Foods You Should Try in Far North Queensland (2025)

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The tropics produce a lot of foods that you may not see often in cooler climates. In this post, we run you through some foods to try during your vacation in Port Douglas, Cairns, or really, all of Far North Queensland. Some are unique to Australia, and some aren’t, but these are the foods, fruits, vegetables, seafood and meats you should try on your trip.

Foods you should try in Port Douglas and Cairns - Seafood selection
This is a great seafood sharing plate, but most of these items aren’t local. Find this seafood plate at Sassi La Cuccina (a good Italian restaurant, one of the best in Port Douglas. Wrasse and Wroe also offer good seafood). Both are on Macrossan St. Port’s main street.

A good way to experience all of the local delicacies in Far North Queensland is to book a food tour of the Tablelands. This tour will take you to the wineries and dairies and allow you to sample their produce. You can book this foodie tour from Port Douglas, here, or from Cairns.

Tropical treats include chocolate, cheeses, coffee, wineries and distilleries, plus tropical fruits.

To try the tropical ice creams of The Daintree, book a Daintree tour, ice cream and tropical fruit farm visits are included in some tours. You can self-drive to all of these places, but these are long drives and you’ll need to cross the Daintree River on the ferry.

You can also book a Daintree tour that includes lunch at Hook-a-Barra . This award-winning barramundi farm is north of Port, at Wonga Beach, and then more stops in the Daintree. We have a full review of the Hook-a-Barra fishing experience, and lunch, here.

  • Fish and Seafood (& Crocodile)
  • Meats and Beef
  • Dairies
  • Chocolate
  • Coffee
  • Tea
  • Distilleries
  • Wine
  • Vegetables
  • Typical Australian Foods to Try

Fish and Seafood From Far Noth Queensland

Barramundi

Barramundi is pretty much the national fish of Australia. You may have eaten it before as Asian Sea Bass. It’s a big, powerful fighting fish, as we discovered on our trip to Hook-a-Barra, just north of Port Douglas.

Barramundi burger in black brioche bun
A barramundi burger from NI7 burger joint and sports bar in Port Douglas. They do good burgers!

The flesh is soft and it has black lines that look a bit weird, but good barramundi is superb. The white fish on the seafood plate, above, is barramundi.

Try to find wild or saltwater farmed barramundi. The barramundi from Hook a Barra was much better than a lot of the farmed barra I’ve eaten before. The water there is pumped straight out of the Daintree Estuary and they win awards for their barramundi.

There is a little restaurant at Hook-a-Barra where you can sample their barra and chips, or try a barra burger or the barra tasting plate. It’s all good!

N17 in Port Douglas usually have a good barra burger on the menu, most restaurants will have barramundi to try.

Make sure you see “The Big Barra” at Daintree Village.

Local Prawns

Prawns are a prime local seafood and you can buy them off the trawler in Port Douglas. Always look for local wild-caught prawns, never farmed. We do not have shrimp in Australia, we have prawns, and there are several types caught locally. There are also farmed prawns. Try to find wild-caught.

Trawlers converted to restaurants in Cairns. Prawn Star
The “Prawn Star” floating restaurants in Cairns.

If you’re in Cairns the “Prawn Star” boats in the marina are floating restaurants. They serve very basic cooked seafood, Queensland style, usually with mayo or cocktail sauce, it’s not fancy dining.

There are plenty of places where you can buy “a bucket of prawns.” This is similar to the pint of prawns you can get in the UK. I told you where you can find this in Port Douglas in a previous post.

Mudcrab

live mudcrab in the fish shop in Port Douglas Australia
Live mudcrab for sale in Port Douglas

I’ve never tried mud crab! Scylla serrata is a big chunky crab caught locally in mangroves and estuaries, particularly in the Port Douglas Inlet. I’ve seen them for sale at the Fishmongers in Port Douglas but you rarely see them on menus. You can usually buy them at Port Seafood on Warner Street, behind Coles at Port Village.

At the time of writing, Wrasse and Roe, one of the best restaurants in Port Douglas, had FNQ mud crab on their menu. See the menu here.

Yabbies

Live Red claw yabby
A red claw yabby, caught by us in Lake Tinaroo.

Yabbies are a freshwater crayfish and you can catch them in most lakes around Port Douglas and Cairns. They don’t appear on restaurant menus very often, but you’ll sometimes see them in an Aussie surf and Turf, with steak. They’re good to eat, you should try them.

Coral Trout

Coral trout is a very nice fish from The Great Barrier Reef. If you go snorkelling or scuba diving you’ll probably see a few. They are red with vivid blue spots. A large fish, about the length of your forearm or much bigger.

