Cairns eats better than it has any right to for its size, and the tropics do half the work: reef fish, Tablelands beef, prawns off the boat, mangoes in December. The other half happens inside a few blocks of the city grid and along two stretches of water, the Esplanade and the marina.
This is the page we send people to when they ask where to eat. Every hour and every price below was read off the venue’s own website on 15 September 2026, and where a venue does not publish something, we say so instead of guessing. Start with the shortlist, then jump to whichever section matches your night.
The ten we would actually book
- Ochre, Harbour Lights. Native ingredients done properly since 1994, with a wine list that has taken a Glass award at the Wine List of the Year Awards four years running. Char-grilled kangaroo sirloin is $49, the three-course set $90. Closed Sundays.
- Salt House, Marina Point. The custom Argentinian wood-fired grill is the reason to go, the water on three sides is the reason you stay. Half a kilo of local prawns $30. Open every day from 11:30am until late. Our full write-up is here.
- Waterbar and Grill, the Pier. The steakhouse locals book for a birthday. Dry-aged sirloin on the bone $88, Spanish mackerel and chips $39. Seven nights from 5:30pm and the operator’s own words are “reservations essential”.
- Paper Crane, Crystalbrook Riley. Southeast Asian sharing plates beside the lagoon pool, and the weeknight set menus are the best value dinner on the Esplanade. Menu, prices and the deals worth knowing.
- C’est Bon, Lake Street. Actual French cooking in a city that does not have much of it. Escargots $25, five-course tasting menu $129 a head. Lunch Tuesday to Friday, dinner every day, last orders 9pm.
- Dundee’s on the Waterfront. The safe bet that is still a good bet, open seven days, and the place to try crocodile and kangaroo without it being a gimmick. Barramundi $51. Advance bookings essential, in their words.
- Prawn Star, Marlin Marina. A working trawler at E Finger, Berth 31, where you eat prawns off the boat with your hands. Mixed prawns $39 for one or two, the jumbo platter $142 for two or three. Open every day 11am to 9pm. No BYO.
- Tha Fish, the Pier. Local fish, your choice of cooking style, and the rare Cairns restaurant that lets you bring your own wine for $15 corkage. Closed Tuesdays.
- Bushfire Flame Grill, the Esplanade. Brazilian churrasco, all you can eat, $72 a head for the three-course experience with the skewers carved at the table. Kids 5 to 8 are $15. Dinner Tuesday to Saturday.
- Hemingway’s Brewery, Cairns Wharf. Heritage-listed shed at the cruise terminal, beer brewed on site, 600 seats and seating held back for walk-ins every day. Open seven days 12pm to 10pm, kitchen until 9pm.
One honest note on that list. We have eaten at most of these and we have not eaten at all of them, so treat it as a shortlist built on what the kitchens actually do and what they publish, not as ten reviews.
Cheap eats that are genuinely cheap
The single best value in the city is Gilligan’s on Grafton Street, which runs a different ten-dollar dish every night between 5pm and 8pm: brisket burger on Monday, margherita on Tuesday, Angus burger on Wednesday, chicken schnitzel on Thursday, fish and chips on Friday, hot wings on Saturday and a roast on Sunday. The kitchen itself runs 12pm to 9pm, so turn up after 8pm and you pay full price for the same plate.
The Cock and Bull at 6 Grove Street has been doing this longer than anyone, opens daily from 10am, and puts the daily soup at $9.50, the Spanish mackerel fish and chips at $23.50 at lunch and the XL chicken parmigiana at $28.50. Their own menu calls it the biggest and best parmi in Far North Queensland, which is a claim we are happy to let them make.
The Night Markets food court on Abbott Street is the other one. Thirteen food shops by the operator’s count, open 11am to 10:45pm every day of the year, which makes it a lunch option as well as the late one everyone knows about. The retail stalls behind it do not open until 4:30pm. Parking upstairs is $2.20 an hour. More on the markets here.
At the Pier, the Pier Bar does a $22 burger, a $30 chicken parma and $14 kids meals, and the kitchen closes between 3pm and 5pm daily, which catches out more late lunches than anything else in town.
Seafood, and where to buy it cooked
Two things surprise people. The first is that Cairns has no fish market in the city. Every retail seafood outlet is out in Portsmith, Woree or up Sheridan Street, so if you have read about wandering down to a market hall on the waterfront, that is not a thing here.
The second is that the best cheap seafood meal in town is a bag of cooked prawns eaten on the grass. Ocean World Seafood Market at 379 Sheridan Street sells prawns cooked at sea by the kilo all year round, and suggests it themselves: “There are tables available under cover or enjoy it at our beautiful Esplanade nearby.” Their takeaway counter does a prawn pack at $20 and local barramundi at $16.50. Their website says Saturday to Thursday 9am to 7pm and Friday until 8pm, while their own takeaway menu says Sunday to Thursday, so ring 07 4041 0242 before you drive out on a Saturday.
For seafood with a tablecloth, Salt House and Tha Fish are the two we go back to, and Prawn Star is the one to take visitors to because eating on a moored trawler is a story they take home.
Breakfast
Villa Romana on the corner of the Esplanade and Aplin Street opens at 6:30am seven days, which makes it the default when you have a reef boat to catch. Bang and Grind on Spence Street also opens at 6:30am on weekdays and until noon on Saturdays, but it is closed Sundays and public holidays, so check the day before you walk there. Blackbird Laneway on Grafton Street runs 7am to 4pm on weekdays and opens seven days.
