ochre restaurant

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 pepper crocodile nprawns- crocodile over-cooked making it too tough and chewy.prawnswere 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 leaf crocodile &prawnsand wattleseed pavlova. the crocodile &prawnswere 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.

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 leaf crocodile &prawnsfor 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.

we went to ochre as a group of 12 for a birthday celebration the setting was great and the wait service was very friendly and attentive . unfortunately the food let it down badly. the entrees were good and tasty but overpriced for the very small portion that you receive . the main meals that we had were very disappointing, my wife's pasta dish was dry and rubbery with over cooked clams andprawns. my main was terrible the seafood was all very overcooked and the laksa sauce was almost tasteless obviously who ever made this sauce has no idea what laksa should taste like and with tough rice noodles the dish was not nice at all. the calamari dish was stone cold .my son inlaw had the $44 steak which was about 1/2 the size of a tennis ball and was gone in 2 bites neadless to say he was still very hungry when he had finished. for the quite expensive prices the food was very disappointing and i would not go back again.
dave

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 had crocodile andprawnswith vietnamese pickled salad that was inedible by itself but mixed nicely with the prawns. crocodile was 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.

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 of crocodile and prawns, theprawnswere good with the right flavours. the crocodile was 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!

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 estuarine crocodile count 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, crocodile wanton, 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 the crocodile andprawnsin a native pepper seed batter with pickled veg and sambal. i do have to say the crocodile was 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.