Vivo Palm Cove: The One We Actually Recommend

Palm Cove has a strip of restaurants along Williams Esplanade and most of them trade on the address more than the cooking. Vivo is the one that has earned it. It sits in a white pavilion under a pitched tin roof with the melaleucas and the sand a few metres away, it opens at seven in the morning and does not stop until dinner is done, and it is the place we send people who have one good night in Palm Cove and want to spend it well.

Why we rate it

We have eaten here with James and a colleague and it was, flatly, stunning. The sound of the ocean is on your left the whole time you are sitting there. The pasta in front of you is the best in Palm Cove and arguably the best north of Cairns. The red wine list does not muck about. That combination is why this is the spot we personally recommend above anywhere else in Palm Cove, and one of the few we would name in the same breath as the best in Cairns itself.

That is our own view rather than a survey of reviews, and it is worth saying plainly: the setting does a lot of work here, but the kitchen holds up its end, which is the part that separates Vivo from the rest of the strip.

What is on the menu

Contemporary Australian with Mediterranean and Asian threads and a heavy lean on seafood, built on North Queensland produce. Breakfast runs $14 to $29 AUD, with the smoked salmon at $29 the one people order. Lunch and dinner mains run $25 to $69, taking in the crab tagliatelline at $42, the seafood mezze at $69 and a Kilcoy black diamond eye fillet at $64. Desserts are $12 to $16.

There are gluten free, dairy free, vegetarian and vegan options across the menus, and a kids section, which matters more than it sounds in a town where the alternative is a bistro or a resort buffet.

One thing to budget for: a 15 per cent surcharge applies on public holidays.

Hours, and the useful bit

Open seven days from 7:00am, closed only on Christmas Day. Breakfast 7:00am to 11:00am, lunch 11:30am to 4:00pm, dinner 5:00pm to 9:00pm. That all-day run is genuinely useful in Palm Cove, where a lot of kitchens shut between services and leave you walking the strip at three in the afternoon with nowhere to sit.

Book for dinner, especially in the dry. Phone 07 4059 0944 or email dine@vivo.com.au.

Where it is

49 Williams Esplanade, on the beachfront strip in Palm Cove, about twenty-five minutes north of Cairns and ten minutes past the Skyrail terminal at Smithfield. If you are making a day of it, Trinity Beach is on the way back down.

The verdict

Book the dinner sitting, ask for a table on the ocean side, order pasta and something red, and let the water do the rest. It is not cheap and it does not pretend to be. It is the one place in Palm Cove where the bill and the evening match up.

FAQs

What are Vivo’s opening hours?
Seven days from 7:00am, closed Christmas Day. Breakfast 7:00am to 11:00am, lunch 11:30am to 4:00pm, dinner 5:00pm to 9:00pm.

How much is dinner at Vivo?
Mains run $25 to $69 AUD, with desserts $12 to $16. A 15 per cent surcharge applies on public holidays.

Do you need to book Vivo Palm Cove?
For dinner, yes, particularly through the dry season. Call 07 4059 0944 or email dine@vivo.com.au.

Is Vivo on the beach?
It is on Williams Esplanade directly opposite the beachfront, so you eat with the sand and the melaleucas a few metres away and the water audible from the table.

Does Vivo cater for dietary requirements?
Gluten free, dairy free, vegetarian and vegan options are available across the menus, and there is a kids menu.

Find it

Header photo: Chris Olszewski via Wikimedia Commons, CC BY-SA 4.0.