Vivo Bar & Grill

Vivo is good all day long, whether you're after a Genovese coffee first thing, a daily happy hour (or three) or an after-dinner digestive, you'll receive a very warm welcome. There's nothing especially Italian about the Queenslander with its breezy wide verandas and timber shutters overlooking the sea. While there are silky gnocchi dumplings with various sauces and excellent bruschetta with Mareeba tomatoes, buffalo bocconcini, baby basil and raspberry balsamic on wood-fired ciabatta, the menu meanders happily around the globe, and makes the most of local produce. Soft-shell crab comes in a crisp batter, subtly infused with ras el hanout, served with plump, lemony pearls of Israeli couscous, peppered cress and creamy roasted shallot quark. Desserts, too, are global in reach, such as rhubarb oliebollen - little flash-fried pieces of doughnut-style pastry rolled in sugar and served with wisps of Persian fairy floss, pomegranate syrup and wattle seed ice-cream.