The waves slap into the sand metres away from the tables at Nu Nu in Far North Queensland’s Palm Cove. It’s the full tropical experience: the restaurant opens wide to the outdoors with a vista through the palm trees to the Coral Sea, while the menu reads like a roll-call of the region’s produce – barramundi, tiger prawns, cassava, rainforest honey, rambutan, Tablelands pork, Kuranda eel, surf clams, banana flowers, palm hearts, durian, dragon fruit.

Lunch could begin with one of the restaurant’s classic cocktails, perhaps a mood-setting watermelon-based “Chicky chicky chow chow”, as a lead in to a light meal of chilli minced quail, rambutan and lettuce cups, or a share plate of North Queensland mud crab, chilli tamarind, sweet pork, market greens, jasmine rice and ginger. It’s intelligent, thoughtful cooking that can be more fully explored through a four or seven-course tasting menu at dinner.

The seven-course odyssey begins with a puffed, pita-like lemon bread, a tangy staple since the restaurant opened further up the esplanade in 2004. Then, after several seafood-based starters comes terrific beetroot juice-poached kangaroo with beets, buffalo feta and blueberries. Also a standout is the red curry of wild ginger pork belly, ginger caramel, young coconut salad and Thai basil topped with a chunk of crackle. Gorgonzola and milk-infused wagyu rump cap with alliums, bacon broth and bitter greens is similarly appealing.

Dessert options include crunchy rainforest honeycomb, yoghurt marshmallow, lemon semolina cake and salted caramel ice-cream. Nu Nu is a wonderful depiction of North Queensland on a plate.

Must-eat dish: Red curry of wild ginger pork belly