If you’re anything like us, taking an active interest in what you eat — and making sure only the best produce makes its way onto your plate — is a way of life. It’s also a way to mitigate all of the glorious (but naughty) food and cocktails you may have overindulged in over the weekend. Yet finding your way into a sumptuous and nutritious bowl of freshly made salad can be a difficult feat sometimes — until now.

Dalas Kitchen is a salad bar with a difference and just opened its doors in Nobby Beach, and by the looks of things, the adage ‘you don’t win friends with salad’ is well and truly out the window.

Front of house and behind the scenes, bubbly husband and wife team Jess and Michael are the owners behind Dalas, and were so inspired to pull out the stops and create the business after considering the lack of fresh and affordable salad bites out there. After all, getting your hands on fabulous healthy salads shouldn’t be so hard when you consider all of the fantastic produce we get from the hard-working farmers from our hinterland.

The shop is a salad bar on the simplest terms, with a selection of seven signature salads for you to choose from and three different sizes for you to buy them in. And for those who see themselves having friends over or want to double down on a serious sized order of salads, Dalas also offers a 24-hour pre-ordering service. Have as many folks over as you please and let some pre-arranged and lovingly made salads complete any gathering/meal with ease.

The main focus is on providing vegan salads, but there will also be a spattering of rotating vegetarian salads with the inclusions of cheese. No meats will feature throughout the range now or in the future.

For those who like carrots, try your way through their Za Carrots salad with Za’atar roasted carrots, garlic sautéed kale, and toasted buckwheat, or if you prefer keeping things a little more classic, then you can’t look past the Klassic Kale with olive oil and lemon massaged kale leaves, white beans, parsley garlic croutons and tahini dressing. Yum!

All of the salads on offer have gone through a rigorous 12-month tasting and testing period before the business even opened — so you can rest assured, these nutrient-dense bowls of goodness taste the goods.

Salads are not all you will find here though. There’s also a small selection of sweet raw treats courtesy of local Nic Dimond and a small assortment of baked-in-house baguettes. To keep you amply hydrated between mouthfuls of delicious greenery, you’ll discover a variety of house-made sodas on offer with flavours like Gingery Orange and Cherry Bomb. And should you feel like a bit of kick to your day, they also pour up iced coffees with cold press coffee from Two Amigos Cold Brew.

Apart from delicious food and thirst-quenching drinks, Dalas is also doing some good by having all their natural waste being collected daily by the Miami Compost Hub and also using only compostable containers and takeaway vessels. Every little bit helps, right?

If you’re looking for a guilt-free and tasty lunch or a little something to spruce up dinner time at home, look no further than Dalas Kitchen in Nobby Beach. And if you have big plans for Christmas Day lunch, why not save yourselves the hassle of preparing salads? Because after all, spending more time with family and friends is all that matters. So pre-order your festive salads through these guys pronto!

Hours: Weekdays 8am — 6pm & Weekends 9am — 4pm
Where: 2247 Gold Coast Highway, Nobby Beach

Words by Alex Mitcheson.

Feeling a little ho-hum over your usual sweat sesh rotation? Or maybe your rickety rig has been feeling less like a temple and more like a ‘fixer upper’ of late?

Whether you revel in any reason to get the ole’ bod moving, or the thought of exercise bores you to your very core – having some exciting new options to throw in your trusty repertoire can never be a bad thing. So without further ado, here are 10 unique exercise experiences on the GC to try your hand at. Because, y’know, variety is the spice of life, and all that.

Retro Fit
Sweatbands, sweaty bods and lairy leg warmers as far as the eye can see – no, you have not stepped back to a simpler time when Aerobics Oz Style dominated our pre-dawn tele viewing (#NostalgiaAlert). We are, in actual fact, referring to Retro Fit, an assortment of 80’s themed aerobics sessions where you get to strut your stuff to all your favourite bygone bangers… so basically, the most fun one can have while working out. Held at The Junction in Burleigh Heads, there’s different types of sessions going down several times a week, so there’s really no excuse not to get down and… get physical [gyrating intensifies].
Where: 14 Junction Rd, Burleigh Heads

Lights Out and Dance
For the rhythmically challenged among us; if the chance get your groove on under the cover of pitch black darkness sounds a dream, get on down to Lights Out and Dance and ‘dance like nobody’s watching’ (literally). Get those endorphins flowing while you lose yourself to some sweet dance beats in what is basically the most unintimidating group setting you can get. The intuitive-style sessions are held in a dark room so you can work up a sweat shaking what your mama gave you without a care in the world; and have stacks of fun in the process. Post-workout glow, incoming!
Where: Broadbeach Cultural Centre, Hooker Blvd &, Sunshine Blvd, Broadbeach Waters and Runaway Bay Youth Centre, 379 Oxley Drive, Runaway Bay

