Where to Eat in Coffs Harbour
Fish and chips from the fishermen’s co-op, the Sunday market, and where to eat in one night or two
Coffs Harbour eats from the harbour. The fishing boats tie up beside the fishermen’s co-op, which has sold their catch since 1947, and the Jetty Strip has most of the town’s cafés and restaurants. For one night, eat at the Jetty end and walk. With a second day, add the Sunday market on the foreshore, the Thursday growers’ market in the city, or a dinner in Sawtell. Eat early: the co-op closes in the afternoon, and the harbour kitchen stops serving at 8.15pm.
Areas, places and prices reviewed 25 September 2026.
First, how Coffs Harbour eats
The sea comes first. The fishermen of Coffs Harbour met in 1947 to form a co-operative and began trading that November, and it still sells their catch at the harbour today, over the counter as fresh seafood and cooked as fish and chips. Most of the town’s eating out is simple and by the water.
The land tells the rest of the story. Coffs Harbour was the main banana district of New South Wales, which is why the Big Banana was built beside the highway in 1964. Today the mid-north coast grows about four in every five of Australia’s blueberries. Many of the growers belong to Woolgoolga’s Punjabi Sikh community, whose families came in the early 1950s to work on the banana farms.
Two things this page cannot tell you. This is Gumbaynggirr Country, and we found a listing for a monthly bush-tucker tour at the Yarrawarra Aboriginal Cultural Centre at Corindi Beach, north of Coffs, but could not confirm it on the centre’s own site, so check before you plan around it. And we have not eaten in Coffs Harbour ourselves: this page is researched, and we describe food through its ingredients and its sources rather than tastes we cannot vouch for.
At the co-op, before you eat, look at the boats tied up in the harbour a few steps away. The fishermen who formed this co-operative in 1947 sold their catch at the same harbour. Ask at the counter what came in today, and where it was caught. Then eat looking at the water it came from, and think about how short a journey it has made.
What to eat in Coffs Harbour
The fishermen’s co-op has sold its members’ catch at the harbour since 1947. Buy fish and chips over the counter and eat at a table outside, among the boats that caught it.
The co-op lists whiting, flathead, snapper, kingfish, prawns and lobster among the local species it sells. Ask what came in today, and which fish on a restaurant menu were landed here.
Bananas made Coffs Harbour’s name: this was the main banana district of New South Wales, and the Big Banana has stood by the highway since 1964 because of it. Look for local fruit at the growers’ market.
About four in every five of Australia’s blueberries are grown on the New South Wales mid-north coast around Coffs Harbour. Many of the growers are from Woolgoolga’s Punjabi Sikh families, who came first to work the banana farms.
Pubs and clubs are part of how Australians eat out: big rooms and a menu for everyone. An archive photograph shows a hotel, then the Imperial, on Sawtell’s First Avenue around 1932.
The Harbourside Markets fill the Jetty foreshore every Sunday from 8am to 2pm. Make it breakfast, then walk out along the breakwall to Muttonbird Island.
Where to eat: the most useful areas
| Area | Best for | Best time | Main catch |
|---|---|---|---|
| The Jetty & foreshore | Fish and chips, and a first evening on foot | Lunch, or an early dinner | The co-op shuts at 5pm or earlier |
| Sawtell | A village dinner on First Avenue | An evening, or a slow breakfast | A 15-minute drive from the Jetty |
| City centre & highway strip | The Thursday growers’ market | Thursday morning | Little reason to go at night |
The Jetty end is by the harbour, with the co-op and the restaurants on Marina Drive and the Jetty Strip on Harbour Drive. The city centre is a couple of kilometres inland along Harbour Drive. Sawtell is fifteen minutes south. Park Beach and the northern beaches have little to eat beyond their resorts’ own restaurants, so we do not profile them.
Each area below names at most two places, and only places that have traded under the same name, or in the same hands, for five years or more, with someone other than the owner saying so. Newer places may be excellent; we simply cannot vouch for their staying power yet.
The Jetty & foreshore — fish and chips and a first evening
$44–65 (restaurant mains)The harbour end is where a one-night visitor sleeps and where Coffs Harbour eats from the sea. The fishing boats tie up here, the fishermen’s co-op sells their catch on Marina Drive, and the Jetty Strip on Harbour Drive has most of the town’s cafés and restaurants within a short walk. On Sundays the Harbourside Markets fill the foreshore. Eat early: the co-op closes in the afternoon, and the restaurant kitchen by the water closes at a quarter past eight.
Eat here for: Fish and chips by the harbour, a seafood dinner, a Sunday market morning.
Sawtell — a village dinner
prices not onlineSawtell’s main street, First Avenue, is lined with cafés and restaurants under old fig trees, fifteen minutes south of the city. It is the place for a slower dinner or a long breakfast, and an easy stop on the way to Bellingen. Few of its places publish prices online, so read the menus on the street.
Eat here for: A dinner on foot in a village, breakfast under the figs, a pub meal.
City centre & highway strip — the growers’ market
prices not onlineThe city centre is not where visitors eat in the evening: the restaurants are at the harbour and in Sawtell. Its reason to visit is the Coffs Coast Growers Market, every Thursday morning in City Square on Harbour Drive, where local farmers sell their own produce. If you are in town on a Thursday, go early.
Eat here for: A Thursday market morning, and fruit for the road.
