Elk Espresso

I was initially drawn to this place by the crowd milling about the front. I needed breakfast and it was simply the closest place to where I was. Checking with fellow über drivers familiar with the GC I was happy to take a seat to wait the 10 minutes until an opening became available on a table. I always like a basic eggs Bennie but their potato hash with salmon, eggs and hollandaise seemed appealing on paper. My god was it good. The hash balls crisp on the outside and soft textured within. The eggs soft as ordered and a chunk of avo made it a little healthy. It was not swimming in sauce for once, just perfect. The watercress unexpected but sooooo good too. The coffee did it’s job but Campos remains my fave. Thanks elk peeps. Top job.

What a great place for a brunch! Sunny spot, friendly waitress, good coffee. The menu is a healthy oz brunch menu. I ordered avocado on toast with bacon n poached eggs dusted with Dukkah. Amazing! Oh, and wait till you see what they got to offer for the muffin and takeaway cakes!

Lovely little café. Great atmosphere, food, service. Definitely recommend their coffee there along with brekky.

What a great café! Delicious food, great coffee and consistently friendly service. I have been twice and will go back each time I’m on the GC. Lost a star for not splitting bills. Are you really that particular on how you take our money? Still peeps, go there!

One of the few good coffee we have tasted in GC. Good breakfast — my wife & kid loved the French toast. I had the breakfast burger two days in a row & enjoyed it.

Yum. Great single origin coffee and a great all day breakky menu. These guys have nailed everything about the slow food movement yet with modern café flair

I’ve been waiting all week to be back, worth the drive from Brisbane. Now I did wanted to try something different from the potato hash with double smoked bacon, but it’s so hard to avoid i gave in.
The price if definitely worth it, great flavour and portion size.
Coffee is always on point. It’s a place with a really good vibe… Reps GC very well.

So good. The menu here is pure quality and might I add a touch fancy. They had a Very Green Salad on their Spring breakfast menu and it was mind blowingly awesome. The green salad had kale, broccolini, peas, with poached eggs. It came with a dollop of a creamy dressing and to top it off you could add pork belly.
I haven’t seen a dish this great at any places I’ve visited recently for breakfast so it was such a pleasure to find. I think these guys switch up their menu seasonally so put them on your list to visit regularly.
Meals were a hearty size and the ambiance here is modern and casual with a breezy feel that you get down the coast.

Always a Pleasure.
We arrived rather late on a saturday morning hoping to catch breakfast. Sadly for us, it was super busy and we didn’t quite make the cut. So, we left looking elsewhere but happily returned to Elk for Lunch. (Winter Lunch Menu)
A Killerbee Long Black (great aroma and quite smooth), Lindt Mocha, Milo Milkshake and Chocolate Peanut Butter Thickshake (flavour explosion, perfect balance of Chocolate and peanut butter) were ordered to fill in the bit of time we had until lunch could be ordered.
I myself ordered the Pea and silverbeet Croquettes, With smoked trout, feta, avocado and beetroot salad. It was divine. The delicate crunch of the croquet and the subtle sweetness of the dressing, along with the creamy texture of the feta and avocado, and the slight salty nature of the trout made for a very well balanced and filling lunch.
As usual a job well done Elk. :)

I’ve been to Elk twice now which I think makes it my go to place when I’m at the Gold Coast. It always seems busy even on weekdays which I guess is the sign of a good place. Coffee is lovely, I am a stickler for a quality flat white and these guys deliver. Food was great and so is the atmosphere.

had Saturday brunch with a toddler here, bit of a crowd gathered out the front waiting for a table, the wait wasn’t long and it was well organised. great service even though they were busy, didn’t wait for anything! had the pancakes yummy and the mince on toast looked a winner.

They were out of waffles and the waitress was not friendly at all! Do not order long black it’s very bad (not drinkable bad)! The eggs on the other hand are very good and the rest of the staff are friendly and polite. There food in general is unique.

Frequented by many hipsters, this cool little place boasts fantastic coffee and decent food. The décor is hip and colourful and has a really decent vibe. It’s quite easy to sit down to a coffee and a good book.
The service is good, staff are very friendly. They are pretty busy so a coffee order got lost in the chaos — but no biggy! Food is just like many other cafes, fresh and sustainably sourced. The menu is seasonal, so some things change and sometimes things aren’t available — for example, none of the smoothies were available nor was the salmon.
Great vibes here, definitely give it a try after a early morning walk along the beach!

Found this place thanks to Unilocal on a weekend away at the Goldie!
You know it’s good when you’re 5^th inline for a table. With the super cutest and friendliest staff this place is pretty awesome. Chorizo quesadilla was oh my god so good.