Caffiend at 72 Grafton Street is the one people ask about. It is not a cheap breakfast: the big one is $32, avocado toast $24, the breakfast toastie $16.90. They do not publish opening hours anywhere on their site, so ring 07 4051 5522 rather than turning up on trust. The beans in that cup are roasted in Cairns, at Tattooed Sailor on Newell Street, which also trades as Newell Street Cafe. For a breakfast with water in front of it, Paper Crane runs 6:30am to 10:30am daily and takes non-guests.
If it is a Friday, Saturday or Sunday, do breakfast at the markets instead. Rusty’s opens at 5am.
The two markets
Rusty’s Markets on Grafton Street runs Friday and Saturday 5am to 4pm and Sunday 5am to 3pm, with more than 180 stalls of fruit, vegetables, flowers, delicatessens and international food. It is the best hour you can spend in the city on a weekend morning and it costs nothing to walk through. What is actually in season changes month to month, which we track in our tropical fruit calendar.
The Cairns Night Markets are the other institution, open 365 days including Christmas Day.
Eating on the water
There are two waterfronts and they behave differently. The Esplanade is the long one, parkland on one side and the dining strip on the other, and we have covered the whole stretch in our Esplanade and Lagoon guide. The Pier and Marina Point is the compact one at the southern end, and it holds Salt House, Waterbar and Grill, Tha Fish, the Pier Bar and Dundee’s within a few minutes of each other, with Prawn Star on the marina itself.
For a drink rather than a meal, Rocco on level 12 at Crystalbrook Riley is the rooftop, and Three Wolves at 13A Spence Street, entered through Bank Lane, is the cocktail and whisky bar, open every day 4pm to midnight with a short menu of cheese, charcuterie and toasties. What has opened recently is in our new bars and revived pubs roundup.
Out of the city
Half an hour north, Palm Cove is the other place people eat. Vivo is the one we recommend on the strip, and the Palm Cove Tavern is the pub that takes dogs and does not charge beachfront prices for a schnitzel. If you are travelling with a dog more generally, we keep a list of venues that have confirmed their own dog policy in writing, because the answer changes with the manager.
What it costs, and the surcharges
Budget roughly $20 to $30 for a pub main, $30 to $50 for a mid-range restaurant main, and $50 to $90 once you are into steak, whole fish or a tasting menu. Entry level is real though: ten dollars gets you a hot meal at Gilligan’s between 5pm and 8pm, and about the same feeds you at the Night Markets food court.
The surcharges are the part visitors do not expect. A 15 per cent public holiday surcharge is close to universal here and is published by Ochre, Dundee’s, Bellocale, Tha Fish, Waterbar and Grill and the Pier Bar. C’est Bon adds 10 per cent on Saturdays and Sundays on top of that. Card fees are separate and are usually 1.3 to 1.5 per cent. Paper Crane takes no cash at all. None of this is anyone being sharp, it is standard across the far north, but it is worth knowing before the bill lands on a Good Friday.
When you actually need to book
In the dry season, from about May to October, book anything on the water for a Friday or Saturday night. Waterbar and Grill says reservations are essential and means it, Dundee’s says advance bookings essential, and Salt House recommends booking for dinner and weekends to get a waterfront table. Ochre is closed Sundays, Tha Fish is closed Tuesdays and Bellocale is closed Mondays, which is the sort of thing that ends an evening before it starts. Hemingway’s holds seating for walk-ins daily, so it is the fallback when everywhere else is full.
More eating guides
- Paper Crane, the Asian sharing menu behind the Esplanade
- Salt House, the wood-fired grill on the marina
- Crystalbrook Riley, the rooftop bar you can walk into
- Vivo, the pick of the Palm Cove strip
- Palm Cove Tavern, the dog-friendly pub up north
- Rusty’s Markets, what to buy and when to go
- Cairns Night Markets, the food court and the stalls
- food and wine tours, if you would rather someone else drove
Book tours and experiences
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FAQs
What food is Cairns known for?
Seafood off the local boats, tropical fruit, and native meats like crocodile and kangaroo on mainstream menus. Prawns and reef fish are the things to order.
Where do locals eat in Cairns?
Gilligan’s and the Cock and Bull for the cheap end, Rusty’s Markets on a weekend morning, Prawn Star on the marina, and Ochre or Salt House when it is someone’s birthday.
How much is dinner in Cairns?
About $20 to $30 for a pub main, $30 to $50 mid-range, and $50 to $90 for steak, whole fish or a tasting menu. Gilligan’s runs a $10 dish every night between 5pm and 8pm.
Do Cairns restaurants charge a public holiday surcharge?
Yes, 15 per cent is standard and most venues publish it on their own menu. Card surcharges of 1.3 to 1.5 per cent are charged separately.
Is there a fish market in Cairns?
Not in the city. The retail seafood outlets are in Portsmith, Woree and on Sheridan Street. Ocean World Seafood Market on Sheridan Street sells prawns cooked at sea and is the closest thing to one.
Where can you eat late in Cairns?
The Night Markets food court runs until 10:45pm every day of the year. Paper Crane takes last kitchen orders at 9pm, and Three Wolves pours until midnight.
Hours and prices in this guide were read from each venue’s own website on 15 September 2026. Header photo: ours, Paper Crane, Crystalbrook Riley, 2021.
