FNQ Food Magazine

25/09/2025

Congratulations to Prawn Star Cairns on receiving a Tripadvisor Travellers’ Choice™ Award 2025! 🎉

We’ve just snagged a Tripadvisor Travellers’ Choice™ Award 2025! 🎉
A massive thank you to our amazing crew and all of you legends who’ve supported us—this one’s for you! 💛
www.prawnstarcairns.com

24/09/2025

✨ Splash Seafood Restaurant: Staying True at 23 ✨

For more than two decades, Malcolm and Megan McKay have steered Splash Seafood Restaurant on the Cairns Esplanade with a clear philosophy: keep it simple, keep it local, and keep it real. 🐟🍤

From wild-caught seafood to generations of loyal diners, they’ve built more than a restaurant — they’ve built a community.

Discover how Splash continues to thrive in a changing dining landscape, staying true to its roots while serving some of the freshest plates in Far North Queensland. 🌊

👉 Read the full story here: https://www.fnqfood.com.au/index.php/2025/09/21/splash-seafood-restaurant-staying-true-at-23/

20/09/2025

🌴 Editor Eats: Beach Almond 🌴

Set just across from the sand, Beach Almond Palm Cove is a restaurant with its feet firmly in Palm Cove and its flavours reaching across Asia. Chef-owner Brian Holding brings together decades of experience from Malaysia, Indonesia and Thailand, crafting a menu that’s both coastal and cosmopolitan.

Think:
🐟 Whole reef fish, steamed and served with aromatic zest
🥩 Beef Rendang, slow-cooked to deep, spiced perfection
🌶️ Dishes that balance brightness, fire and soul

It’s a dining experience to discover - where reef and beef hit the beach — and Palm Cove shines all the brighter for it.

📖 Read the full review by David Leith, Editor - FNQ Food Magazine here:
🔗 https://www.fnqfood.com.au/index.php/2025/09/20/editor-eats-beach-almond-palm-cove/)

19/09/2025

Will Doug even need ID to buy a gin once the beard’s gone? 🤔🍸 Come see for yourself as the beard comes off — all in support of North Queensland Animal Rescue. 🐾 Join the fun (and the shave) at Narrow Tracks Distilling, Sunday 28 Sept, 1–7pm.
& booze!

Bec thinks it's time for Doug to shave the beard off.........What do you think??????? Place your vote and donate to North Queensland Animal Rescue. We'll be donating 10% of all sales next Sunday.
With the help of Eagle Tamer Barbershop, supporting North Qld Animal Rescue Inc.

19/09/2025

Black bread, bright idea. Harrison’s coconut ash loaf is equal parts showstopper and comfort food — the kind of opening act that makes you wonder how the encore could possibly top it. Spoiler: you’ll have to book a table to find out!

17/09/2025

🍤✨ Food, family & fun at the Prawn Star Barron River Food Festival!

FNQ Food Magazine is proud to support the Prawn Star Barron River Food Festival, happening Saturday, September 27 from 4–9 PM.

Enjoy a feast of flavours from local food trucks, live music, and plenty of family entertainment — from jumping castles to mini golf and even a petting zoo! 🎶👨‍👩‍👧‍👦

🎟 Entry is just $5 (kids under 12 free).

👉 Don’t miss this vibrant community celebration of food and local culture!

17/09/2025

Looking for one of Cairns’ true seafood institutions? Splash Seafood on the Esplanade has long been celebrated for plating up the very best of FNQ’s catch, fresh from our waters.
Expect classic seafood done properly, with just the right touch of modern flair. Attentive service, a relaxed tropical setting, and a menu that lets local ingredients shine — this is Cairns dining at its most authentic and rewarding.

15/09/2025

🍝 Passion on a plate! Cairns’ Pist4cchi is where Italian heart meets FNQ flavour. 🇮🇹

Step through the doors and you’re instantly swept into Italy – no passport required. Think pasta being hand-rolled midweek (yes, you can actually watch it happen), a wine list so hefty it could double as a workout, and flavours that feel like they’ve been passed down through generations.

This is more than dinner. It’s theatre, it’s family, it’s the kind of food that makes you want to linger a little longer at the table. From melt-in-your-mouth lamb shoulder made for sharing, to tortellini arriving fresh from the chef’s hands – every plate tells a story of heritage and heart.

If you haven’t yet pulled up a chair at Pistacchi, consider this your sign.

👉 Read the full story: https://www.fnqfood.com.au/index.php/2025/09/15/pist4cchi-made-by-italians-fed-by-passion-2/

Pist4cchi: Made by Italians. Fed by Passion.

11/09/2025

EDITOR EATS: RISE & BAKE, SMITHFIELD

This week, our editor hits mall food and discovers... a breakfast diplomacy masterstroke.

"Here’s a dish that could have ended in tears of diplomatic incident but somehow works a treat. Rise & Bake’s breakfast crêpe is the perfect distillation of the full English fry-up and France’s peculiar penchant for serving everything on neat little discs. On one side: bacon, mushrooms, spinach, tomato, and an egg yolk bright enough to rival the Cairns sun. On the other: buckwheat folded with a precision that suggests borders were drawn in the kitchen, not Versailles. A ramekin of hollandaise sits like a smug ambassador, binding it all together.

What makes it remarkable is not its novelty—God knows we’ve all eaten bacon and eggs before—but the way it’s organised. There’s no slop, no sprawl. Every ingredient sits in its own jurisdiction, flavour crossing borders only when invited. It’s a plate that feels both French in its order and English in its brute force, a treaty on toast if you like.

And here’s the kicker: this isn’t a laneway café in Paris, it’s Smithfield Shopping Centre. A place better known for escalator muzak and hurried flat whites. Yet here, tucked in a corner, is a crêpe that turns mall dining into something bordering on elegant.

Verdict: A breakfast worth defecting for.

David Leith, Editor - FNQ Food.

09/09/2025

An evening of cuisine not to be missed fans

08/09/2025

🍸Narrow Tracks Distillery: Where the Spirit of FNQ Is Served in a Glass

In Cairns’ backstreets, an industrial shed has quietly become the go-to destination for handcrafted spirit lovers and laid-back locals alike. Behind every barrel and cocktail are Bec Zammit and Doug Thorpe, the passionate duo who transformed their modest distillery into a vibrant community hub—where gin, cane-juice rum, smoky BBQ, and live tunes capture the soul of Tropical North Queensland.

Dive into the Narrow Tracks Distilling story and sip the spirit of FNQ with us in FNQ Food Magazine: https://www.fnqfood.com.au/index.php/2025/09/07/narrow-tracks-distillery-where-the-spirit-of-fnq-is-served-in-a-glass/