Apex Milk Bar

Apex Milk Bar was the retro-modern takeaway and licensed diner at 24 Hoare Street in Manunda, known across Cairns for its burgers, its leafy outdoor garden, and shakes poured the old way. Heads up before you drive out: the Google listing now marks it permanently closed and there is no word of a reopening, so check whether new operators have taken over the site before making a special trip.

The dog setup while it traded

When it was trading, dogs were welcome in the outdoor garden seating out the back, which is what made it a fixture for local dog owners: a casual, family-friendly courtyard where a settled dog on a lead fit right in alongside the picnic-style tables. The indoor diner was left to diners without dogs, and the garden was the draw on warm Far North Queensland evenings.

What made it worth a stop

The burgers were the point. FNQ Food Magazine profiled the kitchen's range of beef, steak, pork, chicken and fish burgers, including signatures like the Cheesy Deluxe and the Far North Fish Burger, with hot dogs, onion rings, sweet potato fries and thick milkshakes alongside, and a fully licensed bar pouring beer and wine for the garden tables. It sat directly across from Barlow Park with street parking along Hoare Street, an easy add-on to any walk in the area.

Pepsi: a burger in the leafy garden after a run across the road at the park was about as good as Cairns got.

If you are in Manunda now

The Card Avenue Park Fenced Dog Park remains the neighbourhood's off-lead option, and for a dog-friendly feed in the current scene, Howlin' Jay's and Hemingway's Brewery Cairns Wharf in the city cover the casual, outdoor end of town.

More options are on the Queensland dog friendly restaurants guide and the Manunda destination page.