Port on a Plate
Port on a Plate
5
This location was reported permanently closed
Full view
About
A half day chef guided food tour of the Port Douglas region, collecting fresh produce from local farms for a delicious lunch. Sample chocolate and learn about cane, cocoa and fish farming. Finish with a tropical fruit wine tasting and a three course BBQ lunch starring Australian Barramundi. A new tour, perfect for people who love to try something unique. Small groups of no more than 8 people keeps the experience personal. Farm and cellar door sales available. Not a fan of fish? We also cater for vegetarians.
Travellers talk about
(7 reviews)
(2 reviews)
(2 reviews)
Contribute
Detailed Reviews: Reviews order informed by descriptiveness of user-identified themes such as cleanliness, atmosphere, general tips and location information.
Popular mentions
We perform checks on reviews.
Tripadvisor’s approach to reviews
Before posting, each Tripadvisor review goes through an automated tracking system, which collects information, answering the following questions: how, what, where and when. If the system detects something that potentially contradicts our community guidelines, the review is not published.
When the system detects a problem, a review may be automatically rejected, sent to the reviewer for validation, or manually reviewed by our team of content specialists, who work 24/7 to maintain the quality of the reviews on our site.
Our team checks each review posted on the site disputed by our community as not meeting our community guidelines.
Learn more about our review moderation.
5.0
69 reviews
Excellent
68
Very good
1
Average
0
Poor
0
Terrible
0
Lynda H
3 contributions
We have had just the best time today. Peter was an amazing guide, very knowledgeable regarding area, produce etc. The food was amazing. We visited a local farm which had fabulous produce to buy. The barramundi farm was very informative and the Barra was amazing to eat. Followed by tropical fruit wine tasting which was also interesting. Finally was the Daintree ice cream it was delicious. Would recommend this half day trip especially for small groups.
Written 24 September 2022
This review is the subjective opinion of a Tripadvisor member and not of Tripadvisor LLC. Tripadvisor performs checks on reviews as part of our industry-leading trust & safety standards. Read our transparency report to learn more.
Mark A
2 contributions
Sep. 2022
Excellent tour from an accomplished chef with a huge amount of local knowledge. Petes passion for what he does came through the entire tour. The tour pace is pretty relaxed but also with lots of info and history given. Lunch was spectacular and delicious. A highly enjoyable day.
Written 23 September 2022
This review is the subjective opinion of a Tripadvisor member and not of Tripadvisor LLC. Tripadvisor performs checks on reviews as part of our industry-leading trust & safety standards. Read our transparency report to learn more.
Tistru
Melbourne, Australia624 contributions
Sep. 2022 • Couples
Had one of the best experiences for a long time. This tour is a must and you get to see so much and it is not one of those long day tours. Peter our guide and chef is so knowledgeable and has a wealth of information about the areas we visited and was more than happy to answer many of the questions we asked. Fresh and tasty food, in fact the barramundi was perfect. The fresh produce store has a wide variety of products so if you are going on this tour don’t buy any fruit or veggies at Coles as the produce is fresher and cheaper. And if you can get your hands on the sugar cane juice buy some. The fruit wine is certainly different, so taste it with an open mind. I would recommend the kaffir lime fortified wine. And to finish it off was some smooth, velvety ice cream. This was a true tropical delight and we loved every minute of it. Thank you Peter for a wonderful tour.
Written 23 September 2022
This review is the subjective opinion of a Tripadvisor member and not of Tripadvisor LLC. Tripadvisor performs checks on reviews as part of our industry-leading trust & safety standards. Read our transparency report to learn more.
audreydarrell
Ballarat, Australia1 contribution
Aug. 2022
We had a fantastic time on this tour. Peter was an awesome guide and full of lots of local knowledge. He was very accommodating and made our day so much fun. Plus, he’s a fantastic chef! The food was delicious and so fresh. He made everyone feel relaxed and ready to have a great time. Highly recommended.
Written 11 September 2022
This review is the subjective opinion of a Tripadvisor member and not of Tripadvisor LLC. Tripadvisor performs checks on reviews as part of our industry-leading trust & safety standards. Read our transparency report to learn more.
Julie A
Australia10 contributions
This tour was one of the best I have done. Peter was a fantastic chef, the food was amazing and a knowledgeable guide. His tours have a real personal touch, he takes care of everything and really excels. It is a great introduction to the local produce of FNQ
Written 2 September 2022
This review is the subjective opinion of a Tripadvisor member and not of Tripadvisor LLC. Tripadvisor performs checks on reviews as part of our industry-leading trust & safety standards. Read our transparency report to learn more.
