wasn't! Our waitress turned up and gave us menus but then disappeared. The rest of the party turned up and still we waited for quite some time before eventually she came and started talking orders. We asked for two ice waters as we couldn't bear to spend another $26 for a beer, spirit and lemonade round. When the water turned up, it was luke warm and no ice. Tasted disgusting! Then I watched in dismay as everyone eventually got their meals but mine didn't turn up..... after half an hour my daughter finally had to chase down a waitress (as no one came back to our table to ensure everyone had a meal... little note, important rule of hospitality.... ensure your guests are happy) and she requested why mine was missing. They said they would get onto it. I then had to wait for another half hour before it turned up! By which time everyone else in our party was finished and ready to leave so I ate alone.... what I could of it. Because to my utter dismay it was terrible! The smoked ribs were stone cold and dried out with just a sparingly drizzle of sauce. The potato and broccolini was nice but that was all I could eat off my $45 plate. My husband had the challenge burger $50!! which looked amazing however he said the meat patty was tasteless. I also had a $20 cocktail which was terrible...... bit hard to screw up a pina colada but this lot managed it! In fact they outdid themselves in showing everyone how you DONT please your customers! To top it off, when paying for our meal, the waitress apologised for the wait but even when I told her I couldn't eat them because they were cold and terrible, she merely said I should have told them so they would cook them again!! What? And wait another 1/2hr you mean? No thankyou! A discount on our meal would have been nice.... or a free drink but no.... customer service is dead here obviously... as cold and dried up as their ribs. So $150 later, and a 1.5 hour round trip wasted as I went home for coffee and a sandwich. So disappointed. ...

We had such a delightful experience today at Choofas Coolangatta. We are so privileged to have met the owner Scott. This man made us feel like we are part of something special. He is right. It feels as I’m in the country where I could tie my horse up for a perfect, amazing steak and beer! Where no place I’ve been can cook a steak like there’s! Their unique bbq style is superbly sensational! It’s something else.

This venue has you feeling like you’re at home. In the hands of a family owned restaurant. We felt comfortable and very welcome the second we walked in. With our host having so much knowledge and having us feel so warm and in the best hands. Extremely professional and ten stars!

I am impressed the owner was on the floor serving. Knowing the menu inside and out, I picked this beautiful man’s brain further on the establishment.

I thoroughly enjoyed my experience here and I highly recommend it to any and everyone.

My new ‘go to’ for steak! Just the way I like it, and other dishes that Satisfy your senses and belly.

Thanks again to Scott and his restaurant just over from the beach, just across the NSW border into QLD.

What a place to stop for a good, big, filling feed, with fantastic service and good vibes, especially after a long road trip and arriving in Queensland.

Or stopping before heading down south into New Sour Wales towards Sydney. Also the best recommendation for all locals all over the Gold Coast, visitors from Brisbane coming to our beautiful beaches. A wonderful family venue and great spot to have drinks and people watch, while being in a cosy setting, escaping the busyness from the...