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Typically, restaurants on Barrier Reef islands are part of each island's main resort, so many resorts' rates include some or all meals. Some larger resorts have a range of restaurants, with formal dining rooms, outdoor barbecues, and seafood buffets; some have premium dining options for which you pay extra. Dress is generally "island casual." Some upscale restaurants—such as those on Hayman Island—require men to wear jackets for dinner and frown on flip-flop sandals. On the mainland you'll find plenty of casual, open-air restaurants, serving mainly Modern Australian–style meals that showcase seafood and regional produce. With a few notable exceptions, Cairns, Palm Cove, and Port Douglas are your best bets for upscale dining.
Head to the ritzy Hamilton Island Yacht Club for a truly special dining experience at this upmarket noshery, which has sensational views over the Whitsundays through its floor-to-ceiling windows. Try a bit of everything with its degustation menu, available on weekend nights, or choose from the three-course sample menu from Wednesday to Friday.
This breezy, upscale eatery turns the local catch into fresh contemporary dishes: freshly shucked oysters, kingfish sashimi, and butter-roasted Moreton Bay bugs, all artfully plated. You can also get vegetarian and nonseafood options, and wine from a bar stocked mainly with midprice Antipodean vintages. Book a balcony table and watch yachts dock as you dine.
Dine on a deck surrounded by rain forest at this enchanting outdoor restaurant, which opened in 1954 and is still going strong. The regularly changing degustation menu has a focus on Modern Australian cuisine, with Asian and European influences, and matching wines. When it rains, a nifty retractable canopy keeps diners from ducking for cover.
