Best Restaurants in Cairns 2026, Top Dining

Cairns' Restaurant Scene

Cairns has a dining scene shaped by its tropical location, multicultural population, particularly its large Pacific Islander, South-East Asian and Indigenous communities, and its status as the gateway to the Great Barrier Reef and Daintree. Tropical produce, outstanding seafood from the Coral Sea, and the influence of Southeast Asian culinary traditions give Cairns restaurants a genuinely distinctive character.

Cairns' Top Dining Areas

• The Esplanade, The Cairns Esplanade strip is the main tourist dining area, with a range of restaurants and cafes overlooking the lagoon and Trinity Inlet. International cuisine, casual seafood and pub dining dominate.
• Cairns Night Markets, The Night Markets in the Esplanade provide a casual, tourist-friendly introduction to a range of Asian cuisines in a lively night market setting.
• Shields Street and City Centre, The Cairns CBD around Shields Street has a mix of local dining venues including Vietnamese, Thai, Japanese and Modern Australian restaurants used more by locals than tourists.
• Palm Cove (25km north), Palm Cove is the Cairns region's most upscale dining destination, with beachfront restaurants along Williams Esplanade including Vivo Beach Club, Nu Nu Restaurant and other high-quality venues.
• Atherton Tablelands, The fertile volcanic tablelands above Cairns produce tropical fruit, coffee, cheese and macadamia nuts. The dairy farms at Malanda and the Gallo Dairyland cheese factory are popular food tourism destinations.

Tropical Far North Queensland Produce

Cairns restaurants have access to extraordinary tropical produce, barramundi (farmed and wild), coral trout and reef fish, mud crabs from the mangroves, Kuranda-grown tropical fruits, FNQ coffee from the Atherton Tablelands, and macadamia nuts. This tropical larder gives Cairns cuisine a genuinely distinctive character.