Liam C
Adelaide, Australia16 contributions
Sep. 2022
Peter was an excellent guide, engaging, knowledgeable, cheerful and very professional. Great value for money and I'd thoroughly recommend it.
Written 1 September 2022
This review is the subjective opinion of a Tripadvisor member and not of Tripadvisor LLC. Tripadvisor performs checks on reviews as part of our industry-leading trust & safety standards. Read our transparency report to learn more.
ladymuriel
Blakehurst, Australia19 contributions
Aug. 2022
We have been to Port Douglas 4 times. We've done all the usual tourist things - snorkelling on the reef, fishing, Mossman Gorge etc., and were looking for something a bit different.
We love good food, so the "Port on a Plate" title captured our interest.
We thoroughly enjoyed our day with the owner of the business Peter, an affable and interesting guide and highly recommend this tour.
We learned a lot about cane farming, with a lovely stop in amongst the cane fields to sample some delicious chilled cane juice that Peter had brought along in an esky.
We then went to a Burramundi Farm whereby we were given a rod to try our hand at catching one, and learned a lot about Barra farming and the difference between wild caught and farmed. Local expert on all things Barramundi, Simon, was an hilarious and interesting chap who gave us the low down on farmed versus wild caught which is evidently more sustainable.
Peter then gave us a great demonstration of how to fillet a fish perfectly after which we were served a delicious Barra sashimi with some saki - YUM.
Our next stop was at a fruit wine vineyard for a tasting (the wines were not our style, however it was a lot of fun). Whilst there Peter served us up a delicious Cerviche and then BBQ'd the aforementioned Barra for us for lunch.
I can genuinely say it was one of the most delicious Barra I've ever had. DELICIOUS!
We were joined by another couple who we instantly clicked with which made the day even more enjoyable!
Highly recommended *****
We love good food, so the "Port on a Plate" title captured our interest.
We thoroughly enjoyed our day with the owner of the business Peter, an affable and interesting guide and highly recommend this tour.
We learned a lot about cane farming, with a lovely stop in amongst the cane fields to sample some delicious chilled cane juice that Peter had brought along in an esky.
We then went to a Burramundi Farm whereby we were given a rod to try our hand at catching one, and learned a lot about Barra farming and the difference between wild caught and farmed. Local expert on all things Barramundi, Simon, was an hilarious and interesting chap who gave us the low down on farmed versus wild caught which is evidently more sustainable.
Peter then gave us a great demonstration of how to fillet a fish perfectly after which we were served a delicious Barra sashimi with some saki - YUM.
Our next stop was at a fruit wine vineyard for a tasting (the wines were not our style, however it was a lot of fun). Whilst there Peter served us up a delicious Cerviche and then BBQ'd the aforementioned Barra for us for lunch.
I can genuinely say it was one of the most delicious Barra I've ever had. DELICIOUS!
We were joined by another couple who we instantly clicked with which made the day even more enjoyable!
Highly recommended *****
Written 1 September 2022
This review is the subjective opinion of a Tripadvisor member and not of Tripadvisor LLC. Tripadvisor performs checks on reviews as part of our industry-leading trust & safety standards. Read our transparency report to learn more.
Pauleen S
1 contribution
Aug. 2022
What a great day out. Plenty of information, but not too much. Casual and relaxed. Great food and company.
Highly recommended.
Pauleen and Helen
Highly recommended.
Pauleen and Helen
Written 31 August 2022
This review is the subjective opinion of a Tripadvisor member and not of Tripadvisor LLC. Tripadvisor performs checks on reviews as part of our industry-leading trust & safety standards. Read our transparency report to learn more.
madpom
South Australia, Australia214 contributions
What a great tour!
The owner operator is Pete Davidson, a man of extraordinarily broad talents which have coalesced perfectly into this, his latest venture. We discovered his last during the course of the morning - he’s been a sugar mill worker, a diver, a kayaker, a fisher, but most importantly, and most recently, a tour guide and chef.
Max probably 8, there were 4 of us for this tour, and we got on instantly, and famously, with the other couple. This all helped enormously of course, so there was a great atmosphere throughout.
First stop, Mossman, and on the way a lot of fascinating learning about the sugar cane industry, its people, history and development. Nothing like a lecture - just good story-telling.
Then to a local farm , run by an Italian family, which produces all manner of tropical fruit which us southerners only ever see in shops and supermarkets. On the edge of a field of cane, we toasted each other with shots of pure sugar cane moderated with lime juice. Fun.
