Common Vice Wine Bar — Restaurant in Brisbane City

After seeing a show at the Brisbane Powerhouse late on Sunday afternoon, we decided to grab a bite/drink at Bitter Suite since it's literally the first stop if on foot heading towards New Farm. The place looked inviting (with signs saying that dogs are welcome too) and upon asking to be seated inside, the waitress informed us that food would be a minimum of 40 minutes because they were so busy. Except, this information seemed to be delivered with the specific intent of having us change our mind and simply go away. It was in her face and in her tone. Glancing around there were several empty tables, and they didn't seem at full capacity, and diners didn't seem impatient or unhappy. Now, perhaps they were understaffed that night, perhaps this young lady was fed up after a challenging shift, or perhaps she had other things going on. But I swear there is a way to deliver news of genuine delays, whilst remaining friendly and accommodating and still inspiring customers to want to dine with you!

We didn't want to walk any further, so we decided to stay for drinks. There were eight of us, but only five of us ended up ordering drinks for fear of upsetting the wait staff, and only one hungry person among us was game to order food, which came out in less than fifteen minutes. And instead of being pleasantly surprised, we were annoyed that we were effectively discouraged from staying or ordering at all.

Side note: The ladies room has quirky photo frames loaded up with celebrities either holding or drinking beers--cute! This alone may inspire me to give this place another chance in the future, but unfortunately we all came away with very mixed feelings on our...

Our first visit, we really wanted this place to be good as we live around the corner but alas, it was just dreadful. I have to admit both staff asked how everything was and we said fine but were too embarassed to tell them the truth. I've given 2 stars as the staff were friendly enough and they had good beer.

We both ordered the steak. It seemed like we waited for a very long time for it, and it wasn't busy - this meant we had to endure the awful choice of music for longer! When the food finally arrived - well, nothing about this dish was good. A tough piece of meat, no flavour, and sitting in what was essentially a plateful of pumpkin puree soup, the peppercorn sauce lost in the swamp! I wish I'd taken a photo but my heart sank so far that I didn't have the presence of mind to do so.....we forced ourselves to eat it as we were so hungry by the time it arrived (the additional fries ($8) came out a few minutes later for some reason).

Basically it was the worst 'steak' ever, served with awful sides presented in a way that would have been funny had we not paid for it. The standard was average first year catering college student with no eye for detail/proportions. I don't know what they're like at cooking the rest of the items on the menu but this was bad enough for us not to want to find out!

Also a second beer was ordered but never delivered but they took that off the bill - we couldn't be bothered to chase them for it. Not a huge issue but again, it wasn't busy so not sure how they could forget?

A very disappointing...

not so much suite, mostly bitter...

came here for dinner with my partner, waited a ridiculous amount of time for food, the staff actually forgot about our order so we had to re-order it again. They never put it through their system or handed the order to the kitchen ????? the bare minimum of a restaurant. The food was sloppy and cold. Give the pasta a miss, it was oily and greasy, and yet prices were exorbitant for what you actually get.

Also got charged for a jug that we didn't order, nor have at the table, so got ripped off even more in the end.

The funny thing is, we actually ordered two more drinks after dinner that literally never arrived to our table, yet they werent on our final bill.. perhaps forgotten about again? Do your staff have short term memory loss? It seems to be a theme.

Will never return here and I suggest you don't go either if you're looking for a new place to try. An overall very poor experience, genuinely not one positive thing I could think...