The must-visit restaurants in Port Douglas revealed

Ask any regular visitor to the Far North Queensland holiday town of Port Douglas for advice on eating out, and they’ll likely tell you to book your restaurants when you book your flights.

During peak times such as Christmas and the winter holiday season, it’s notoriously hard to secure a table unless you strike it lucky with a cancellation or know the chef.

The Australian Good Food Guide’s Chef Hat awards use a points-based system to honour restaurants with one, two or three hats, a respected marker in the absence of Michelin stars.

In Port Douglas, six restaurants appear in the 2025 Guide, four of them within a short stroll of one another.

Not bad for a small tropical outpost with a permanent population of just 3650.

And yes, you can still wear thongs. (Your good thongs, obviously.)

Jungle Fowl

This colourful venue serves modern, Thai-inspired, farm-to-table cuisine and has this year won restaurateurs Rachael Boon and Ben Wallace their third consecutive Chef Hat award.

There’s a strong emphasis on local produce, with most ingredients grown on their four-acre farm at Oak Beach, where chickens (jungle fowl) roam among the lemongrass, galangal and betel leaf.

Expect prawn betel leaf as part of the Seasonal Thai Banquet, alongside chilli squid salad and black pepper Angus beef.

Harrisons

The flagship restaurant at the Sheraton Grand Mirage is helmed by Chef Spencer Patrick, who trained under Marco Pierre White.

It is billed as Port Douglas’s most nationally awarded restaurant. The setting is old-world glamour with chandeliers, gilded busts and lagoon views; the cuisine contemporary.

Australian with reimagined English classics infused with North Queensland flavours. The set menu tells this story through line-caught chargrilled squid, baked oysters and duck fat Brussels sprouts.

Osprey’s

Located at a resort about ten minutes south of town, Osprey’s is perched in the treetops with views of rainforest-clad mountains and the sparkling Coral Sea.

Chef Krisztian Borbas presents a seasonal menu inspired by the tropics, featuring Moreton Bay bug with vanilla butter, spicy duck leg with red curry and slow-roasted pork belly with fried scallop wontons.

Melaleuca

Opposite the picturesque St Mary’s by the Sea, this open-air eatery is run by English-born chef Adam Ion and his Korean-born wife, Namhee.

The modern Australian menu, with clear Asian influences, features soft-shell mudcrab with green pawpaw Thai salad, and pan-seared Daintree barramundi for seafood lovers; flame-grilled beef tataki and slow-braised beef cheek for meat-eaters.

With its deck built around the trunk of a fairy-lit mango tree, it’s one of Port’s prettiest dining spots.

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NSW schools, gyms, 000 services and the public are being called on to lace up for Steps for the Love of Living, a four-day, 200km walk from Newcastle to Penrith held in honour of World Suicide Prevention Day.

The walk will draw star power as well as solidarity: legendary MMA fighter and former WIBA and WBF world champion boxer Arlene Blencowe, known as “The Aussie Girl ‘Angerfist'” and a respected youth mentor, will join the walk’s final leg from Parramatta to Penrith.

She’ll be joined by five-time Olympian and diving icon Melissa Wu, Ambassador for the Step Into Action Foundation.

The walk runs from September 10 to 13, beginning on World Suicide Prevention Day itself, and starts at Newcastle’s McDonald Jones Stadium before finishing at Penrith Showground.

It’s a joint initiative between The Australian Man Cave Support Group Inc and the Step Into Action Foundation, two organisations working on the frontline of suicide prevention in NSW.

The Australian Man Cave provides a safe, non-judgmental space for men to speak openly, with a focus on reducing the rate of male suicide, while Step Into Action concentrates on youth suicide prevention through resilience-building and early-intervention programs.

This year’s event also features a friendly inter-service challenge between NSW Police, NSW Ambulance, Fire & Rescue NSW, SES, Surf Life Saving NSW and the Rural Fire Service, who’ll compete to walk the furthest and raise the most for suicide-prevention initiatives.

“This walk is about hope, connection, and standing together,” said Lou Greco, President and Co-Founder of The Australian Man Cave Support Group Inc. “Every step taken is a step toward saving a life.”

Leading the charge is Chris Barton, Founder of the Step Into Action Foundation and a long-distance walking adventurer, who is taking on the full 200km route.

He’ll be joined for part of the way by the “Bakery Brothers”, Tyson Pedro and Rama Pattison, who are trading in punches and pastries for kilometres, walking the full distance alongside Chris.

How to get involved

The event is open to everyone, not just those able to walk the full distance. Participants can:

Walk the full 200km from Newcastle to Penrith
Join for a single day or section of the route
Take part virtually from anywhere in Australia — at school, the gym, work or in the local community, logging kilometres through walking, running, rowing, cycling or treadmill sessions

000 services can enter as teams for the inter-service challenge, and schools and gyms are encouraged to form their own teams to complete the distance collectively.

Funds raised will go towards mental health first aid training, crisis response support, community outreach programs, support services for at-risk men and families, and youth suicide awareness and prevention programs.

Suicide remains one of the leading causes of death among Australian men and young people. Both organisations say the walk is about ensuring no one feels alone in their struggle.

To register or find out more, visit stepsforloveofliving.com.au.

This is a sensitive topic. If this raises any issues for you, Lifeline is available on 13 11 14.