Cairns food is where two things Australia does best come together: fresh seafood from the Coral Sea and tropical fruit from Queensland orchards so sweet it's almost embarrassing. Barramundi, which Aboriginal people have caught here for tens of thousands of years, is now on the menu at every place in town, and the Kensington Pride mangoes from farms on the Atherton Tablelands may be the best you'll ever eat in your life.
#1 Barramundi
The fish that symbolizes northern Australia, living in both fresh and salt water, caught and eaten by Aboriginal people for tens of thousands of years. The flesh is pale, firm and mildly sweet with no fishy edge, and takes equally well to grilling or frying. Cairns is one of the towns where you'll eat the freshest barra in Australia, because the fish are caught in nearby rivers and estuaries with no long transport involved, so the flavour is noticeably different from what you get in Sydney.
- Order the barra grilled with lemon and fresh herbs rather than battered and fried, so the flavour of the fish comes through more clearly.
- Rusty's Markets on Saturday mornings has fresh fish sold straight from local fishers, much cheaper than restaurants.
- Farmed barramundi is a little milder than wild fish; a good restaurant will be able to tell you where its fish comes from.
#2 Moreton Bay Bug
A flat slipper lobster found only in Australian waters and sold nowhere else in the world. The flesh is sweet and tender, much like ordinary lobster but far cheaper. It's usually grilled in the half-shell with butter and garlic, or tossed through pasta with cream. In Cairns you'll find it at the fish market and at seafood restaurants everywhere, around 30-40 percent cheaper than in Sydney because it's caught close to town.
- Order it grilled half so you can see and taste the flesh at its clearest, with minimal seasoning.
- Rusty's Markets sells it fresh every Saturday and Sunday morning; buy it fresh and grill it back at your accommodation if your room has a kitchen.
- Some places call the Moreton Bay bug a bay lobster or flathead lobster; it's the same thing.
#3 Queensland Mango
Queensland is Australia's number-one mango-growing state, and the mangoes from farms on the Atherton Tablelands, just 80 kilometres from Cairns, are the best in the country. The main variety is Kensington Pride (Bowen Mango), with fresh yellow flesh that's deeply fragrant and sweet and not stringy; there's also R2E2, firm and juicy, and Honey Gold, soft and very sweet. Eat them fresh or blended into a smoothie at the morning markets.
- The best mangoes are sold in season, October to January; out of season the quality drops a lot.
- Rusty's Markets on Friday, Saturday and Sunday mornings has fresh mangoes straight from the farm, much cheaper than the supermarket.
- Order a mango smoothie at the Night Markets for a very good, inexpensive snack.
#4 Australian Meat Pie
An Australian favourite sold everywhere from tiny roadside bakeries to sports stadiums. Golden crisp puff pastry wraps a filling of braised beef with onion and gravy, and at 5-8 AUD it's the quick bite people in Cairns eat at any meal. A good pie in Cairns usually uses beef from Queensland farms, which is fragrant and not bland like frozen meat. Eating it hot with tomato sauce is considered proper Aussie manners.
- Eat it hot, straight out of the oven; a cold pie tastes noticeably worse.
- Bakeries that open before 7 a.m. usually have fresh pies made each morning; a place that bakes its own will have the smell of butter drifting out front.
- Try a pepper steak pie, with more black pepper than usual and a much richer flavour than the classic pie.
#5 Tropical Fruits
The Atherton Tablelands, just an hour and a half from Cairns, is the source of Australia's best tropical fruit. Fruit worth trying includes passionfruit with thick sweet-tart flesh, jackfruit weighing several kilos, Australian durian that smells far milder than the Thai kind, big buttery avocados, and yellow starfruit that's crisp and sweet. You'll find all of it at Rusty's Markets every weekend morning at very low prices.
- A ripe Queensland passionfruit will have slightly wrinkled skin; that's the sign it's sweetest and juiciest.
- Farms in Yungaburra on the tablelands run fruit-tasting tours where you sample fruit straight from the tree — ideal if you're already heading up to the tablelands.
- Fresh passionfruit juice at 5-7 AUD in the markets is better and cheaper than carton juice from the supermarket.
#6 Pavlova
A classic dessert that Australia and New Zealand both claim as their own, but in Cairns the pavlova is more special than elsewhere because it uses local tropical fruit. The meringue is crisp outside and soft within, topped with fresh whipped cream and decorated with passionfruit, mango and fresh papaya from nearby farms. The sweetness of the meringue plays against the fresh tartness of the tropical fruit far better than a standard berry pavlova.
- Ask whether the cafe makes its own meringue or buys it ready-made; a place that makes its own is usually proud to say so.
- Cairns pavlova tastes best on the day it's made; don't buy it to keep overnight, as the meringue goes soft.
- The passionfruit on top is what sets a Queensland pavlova apart from the Sydney version — don't pick a place that uses only berries.
Where to stay in Cairns for this trip
A well-located hotel means less commuting and more sightseeing. Here are real, top-rated stays in Cairns — compare Agoda · Booking · Trip.com in one click.
Pullman Reef Hotel Casino
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Shangri-La The Marina, Cairns
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Cairns Central YHA
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DoubleTree by Hilton Cairns
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Tours, tickets & activities in Cairns
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Before You Pack
Most of the good food in Cairns is in the Night Markets on the Esplanade, the fish-and-chip shops along the marina, and local restaurants that have been open for decades. Prices are a little higher than in Australia's big cities because so much has to be trucked up from the south, but the fresh seafood here is much cheaper than in Sydney or Melbourne.