Golly Gosh! — Restaurant in Brisbane City

My friends and I had brunch here last Sunday, and found out about this place through Instagram. Amazing location, opposite a big dog park so the perfect place to have a bite to eat after taking your dog for a walk.

Upon arrival at exactly 9am, we put our names down on a wait list (they don’t take bookings, only walkins) and the sweet girl we spoke with worked really hard to get us a table. My 3 friends and I wanted to sit together, and to her credit she offered a few different table options (eg sharing a communal table by sitting 3 people on one side and 1 person on the other / sharing a small table made for 2 people) but we wanted to wait until an inside table for 4 was available (it was SO hot that day). It took approximately 30 minutes and she gave us regular updates, which was lovely but standing outside in the heat wasn’t the greatest start to the morning. Perhaps a dedicated waiting area with seats or taking down phone numbers so we can find shade to wait would help (we began wandering off to explore and I think the poor girl got worried we were leaving so she ran over to find us haha).

Upon sitting down, we were a little surprised to find out that it’s not table service, and that we had to go to the counter to order, get water, etc. We had to get up, walk around and flag someone walking by to request water and cups (as there was a massive line in front of the counter). It might be good to have a water station, or have them automatically taken out when tables are seated - especially in summer.

A quick game of uno that was offered on the tables meant that the food came pretty quickly to our surprise. There were so many items to pick from on the menu, which all sounded delicious. We ordered a range of brunch items, including an Easily Pleased, Morning Glory, Maple Glazed Stack, Brekky Roll/Wrap (I’m pretty sure I ordered a wrap but we got a roll? My boyfriend devoured it nonetheless haha) and a selection of coffees and freak shakes.

My cherry ripe shake was SO GOOD and had tiny slivers of the chocolate bar on the top. I am very critical of shakes, and it was one of the best I’ve had - the right amount of creaminess and tart fruity flavour. The food didn’t taste too oily and gluggy, which is always my worry with brunch. The Easily Pleased was a little sad considering it was $20 for 1 hash brown, a small dipping container of salmon and 2 rubbery-tasting eggs (they weren’t quite fried per say) but the Morning Glory was massive and way bigger than we expected. My ever hungry friend (who always has seconds and thirds) was unable to finish the waffle stack!

They also offer puppy pancakes and free puppacinos, which the table next to us bought 3 of, which was soooo cute to watch. The staff clearly love their jobs and the puppies thoroughly enjoyed their snacks. I will definitely be back with my pup! I’m not sure if they do offer this already, but water bowls for the dogs would be good too.

Price wise, we were delighted to find out they had removed the 10% Sunday surcharge, which was great news. Overall, it was average priced for a brunch ($30~pp including $10 for a fancy freak shake).

At the end of the meal, we requested takeaway lids for our milkshakes, which didn’t come. The wait staff subtly hinted twice that we should leave by clearing our dishes, but I don’t think they realised that we were waiting for the lids. We eventually just went up to the counter and asked for them again.

Overall, fantastic service. The food came so quickly, considering how busy it was. Brunch places are notorious for long wait times so we were pleasantly surprised. I appreciated the choice of indoor or outdoor table.

All the staff were absolutely lovely, and we wish this new business all the best as they navigate this opening period :) I can definitely see Golly Gosh becoming a local favourite in the...

My first time at this cafe and I was a little surprised at the mixed service levels. There were 13 of us and we saw a large empty table inside so went in to ask if we could have that one only to be told to back to the sign at the entry where it says wait for a table. We waited and then sent to the table we asked for. That just seemed very pedantic. The cafe has free sparkling water and we had one bottle for the table so went to get another. We were told rather bluntly to sit down and one would come - it didn’t. The food was ok but when mine was brought to the table ( I was first) it was dropped and then I was left to search for cutlery only to find it turning up separately a few minutes later. The cafe is quite noisy with a choice of inside or outside dining.

We hadn’t planned on stopping at this cafe ( we are cyclists ) but the weather meant we had to change our plans on the run to stay away from rain. I know 13 customers at once is a lot but I honestly felt as though we had broken some unwritten rule.

When I’m next out that way I’ll give it another shot in the hope that we just caught them on a bad day.

In response to the Manager’s comments:

I agree when one sees a sign you should follow it. Quite honestly we didn’t see it because we weren’t expecting one in a cafe. It was more the way that it was managed - a simple „can you please wait outside while we check whether it has been booked „ would have made all the difference.

As for the water I stand by my comment that we asked for water and were told to rudely sit down. I’m not sure where your other bottles went but it wasn’t to the people who asked for it.

Lastly again with the cutlery all that needed to happen was for someone to say I’ll be back with cutlery. If you looked at the video then you would have seen me look around for it before the girl at the counter behind me told me that it was coming. If you haven’t been there before then you wouldn’t know.

Time for a customer always feels longer than it really is. I’ve read your previous responses to others feedback and it seems you rarely take it on board but rather endeavour to find something that wasn’t quite right. Perhaps your staff have picked up on that same attitude that the customer must be wrong.

I try very hard to be fair when I write a review but you might want to remember that reviews are personal opinions told from the perspective of the customer. Being curious about perception rather than aiming to disprove it might...

I chose this place because it's close to my mums nursing home across the road and would be a convenient venue for a Mother's day lunch. I did a walk in visit a couple of days earlier to figure out if there would be a good seating location for her because she is quite old and infirm. The staff showed me a table close to the door which was ideal and I believed it was booked for us. We arrived on time but on the day was advised we were booked at a different table at the rear of the premises which was much harder to negotiate for my mum. After we were seated ,the staff neglected to bring us menus for about 5-10 minutes and only after speaking to other diners did I discover that we had to go up to the counter to order. Fortunately I had taken pics of the menu on my phone on my first visit as they had no menu on-line and knew what we wanted to order and did so. The food arrived quickly which was good but was pretty average. My beef burger was OK but nothing special. They put the beetroot on the side. I'm not sure why because if I didn't want it I would have asked them to hold it. I also ordered some chips which were a little on the dry side. In contrast, my Mother's chicken wrap was absolutely inundated with beetroot which was quite overpowering and couldn't be reduced without dismembering the wrap which was a bit underdone. The wrap dough was a bit rubbery. The menu doesnt seem to have much variety either . We finished our one course and left. On departure, the senior waiting staff asked me if the meal had been OK. I replied that frankly we had been unimpressed . She replied ," Oh, OK No worries" and "Have a nice day " and then turned her back. I mean if you are going to ask, you need to listen to the answer and at least pretend to care! Overall we were not that impressed, although the staff were quite friendly and admittedly it was a busy day but I think I probably won't be back which is a pity as if they had been up to scratch I might have...