Monsieur Chow

Monsieur Chow is one of the Gold Coast's dining treasures, located on the prominent Nobby Beach corner of Great Hall Drive and Lavarack Road and offering an inspired taste of South-East Asian cuisine, soon to be with French twist*  

The restaurant’s entry is marked by a huge Asian-inspired round iron door making you feel like you are stepping into old-world Indochina. Monsieur Chow offers curb-side tables as well as side-alley seating outside, with more lantern-lit atmospheric settings inside.

Monsieur Chow's unique and exquisite menu, which is designed to share, fuses modern Australian fare with Asian techniques and flavours, taking inspiration from Japan, Thailand, Vietnam and China.

Oyster lovers need to start with the freshly shucked appelation oysters -  natural with lime; tempura, house smoked sriracha, & salmon roe; and coal roasted with house XO.  Then choose from small plates like the delectable sashimi of ocean trout, taro, grapefruit, coconut, shiso; or betel leaf, sticky pork, Fraser island spanner crab, smoked salmon pearls & caramelised coconut sauce.

Monsieur Chow's bao is a must-try, amongst the best to be found on the Gold Coast and handmade daily, with fillings including pork belly katsu, ssamjung, slaw & chicharron; tempura chicken, gochujang, prawn cracker & herbs; peanut butter tofu, burnt chilli mayo & herbs; or tempura Moreton Bay Bug, XO kewpie, pickles & dill.

Larger plates are every bit as delicious, with choices including Burmese style slow cooked lamb shoulder curry & szechuan pickled cucumbers; miso toothfish cooked over charcoal with pickled kohlrabi, shallot & garlic flowers; and sticky pork belly (Northern Rivers free-range), with peanuts, soy caramel, banana blossom salad, lemon and ginger.

The dessert menu may be small but it packs a punch - think peanut butter parfait with chocolate marquise and white chocolate snow; or bao nut, coconut crumbed black sesame ice cream, dragonfruit marshmallow sauce, frosted macadamias & Persian fairy floss.

The fully stocked bar offers an international beer list including Sapporo, Hanoi and Bintang together with craft beers, as well as signature cocktails, like the delicious Dragon Colada with white rum, dragon fruit and coconut cream alongside beachy classics  like Margarita and Mojito with an Asian twist.

*The owner of Monsieur Chow, Mermaid beach local Medi Lababi, took over the reins of Ally Chow and whilst keeping the Asian ambience and flavour that made it a major foodie destination, with be tweaking the menu in the last months of 2024 to add a French influence to the menu.

Good to know - In a nod to the 2016 fire that levelled the corner complex, the exterior of the restaurant was designed using a Japanese wood-preserving technique to give it an aged and charred appearance.

Need to know - Dogs are welcome to join their owners outside. there is onstreet parking in Laverack Rd and Great Hall Drive.

A guide to the best cafes, bars and eateries in Nobby Beach.