10 of the best Norfolk Island restaurants and cafes

Dine on everything from fresh-from-the-sea fare to flavour-crammed breakfast classics at these Norfolk Island restaurants and cafes.

Slow food is more than a movement on Norfolk Island, it’s a way of life – and visitors reap the benefits. With much of its food grown in the island’s rich volcanic soil, including locally made meats, cheese, coffee and honey, and a bounty of fresh seafood waiting just offshore, every meal is a delicious occasion.

Locals have made the most of what they’ve been given, starting with the bananas; green bananas are fried into crispy fritters or cooked in milk to create ‘mudda’ (dumplings), while overripe bananas are often mashed and baked to create pihli. Nothing is wasted.

There are over 20 restaurants, cafes and takeaway shops to choose from – no small feat for an island roughly eight kilometres long and five kilometres wide. Here, a hit list to satisfy hearty appetites.

1. The Golden Orb Cafe

breakfast and coffee at The Golden Orb Cafe, Norfolk Island — Fuel up with a fine breakfast at The Golden Orb Cafe. (Image: Norfolk Island Tourism/Lumea Photo)

Embrace the natural splendour of Norfolk Island’s lush surroundings with a seat in The Golden Orb Cafe ’s leafy courtyard. Open for breakfast and lunch from 7am, Wednesday to Sunday, the Norfolk Island eatery is a family-owned operation where locals love to unwind. The menu kicks off with the likes of a brekkie burger with hashbrown and hollandaise, eggs benedict several ways and a rich shakshouka before the kitchen switches into seafood crepes and homemade fettuccini with creamy garlic prawns for lunch. Just add Seven Miles’ Cat’s Pyjamas coffee, roasted in Sydney’s northern beaches, for a top-notch meal drenched in delights.

2. Cafe LaPérouse

a French-inspired dining setup at Cafe LaPérouse, Norfolk Island — Cafe LaPérouse nails French-inspired dining. (Image: Norfolk Island Tourism/Lumea Photo)

Throwing open its doors in February 2025, Cafe LaPérouse is the island’s first French-inspired eatery and one of the newest culinary hot spots. A little slice of Paris right opposite the airport, the Norfolk Island cafe nails French-inspired dining while utilising the region’s finest ingredients. Think croque Mademoiselle, fluffy omelettes and savoury cheese puffs better known as gougère and adored globally. Unsurprisingly, it’s run by a French family who craft their magic entirely on-site and are also partial to whipping up unmissable sweet and savoury pastries. Wash your meal down with a Belgian chocolate, or two.

3. The Olive Cafe

a customer ordering at The Olive Cafe, Norfolk Island — Order a takeaway coffee from The Olive Cafe. (Image: Norfolk Island Tourism/Lumea Photo)

The smell of bacon cooking on the grill and freshly brewed Old Quarter coffee lures just about everyone to The Olive Cafe come dawn. Open Monday to Saturday for breakfast, morning tea, lunch and afternoon tea. The Norfolk Island cafe’s menu boasts daily crowd-pleasers and hearty Italian-inspired fare at night. Find homemade muffins, smoothie bowls, breakfast burgers and crepes early in the day before burgers, salads and sandwiches roll out at lunch.

4. Bailey’s Restaurant at Governor’s Lodge

Located at Norfolk Island’s Governor’s Lodge, one of the best Norfolk Island accommodation options, Bailey’s Restaurant is renowned for its historic digs and modern Australian à la carte menu. Dishes highlight the culinary creativity and local flavours of Norfolk Island, spanning seafood starters of seared scallops, seafood pappardelle, and a garlic prawn hot pot, while sous vide lamb rump and chermoula king prawns impress as mains.

5. Salty Beer Garden

clinking cocktail glasses at Salty Beer Garden, Norfolk Island — Pair casual bites with delightful cocktails at Salty Beer Garden. (Image: Norfolk Island Tourism/Lumea Photo)

Located in Burnt Pine, Salty Beer Garden is your trusty local pub and the place to seek out when laidback dining is high on the agenda. Serving up cold beers, casual bites and garden views, the Norfolk Island pub plates up gourmet burgers, toasties, fish and pulled pork tacos, rice bowls and wraps, plus a dedicated kids’ menu. The kitchen opens from midday to 8pm every day, but time your visit to a Wednesday, Friday or Sunday when live music dials up rowdy fun.

6. The Homestead Restaurant

a close-up shot of a meat dish at The Homestead Restaurant, Norfolk Island — The Homestead Restaurant elevates the dining experience with an intensified menu of the island’s seasonal produce. (Image: Norfolk Island Tourism/Lumea Photo)

It’s the wood-fuelled Argentinian Perilla grill at The Homestead Restaurant that elevates this dining experience. Cooking over embers intensifies the flavours of the island’s seasonal produce, meat and seafood – and it’s all thanks to the owner’s dad, who engineered it for Kurt and Jill Menghetti when they opened this contemporary boutique restaurant in 2019. Housed inside a 1930s island home, the culinary experience is one of the island’s most elevated with the likes of grilled wild octopus done with chorizo, local fish paired with cauliflower puree, duck confit and refined desserts lighting up tables. The team also bakes the island’s only wood-fired naturally fermented sourdough, attracting a cult following of its own.

