Step Inside Mondrian Gold Coast, Queensland’s Hottest High-rise Hotel

Pine and pandanus trees are the only things that stand between this Burleigh Heads stay and the Pacific’s blue.
At the just-opened Mondrian Gold Coast, the third-floor eatery, Haven, looks to the water for its tastiest morsels. The seafood-centric restaurant with interiors by Bondi-based Alexander & Co. – curved concrete bar, custom walnut timber furniture and open kitchen perfumed by woodsmoke – has line-caught mahi-mahi as that day’s crudo, bejewelled with ruby-red grapes and shock-pink radishes on a bed of creamy labneh. In a delicious ode to the ocean that laps at the hotel’s toes, you’ll find everything from Mooloolaba yellowfin tuna to Maclean oysters and spanner crab from Brunswick Heads on the menu.

It’s not the only part of this 208-room property that speaks to its locale on the waterfront at Burleigh Beach. As well as sand-coloured travertine floors, shell-hued Venetian plastering and marble with swirls of coral-pink, there are yawning ceilings and generous all-season spaces, where enormous walls of windows fold back at a moment’s notice when the sun slants just so. Even in winter, those lounging around the third floor’s 24-metre pool are far from shivering under parasols, alternating their dips between the main event and the two magnesium plunge pools on the western side.

In this microcosm of Burleigh, sports cars and surfboards intermingle. Pram-pushing mums amble down the promenade while designer-bag toting guests head up to level two’s CIEL spa for an LED light bed session or a facial with skincare brand du jour, Augustinus Bader. Downstairs at Lito, the all-day Italian diner that serves an abundant breakfast of tropical fruit, granola and pastries, barefoot fathers and sons with matching mullets breeze in for takeaway from its coffee corner, open to both the street and guests.

The constant is the pristine Pacific, so close you can hear it cresting as you fall asleep in your rattan-wrapped, king-sized cloud. From the ocean-facing rooms, you don’t even need to leave your bed to spot a dolphin pod slicing through the glass-clear shore break. No matter your vantage point, the allure of the Burleigh coastline beckons.
