yehlo

We are spending New Year's Eve 2005 in Port Douglas and would like to book a good restaurant for the evening now. Any recommendations would be great! We both love seafood, well all food is fine although I don't eat red meat so perhaps not a steak house!

pat_woolford

Well, Nautilus is the Port Douglas restuarant icon, been established for years - Bill Clinton ate there several times. Lovely position set in natural rainforest just a bit up the hill from centre of Port Douglas.

Also like Sassi's Cucina, pleasant position opposite road from inlet, chili mud crabs are sensational.

myaustralia

Couldn't agree more with Pat, Nautilus is a must (book ahead!!). The setting is spectacular and the food is great.

yehlo

Thanks for these however I think they are a bit fancy and expensive for us! Are there any cheaper places?

Tassietwister

yehlo

Port can be a bit overpriced. We actually faced the same problem ourselves on our last trip to Port. Wasn't a major holiday though!

We tried to get into the club because we loved the setting the last time we were there, but no seats were available on the balcony and inside its a bit boring. I must say though I am not really into clubs but they high on my list of favourite places in FNQ. Yorkey's Knob Boating club I just love! Anyways getting away from the subject.

We actually ended up going to the seafood suppliers across the road from the rear of Coles (parallel to Macrossan Street) and buying some goodies there then some cooked seafood from the fish and chip shop and had a feast on our balcony nestled in the trees.

Otherwise there were some restaurants along the main road that served seafood platters etc. A number of the them.

Also I think Breakfast with Birds does Dinner with animals now. They serve tons of food so you would not go hungry!

pat_woolford

You're not wrong Tassietwister, PD is pricy,especially the two I mentioned.

Yorkey's is pretty good value but now that Tom Hedley, developer extraordinaire, owns the restaurant part am not that keen on giving him my money.

yehlo, Courthouse Hotel in PD serves pretty nice food at reasonable price in quite attractive surroundings, but don't know what its arrangements are for this NYE.

pat_woolford

sorry if that confused you yehlo, Yorkey's Knob Yacht club is nowhere near PD, not for dinner, anyway.

ChrisS

We had two good dinners at Mango Jam on the main drag while in Port D.

myaustralia

There was another very popular restaurant in Port, right on the water called 'On the Inlet'. Not sure if it still exists. Pat, do you know??

yehlo

Thanks everyone for your help. I found one also on the internet called Zinc, any feedback on that? The mains appear to me in the mid $20 range which we can probably scrape to - is NYE after all I guess!

ishki

I was recently in Port Douglas and have been to most of the restaurants mentioned. Nautilus was beautiful, and the service was great, but I was a little disappointed in the food. My chocolate fondant was more like a cake without the gooey centre. For the prices they charge, they should get that right! Mango Jam was another favourite of ours - fabulous for breakfast too and very busy at night. On the Inlet was my favourite of all. What we liked to do was get there about 3.30 and have a few of their fantastic cocktails and around 4.00 or so the boats pass right by the deck returning from their Reef trips. The food is great and you can have snacks if you don't want to hang around till dinner time. For a much lower key experience, the Services Club has the same outlook from the deck, but without the glitzy cocktails and smart food.

pat_woolford

Sorry to hear your fondant wasn't up to scratch at Nautilus, I guess every restaurant has its "off" nights. I do have to say that I've never been impressed with food at Mango Jam, both in its PD and Cairns outlets, but maybe that was also because of "off" nights.