Destination
Seasons of the tropics
Part of the Wet Tropics of Queensland World Heritage Area, the Daintree climate is characterised by two distinct seasons: the dry season and the green season.
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Breakfast
Breakfast starts at Silky Oaks Lodge with Daintree tropical fruits, freshly squeezed juices and premium, locally grown tea and coffee. Daily house made breads are made more delicious with pandan jam, or topped with avocado, free-range eggs, bacon and fresh-picked native greens from the Kitchen Garden. Coconut waffles stack up with local pawpaw and bananas, and spiced pancakes are an ideal base for smoked salmon, 63° eggs and sour shallots.
Lunch
Set to the cool backdrop of rainforest where birds, cicadas and cobalt blue Ulysses butterflies flit, a generous lunch is served in the Treehouse Restaurant, perfect for sharing with a loved one or for a special occasion visit with friends and family. Guests can opt for two or three courses, with entrée highlights including kingfish tataki or duck larb salad while mains include tempura reef fish or barbecued tiger prawns. After lunch, indulge in a tropical sorbet to freshen the palette or a local Hemingway’s tropical ale to ease in the afternoon.
Lunch excursions
Tropical North Queensland has an abundant crop of cafés, restaurants, bars and distilleries serving the true taste of the tropics. Whether it’s fine dining and wining, a pub-style lunch or a snack in between adventures, Silky Oaks’ local list has you covered. Discover some of the team’s top recommendations on our Restaurant Guide.
Hemingway's Brewery
Sprawling along the superyacht marina, Hemingway’s Brewery distils the local terroir into its acclaimed range of craft beers. Water from Mossman Gorge, top-notch hops and locally sourced malts combine in the six-strong line of boutique ales. Grab an al fresco table and graze across a menu of burgers, pizza and salads while watching the boats sail by.
Devils Thumb Distillery
Crafting its award-winning spirits onsite, this distillery serves a quintessentially north Queensland vista of cane fields against a backdrop of the hinterland and its namesake peak from a rustic cellar-door bar. The range of gins are distinguished by local botanical ingredients or mix it up with a beer or cocktail. They offer tasty grazing boards too.
Grant Street Kitchen
Umbrella-shaded streetside tables are in hot demand at cute artisan bakery-café Grant Street Kitchen. That’s thanks in part to buttery Parisian-style croissants, while credit also goes to flaky pastry pies that pay tribute to local ingredients. Sushi bowls and bircher muesli pots cater for the wellness warriors but few can resist the vibrant display of baked sweet treats.
Court House
The Court House Hotel might be Port Douglas’s oldest pub, but the bistro menu is modern offering vegan bowls and fish tacos, burgers and classic fish and chips. Better known as ‘The Courty’, the pub sports a heritage Queenslander façade and wide verandahs inviting you to linger over your lunch, sinking a beer or a piña colada slushie while you’re at it.
Salsa
Serving locals and travellers for over 25 years, Salsa is perched on Wharf Street with views out to the Coral Sea. Pair a tropical cocktail with a selection from the creative food menu which takes a something-for-everyone approach. Fresh line-caught fish is a no-brainer or try the creole jambalaya, Thai chicken spring rolls or linguine with local red claw and chilli.
Oaks Bar and Kitchen
Many of the ingredients for the authentic Thai food of former Longrain chef Ben Wallace and his wife Rachael Boon are grown onsite in their permaculture garden. The chef’s table lunch is a leisurely affair, segueing from egg-net salad with fiery Isaan sausage to paperbark-smoked chicken thigh with fermented shrimp and landing at a yellow goat curry.
Beechwoods Milk Bar
At family-run Beechwoods, the coffee is reliably good and the fare while simple is super tasty. There’s an all-day menu of breakfast favourites, fresh-made sandwiches, proper, old-fashioned burgers and delicious homemade cakes. Time a visit with a wander through the Mossman Markets, held each Saturday beneath the giant rain trees from 7am-1pm.
