Visitor slams Airlie Beach food as ‘soulless and overpriced’

The quality of restaurant and cafe food at a North Queensland tourist hotspot has been slammed as ‘tasteless’, with one visitor questioning ‘what is going on’.

The food at Airlie Beach has copped a harsh review from one visitor who labelled the fare as “tasteless and stale”.

The quality of restaurant and cafe food at a popular tourist town has come under a scathing review as a visitor to the coastal region slammed the dining fares on offer as “tasteless”.

Subreddit poster eymamacitaa, who said she was staying in the Whitsundays, labelled some flavour combinations as “incredibly bizarre” and lacking depth and freshness.

“My friend and I have been in Airlie for five days now, and have eaten approximately eight meals at eight different restaurants. All have been tasteless,” she posted on March 30.

The meals have included a pumpkin pizza with an “incredibly bizarre flavour to it”.

“I believe they added peanuts. Why not pine nuts like a normal person?” she wrote.

The food at Airlie Beach has copped a harsh review from one visitor who labelled the fare as “tasteless and stale”. Picture: Supplied

Then there was a “strange fusion fried rice and chilli tofu” that “while edible … lacked depth and freshness”.

She also detailed how after ordering fish, chips and salad, the salad was placed “directly next to the grilled fish”.

“Which made the fish soggy and the salad hot,” she wrote.

“Under normal circumstances, the salad is packed in a separate container.

“They also have prepacked salads in containers anyway, meaning they made the... decision to dump the salad next to the fish on top of paper packaging. Nothing is making sense.”

Other meals included a “watery” curry and a disappointing mushroom pizza.

“I was offended that this was served to me,” she said.

Subreddit poster eymamacitaa, who said she is staying in the Whitsundays, has labelled some flavour combinations as “incredibly bizarre”, lacking depth and freshness and “absolutely horrifying”.

Another meal was at a restaurant recommended by a Whitsunday local. “She must’ve hated us, because this food tasted like soggy cardboard,” she wrote.

She did claim some restaurant staff were “quite rude”, before adding “I too would be rude though, if I had to deal with drunk backpackers all day”.

“Airlie Beach – what is going on? Does the soulless and overpriced food have to do with the fact that this is a tourist destination? … Please enlighten this disappointed and hungry woman,” she questioned.

One responder said Airlie Beach was “no different to any other tourist... town in Australia”.

“Nobody with any ability to actually cook wants to live there, and even if they did, they can’t afford to live there,” they wrote.

Another agreed: “Airlie is a nice place but you are correct on the food. Backpacker staff mixed with short stay cooks who don’t really care and the result is a terrible one.”

“This cracked me up. I feel like a lot of regional Queensland is stuck in the 60s-90s Women’s Weekly cookbook (of) meat and three veg era … which if you like it, is totally fine … Modern dining concepts can be a struggle, hence some of the um (sic), surprising additions,” another poster wrote.