Little Ricardo's

Honest, simple food in a simple, family friendly environment.

Little Ricardo's is a restaurant attached to a motel in Cairns city and to me this would usually start some alarm bells ringing with regards to quality and/or price. I was searching for a place in Cairns that did both Italian meals AND pizza (surprisingly, one restaurant I found that looked to have high quality meals did not do pizza). Judging by the number of people attracted to Little Ricardo's a lot of families see this restaurant as a bit of a local favourite.

Seating is either indoor in the aircon or outdoor in the not-too-humid-if-you're-lucky open air. We chose indoor for comfort and once seated the service was very, very prompt. After a bit of faffing around with our decision making, the order was taken and all meals were on our table at the same time within about 15 minutes. The waiting staff were absolutely lovely and made you feel very welcome, like nothing was too much trouble. Or maybe it was just the beer I was drinking. Just kidding.

Prices were not the cheapest (nothing in Cairns is really cheap unless you go to a restaurant chain) but what you got for your money was great value and left us all stuffed. Boy #1 had a large Fettucine Carbonara and I had a small Spaghetti Carbonara. The small was plenty, especially considering that we had ordered a pizza as well. The amount of meat in the Carbonaras was very generous but for me, the amount of pepper was found to be wanting. My son was happy with his so this just comes down to personal taste I suppose.

My wife had Spaghetti Marinara and was suitably impressed with both the serving size and the flavour. Boy #1 pinched some of his mum's Marinara and agreed that it was delicious (we tend to steal each other's food, just for evaluation purposes you understand). The Marinara contained calamari, prawns, scallops and a small amount of crab meat.

Boy #2 ordered a Chicken Schnitzel that came with vegetables and he cleaned up the plate (if you saw how skinny this kid is you wouldn't believe he could eat so much). The Schnitzel came with beans, potatoes, carrots and broccoli.

The pizza we shared was a Margherita and it was big. It was a family size and it looked to be about the size of the spare wheel in my car. Perhaps I exaggerate a little. I did like the fact that the pizza had fresh tomato and fresh basil leaves on it. I wasn't as sold with the thin crust though, as thin crust is not my favourite. That's not to say it wasn't tasty (it was) and that boy #2 didn't demolish more than half of it (he did) just that it would have been better as a traditional crust in my opinion.

Overall, Little Ricardo's is a great bang-for-buck place to eat in Cairns. It may not be the flashest place in town but the food is good and honest and that's all that matters really.

All I can say is WOW. Great service, the food was worth the money. Massive portion sizes and amazing taste and quality. Worth the walk or taxi ride over from Cairns CBD

THE BEST SEAFOOD PIZZA I'VE EVER HAD. The size of the prawns, scallops and fresh squid for starters is very generous. They have been cooked to perfect texture and it amazes me how they achieved this especially on a pizza. The juice leaking out of the pizza indicates it's freshness. All of this with fresh parsley and other herbs. I'm just in awe of their quality of ingredients. Instead of rubbery calamari rings it's fresh cut squid. This puts the 5 star restaurants on the Esplanade to shame. Do not leave Cairns without trying this local favourite. Thank you so much Little Ricardo's!

It's not tourist place, much more locally. Every plate was just amazing. I couldn't say anything apart from that. Omg, just remembering and writing the review make me craving their meals. I'll definitely come back there.

Fantastic food, great service and a good atmosphere. Have been here many times and always enjoyed my experience. As always....the best Italian food in town.