ochre restaurant

nov2020. went here for a weekend dinner with the partner after making an online reservation ahead of time.
we chose one 3x course set meal (entree, main and dessert) for $72 as well as choosing two more items from al a carte. medium and large plates are considered as mains. we tried the crispy pork and scallops, and sashimi of the day (salmon, tuna) to start, which were delicate and fresh. for mains, we chose thecrocodileand prawns, and seared emu. both were delicious, a nice experience of more unusual australian cuisine. for dessert, we enjotyed the deconstructed banoffee pie.
casual ambience with indoor and ourdoor seating overlooking the water. efficient and friendly service. reasonable services.
overall, a better dining experience than previously.
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aug2019. made a weekend dinner reservation here for one during a trip to cairns.
happily sipped on a fun, cheeky cocktail whilst perusing the menu. chose to order the 'salt and native peppercrocodileand prawns', and then the 'quandong brulee' for dessert. nice hint of flavours, although portions appeared small for price and missed potential of highlighting the lovely native ingredients.
smart casual ambience with indoor and outdoor (along the esplanade) seating available. friendly and efficient service. prices on higher end.
overall, an interesting concept (introduction to native australian foods), however just missing the mark for execution.

3.9 stars for the male server who was absolutely amazing and 0.1 star for the scallops and pork belly.

australian platter - boring, mild flavours, no foodgasm here.

scallops and pork belly - scallops were tiny, sauce was great, pork belly was like fatty heaven.

mackerel sugar cane sticks - the older, meaner cousin of sugar cane prawns. again, no fireworks in my mouth, just boring old flavours. sugar cane was flavourless which is a shame because they should still have a tinge of a sweetness to them no matter how you cook it.

salt n pepper quail - good flavour but overly salty.

tempura bugs - mushy, seemed frozen or pre-cooked before fried.

salt n peppercrocodilen prawns -crocodileover-cooked making it too tough and chewy. prawns were okay. flavour was acceptable.

we didn’t end up finishing our food in the end because of how disappointed we were, given the great google reviews. our waiter noticed this and asked us if everything was okay; i said “yes, we’re just too full”, i didn’t want to disappoint him because he seemed so passionate about his job. all in all, please do visit if you have alot of extra money lying around.

ochre is 1 of a few rare restaurants that features australian bushfood and native ingredients on their menu so i was definitely keen for a visit. i decided to go for salt & pepper leafcrocodile& prawns and wattleseed pavlova. thecrocodile& prawns were great but the batter was sooo salty, although the pickles and lemon aspen sambal were able to tone it down a little bit. when i mentioned how salty it was the waitress explained that due to the nature of the native ingredients, it tasted indeed more powerful. the pavlova came out looking like a swiss roll but tasted like a pav! the wattleseed cream has a nutty taste to it and i'm glad the davidson plum was there to give it a different contrast and texture, otherwise the whole thing would have been very sweet. all in all it was a great experience, my waitress karly was super friendly and approachable. there are plenty of other things on the menu that i would definitely come back and try next time.

delicious food and exceptional service from staff.

favorite light lunch meal was thecrocodilespring rolls, and quongdong brûlée was devine.

came to try this place as it was heavily advertised. we had the 3 course tasting menu.
had the tempura gulf bugs and salt & native pepper leafcrocodile& prawns for entrée. they were both delightful. for mains morganbury pork fillet and sirloin..... had asked for the sirloin to be medium done. it was overcooked, once i notified the staff they brought around another ( it was different in presentation aswell) again it was overcooked and tough to cut through, i couldn't eat it and my partner was happy to eat a 2nd main. and then for dessert we had mango delice and quandong brûlée. again both fantastic desserts.
besides the little main hiccup on the main the rest of the meal was great, staff pleasant and attentive.

very disappointed with our meal. miss 6 had the best meal of all which was crispy chicken, chips and salad. my dh had surf and turf with a sauce that ruined the whole meal and it was so bad he couldn't finish it. i hadcrocodileand prawns with vietnamese pickled salad that was inedible by itself but mixed nicely with the prawns.crocodilewas very chewy. the child's meal and my pina colada' was the only thing that made the evening ok. the young male waiter was nice, especially with helping us being heckled by local resident. sorry but won't be returning.

