Bushire Flame Grill – Cairns, QLD, Australia

Bushfire Flame Grill markets themselves as a “Brazilian Inspired Australian Style BBQ Experience.”  This was an easy call for dinner on our second night in Cairns. April is Australian month, and I love Brazilian BBQ.  The location inside our hotel helped make it an even easier decision.  On top of that, one of the things we definitely wanted to try in Australia was kangaroo. It was easy to get this out of the way early in case we enjoyed it and wanted to have it again.

If you’ve ever been to a Brazilian BBQ before, you know what the general idea is – but for those who don’t, it’s very simple.  It’s an “all you can eat” buffet, mainly of several different kinds of meats, where they carve the meats at your table off of large skewers.  There’s a small hourglass shaped wooden block on the table that allows you to indicate if you’d like them to keep coming with the meats, take a momentary break, or if you’re finished.

Bushfire actually operated slightly different from oter Brazilian BBQ restaurants I’ve been to, in that they brought out each different kind of meat on the menu just once, followed by grilled pineapple.  After we got to sample each meat, they then asked what we wanted more of – and from there we were given as much as we wanted of those meats.

What else was there?

In addition to that, Bushfire Flame Grill had unlimited amounts of several different side dishes – saffron rice, potatoes au gratin, and a Brazilian style bean stew along with Brazilian style cole slaw.  The potatoes were amazing, but I contend it’s very difficult to have potatoes au gratin that aren’t amazing.  That may be my love of cheese talking, but it’s my opinion nonetheless.  The saffron rice was also quite good, but the bean stew and cole slaw didn’t really interest me.

The different meats available were (without getting into details of the ways they were prepared) were Beef, Lamb, Chicken, Pork, Sausage, Seafood, and (of course) Kangaroo.  If you’re interested in the ways they were prepared, you can check out the Bushfire’s entire churrasco menu online.

The chicken was very good, but the real hits for me were the beef and pork.  They were out of this world.  The lamb and sausage were alright, but not nearly as mouth-watering as the beef and pork.  The seafood wasn’t really my cup of tea, but Lora did enjoy it.

We ate the national animal of Australia…..

Then, there was the kangaroo.  It was a running joke while we were in Australia. They are one of the few (if not the only) population that gleefully eats their national animal.  I’m sure it’s a cultural thing, but I’m really not sure why. Not my favorite, but I wouldn’t count it out.  I’d say we “liked” it as in we didn’t hate it.

It didn’t taste like chicken, so no. Don’t ask that.

It didn’t taste gamey either, I am not a fan of deer meat, never have been. I grew up with my dad and later my step-father hunting. If I come within any radius of deer meat, or venison as other cultures refer to it, I immediately get nauseous at the smell and memories flash back of my childhood. I could tell the second my step-father opened a jar of deer jerky. Kangaroo is nothing like deer jerky.

It was maybe a cross between bear and beef? Texture wise at least. To me, anyway.

In a situation like at Bushfire Flame Grill, I would try it again, but I wouldn’t order kangaroo by itself. .

All in all, I definitely recommend Bushfire Grill. If you are a fan of Brazilian style BBQ while in Cairns, head to Bushfire.

If not, I feel like there are probably other restaurants on the Esplanade that might be more worth your time. These may be beneficial if you only have a few days in Cairns (like we did).

Check out the rest of our Australia experience!

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