Corbett & Claude — Restaurant in Brisbane City

I wasn't going to write a review but they sent me an automated email the day after the booking asking for feedback, I replied saying I'd like to speak to someone to give them some feedback and they have completely ignored that email for a month. We made a Sunday evening booking for a large group (35 - originally booked for 25 on Tuesday, increased it to 35 on Friday). Have to put down a credit card (fair enough). Warned any changes or cancellations within 24hrs or no shows will be charged a fee of $10pp (also fair enough). We were told we'd need to order from a set menu ($45pp or something) due to the size of our group - sensibly when I explained half the group were kids and we couldn't afford that set menu, we were told we are able to order a la carte (great). We arrived, the outdoor dining areas were busy, the inside (which is even bigger) was less than half full the whole time. One couple arrived, ate quickly and left. Later into our booking I was advised by the waitress that we only had 33 people not 35 people, so we'd need to pay $20 😂 Explained two people had already left, later the waitress told us the host said we'd have to pay. We didn't, and over the next three days they tried a dozen times to charge us $20. For our dining experience.. food was mostly good, but a couple of pasta dishes were a wet tasteless slop, that you wouldn't serve to swine.. most dishes came out quickly, some took well over an hour.. We completely understand that groups not on a set menu can't expect food to come out at the same time, no worries there 🙂 but it should never take well over an hour for pizza and pasta to be served.. We totally appreciate the need for a pre-authorisation in case a large booking cancels/no-shows last minute, but the "host" was taking it too far here.. Even if we were two people short, penalising a group because 5% of their party doesn't make it is just pathetic. It's not a Michelin star restaurant. It wasn't otherwise full and had to turn away other customers. Are they really that desperate for $20? Given how empty it was and how poor the service and (some) food was,...

Food is quite dull, similar to the quality of reheatable meals you could pull out of the frozen section at Woolies but with quadruple the price tag. Beyond that, atmosphere and service were excellent.

Update: Re-'specific feedback': the Margherita pizza had no tomatoes on it. By definition that not what a Margherita pizza is. 5-6 spoonfuls of penne pasta with light saucing and a sprinkle of parmesan is something that could be made at home in a microwave as a snack, and to me doesn't seem to justify a $25 price tag. I shouldn't need to give you an example of what a good pasta dish contains, there are plenty of similar restaurants around you that offer exceptional pasta dishes that you could use for inspiration.

Overall I would usually give the restaurant the benefit of the doubt, like maybe you're are just unaware of what good food is, however I just noticed something else on the website menu whilst looking for that pasta price....there's a 'popular item icon' next to the penne pasta....

Now that I think about it, I've seen this kind of of business behaviour before. Its often characteristic of younger inexperienced owners thinking that by simply increasing prices and lowering quality of goods sold that they can increase profits, meanwhile assuming that customers won't notice. Its often a dangerous mistake for most establishments, and I get the feeling thats exactly whats happening here...a 'cash-grab'.

My 'specific feedback' then for the restaurant is...don't play dumb, take my review seriously and change the fairness of your products offered (in comparison with today's standards). Otherwise I won't be the only one not returning to...

Mediocre dining experience. We went last night for dinner and were very disappointed with the quality of food and the service.

When we first arrived and were seated we weren’t offered any water, had to ask for this, but the initial service was quick and they took our drink orders, 10 minutes later our food orders.

Our drinks took longer than you’d expect for a simple cocktail and beer, and they were fairly average. After about half an hour I recieved my pizza and my partners order came over 5 minutes later. The pizza was soggy and the gnocchi sorrentina was so plain and lacked any flavour whatsoever. On top of receiving the mains at different times we never received our entree of calamari. After a while the waitress asked if we ever received our entree (which we obviously hadn’t as she was the only one looking after the tables outside and we had no used plates) and asked if we still wanted it. Reluctantly we accepted on the condition we would not be charged for it.

We received this about 2 minutes later, so it had obviously just been sitting there getting cold, and it’s clear that it was just a frozen packet that was deep fried. Mind you it was over cooked and a mission to even chew!

Overall the food was very average and service was terrible. Not once throughout the evening did the waitress check up on whether we wanted more drinks, clear our plates or ask if the meals were okay. We didn’t even receive an apology let alone any acknowledgement that the meals weren’t delivered together or on time - never have I dined out and received the mains so far apart and the entree...