West Coast Gateway Cafe

Prepare to have all your assumptions about small town dining shattered when you visit the West Coast Gateway Cafe in blink-and-you’ll-miss-it Tullah. Like the gold the town was built on, it’s what lies beneath that counts.

There’s the obligatory stack of glowing potato cakes behind hot glass at the counter, but this is no normal hamburger and chips cafe. Every dietary requirement is catered for, from gluten-free, to lactose-intolerant, to vegan.

Owner Jenny Bowie relaunched the cafe in 2016. The small team pumps out an astonishing wide choice of meals, and you never wait long. Crowd favourites remain the steak sandwich, the lamb souvlaki and the hamburger, but the cafe also offers an all-day breakfast and vegetarian lunch options such as spinach fettuccine with roasted tomato, as well as a veggie burger with a convincing oat- and-nut patty.

All the bakery goods are housemade and you’ll have a hard time finding a better Devonshire tea this side of Bass Strait. Coffee is taken very seriously, too.

Located in the corner of the small shopping hub, the cafe’s looks are deceiving. Inside the dining room there’s a 3D model of the west coast region, complete with roads, lakes and mines. On the walls, historical photos of Tullah’s gold mining past, before gold gave way to hydropower and the town forged a new identity.