Guy driving up on fixie: Check
Industrial yet warm interior: Check
Laid back, friendly staff: Check
Check check check: Hipster Heaven
This place is a cute hangout, popular with locals (hip or not) that is, unsurprisingly, quite busy in the weekend; we had to wait about 15 minutes on a Saturday morning at around 9 am. This place is closed on all but one side; with walls, ceiling and floor constructed of concrete or stone it gets very loud inside.
Staff is really friendly and helpful. Water and coffees came out very quick (except one which took half the breakfast). We weren’t too keen on the coffees; a bit on the weak side for the milky ones while the macchiato was disappointing (something seemed wrong with the coffee, or maybe it was a very unusual roast). The orange/​pineapple/​mint juice had zero hint of mint.
Of the dishes, which are nicely presented, we got good reviews from around the table for the avo/​feta, but the others considered their options fairly basic and bland. This was certainly true for the sautéed cove and butternut pumpkin that I ate. It looked delicious on paper (and in person), but it simply wasn’t special.
We all added on corn-​beef croquettes to our dishes, but those were bland also. To make things worse, I found a hair in mine :-(
My review is ³⁄₅ with or without the hair. I probably wouldn’t mind giving the place another try in the future, but I won’t go out of my way to revisit.

Amongst the locals, it’s well known that this place is one of the best on the Gold Coast for coffee and serves a wide selection delicious breakfast and lunch options.
I’ve only ever had good meals here. My favourite brekky option: the potato hash with smoked salmon. The menu does change slightly with the seasons however, to keep things interesting…
Just putting it out there: I love the set up and the style. The atmosphere of the place firmly fits into the trendy/​hipster category, with the usual Gold Coast laid back/​casual flair. It’s all casual, comfortable and makes you feel at home. Patchy painted walls, wooden tables with an uneven finish, light bulbs and plants hanging everywhere gives the impression that they ran out of time fitting out the place but in fact adds to the homeliness feeling (or at least eating in the bottom basement of a house, which of course is intentional ;p).
Service is excellent, exactly what a coffee place should be: helpful, efficient, prompt, and all with a smile.
But Elk is not just your typical coffee place. They do dinner as well! Well, only on Fridays (for now) and reservations are a must (call or email). The dinner menu composes of a wide variety of share plates (tapas style) and they also set menus which suit for groups of 2 or more people.
Keeping true to their breakfast reputation, their food by night is just as impressive. Byron Bay Pork Belly with blueberry relish? Kentucky Fried Rabbit? YUM! And they have a few sweet options as well. Baked cheesecake with a tim tam base anyone?
I can’t say enough good things about this place. Try it you must (if you haven’t already…).

Exceptional cauliflower and beetroot salad. The coffee, however, is intermittent between cups. Some fabulous, others below par.
Staff friendly but could be more attentive. Very receptive to feedback on coffee and redid my duff flat white.
Great café, good feel, nice amenities, easy parking during the week.

Cute café, complete with hipster «insert anything besides jam here» in a jar — this time it was my lovely freshly squeezed pineapple juice.
Staff were friendly, atmosphere was good — the place was pretty busy but we easily had a conversation.
F had the toasted banana and walnut bread — and man did it smell good!
I’d just been talking about trying to eat less, but getting more protein in. Low and behold there was steak on the breakfast menu — it was a sign!
Ordered the eye fillet with poached eggs, sour dough (replaced with grain), and minus the tomato for 20 bucks. I wasn’t asked how I wanted the steak, so asked for rare when told it would be medium rare — it was a thin slice of meat so it wasn’t overly rare but tasty nonetheless
Although my dish came out with the sour dough, our waitress (is that the right job title these days?) was extremely apologetic and had my delicious grain toast on the table in no time!
If you are looking for a nice, cool little café that could fit in easily at home in Melbourne — check Elk out!
For 2 juices, our food and a coffee the bill came to $ 43.

Yum!

Elk is the younger (and yet bigger) sibling of Vintage Espresso at Mermaid Beach, which is my favourite breakfast spot on the GC. With a menu very similar to Vintage’s (including the crème brûlée thickshake, which may give you a heart attack but still should not be missed), this spot a block back from the beach is a hit with locals and tourists — finding a spare table can be tricky! But it’s worth the fight for this hipster paradise in the plastic world of the GC. Sweet tunes, trendy furniture, a vertical garden and a piece of life-​size elk art on the wall. Elk Espresso, you’ve got my vote.