Coral Sea Pavilion

Coral Sea Pavilion is the oceanfront restaurant at Coral Sea Resort, 25 Ocean View Ave, Airlie Beach, serving contemporary Australian cuisine over breakfast, lunch, poolside dining and dinner with the Coral Sea as the backdrop. It is a local favourite for everything from morning coffee to sunset cocktails, and it welcomes both resort guests and the general public. One thing to be clear about before you go: this is not a dog-friendly venue. The resort's own FAQ states that pets are not permitted on the property, with accredited assistance animals the only exception under Australian law, so plan this one as a human-only meal.

The food

The menu leans coastal: seafood platters for the table, hot and cold seafood plates with oysters, prawns, crumbed barramundi and baked scallops, plus steak and pork belly for the land side. The bar opens daily from 10am with cocktails and boutique wines, and a daily happy hour runs from 3pm to 5pm. Weekly specials include brews and sliders on Mondays and margaritas and tacos on Tuesdays, and dinner service runs 5pm to 8:30pm.

Worth knowing

Reservations are recommended, particularly in peak season, and you can book through OpenTable. The resort sits about 800 metres from the Airlie Beach main street along the scenic Bicentennial Walkway, and the pool deck, jetty and boardwalk are all part of the property. Because the pet rule applies across the resort, the poolside lawns and walkways are off limits to dogs too, not just the dining room.

With the dog instead

If you are travelling the Whitsundays with your dog, the leashed Airlie Beach Boardwalk makes the same waterfront stretch between Airlie and Cannonvale that the resort overlooks, and the Cannonvale Dog Exercise Area gives an off-leash run at the far end. For a meal your dog can actually join, Rufus & Co. Cafe in Airlie Beach is the dog-friendly pick.

Max: Sorted the humans into the seafood platter and me onto the boardwalk. The boardwalk had better smells anyway.

More dog-friendly dining around the state is on the QLD restaurants list, and the suburb roundup is on the Airlie Beach destination page.