Then a visit to the farm shop, with its great fresh produce. Absolutely no pressure to buy - but why wouldn’t you get tomatoes or bananas at half the price of the local Coles? Plus some other specialty goods like blueberry gin jam - a great present.
Then off to the Hook a Barra fish farm, where we were given the tour by Simon, and cast a hopeful line, hopelessly in my case. Yes, you can just turn up there, but this was made so much more special when Pete presented us with a barramundi, which he proceeded to fillet, so skilfully in front of us. We then sat for our starter, sashimi of barra, with soy, and sake, of course. So tasty.
Our last stop was at the Shannonvale Winery, where not a grape is trodden, nor drunk. It’s all fruit, but made the same way, with much the same alcohol content. So here we had sips of a dozen (!) products (lime, lychee, mango, ginger etc), while Pete barbecued our Barra. In no time at all we had ‘namas’, (a kind of ceviche) of Barra, followed by a beautifully cooked fillet, topped off with Daintree Ice Cream, which made even Golden North seem very ordinary!
In truth most of the fruit wines weren’t really anyone’s cup of tea, but Trudy was interesting as she talked about them. One, a chocolate liqueur, was palatable enough to buy as a topping for ice cream. Think Bailey’s.
After that we were dropped back at our hotel - five hours + of food and fun. Pete was an excellent guide, and we hope he does well. The tourism commission system absolutely stinks - why would a hotel push his business when they can get up to 30% from the major reef cruise companies? So he relies on the internet, good reviews, and word of mouth.
The owner operator is Pete Davidson, a man of extraordinarily broad talents which have coalesced perfectly into this, his latest venture. We discovered his last during the course of the morning - he’s been a sugar mill worker, a diver, a kayaker, a fisher, but most importantly, and most recently, a tour guide and chef.
Max probably 8, there were 4 of us for this tour, and we got on instantly, and famously, with the other couple. This all helped enormously of course, so there was a great atmosphere throughout.
First stop, Mossman, and on the way a lot of fascinating learning about the sugar cane industry, its people, history and development. Nothing like a lecture - just good story-telling.
Then to a local farm , run by an Italian family, which produces all manner of tropical fruit which us southerners only ever see in shops and supermarkets. On the edge of a field of cane, we toasted each other with shots of pure sugar cane moderated with lime juice. Fun.
Then a visit to the farm shop, with its great fresh produce. Absolutely no pressure to buy - but why wouldn’t you get tomatoes or bananas at half the price of the local Coles? Plus some other specialty goods like blueberry gin jam - a great present.
Then off to the Hook a Barra fish farm, where we were given the tour by Simon, and cast a hopeful line, hopelessly in my case. Yes, you can just turn up there, but this was made so much more special when Pete presented us with a barramundi, which he proceeded to fillet, so skilfully in front of us. We then sat for our starter, sashimi of barra, with soy, and sake, of course. So tasty.
Our last stop was at the Shannonvale Winery, where not a grape is trodden, nor drunk. It’s all fruit, but made the same way, with much the same alcohol content. So here we had sips of a dozen (!) products (lime, lychee, mango, ginger etc), while Pete barbecued our Barra. In no time at all we had ‘namas’, (a kind of ceviche) of Barra, followed by a beautifully cooked fillet, topped off with Daintree Ice Cream, which made even Golden North seem very ordinary!
In truth most of the fruit wines weren’t really anyone’s cup of tea, but Trudy was interesting as she talked about them. One, a chocolate liqueur, was palatable enough to buy as a topping for ice cream. Think Bailey’s.
After that we were dropped back at our hotel - five hours + of food and fun. Pete was an excellent guide, and we hope he does well. The tourism commission system absolutely stinks - why would a hotel push his business when they can get up to 30% from the major reef cruise companies? So he relies on the internet, good reviews, and word of mouth.
Written 28 August 2022
This review is the subjective opinion of a Tripadvisor member and not of Tripadvisor LLC. Tripadvisor performs checks on reviews as part of our industry-leading trust & safety standards. Read our transparency report to learn more.
Barbara & Tony Pepicelli
Melbourne, Australia3 contributions
Jul. 2022
The Barramundi farm was so interesting. Pete our host was very friendly and professional.
Would highly recommend this tour to all lovers of fine food and wine.
Would highly recommend this tour to all lovers of fine food and wine.
Written 19 August 2022
This review is the subjective opinion of a Tripadvisor member and not of Tripadvisor LLC. Tripadvisor performs checks on reviews as part of our industry-leading trust & safety standards. Read our transparency report to learn more.
No questions have been asked about this experience