wonderful service, wonderful food! as we were at the tail end of our cairns holiday, thus limiting our funds, we used our i-venture card as payment. due to this the menu choices were meant to be limited to either thecrocodileand prawn or kangaroo. as my qife doesn't eat either of these the staff were very accomodating and allowed her to order the twice cooked chicken instead. myself and 2 friends ordered thecrocodileand all 4 of us left the restaurant extremely satisfied with our choices, and the chef's expert use of australian native products.

highly recommend! and will return. ocre has joined many other attractions of fnq in forming part of our love affair with cairns. can't wait to return to cairns and can't wait to sample a wider variety of the chef's wares!

while holidaying up in cairns for the week, my boyfriend and i decided to treat ourselves to a fancy australian meal.
our waitress was wonderful she made the whole experience so much better for us.
first up was the tempura mortem bay bugs... this one was a total wildcard we were not sure what we where getting ourselves into.
it was so juicy and tasted somewhat like crab we where pleasantly surprised with this dish.
next we shared a plate of wallaby ... it was amazing, it was cooked to perfection and the accompanying sauce and salad complemented the dish perfectly.
last off we shared a plate ofcrocodileand prawns, the prawns were good with the right flavours. thecrocodilewas beautiful but probably my least favourite dish as it lacked a little flavour.

overall this restaurant was great, but a little but on the expensive side for 2 students on a budget holiday, in total we paid $130 including a beer and lychee cocktail!

ochre restaurant is pretty average. i've been here many times with work and the food is ok, but pretty average service.

it's mostly good if your a tourist that would like to try kangaroo, emu,crocodileetc!

they do a lot of large groups squished into a very small area. often is very hot inside as there a/c is not up to it.

i chose this restaurant for my birthday meal as i wanted to try some of the more exotic australian meats. we booked a table via their website and the restaurant was mostly empty when we arrived, it soon filled.
for starters we had -
australian antipasto salmon beetroot gravlax, kangaroo terrine – kakadu plum, emu carpaccio – green ant salsa verde, smokedcrocodile– riberry mayo, lemon aspen fresh fried cheese
it was great to try. miss12 was partial to the smoked crocodile!
for my main i had wallaby topside (even though i had patted one that very day) , it was good and the meat was plentiful. my husband had the char grilled kangaroo sirloin , he enjoyed the experience.
we enjoyed the evening and would recommend the experience.

this is how australian restaurants should be. from the moment we arrived, the staff were attentive and pleasant without being intrusive, pretty unusual in popular aussie restaurants. the menu is full of interesting local food options with several dining choices, from tasting plates to degustation, 2 and 3 course set menus and a la carte. very handy when considering how you want your emu, crocodile, roo or seafood served. and the question - does estuarinecrocodilecount as seafood?

we sampled the wattle seed damper bread and local dukka with a bottle of fizzy (an o'leary walker hurtle) to start, whilst we lingered over the substantial menu. we had both tasting platters of australian antipasto (thai roo,crocodilewanton, ocean trout with green ant gravlax, emu and finger lime labnah) and seafood compilation (spiced calalmari, pippi's in coconut and myrtle tom yum, oysters natural, with bloody mary pearls, and tiger prawns). both dishes were wonderfully presented, explained by our enthusiastic and passionate server. for mains, we had the fish of the day - wide mouth nannygai with a red curry sauce and i had thecrocodileand prawns in a native pepper seed batter with pickled veg and sambal. i do have to say thecrocodilewas a bit chewy - and i put this down to the nature of crocodiles, though everything was gorgeously presented. it was a surprise to meet staff who were really passionate and knowledgeable about ingredients (including where the chef shops) and the food they served.

the wine list was wide and reasonably priced. which pleased my hubby, so we had multiple bottles.

we finished with a quandong creme brûlée, mainly because i had no idea what a quandong was! very nice, but quandongs are hard to some by apparently, so won't be using many at home.

all in all, this was an excellent meal, the location is a rather a nondescript corner in the cbd but the outdoor seating is not affected by this as cairns traffic seems fairly light.

this is what i expect from a highly rated restaurant in australia and, i was pleased to see other patrons enjoying the level of service and surprise at the fare that i felt. we'll be back as soon as we can.

we had the australian platter for two, which included a wattleseed damper, entree of prawns,crocodile& antipasto platter of emu, wontons etc. main was kangaroo and wallaby with sweet potato fries and buckchoy. dessert was wattleseed & hazelnut pavolva. the food was amazing, service great, but by the end we were too full!