Taste of the Pacific comes to Woody Point

Published 12:00pm 18 April 2023

A new restaurant that serves exotic flavours and cuisine from the Pacific Islands has opened on the Redcliffe peninsula.

Lorna and Eddie Jensen are the owners of MyKai, a family-run business found at the newly renovated Woody Point Marketplace.

Born and raised in Fiji, both Lorna and Eddie decided to open their first restaurant in the Moreton Bay Region to not only share their culture with the wider community, but to also cater to the large Pacific Island community.

“We have lived here on the peninsula for about 13 years and there were not a lot of options in the local area for traditional food from the Pacific Islands,” Lorna said.

“There is a very large Pacific Island community here, but people were travelling to the south side because there is very little here on the north side.

“We are locals so when we saw the work that was going on at the Woody Point Marketplace, we had a look at the space to see if it was large enough for the kitchen.

“We opened on the Thursday just before Easter and already we have had a lot of families come and visit. Just recently we had customers who travelled from Woodridge and Waverly just to eat here.

“It’s funny because when we get talking to the customers and they tell us they are from Fiji too, we find out that we know a lot of the same people from home.”

Treat your tastebuds

You don’t need to spend lots of money on airfares to travel overseas to feast on traditional Pacific cuisine, with Lorna and Eddie creating a menu full of homemade recipes.

“The menu is all traditional homemade food, and we will change it every couple of weeks so there is lots of variety and dishes for our customers,” Lorna says.

“Next time you come in there will be something new for you to try.”

Some of the dishes on the MyKai menu include Palusami (taro leaves in coconut cream), salted beef with cabbage, fish in coconut cream, fried corn beef with cabbage, curry chicken, red pork, stir fry and fried rice.

They also serve a buffet breakfast on Saturday mornings.

The restaurant is fully licenced selling cans of soft drink, Powerade, Prime, Jarritos (a brand of soft drink from Mexico), as well as local beers and beers from Fiji.