Nautilus Restaurant — Restaurant in Port Douglas

What an ordeal. The never ending meal: four courses and a dessert took 2 1/2 hours, from 5:20 until 8:00! I fully understand the concept of giving your customers the time to leisurely dine, but this was absurd. Five minutes to eat each tiny course and 20 minutes or more looking at our dirty plates while hungrily waiting for the next round.

Our meal began with a bread plate consisting of two ping pong ball sized dinner rolls with two dishes of delicious tomato butter and baba ghanoush. Too bad there was so little bread that we were unable to fully enjoy them.

This was followed by a sashimi plate of several pieces of overly thick cut fish dressed with delicious sauces and vegetables. As with every dish the sauces were absolutely wonderful, whoever made them is to be congratulated.

Next were three tiny scallops which were cooked well and one small shrimp dumpling which was the single best item of the evening, again dressed with fantastic sauces.

At this point our menus diverged: my wife was served skewers of shrimp and bug and I had seared duck breast. This was, for both of us the single most pleasing course of our interminable meal. As always the sauces were excellent, the skewers were very good and the duck was perfectly prepared. The inclusion of two tiny bites of crispy duck skin was a real treat.

By now we had been sitting for over 90 minutes and were still quite hungry when our main courses arrived. Coral trout for my wife and Angus filet for me. Both were generous portions however the trout was completely overpowered by the lemongrass coconut sauce to the point that we still have no idea what Coral Trout actually tastes like. My filet was extremely lean and served nearly raw. Please, either cook it to a medium rare level so that it can be cut with the table knife or else provide a steak knife. Preferably cook it enough to develop the taste of the meat since as served it was nearly flavorless. Again the sauces and puréed vegetables were the highlight of the dish.

We were now past the two hour mark and ordered our desserts. A bowl of three sorbets for her and a much anticipated orange chocolate tartlet for him. Disappointingly the orange flavor was nowhere to be found, the tart was simply heavy chocolate with no other discernible flavor. The accompanying ice cream was very good though.

After so long we were just worn down and declined to order coffee and the cheese plate and departed just a bit over 2 1/2 hours after our arrival. As we were leaving we passed the spotlessly clean open kitchen where we saw dozens of identical bowls lined up assembly line style, which begs the question: if they are churning out this menu hundreds of time a week, why the delay between courses? In what possible manner is the diners experience enhanced by drawing out such a small menu for several hours?

In our experience, usually the food is front loaded and after satisfying one’s appetite, the rest of the meal is spent lingering over coffee, liqueurs, a cheese board and conversation. Not hungrily waiting for the next course, this was a unique approach to presenting a tasting menu!

Fine dining has been a hobby of ours for over fifty years and we have eaten in Michelin recommended and starred restaurants all over the world usually ordering the tasting menu. Never have we waited so long for so few courses. I fully understand that it would be grossly unfair to compare Nautilus to those establishments, but at nearly $400 for two meals, a single wine pairing and two bottles of beer, expectations are created and it is difficult to not feel let down.

Ending on a positive note, the wines were all delicious and a perfect complement to each course. The servers were uniformly excellent, providing attentive service as needed. It was not their fault the kitchen let them down and I am certain they were trained not to clear one course until the next was ready which was why we cumulatively spent over 90 minutes staring at the various dirty dishes...

I was really looking forward to celebrating my birthday at Nautilus. The experience was average at best.

To summarise

Pros (mostly)- Great service. Excellent ambience Loved the wine pairing

Cons The food is nowhere near value for money- completely out of touch with reality. Same with wines Heat and bugs in the outdoors

I feel like a lot of the effort goes into the frills- the ambience and service which are great but the substance is lacking in way of quality of food.

I especially felt this having had a vegetarian degustation that I was really looking forward to. Was hoping this would be well thought out rather than the shoddy meat replacement type menus.

My partner who had the meat option with no seafood was also shocked at what the food was when compared to the price we paid. He was also quite surprised with how small the servings were.

There are definitely places in Port Douglas that offer much better food at much lower prices (half or lower) with 80% of the frills delivered with a friendly smile.

Save your money !

Below are detailed ratings

Food (vegetarian menu) Entree- panko mushrooms which honestly were quite dry served with mayonnaise, very underwhelming 2/5 Asparagus with egg and a bread layer- this was my favourite dish for how it all melted together beautifully but also managing to pair a wine with egg is a feat in itself 4/5 Quiche like dish with spring veg and eggplant relish- quite refreshing and honestly enjoyable despite the eggplant being undercooked 3/5 Main- zucchini again sort of panko fried with a “salad” which was essentially fresh beans and avo. Quite underwhelming , not seasoned and again quite dry- 2/5 Dessert- probably the star of the meal. Chocolate cake was phenomenal but again for the price I could buy entire cakes of the same quality 4/5

Service like I said before was great albeit some pressure was felt when it came to the moment to tip 3/5

Wines 3.5/5 Great quality and well paired however again quite expensive for the size of servings.

Ambience 3/5 Really captured the essence of northern Queensland with the gorgeous sounds and breeze from the rainforest. Didn’t miss the aircon as much as I thought I would. The unfortunate reality of dinning outdoors especially in the rainforest is bugs which the venue seemed to have not thought through at all. Multiple bugs fell into the food and I had two fairly bad insect bites. Something again you’d expect a high end venue to at the very least consider. Staff were very helpful and apologetic...

Ambience: 5/5. It literally doesn’t get better than feeling like you’re in the rainforest; seating setup is immaculate, tables are beautifully set. Stunning to look at when you walk in, stunning to sit in.

Service: 4.5/5 - can’t do half marks, but I feel a 5 is fairer than a 4. The staff are expertly trained but this isn’t universal in terms of execution, not all of your servers are equal, one in particular didn’t know what accompanied the mains. However - what brought it to a 5 rather than the 4, was a waiter serving the wines for the next course, promising to return when my wife returned from the bathroom to describe her glass, and then recognising her as she returned and following her to pull out her seat for her, then letting her know what she was being served. Seriously, whoever that was - flawless. And not unnoticed. If you (nautilus) want more info on who that was, please don’t hesitate to reach out, I’ll be more than happy to help - they’re a credit to your business, and I’d love them to be recognised.

Food: 4/5. Perfect starter - the kingfish/tuna has perfect accompaniments, and you could’ve served that all night and I’d have been in heaven. The scallops, for me, needed the wine pairing for the fruitiness of the darker gel (which wasn’t made known to me) to be relevant; the prawns and bug were great (whatever that sauce was… bottle it), the barramundi, although not bold, was pleasing and rounded out the meal. The sorbets were a pleasant surprise and matched well together; the passionfruit providing a welcome punch alongside the more rounded lychee and pina colada offerings I generally played between.

The food would’ve lifted to a 5 - for me - with the scallops dish being more coherent overall without relying on the wine pairing, and the barramundi packing a bit more punch; for me, the coconut cream being front and centre in that curry/sauce allows for more spice to underpin it - but I appreciate the balancing act in allowing the barra flavour to still be present.

Considering how much contact we had with so many servers/waiters/waitresses throughout the night - this was really well done, there were so many opportunities for this to go wrong with all the multiple hands involved, but you’ve got a great team. Congratulations - and thankyou for making our 8th wedding anniversary even more special.

There’s a reason you’ve been open...