North Shore Tavern

The North Shore Tavern is a family-owned pub on David Low Way on the Sunshine Coast's north shore, a few minutes inland from Mudjimba Beach. It is a proper local's tavern: bistro, sports bar, kids' playground, live sport on the screens and a menu of generous pub classics. Dogs are welcome in the covered outdoor dining area, which makes it a rain-or-shine lunch or dinner stop when the beach walk finishes.

The dog setup

Dogs are permitted in the covered outdoor area only, on lead, and stay out of the main indoor dining room. Staff are used to dogs around at meal times, but the outdoor tables can fill on weekends when the sport crowds arrive, so book or ask for one when you get there. Weeknights are the easier window for a relaxed outdoor meal with a dog.

The food and the times

The bistro covers the pub standards well: quality roasts, rump steaks, salt and pepper calamari, Thai beef salad and ribs, with rotating daily specials, a kids' menu and an on-site playground if you have the whole family in tow. The tavern doors open from 10am (7:30am Sundays, when breakfast runs) and the bistro serves lunch from 11:30am and dinner from 5:30pm, later on Friday and Saturday nights. The venue trades late, so a post-dinner drink on the deck is on the cards.

Getting there and parking

It sits on David Low Way with free on-site parking, and it is an easy stop coming off the Sunshine Coast Airport approach or the coastal suburbs toward Maroochydore. The beach at Mudjimba is a short drive east for the pre-meal leg-stretch.

Close by with the dogs

The best nearby dog run is Mudjimba's off-leash beach, a 670-metre stretch between beach accesses 127 and 130 that is off-lead around the clock; lead-up applies on the transitional sand and through car parks. The Twin Waters dog beach is the alternative, while the dunal conservation reserves behind the foreshore are strictly dog free. For a fenced session, Marcoola's fenced dog park sits just up the highway, and Flawsome Cafe at Mudjimba covers the morning coffee. More options are on the Queensland restaurants page and the Mudjimba guide.

Max: 24-hour off-lead beach, then ribs under the covered deck while the footy played. Weeknight pub runs done right.