How much does it cost to eat in Coffs Harbour?
| Meal or occasion | Typical spend | What that buys |
|---|---|---|
| Fish and chips at the co-op, Tuesdays | $12 | A seniors’ serve, Tuesdays only |
| Fish and chips in a restaurant | $45 | Hand-cut chips, at the harbour |
| A restaurant main at dinner | $44–65 | One main course, no drinks |
| A dozen oysters | $70 | At a restaurant, not a farm gate |
Australian dollars, read on 25 September 2026 from what two Coffs Harbour businesses publish on their own websites: the fishermen’s co-op’s Tuesday offer and the menu of a restaurant at the harbour. It is a very small sample, and the restaurant’s menu carries no date of its own, so its prices may have moved since it was written. We could not find published prices for an ordinary serve of fish and chips at the co-op, a coffee, a café breakfast or a pub meal. Treat the figures as a guide, not a survey, and check the foot of any menu for a weekend or public-holiday surcharge.
Markets and takeaway
Coffs Harbour has two regular food markets. The Harbourside Markets fill the Jetty foreshore every Sunday from 8am to 2pm. The Coffs Coast Growers Market is in City Square on Harbour Drive every Thursday morning, run for local growers selling their own produce. Check both before you plan a morning around them, as weather and holidays can change the day.
The rest of the town’s outdoor eating is takeaway: fish and chips from the co-op at a table by the harbour, or carried along the foreshore to eat looking at the water.
Further afield: Woolgoolga and Bellingen
Woolgoolga is twenty-five minutes north, and it is where Coffs Harbour’s Punjabi story is most visible. Sikh families settled here from the early 1950s to work the banana farms, and many of their descendants now grow the blueberries this coast is known for. The white Guru Nanak Sikh Temple, built in 1969, stands above the town, and Visit NSW notes that Woolgoolga celebrates its Punjabi culture each year. We have not found a restaurant here with the independent evidence of age we ask for, so we name none; look on the main street, and go for the headland as well as the food.
Bellingen is on the way in from the south, if you are driving our Sydney to Brisbane road trip. It sits on the Bellinger River, inland from the coast, with a heritage main street, Hyde Street, where our road trip suggests stopping for lunch before the last stretch into Coffs Harbour. It makes a natural pair with this page: lunch in the hills, and fish and chips by the harbour that evening.
Closer in, the resorts on the northern beaches have their own restaurants, which suit a stay where you would rather not drive again after a day on the sand. We have not profiled them, because each serves its own guests first, and their menus and hours change with the season.
Building food into one day
This day works best on a Sunday, when the Harbourside Markets are on, or on a Thursday with the growers’ market instead. You will want a car for the afternoon and for Sawtell. If you have only one evening in Coffs Harbour, skip the day altogether: walk to an early dinner at the Jetty end, and keep the rest for the next visit.
Morning — the Harbourside Markets
On a Sunday, start at the markets on the Jetty foreshore, open from 8am. Buy a coffee and something to eat, and walk the stalls. On a Thursday, go to the growers’ market in City Square instead.
Late morning — the breakwall and Muttonbird Island
Walk off breakfast along the breakwall from the marina to the island and its lookout, a short walk from the car park.
Lunch — fish and chips at the co-op
Back at the harbour, buy fish and chips at the fishermen’s co-op on Marina Drive and eat outside. It closes at 5pm from Wednesday to Sunday, and at 3pm on Mondays and Tuesdays.
Afternoon — the Big Banana
Drive a few minutes north to the Big Banana, the monument to the crop that built the town. It is free to see; the rides cost extra.
Evening — dinner by the water, or in Sawtell
Eat early at the harbour restaurant, whose kitchen closes at 8.15pm, or drive fifteen minutes south to First Avenue in Sawtell for a slower dinner.
Practical advice for eating in Coffs Harbour
Eat early
The co-op closes at 3pm on Mondays and Tuesdays and at 5pm the rest of the week, and the harbour restaurant’s kitchen stops at 8.15pm. Few other places publish their hours. Plan an early dinner, especially outside the summer holidays.
Book in the holidays
Most of Coffs Harbour can be eaten without booking. In the school holidays, and at Christmas and Easter, it is worth booking dinner before you arrive.
Drinking and driving
Sawtell and the harbour are a drive apart. New South Wales sets a blood-alcohol limit of 0.05 for fully licensed drivers and zero for learners and provisional drivers. If you want a drink with dinner, eat where you are staying.
Seafood and dietary needs
Raw oysters are not for everyone: the NSW Food Authority advises pregnant women not to eat raw seafood, including oysters. If an allergy is serious, say so when you order and ask how the dish is cooked.
A final word on eating in Coffs Harbour
The best of Coffs Harbour’s food comes out of the harbour. For one night, eat early at the Jetty end, with fish and chips from the co-op or a seafood dinner by the water. With a second day, go to the Sunday market or the Thursday growers’ market, and have dinner under the figs in Sawtell.
Andrew + Margaret
- Coffs Harbour Overview
- Where to stay in Coffs Harbour Decide
- Sydney to Brisbane road trip Journeys
- Coffs Harbour Fishermen’s Co-op Practical
- Harbourside Markets Practical
- City of Coffs Harbour — growers’ market and events Official
- NSW Food Authority — foods to avoid in pregnancy Safety