Coral trout is my favourite fish from the Coral Sea and you’ll find it on a lot of restaurant menus. Other reef fish to try are sweet lip, nanygai and snapper.

Spanish Mackeral

Spanish mackerel are a large pelagic fish. You’ll see mackerel on fish and chip shop menus often. I’m not a big fan of Spanish mackerel. It is nothing like the mackeral you’ll find in cooler waters around Europe, for instance, that one is a small oily fish.

Crocodile

Crocodile meat can sometimes be found at the fishmongers in Port Douglas. It is farmed locally, both at Hartley’s Crocodile Adventures and at a big crocodile farm south of Cairns. You don’t see it on restaurant menus very often but Mocka’s Pies in Port Douglas usually have a crocodile pie, and it’s on the menu at Hartley’s.

I’ve also seen crocodile for sale in Kuranda and the Mossman Butchers used to sell crocodile sausages. I don’t think they do now.

I did see crocodile on a restaurant menu in Mission Beach, along with smoked emu and kangaroo as a meat taster plate.

Honestly, it’s not great to eat. It’s sometimes like wet fishy chicken. But if you eat meat, it’s worth a go!

Bugs of Far North Queensland

In Australia, edible bugs are a type of crustacian, not a type of insect!

Moreton Bay Bugs are caught between Cairns and Bundaberg, primarily. Extending around the tropical waters of Northern Australia into WA. They’re possibly not a good choice as trawling for this species threatens other overfished and endangers animals.

For Moreton Bay bug distribution and more on ecology and fishing info, go here.

Fish and Seafood Not Native to Far North Queensland

You will see seafood such as oysters, and mussels on menus in Far North Queensland, Port Douglas and Cairns, but these are not found in local waters. The Coral Sea is far too warm for a lot of these delicacies meaning they are flown up, sometimes frozen, from further south.

Balmain Bugs are from Southern and Central Queensland waters, extending around the south coast to Western Australia. See their distribution map here.

Meats From Far North Queensland

Just north of Port Douglas and on the Tablelands, you will find miles and miles of cattle country, producing some great local beef. Queensland is tick country, we’re inside the tick zone here, so I doubt you’ll find organic grass-fed beef from this area. We have cattle ourselves and haven’t yet found a natural way to control ticks.

If you want to talk about meat, or buy some to cook at home, pop into Malone’s Butchery in Port Douglas. It’s right opposite Coles and has to be the best place to buy meat.

Local Grass-Fed Beef

This is beef country! And there’s nothing like a good steak.

I’ve been told that you can’t get organic beef because of ticks. We’re in the tick zone in coastal FNQ. But you should be able to find grass-fed easily.

If you head up to Julatten or Daintree Village you’ll see plenty of beef cattle. They’re tropical cattle, like the Indian Brahmin cattle they carry their fat in a hump to stay cooler. There are lots of types of cattle in FNQ, Brangus is another one (A Brahmin x Angus maybe?) I’m no expert. But we have good beef in this part of the world.

Kangaroo

Woolworths in Mossman sell a lot of kangaroo meat. They have a “game” section. I think it’s exclusively kangaroo, not the pheasant, venison and rabbit I’m used to back home! (I’m a pom.)

Kangaroo is really tasty, a lot like venison. It’s very low fat, so a long slow cook with plenty of red wine and juniper works well.

You’ll see kangaroo on some restaurant menus and at Mocka’s Pies in Port Douglas. Malone’s Butchery normally has frozen kangaroo meat on sale.

Dairy Products From FNQ

There are a few local dairies that you can visit to sample local cheeses, cream, and chocolate. You can also buy these dairy products in the form of milk, ice cream, or yoghurt in most food outlets, even Woolworths and Coles.

Tropical Fruits of Far North Queensland

Tropical fruit display, for sale, at Rusty's Market in Cairns.
Rusty’s Market in Cairns is a great place to go, to buy, or to see, the array of local produce.

Fruits we grow in the Port Douglas, Cairns, and Tablelands regions include pineapples, bananas, mangos, papaya (often called pawpaw in Australia), all citrus, lychees, jackfruit, passion fruit, and durian. The list is endless!

More unusual local fruits include sapote, soursop and sweetsop.

Visit Rusty’s Market in Cairns for huge displays of commercially grown local fruits. Alternatively, visit the smaller local markets. Mossman Market on a Saturday Morning is a great place for local produce, as is Mareeba Market. Mareeba Markets are normally held every 2nd and 5th Saturday of the month. You may find some local, seasonal fruit and veg at Port Douglas Markets on Sunday Mornings.

A word to the wise, don’t buy green pineapples from the supermarket and expect them to be good. A ripe pineapple is golden yellow. We grow a lot of pineapples ourselves, a really good one is a million miles from a supermarket pineapple.

