The Goose, Busselton: One of My Favourites

I've been eating at The Goose for a long time. It's on the Busselton foreshore, forty minutes north of my workshop, and it's the kind of place I keep ending up at when someone asks me where to go in Busselton. I always say the same thing.

Photo: undefined · via Wikimedia Commons

The Goose is not a destination restaurant in the cellar door sense. There's no degustation, no chef-hat-chasing menu, no booking three weeks ahead for a Saturday night. What it is, is the place I've eaten breakfast, lunch, and dinner at, in three different decades, and it's reliably done what it claims to do every single time. That's worth more than a list of awards.

A bistro and bar on the Busselton foreshore, a short walk from the jetty. The room is open and light, with a deck that runs along the front looking out across Geographe Bay toward the jetty itself. White umbrellas, timber furniture, the kind of casual setup that works equally well for a coffee or a long lunch.

The kitchen runs from early morning to late afternoon most days, and into evening service in peak season. The menu changes with the seasons but the spine stays consistent: local fish, regional produce, a few well-built pasta dishes, a sensible kids' option. The coffee is good. The wine list is short and well-chosen.

It's been there since the late 1990s under various hands. The current iteration has been running for years now and the standard has held.

Same things, most visits.

Breakfast: the smashed eggs with avocado and good bread, or the bacon and egg roll if I've been up since five. The coffee is properly made, which matters when the alternative options on the foreshore are mostly chain cafés.

Lunch: the fish of the day. They source from the local boats and they don't mess it about. A grilled fillet with greens and a glass of the regional chardonnay is the right call most weeks. The pasta options are also good. The Goose burger is the dependable choice if you've got the kids with you.

Dinner (in peak season when they serve it): the seafood platter for two if it's a special occasion, or whatever the chef's special is on a midweek night.

Save room for dessert. They do a sticky date pudding that's been on the menu the entire time I've known the place and it's earned its tenure.

A grilled local fish, a glass of regional chardonnay, the deck in the afternoon sun. That's lunch at The Goose.

If you're coming up from Yallingup, the drive is forty minutes. The right way to use that morning is a walk on the jetty first.

The Busselton Jetty is the longest wooden jetty in the southern hemisphere. Just under two kilometres out into Geographe Bay. You can walk it (allow an hour return) or take the small train that runs the length of it. At the end, there's an underwater observatory if you've got the time and the booking.

After the jetty walk, The Goose is two minutes back along the foreshore. Hands washed, sunscreen reapplied, table booked for 12:30. That's the morning.

Busselton as a day trip in its own right for the broader picture, and things to do in Busselton for the full list.

Photo: undefined · via Wikimedia Commons

Geographe Bay is calm water. It faces north, sheltered from the southwest swell that pounds the coast at Yallingup. The water at the foreshore is shallow, turquoise, swim-able most of the year. The sand is fine and white. Cape Naturaliste is on the western horizon, a low line of bush against the sky.

The deck at The Goose looks out across this. In the warmer months, you can sit there for hours and watch the tide pull in and out beside the jetty pylons. In winter, the room indoors is warm enough that the view is still the main event but you're glad of the heating.

Families do well here. The lawn between the restaurant and the water is big enough for kids to run on, the table service is quick enough that nobody melts down waiting for food, and the menu has things kids will actually eat without compromising what the adults want.

A few things you can do in Busselton after a long lunch at The Goose, in rough order of how much you want to move.

The least: walk the jetty in the other direction, or just sit on the lawn until the food settles.

A bit more: drive ten minutes east to the Vasse area for a wine stop at one of the cellar doors out that way. Cape Lavender, Vasse Virgin (the olive oil place), and a couple of smaller cellar doors are within fifteen minutes.

More still: drive back toward Yallingup via the back roads. The route through Carbunup and Quindalup is prettier than the highway and there are wineries scattered along it. Cape Naturaliste lighthouse is twenty-five minutes from Busselton on the cape side, and the late-afternoon light at the cape is worth the drive.

the Busselton-to-Yallingup day trip for that route in detail.

Photo: undefined · via Wikimedia Commons

This isn't the restaurant I'd send someone to who wants the cellar door theatre. It's not the room where you go to be impressed by the kitchen. It's the room where you go to eat properly, look at the bay, and have a couple of hours feel like the afternoon they should.

It's good for:

• Families with kids who'll actually eat what's on the menu.
• A breakfast or lunch stop when you're already in Busselton for the jetty or the shops.
• An easy mid-week dinner that doesn't need a month of planning.
• The "I forgot to book Yarri" backup that doesn't feel like a backup.

It's not the right call for:

• The big-occasion dinner. Yarri in Dunsborough or one of the cellar door restaurants is better for that.
• A late dinner. Kitchen closes earlier than you'd expect.
• A romantic evening. The room is too lively for it; pick somewhere smaller.

the proper occasion dinner options in Dunsborough for those alternatives.

The Goose is on the Busselton foreshore, just east of the jetty. Parking is free along the foreshore but fills up in peak season; the side streets behind have more spots. Book ahead for weekend lunches in summer. Walk-ins midweek are usually fine. They open early for breakfast (around 7am most days) and run through to mid-afternoon. Dinner service is seasonal — check the website before you drive up.

The drive from The Goose to the gallery on Blythe Rd takes about forty minutes. Bussell Hwy south, turn at the Carbunup store, then Blythe Rd to Yallingup. Google sometimes tries to send you via Wildwood Rd. Don't take it.

Coming back from a Goose lunch to Yallingup? The workshop on Blythe Rd is forty minutes south. Free gallery entry, workshop viewing window. Kettle on most afternoons until five. The detour adds about ten minutes to the highway drive.

The honest answer is that The Goose does the thing well that most restaurants fail at: consistency over decades. I've been eating here in different rooms (they've renovated more than once), under different chefs, with different menus, and the standard has stayed up. That's hard to do. Most places drift. The Goose hasn't.

The deck on a warm afternoon is one of the small pleasures of being in this part of the world. The jetty in the morning, the deck at lunch, the slow drive back along the coast. That's a day I've done many times and I'll do many more.

the cellar doors with the best food for the bigger lunch options. the wider Busselton-to-Yallingup drive for the rest of the route.

Photo: undefined · via Wikimedia Commons

If you only do one meal in Busselton, this is the one. I've been recommending it for years and I haven't found a reason to stop.