Bistro Suzette — Restaurant in Brisbane City

Headline: the phone booking chaotic- no one knows the menu, what’s included, gave us completely wrong information and the dietary suitability of each dish.

We organised a birthday there with 10 attendees, so we ordered the set menu, Magnifique which has a number of sharing plates, from entree, mains and dessert.

Unfortunately a few of the guests had dietary requirements, and I helped list them out, hoping they might be able to accommodate, one which includes a complex dietary requirement of no red meat or dairy. To cut the long story short (because I have typed it up in detailed but it’s too long for Google), the person answering the phone firstly told us if one person is dairy free, all the dishes in the banquet has to be dairy free, they cannot just make a separate dish for that person. So I asked the staff: if in a 10 person banquet, 1 person is vegan, does it mean everyone has to eat a vegan banquet and she said yes 🤯 never heard of that in my life, least expected in a 5 star hotel.

So we are forced to order a normal 10 person banquet for 10 person, PLUS one main (fish) for the person w dietary requirement. A few days later I called up just to triple check, if I ordered the fish as an a la carte in addition to the banquet, can they make sure that the a la carte one dairy free? The same lady checked with the chef, then told me, oh actually the fish is dairy free anyway! I was a bit surprised and went “are you sure? It doesn’t have DF (dairy free) next to it” and she said yes the chef said it’s dairy free. And it’s on the menu I can see it marked dairy free. (I am looking at the menu online, and I can clearly see that it’s NOT there.) Then I said, ok… then I suppose I don’t have to order an a la carte then, she can just eat the one that’s in the banquet, as it’s the same dish, and since it’s dairy free anyway. And she said: no. You have to order a la carte. Up till now I felt I have been incredibly patient, however, this time I said, “why? The fish is already included in the banquet. Why can’t that person just eat the fish if it is dairy free anyway as you mentioned?” The lady on the line said, “oh, I don’t have the banquet menu with me so I don’t know if the fish is available in the banquet. (After checking for a while…) fine if that’s what you want I will cancel the a la carte fish- is that what you want?” Well… duh.

On the night, we got there and because I realllllyyyy didn’t trust the lady on the phone, I checked with the restaurant manager, who told me, as I suspected, the fish is NOT dairy free.

The staff on the night to be honest was fine, they did eventually made some different dish to accommodate the dietary requirement without the extra charge.

Phew, and you think that my bad experience is finished here. Nope. We finished dinner (the waitstaff was generally ok) and the morning after I felt like something was missing. I relooked at the menu again, they forgot to give us dessert. We obviously didnt realise because we brought a birthday cake from Sofitel, so we had dessert, but the menu did say we have Crepe Suzettes as well included in the banquet.

I checked with the front desk as we were staying there for the night, they don’t seemed to know, I checked with Suzette, and they argued that it’s an additional charge to have crepe Suzette. On the menu, every thing that requires additional charge, the additional charge would be included clear how much it costs. Crepe Suzette had no amount next to it, so how could it be something with an additional charge?

They finally agreed that I am right, and thankfully is currently arranging a refund for us. However, the comedy of errors we have received in the Sofitel Brisbane and Suzette is so disappointing that I would...

There was a hold-up at the front counter when we arrived for dinner last night. The attendant shouted at us and asked if we had some loyalty or discount card (which we didn’t) before sitting us down. We were in shock for 2 seconds from the rudeness and we had no idea what was shouted at us. We were sat down at a table with no hand refreshing bowls - at a seafood buffet. Bad first impressions so far. The waiters were very polite and accommodated us and was not shouting at guests. The attendant that showed us to the table shouted at the guests next to us whether they wanted any drinks. It was very bizarre

Food: There were more dessert selections than the rest of the food, combined. You’ll enjoy this place if you come solely for the dessert.

The seafood selection had NZ mussels, oysters, prawns, Moreton Bay bugs, crab claws. The NZ mussels and crab claws were the only seafood that wasn’t subpar. The oysters were the smallest I have ever seen and it looked sloppy and unpleasing. The prawns were watery and tasted just as bland as it looked. The Morteon bugs were dry and overcooked and supply was an issue. I have been to a lot of seafood buffet restaurants in Aus and NZ and the seafood quality at Thyme 2 was the worst and was nowhere worth $119 pp.

The cold foods had a station dedicated to it whereas the hot foods had 1.5 bench. The sushi was very poorly made. The salads were fresh. The cold meats were good. The hot foods were cooked through but there was not a lot of variety. Whoever came up with the hot dish ‘Grapes Almonds’ needs their tastebuds checked. The Napolitan red sauce was so chunky and looked straight out of a can. The bacon was bigger than the oyster of the oyster kilpatrick. It was mediocre. There was an Indian bean lentil dish, with papadams that looked pre-packaged. Couldn’t even cook fresh nanh breads.

When we settled our accounts, the attendant asked us how our night was and I spoke my mind. He was stuttering and tried to make up his apology/reply on the spot. Staff working at the front of the house should be trained to handle customer complaints and have more support from the manager. Who was the manager? The attendant said he’ll pass on the feedback and hopefully they can sort something out for when we come back next time. Oh, we won’t be back.

Citrique at the Marriott on the Gold Coast is by far the best we’ve ever been to in SE QLD - food, service, AND value. For less than what Thyme 2 charges: it’s effortless to get seated, attendant is always polite and introduces us to our waiter for the night, we always get asked if we need a tour of the stations, seafood selection is ALWAYS fresh/bigger portions no matter the season, main and hot foods are always of high quality, and they have a proper section dedicated to desserts (not all the desserts you can fit at the end of the bench to fill up dead space). Thyme 2 seafood dinner buffet is at most...

Breakfast here was quite nice. The service was impeccable and there was a reasonable amount of food options available. The atmosphere was also quite nice, but I still think Sydney is a bit better! Accessibility is good as it is on the bottom floor. You can also park on the street right outside (between certain times), as long as you are willing to pay a fee.

I’ll start with the service. The lady at the front desk seated us quickly and was reasonably friendly. However, it was the waitresses who were walking around and the kitchen staff who really made a difference. They were so friendly and welcoming. I could not fault their service.

Onto the food: the food was good. There was a decent range, with hot food such as sausages, bacon, tomatoes, mushrooms, greens, scrambled egg, hash browns and Benedict’s. They had the pancake station too and the eggs made to order, where you could request an omelette or sunny side up or other. The lady there was very friendly. Then there was the cold food/ cold cuts. I think they had salads, cold meat, veggies and cheeses. They had a juicer where you could make your own juices 🥤 and also a GREAT range of fruits, with bananas, apples, grapefruit, melon, orange and PASSIONFRUIT!!!! Finally, there were the pastries 🥐 I’d say they weren’t as good as other hotels, but they had the standard mini croissants, chocolate croissant, muffins, doughnuts, and others. The croissants were dependent on which one you selected. Some were great- crisp and flakey. Others, soft and a bit lacklustre.

Overall, it was a good experience and I would highly recommend coming here. It’s not as busy as other hotels so it isn’t as rushed to get the food before it runs out etc. Decent range of food - could be better. But the service...