Maroochy RSL is a stalwart of the Coast hospitality scene, loved by locals and visitors as a safe and affordable place to meet, drink, dine and connect.
Located in the heart of Maroochydore, the RSL opened its doors more than 90 years ago, first to ex-servicemen and then to the broader community when it became a licensed club in 1972.
Being a Returned Services League of Australia (RSL), the club is of the people and for the people, and importantly, a place of remembrance and respect for current and past service men and women.
Patrons feel comfortable coming here. We’re safe in our surroundings and we also feel safe our dining expectations will be met time and again.
Executive chef Gareth Little says, as a charity organisation Maroochy RSL’s number one ethos is to look after people. He says patrons can visit the venue and feel safe, welcomed and reassured that it is affordable to dine there.
“Our prices are very reasonable for what we do – it’s a little lower than your pubs and restaurants,” Gareth adds.
“We still have the same challenges as everyone else. We still have to buy our food and make a margin on it, but we’re not making money for shareholders, we’re making money for charity.”
The venue boasts a bistro, café, bars, gaming and space for functions. It’s operational every day except on Good Friday and Christmas Day. The café is open from 8am for breakfast and then lunch. The kitchen closes at 3pm and from then onwards it’s coffee and snacks from the cabinet, such as toasties and cakes.
Prior to 3pm, patrons can order all the usual favourites from the full menu – bacon and eggs, eggs benedict, club sandwich, BLT, prawn tacos and more.
The bistro is always popular and busy especially on Friday, Saturday and Sunday nights; Saturday lunchtime is popular and on Sundays kids eat for free (lunch only).
My foodie friend, Francesca, and I dined at the bistro on a Tuesday night and the dining area was more than half full, which is testament to the club’s popularity.
We shared a bottle of French wine, Les Peyrautins Rose, which complemented our dishes well. We enjoyed a couple of starters: prawn twisters with pickled vegetables and nam jim dipping sauce; and pumpkin and goats cheese arancini with feta and garlic cream and spiced pumpkin seeds.
Like all good Asian dishes, the sweet, salty, sour, bitter and spicy flavours were perfectly balanced in the prawn twister dish, which had a lovely garlicky taste and mild chilli kick. This dish makes sense when all elements on the plate combine – the crispy fried filo pastry exterior, the juicy prawns inside, the nam jim dressing and the crunchy beanshoot salad with pickled vegetables (which were the sweet and sour component). Part of the joy of eating is feeling different textures in your mouth, and this dish certainly delivered on that account.
We also loved the Italian arancini – classic risotto balls with a golden crispy crumbed exterior. The goats cheese was very subtle, which was great for me as I typically don’t like pungent cheeses, and the garlic feta cream sauce was simply delicious to mop up every last morsel.
The crunchy toasted pumpkin seeds and crispy fried sage leaves added taste and texture to the dish.
For mains we decided to share the pan-roasted barramundi and Waldorf salad (celery, apple, walnuts, garlic aioli dressing) topped with rocket leaves, walnuts and a wedge of lemon; and the fried halloumi salad with cucumber, roasted capsicum, zucchini, salad leaves and balsamic dressing.
The presentation of both dishes was superb and so mouth-wateringly colourful. The barramundi is a sustainably sea-farmed fish, which was cooked to perfection with a nice crispy skin. The Waldorf salad was a contemporary twist on an old America classic, which I enjoyed very much together with the sweet-tasting fish.
The halloumi salad stack would be filling as a main or shared as an appetiser or side dish. I liked that the halloumi was cut into chunks and fried – it gave a ‘meaty’ texture to a delicious vegetarian dish.
The saltiness of the fried cheese was offset by the sweetness of the grilled capsicum and balsamic vinegar.
We rounded off our meal with a couple of shared sweet treats: a classic baked New York cheesecake and an Italian tiramisu slice.
The bench seats were comfortable and the interior is clean and modern-looking. Importantly, the acoustics are good too, you can easily hold a conversation around the table with fellow diners. The wait staff were friendly and attentive.
The bistro menu is seasonal and executive chef, Gareth, sees a European influence coming through in the summer menu, such as a simple insalata caprese dish but with burrata instead of buffalo mozzarella. Burrata is made like mozzarella, but when you cut into the ball, it’s extremely soft and almost oozes. Patrons can also expect the addition of crowd favourite, garlic prawns and a Thai-inspired mango, chicken and avocado salad.
“I don’t want to challenge people, I want it to be simple and good quality, I want them to come and get something they know they want and leave thinking, ‘that was good’,” says Gareth.
Gareth oversees the entire food operations at the RSL, everything from menu development to working with suppliers to ensure they source the best, freshest ingredients.
Gareth has three head chefs working with him and his job as executive chef is to ensure they have everything they need for the kitchens to function optimally.
Gareth settled on the Sunshine Coast with his young family in 2021, which is when he took the reins as executive chef. Prior to that, the 45-year-old Welshman was working in London as an executive chef with a pub company called Fuller’s. It’s one of London’s big breweries with a pub and hotel chain across 220 sites in the UK.
Gareth studied politics and economics at York University but fell into a student job cooking steaks at a local establishment called Oscars. Cooking soon became his full-time passion and he went to the French Alps working as a private cook for wealthy people who holidayed in ski chalets. He also worked on a canal barge in Burgundy, France, providing five-star dining and catering to the guests’ every food whim.
Gareth says he is motivated by a love of food and hospitality.
“I like playing with food, I understand how it works and I enjoy seeing it all come together,” he tells salt.
“More than just one dish, I enjoy seeing the whole services come together and the people I have working with me work together to give people a good night.
“The food’s going out quickly, it’s going out well and everyone is proud of it, everybody is happy with what they’re doing and you can tell the people on the other side of that pass are having a good time – and that’s fun.”