Dutch Courage — Restaurant in Brisbane City

Horrible place!

Came in last week on a tuesday night at about 8pm for drinks & dinner. Place looked quite empty with only 3 tables occupied so about 12 people or so total on the ground floor. Upper floor was closed. We asked the bartender where we could sit for dinner and he replied: "sit anywhere". We sat down at a vacant table and waited for about 15 minutes for a waiter to come to take our order, but this never happened. Apparently the bartender was the only one working that night.

So I went to the bar to order some drinks and an appetizer. There were 2 ladies and a gentleman at the bar who were first to order. I expected that it wouldn't take too long for me to be able to order, but the bartender was working incredibly unorganized. He kept on switching between making drinks for the ladies/gentleman ahead of me and walking out to pick up food upstairs to bring to the tables. This literally took 15+ minutes as well. I started to get a little irritated and decided that I wanted to order our other dishes as well, as I didn't want to wait for 15 minutes to order again.

So when it was finally my turn the bartender asked rudely: "What do you want, food or drinks?", so I replied: "ehh, both please?", after which he (again very rudely) said: "Kitchen closes in 15 minutes". So a little flabbergasted I started ordering...I started with ordering the Steak Sliders as an appetizer, and immediately he said: "We're out of those". So again a little surprised I started looking for something else on the menu...but then after not even 5 seconds he said: "The chef has decided to close the kitchen" (while 30 seconds before that he said the kitchen would close in 15 minutes...and he didn't speak to anyone in the meantime...😂). It was 8 pm and they were allready closing up?! The other 2 tabels were still getting all of their food just delivered!

So we left after 35 minutes, without having had anything except extremely bad and non-existent service at this place....would've given 0 stars if that was...

Went for Pre dinner drinks and was seated upstairs. Things started to go bad pretty quickly. Firstly the waitress jabbered on for about 5 minutes about Covid until I explained that we were out for a relaxed birthday drinks/dinner and the last thing we wanted to talk or hear about was COVID. We asked for a menu to be told that we have to use our phones to bring up the menu using a QR code which is fine in theory but in practice 4 people on their phones trying to read tiny writing on a phone screen is not a great experience (when zooming in to enlarge it was still not a great way to see the extensive list), especially for those of us that love going through the menu when out for a good night. I asked the waitress about a certain brand of Gin to which she had no idea about but assured she would check. she didn't. a little while later she came back to get our order and talk about COVID some more. When she returned with our drinks she made a point of telling us she didn't want to get too close to us and will leave the drinks on the edge of the table as a customer had coughed on her tonight and she was worried about getting COVID.............................. not sure if she was trolling me or just plain stupid, either way I wont be returning. We ordered a couple more drinks but left feeling underwhelmed.

**reply to the owner - I have actually given plenty of 4 and 5 star reviews, unfortunately your venue missed the mark for me. I cant understand why the sheets used for the QR codes can be used multiple times (ours was used at the table next to us) but not menus. why not put them in a disposable plastic sleeve or laminated and sprayed down after use like every other venue I visited that night? perhaps take some constructive criticism and try and improve rather than been straight up passive aggressive. your inability to adapt during COVID will hurt your business. Maybe you and your waitress can have a conversation about it when you cant...

Came here for a meal and drinks, not sure what to expect, but wow was my mind blown. There was nothing negative about our experience here. Walking in we were greeted by friendly and courteous staff who immediately explained their service style and what we could expect. No question was too silly, and I feel I tested this quite thoroughly, by asking many a silly question, some on repeat. ‘No way there’s green ants in that bottle. There are green ants in there? Real ones? Do you swallow them or crunch them? Can you really eat them? As in you drink them and don’t spit them out? Green ants!! Really?’ As annoying as I’m sure I was with my obvious obsession with this revelation, the staff were lovely and patient. The eastside gypsy cocktail I settled on (too scared by the green ant gin) was devine and encouraged me to go for a second shortly after. By golly the food….the lamb cigars were outstanding. But so was the wagyu rump. But so were the prawns, and the hummus dip! Nothing we consumed allowed for any criticism. Beginning to end our time here was delightful. I will be back with everyone I know, I’ll be back alone, I’ll drag strangers...