Description: Barnacle Bills is an excellent seafood indoor/outdoor restaurant well established and recognised in Cairns. We were recommended to dine there and had a great time. Having enjoyed a great day of exploring up the coast, we had cocktails at the Hilton (the pilots at the next table were sharing a horrific story of a troublesome engine problem on approach to Cairns) and just wandered across expecting a table outside to be available. Uh oh, Saturday night and nothing. Pulling some strings by dropping the name of a regular the maitre d' Tony waved some magic and we got a prime position table.
The menu is traditional seafood. We shared a dozen oysters. I ordered blackened coral trout -- heavenly -- and he ordered a freshly caught mud crab in chilli and ginger sauce -- what a feast!! Fully licenced with a small but well- selected winelist, a bottle of Petaluma Chardonnay was a perfect accompaniment. On the bottom of the menu, is written "Dining without a glass of wine is like rising on a day a day where the sun does not rise." For dessert we shared a typical Aussie Pavlova, expresso with Tia Maria and Cream.
Tony and his staff are very good and attentive. There was a slight slowness in service which we felt could have been resolved with additional staff. There was a queue of at least 6-8 people waiting for a table, constantly changing for the 3 hours we dined there. Patrons were from all countries of the world, especailly Asian, English and American.
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