Vivo Bar & Grill

Vivo Bar and Grill, Palm Cove’s landmark restaurant bar in a tropical white bungalow, is a fav with both locals and tourists who for ten years have been coming back for its top notch food, drinks and ambience.

Shortly after the sun rises over the palm-fringed shore across the road a steady stream of customers start piling in for some of the best breakfast fare to be had in the area.

Come lunchtime its shady wraparound verandah is the go-to for a delicious lunch that fuses fresh seasonal local fare with Asian and Mediterranean flavours.

On the menu are recommended dishes such as house made Sweet Potato Gnocchi with baby spinach, onion jam, roasted hazelnuts, lemon quark, micro herbs and shallots, Pork Belly salad with green paw paw, chilli caramel, coriander, Vietnamese mint, nam jim and shallots, Spiced Baby calamari fritto with wild rocket, kaffir lime aioli and cherry tomato.

And must try is the wood-fired garlic ciabatta, which comes with roasted confit garlic cloves to spread and finely grated grana padano.

Vivo’s most popular dish, Spanner Crab Linguine, is available for lunch and dinner, and dinner entrée Tuna Tartare holds the record of one customer ordering it three times in one day.

Other options for dinner include entrees such as prawn gyoza, baked scallops in mild green curry or melt-in-the-mouth duck carpaccio consisting of lightly smoked duck breast, maple candied walnuts, pickled green apple, rosella marscapone and wattle seed tuile.

Meanwhile mains range from seafood fettucine, duck curry and Teys Certified Black Angus through to a sumptuous hot and cold Seafood platter that is for a min of 2 people and requires 24 hours notice.

On the dessert menu are heavenly Vanilla Bean Pannacotta, Flourless Mandarin Cake, Tropical Fruit Plate, Cheese plate of Caramelized fig/cinnamon/chocolate pudding.

Vivo is fully licensed and houses an impressive wine cellar, with more than 200 carefully selected Oz and international wines available, with reds ranging up to Henschke’s Hill of Grace Shiraz at $495 a bottle and champagnes up to the supreme Dom Perignon Oenotheque. Wines are available by the bottle and there’s a generous list by the glass. 

On the beer front Vivo serves a range of international and Australian craft beers, dark, mid-strength or regular as well as a small list of boutique ciders.

The cocktails here are a drawcard, with Martinis, Caipiroskas, Margaritas and Mojitos featuring and no visit should be complete without sampling the amazing and famous Cojito.

Need to know  - Every day at Vivo between 3-6pm is happy hour, with sunset cocktails and tapas on offer. For families there’s also a special kids menu available at mealtimes.

Nice to know – Vivo also has a resident art gallery event showcasing the works of emerging and established local artists, which are rotated regularly. Check with Vivo for opening night events once a month.