Content may contain affiliate links.
Best Pubs and Bars in Port Douglas
Port Douglas is well-blessed with pubs and bars and most of them serve food. In Australia, you may see a pub called a “hotel”. The Central Hotel and Court House Hotel are two such examples in Port Douglas. There is also an Irish pub and some nice cocktail bars, we even have a tropical microbrewery and a sports bar.
If you’d like to quench your thirst and enjoy lunch or dinner at one of Port Douglas’s great pubs or bars, you need this guide! In Australia pubs are very family-friendly early in the evenings, it’s not at all unusual for families with kids to dine at pubs. Some pubs even serve breakfast!
We’ll also mention a few nice pubs for you to visit a short drive from Port Douglas, maybe for a Sunday lunch or to see live Australian music.
Best Pub Food in Port Douglas
What you consider to be the best pub food in Port Douglas, depends on you, your wants and your expectations. We’ll give you a quick guide to the best pub food here, for different types of diners and give you links to their menus so that you can decide which pub is best for your lunch or dinner.
If you’re looking for pub classics like a parmie, nachos, fish tacos, fish and chips, or a selection of specials, you can’t go past the Court House Hotel. This is my family’s favourite pub food in Port Douglas. The Court House is on the corner of Wharf St and Macrossan St with views across the market grounds, and serves pub meals for lunch and dinner, 11.30 am to 3 pm and 5 pm to 8.30 pm. Check their website for any changes to the menu or serving times (here). The Court House sometimes has live music.
See the Courthouse Menu here. The Court House is one of the places in Port Douglas where you can usually feast on a bucket of prawns.
If you like a pub with a long burger menu, N17, on Macrossan St has every type of burger you can imagine, made with good local Australian beef. N17 is a sports bar, and in summer they have aircon indoors plus pavement dining. Aircon is a big bonus!
N17 is open 7 days a week, check the N17 menu here. They also serve takeaway food.
If you’d like views of the marina with your pub food, try Hemmingway’s Brewery right on the deck at the Crystalbrook Superyacht Marina. Hemmingways has been closed on Mondays and Tuesdays lately. As the wet season subsides, they’ll start opening more frequently. Hemmingway’s has an upstairs section with aircon in season and a slightly different menu.
The Hemmingway’s menu is here.
Those are our top 3 pub food recommendations in Port Douglas, but we’d also like to give a shout-out to a few pubs near Port Douglas.
Pubs Near Port Douglas
The Julatten Hotel (in Julatten), they have a huge deck for pub meals with specials and live music, and The National Hotel in MT Molloy for a more traditional old-school Aussie pub. They do good steaks and burgers, pub style. Both are a 40 min+ drive up to the Tablelands from Port Douglas via the Rex Range Rd.
Update, June 2024, we ate at the Mt Molloy pub and the food was terrible. New chef, a change in ownership? I don’t know. But it was almost inedible. It’s sad. The food here used to be great It’s still a lovely pub but the food, to us, has gone downhill.
The Julatten Hotel menu is here they also do specials, sometimes vegetarian. The National Hotel menu doesn’t seem to be online, but they used to do good steaks, burgers, fish and chips and all the usual Australian pub meals.
Those are our top recommendations for pub food in Port Douglas, (and nearby) and those are the pubs you’ll find us eating at most often. We will expand this post to cover all Port Douglas pubs and menus in time.
