Editor Eats: Beach Almond, Palm Cove

Where Reef and Beef Hit the Beach

The food world often feels like it’s been penned by a thesaurus drunk on its own adjectives. But step inside Beach Almond, Palm Cove’s beloved seafront eatery, and suddenly the superlatives don’t feel excessive—they feel earned.

Chef-owner Brian Holding isn’t merely serving food—he’s distilling decades of travel and tenacious hospitality nous onto every plate. His style is a kind of culinary cartography: mapping his wanderings through Malaysia, Indonesia, Thailand and beyond onto the freshest seafood and local produce Far North Queensland can offer.

And no dish better captures that journey than the whole steamed coral trout—a special on the menu the night I visited, and a showstopper in every sense.

"It's all about purity," Brian says. “You don’t muck around with fish like this. It’s perfect already—you just steam it gently. That’s the Beach Almond way.”

And what a fish it is. Locally caught, sustainable coral trout—fleshy, vibrant, almost too beautiful to eat—arrives at the table swimming in a shallow golden pool of soy, ginger, and spring onion broth. It's finished, in classic Cantonese style, with a splash of hot neutral oil to awaken the aromatics and permeate the flesh.

“You’re enhancing, not overpowering,” Brian explains. “The holy trinity—ginger, chilli, spring onion—those go on last. That hot oil pulls their flavour right through the fish, right into the sauce. It becomes something greater.”

It’s a dish with deep roots. Its lineage traces back to Guangzhou and Hong Kong, with culinary echoes stretching across Southeast Asia—from Singapore to Jogjakarta. The Beach Almond rendition stays true to its ancestry while elevating it with pristine FNQ produce and a chef's precise hand. The cooking is deceptively simple. The result? Utterly sublime.

But this is no seafood-only affair. Equally commanding, and very much part of the narrative here, is the Beef Rendang—a coconut-rich, slow-simmered curry from Sumatra, deeply spiced and unapologetically complex. It’s ceremonial fare in Indonesia, a dish traditionally reserved for festivals and family gatherings. At Beach Almond, it's elevated further still—tender beef laced with clove, galangal and lemongrass, gently caramelised by time.

Where the coral trout is light, bright and precise, the rendang is dark, brooding and built like a slow-burning novel. If one is poetry, the other is prose—each revealing something different about the chef, the region, and the craft.

Set at the quiet northern end of Williams Esplanade, Beach Almond is barefoot luxury defined. Salt-worn timber, banana-leaf plating, and artfully sliced chillies that curl like red ribbons over glistening seafood. It’s as much theatre as it is nourishment.

Brian Holding has infused the menu with an unteachable instinct—the ability to know when to let ingredients speak, and when to nudge them into new conversations. The elegance here lies not in flourishes or gimmicks, but in confidence: the kind that comes from doing one thing very, very well.

Verdict: Whether you’re drawn by reef-fresh delicacy or the deep comfort of spice and slow cooking, Beach Almond delivers both with flair and purpose. Come for the view. Stay for the flavours. Leave with the sense you’ve eaten something truly of this place.