Puppy Yoga
No, we haven’t gone barking mad – Puppy Yoga is very much a thing… and yes, it’s exactly as amazing as it sounds. Picture down-dogging ’til hearts content, whilst being overrun by a sea of cute puppies! Hosted by the mindful fun and animal snuggle purveyors at Karmably, there’s various, oxytocin-boosting pop up dates held at Flow St8 throughout the year. Plus, we get to feel extra good knowing we’re helping socialise the pint-sized participants while we get our sweat on! Yep… it’s paw-ficial the perfect workout really does exist.
Where: Flow St8, 10 Fifth Ave, Palm Beach

Run Clubs
If your typical cardio rotation consists only of running away from your problems and jumping to conclusions, the various iterations of social run clubs that call the GC home will make a runner out of you yet. If you’re looking for a supportive environment where you can slide on in at snails pace without so much as a second glance, Parkrun is a perennial fave. With community events held weekly from Coomera through to Kirra, participants are welcome to walk, jog, run, or simply spectate. Or for a little extra incentive; we’d recommend checking out clubs that strategically plan their routes around our fine assortment of local watering holes, such as Unfit Run Club and Good Good Running.
Where: Assorted clubs/locations across the Gold Coast

Aerial yoga
If you’ve seen one tree pose, you’ve seen them all, right? Well, not necessarily… If you’re looking to shake up your usual stretch-and-breath sesh, Aerial yoga is where its at! Experience yoga from a whole new perspective, with an invigorating workout that involves performing poses gracefully suspended from a mix of hammock, silk and ring style contraptions. And the best part? You don’t even need to be a card-carrying yogi to get in on the fun! A variety of beginners classes mean people of all ages and abilities can learn the moves ‘on the fly’. Go on, why not give it a whirl!?
Where: Hapy Studio, 9/5 Traders Way, Currumbin

Therapy Fitness
When it comes to changing up the same ol’ workout grind, spin is hardly a revolutionary (geddit, heh) concept – but hear us out, because what we’re proposing is anything but your typical cycle class. At Therapy, Mermaid’s multi sensory fitness studio, the immersive ‘therapy’ sessions are all about boosting mental as well as physical wellbeing… and who doesn’t love a to-do list two-fer?! Combining music and movement, each of the fully integrated studio spaces have been optimised to get both the mind and the bod feeling fab. You’ll be glowing from the inside out in no time.
Where: Cnr Markeri St &, Southport Burleigh Rd Q Super Centre, Shop D2/D3, Mermaid Waters

Pound Fitness
Alright so remove any expectations you might have about what this entails and get excited for an extra fun time… because this workout ROCKS. Get ready to bliss out with ‘ya sticks out – fluro green drumsticks – that is, with the exhilarating full-body cardio jam session known simply as Pound. A rockstar-worthy workout that combines sweet beats with pilates inspired strength training and the sweat-dripping fun of drumming. What a time. Now this is the kind of exercise we could really ‘drum up’ some enthusiasm for! *ba dum tiss*.
Where: Various locations across the GC

Pole dancing
Does the thought of yet another yoga or pilates sesh low-key have you yawning? Why not step it up a notch and have a pole lot of fun challenging and contorting your core in ways you never even knew possible! Even if you’re not typically the flexy type; the pros behind some of our local studios promise there’s no previous experience or even coordination pre-requisites to give it a go! So really, we’ve got nothing to lose, and a whole lot of flexibility, and strength to gain. Sounds pretty badass to us.
Where: GCPOLEFIT, 87 Griffith St, Coolangatta and Rokh Fit Studio, Unit 2/19 Township Dr, Burleigh Heads

Cold Nips
What the heck is Cold Nips you ask? Well, basically, it’s a club dedicated to the art of starting your day with a nippy sunrise dip, that’s what. Promoting wellbeing and positive mental health, the national wellness initiative is all about finding joy and discomfort while connecting with like-minded peeps in nature, and how can you argue with a mood-boosting ritual like that? And to ensure they’re always keeping things fresh, each week’s mystery beach location is only revealed the Sunday night before.
Where: Locations vary weekly, check socials for deets.

NBHD HOT
If you’re in the mood to be challenged by more of a slow burn style workout – never fear GC, we gotchu… or at least, the Coast’s first infrared hot room does. Do not let the low impact movements and stretch-based routines deceive you – with German made infrared heating panels designed to heat your body from the inside out, a NBHD (or neighbourhood training) sesh will have you sculpting, strengthening and sweating like never before.
Where: 2582 Gold Coast Highway, Mermaid Beach

Words by Kellie Leader.