Sorrento Restaurant & Bar

Sorrento is an Italian restaurant and bar at Coral Sea Marina on Shingley Drive, Airlie Beach, serving wood-fired pizza and pasta with the yachts and the Whitsunday water in front of you. It is one of the more reliably dog-friendly sit-down venues in town: the covered lower deck is set aside for pets, water bowls are put out, and the staff are used to dogs at tables.

The dog setup

Dogs join you on the lower ocean deck, a covered patio right over the water that keeps shade overhead through the day. Dogs must stay on a lead at all times, in line with the marina's pet rules: pets are welcome in public marina grounds on lead but kept out of marina facilities, and they must not foul or disturb the grounds. Water bowls are commonly provided and some staff slip out treats, but carry your own bowl to be safe.

Worth knowing

The kitchen is built around house-made pizza dough and pasta: hand-stretched wood-fired pizzas, fresh pasta dishes such as the prawn and crab spaghetti, and seafood platters using Whitsunday produce. Share plates, seasonal mains and a kids' menu round it out, and live music runs through the week. Time your visit for the sunset session; the marina frontage makes it one of the better sundowner positions in Airlie Beach.

Getting there and parking

The venue is at 22 Shingley Drive in Coral Sea Marina. Paid parking sits in the marina car park beside the venue, and it is a short walk from the marina jetty or the northern end of the Bicentennial Walkway.

Close by with the dogs

Walk it off after dinner along the Airlie Beach boardwalk, which runs the coast toward Cannonvale with dogs on lead the whole way. The eastern end of Shingley Beach beside the marina is the council's designated 24-hour off-leash zone, so an off-lead splash before or after the table is an easy add. Coral Sea Pavilion is the other marina-side option nearby.

Browse the dog-friendly restaurants across QLD and the Airlie Beach dog-friendly guide to plan the rest of the trip.

Max: supervised a full seafood platter from the lower deck without a single audible complaint, which his humans still call his best work.