Dinner
As the rainforest darkens, the ripple and rush of the Mossman River provides a hypnotic soundtrack for dining in the warmly lit Treehouse Restaurant. Sweet and sour pork belly or baby barramundi leave just enough room for kumquat ice cream or dark chocolate mousse. A sophisticated wine list invites careful exploring as the moon rises in the inky night sky. A seat at the bar is an ideal pit stop en route back to the suite.
Plant to plate
A thriving kitchen garden provides both singing-fresh ingredients for the table as well as a chance for guests to wander among its prolific greenery and learn a little along the way. More than 100 plant types include the Mt White finger lime, red dragon fruit, pandan and tamarind. Guests will see many ingredients growing just moments before they are picked for the days’ menu, making one of the shortest paddock to plate journeys around.
Queensland quenchers
It’s essential to stay hydrated in Queensland’s balmy tropics. Happily, Silky Oaks Lodge has drinks covered. Signature drinks at sunset and matched wines with dinner are included.
Jungle Perch
Extending out into the rainforest treetops, the open-air Jungle Perch delivers bird’s eye views of the Mossman River, making it the best place to enjoy a drink and watch the waters flow by. Relaxed, canvas occasional chairs make it an easy spot to contemplate the day.
Silky Bar
A list of premium Australian wines complements a swagger of local beers including Hemingway’s tropical ale, while gin and tonics take on a new twist with a menu of locally produced small-batch spirits. For Baillie Lodges friends, the exclusive Baillies 9 gin is ready to pour.
Sunset drinks
Guests at Silky Oaks Lodge ease into dinner with sunset drinks and snacks served in the lounge or in the Jungle Perch, with its prime positioning over the Mossman River. Enjoy the day’s signature cocktail or a refreshing tropical ale.
Our Chef
Chef Mark Godbeer has been at the helm of the kitchen at Silky Oaks Lodge since 2019. He moved from Baillie Lodges sister property Longitude 131° in the Red Centre so it was a real ‘green change’ for his life and work in swapping the outback for the rainforest. For Mark it’s been a thrill to discover the diversity of tropical produce on offer which translates perfectly to light, refreshing menus on the plate. The lush Kitchen Garden bears the fruit of Mark’s hard
work and tropical inspiration, and is filled with all the ingredients ready to be picked just moments before serving. ‘We like to work with super fresh produce which suits the climate and it’s great to work with Ange Constable at Eats Shoots and Leaves at Port Douglas, with Darryl and Di at Daintree Exotics for tropical fruits, and for all our natural yogurts and cheeses we work with the Watson family at their beautiful biodynamic Mungalli Dairy on the Atherton Tablelands’, Mark said.
The rainforest is our grocery store, pharmacy and hardware – everything is here, you just need to know where to go shopping.Cameron Buchanan First Nations guide, Mossman Gorge
I flip-flop to breakfast in The Treehouse Restaurant, a venue of such buoyancy it feels tethered, cantilevered towards the rainforest, as if about to float into the heart of country and the very beginnings of time.Susan Kurosawa The Australian
As I sit in the dining room, watching the emerald trees fade to black, I'm not hearing traffic anymore. Just the breeze dancing in the rainforest and the Daintree singing to me.Kirsten Galliot Qantas Travel Insider
Set beside the jade waters of Mossman River, Silky Oaks Lodge has reopened to the world with Head Chef Mark Godbeer’s unique twist on native flavours in the spotlight.Anna Bowles Travel + Leisure
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Experience
Unforgettable encounters
A stay at Silky Oaks Lodge includes a range of signature experiences, while guests can tailor-design an itinerary including special interest tours to discover the mysteries of the ancient rainforest and richly diverse tropical landscape.
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Lodge
Our luxury
A stay with Baillie Lodges is about the connection with the landscape, its culture and wildlife, a celebration of superb regional cuisine and luxurious lodgings to sink into at the end of the day.
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