7. Hilli Restaurant

a dining table at Hilli Restaurant, Norfolk Island — Pull up a chair for a European-inspired feast. (Image: Norfolk Island Tourism/Lumea Photo)

In native Norfolk Island language, ‘hilli’ translates to lethargy, which perfectly describes how the owners of Hilli Restaurant want you to feel once you’re done dining with them. Feast inside or out in the courtyard alongside bright blooms as a European-inspired menu showcases the destination’s rich spoils. Traditional duck pâté infused with Cointreau, a creamy seafood crepe, delicate cheese soufflè, beef eye filet wrapped in smoky bacon and other moreish knockouts will keep spirits soaring. Visitors should note that they’re closed Wednesday and Thursday.

8. Baunti Tours

Determined to sample the freshest of flavours while visiting Norfolk Island? Once you’ve ticked off everything above, take your passion to the next level with one of Baunti Tours ’ group expeditions. Offering a progressive dinner inside a private island home, a gourmet picnic and even a breakfast bushwalk, operators have been shining a light on the island’s produce for more than 20 years. Our picks include the traditional Baunti Fish Fry, recreating ancient cooking adopted by the island’s original communities, and the Lavender Farm Tour taking guests through blooming lavender fields and into lunch built from paddock-to-plate wonders.

9. Bounty Bar & Grill

a steak dinner at Bounty Bar & Grill, Norfolk Island — Feast on a juicy steak to entice your appetite. (Image: Norfolk Island Tourism/Lumea Photo)

Housed within a charming 1900s building at the end of town is Bounty Bar & Grill . Open for lunch and dinner, the Norfolk Island restaurant offers a contemporary menu that champions local meats and produce with a range of two-person share platters to seriously entice. Don’t overlook the Surf and Turf, a juicy steak cooked to your liking and served alongside King prawns or seared scallops, and the loaded pizza selections, too. The team also open their doors from 9am for coffee and cake.

10. Juddway

Grab and go a flavour-packed foot-long sando at Juddway , a Norfolk Island takeaway joint that instantly endears. It’s a fuss-free feed filled with locally sourced standouts, such as the prawn and crab roll, classic BLT, cold cut creations and saucy Italian meat subs. Simply rock up, pick something off the chalkboard and get stuck in quick sticks, saving you more time to explore the magical destination’s countless gems.

Discover some of the best places to stay on Norfolk Island

Mythical, historical and most of all, spectacularly beautiful, Buchan Caves demands you take your time – and a tour.

In the pools of water, so still they could be mirrors, the reflections of the stalactites make these limestone towers seem even taller. Almost 400 million years ago, an underground river carved through the rock to create the Buchan Caves . Now, artworks created by dripping water adorn these subterranean galleries: stalactites hanging from the ceiling, pillars connecting some to the ground, even curtain-like wave formations clinging to the stone.

Visit the caves for the day or stay onsite in the campground or at the self-contained Caves House. (Image: Ben Savage)

“This is called the Fairy Cave because it’s full of fairy dust,” a guide tells visitors as they enter a cavern glittering with “calcite that’s solidified into thousands of tiny little diamond shapes”. Buchan Caves is Victoria’s largest cave system, but Fairy Cave is a highlight and, along with nearby Royal Cave, is accessible only by tour. Naturally cold, naturally dark, these caverns deep below the surface light up as the local experts tell their stories.

couple walking in cave — You’ll need to book a guided tour to see the caves. (Image: Tourism Australia)

Among the hundreds of caves, some can be easily accessed from the surface. For instance, a casual stroll along the FJ Wilson Interpreted Walk, as kangaroos watch on from beneath acacia trees, leads into the 400-metre-long Federal Cave and its natural steps of white limestone. A slightly longer track, the Granite Pools Walk heads through soaring forest down into moss-covered gullies where the calls of lyrebirds trill through the leaves.

A quick history lesson on Buchan Caves

Among the geology and the nature are millennia of history. This part of East Gippsland connects the high country to the coast and was long a place of refuge for the local Gunaikurnai people on seasonal migrations to the mountains. Archaeological studies show humans lived here up to 18,000 years ago, with artefacts such as small stone tools found around the site. But not too far into the caverns – oh no! The Gunaikurnai didn’t dare venture deep into the dark at Buchan Caves, telling stories they were inhabited by gnome-like nyols (small grey-skinned creatures that could steal memories).

The Buchan Caves Hotel was rebuilt after burning down in 2014. (Image: Jess Shapiro)

By the early 1900s, more people had started to hear about these incredible caves and so the Moon family set up home at the site and started to run tours below ground for intrepid visitors. More than a century later, their historic residence is available as accommodation, with the three-bedroom house sleeping up to eight people and now equipped with modern amenities the Moons could only have dreamt of.

But whether you stay overnight or just spend the day here, it’s worth taking your time to explore more than just the main caves, to get a deeper understanding of one of Victoria’s fascinating geological attractions.