You’ll find ice cream made locally with these tropical fruit flavours, there are two ice creameries in the Daintree to try.

Hopefully, you’ll find a good selection of seasonal tropical fruits on your hotel’s breakfast buffet. The Sheraton Hotel does a great breakfast buffet and it’s open to non-residents.

The mangos are ripe from about November and through Christmas. Lychees are in season in November in Julatten. Pineapples tend to be at their best around Christmas too. Don’t buy a pineapple if it’s less than golden all over. If it’s green, it’s not ready.

If you’re interested in gardening or growing food in the tropics, and keeping livestock, we have a sister site about tropical homesteading. Check her out and subscribe!

Tea in Far North Queensland

Daintree tea is north of the Daintree River, within the rainforest. You can buy this tea at many local outlets.

FNQ Coffee

Coffee Works in Mareeba is a great place to go for coffee enthusiasts! Coffee Works also features local chocolate, 2 treats for the price of 1.

FNQ Chocolate

Delicious chocolate cake at The Australian Chocolate Farm near Port Douglas.
Stop for a tea or coffee and grab a delicious chocolate cake at The Australian Chocolate Farm in Shannonvale. It’s between Port Douglas and Mossman. You can also take a tour of the chocolate farm.

We already mentioned Coffee Works in Mareeba. There is also The Australian Chocolate Farm between Port Douglas and Mossman, at Shannonvale.

Tropical Wines From Far North Queensland

In Queensland you will find wines made from lychees, mango, lime, sapote and passionfruit. Find out more by visiting one of the tropic fruit wineries in the region.

At Shannonvale, north of Port Douglas, south of Mossman, there is the Shannonvale Tropical Fruit Winery. They make wines from organic tropical fruits, grown on their property. Find out more, and check opening times, on their website.

On the Tablelands, at Mareeba, you will find de Bruey’s Boutique Wines, again, check their website for more information.

Rainforest Heart is an Australian native bush food orchard, that also produces fruit beverages. See their website here. They offer Davidson’s plum and bush cherry aperitifs.

The Golden Drop Winery started producing the world’s first commercial mango wine on the Tablelands, at Biboohra. Check their cellar door opening times in Kuranda and at their Biboohra farm, on their website.

Local Spirits and Distilleries

Glass of spirit in the bar at Mt Uncle Distillery
Sample local spirits, on-site, at Mount Uncle Distillery, Walkamin.

Mount Uncle Distillery is on the Tablelands at Walkamin and produces award-winning spirits, including gin and rum. This distillery is quite a destination, with a small collection of animals on site. We’d often take our kids here to see the alpaccas and donkeys.

For more information check the Mt Uncle website here. This venue also hosts musical events and there is a restaurant on-site, Bridges. As far as we know, Bridges is currently closed, according to their Facebook page.

Vegetables of FNQ

The vegetables you will see on restaurant menus and on buffets will probably be the typical vegetables that you are used to. However, the tropical climate favours tropical veg.

We can easily grow all of the flavours of Asian food in our climate, much more easily than broccoli and carrots. As a tropical gardener myself, I know that I regularly harvest various tropical spinach varieties, lemongrass, Thai basil and eggplant (aubergines), plus ginger and turmeric.

It’s beyond the scope of this travel and tourism page to go into what veg will grow in Far North Queensland, but our sister site, Tropical Food Garden, has all of this information.

Aussie Classics To Try

If you want to eat something Aussie on your trip to Queensland, grab a chicken parmie at just about any pub restaurant. Deep fried chicken topped with bacon, cheese and tomato is a very Australianised dish.

In other parts of Australia they may call it a parma.

Look out for lamingtons, chocolate and coconut coated sponge cakes, also Australian. Buy a packet of TimTam biscuits at any supermarket and sample Australia’s favourite biscuit. Or go with Anzac biscuits, they’re very much like Hobnobs.

An Aussie burger with “the lot” or the “the works” is another classic. Your burger will be topped with cheese, bacon, a fried egg and usually beetroot and salad.

Meat pies, while not uniquely Australian, are very popular. Our American visitors aren’t familiar with meat pies or sausage rolls. Find them at most bakeries. Try Mocka’s Pies or Grant Street Bakery (both are on Grant St.) in Port Douglas. Don’t buy the cheap ones wrapped in plastic from petrol stations!

You will see a lot of seafood on menus, most of this comes from down south. Tropical North Queensland waters are too warm for oysters, mussels and bugs. Items like this have to be flown up from cooler waters but bugs are certainly something to try.

Have a great time exploring the local food and drink of Port Douglas, Cairns, the Hinterlands and Far North Queensland. Can you think of any tropical foods we’ve missed in this post? Let us know.

About the author
Alyson Long

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