IL MOLO Italian Kitchen & Bar — Restaurant in Brisbane City

Mother-in-Law’s 80th Birthday dinner here on a Friday night, 6.30pm sitting and the joint was pretty much at capacity which was a good sign. Greeted and seated professionally and tended to while we waited for the rest of the party to arrive for a five-cover sitting. Shared bread which was a rosemary & garlic version served up with whipped cheese and evoo as well as arancini to start – all in line with expectations and at $10 and $15 ea. respectively, no complaints. Plonk consisted of Corona, Rose, Amaro Sours and for the birthday princess, a special occasion ‘brandy’ & coke which turned up on the receipt as a J/ Walker Black so not sure what happened there. Service did decline a little post entrees and we had to order more grog from the bar as opposed to table service, but is was busy. No specials on offer with mains being delivered as lasagna, gnocchi and my fish (grilled swordfish, lemon, tarragon, mashed garlic spuds) which I enjoyed, pesce a little over and a bit of arugula or a side on the plate without having to order another dish would have been nice for the pricing, along with the pasta dishes. Mains done, bride ordered a Margarita (cocktail) off the drinks menu and the server must have been flat out as asked ‘pizza, after your mains?’ which did make us chuckle… A round of cannoli and a few limoncellos wrapped things up well, except the mismatched glasses for the savoured lemon liquor which seems to be a trend these days that I have experienced multiple times now. The $5.90 surcharge for using a debit card was a little hard to swallow but think the limencellos had me in a good mood. Overall enjoyable and...

IL MOLO is in a nice position with undercover parking. When we sat at the table it looked like someone had just left the table and the table had not been cleaned from previous diners. The servers were attentive when we arrived. Paper placemats were placed in front of us with a plate on top. Then the placemats were turned over and that was the menu. We ordered and then the plates were taken away. We were told plates are only for share meals - so why are the plates put on the table only to be taken away within minutes? Cutlery is on the table with serviettes in a box in the middle of the table. I personally have an absolute hate for this, who knows who has been handling or sneezing on this exposed cutlery. The cutlery consisted of forks and knifes. My experience of Italian restaurants is if you have pasta you receive a fork and spoon but not at IL MOLO. I ordered 'Linguini Gamberi' with Skull Island King Prawns $38. My meal tasted like clams. The prawns were very small and in a ringlet shape. I have never seen a King Prawn that small or that shape. The overwhelming taste of clams was disappointing. My husband had 'Classic Beef Ragu' $34. It was mainly pasta with the smallest amount of pulled beef in it. My husband said the amount of beef would hardly fill a tablespoon. My husbands words 'bugger all beef' in it. My husband did not like the flavour of this meal. After the initial attentiveness of the servers they did not check with us after our meal was served. Not attending to us after the meal was served they miss out on feedback for the meal and another...

My boyfriend reserved a table for us on Valentine’s Day 2024 for lunch. I have walked past the restaurant a couple of times, and have been wanting to try, so my expectation was really high. We waited a bit before someone can and greet us , that’s okay though because I can see there wasn’t many waiters/ waitresses. We shown to our seat, i hated the seat immediately coz everyone was not in high table, and there are plenty of seats. So I asked for another table. The waitress said she will ask her manager, and also advised they have many bookings today and may not be able to move me. From what I can see, it’s not that busy, but that’s okay. She never came back and let me know about the change of seat, and I saw her bringing new customers in. Also, we were there for like maybe 10 minutes and no one bring us our water. Even the customers that just came in were given water. I cannot help to think if anyone is being racist as my boyfriend and I are the only Asian looking customers at that time, from the seat that was given, and the water thing plus no one came back to us regarding the seat situation… I just felt to disrespected and I don’t feel like I can physically be there anymore. So I asked if the order has been made, and was advised it has, so I requested to change my order to takeaway, so that I do not have to physically stay at the restaurant. My Valentine’s Day experience has ruined and I am super disappointed. I have been in Australia for the past 7 years and I have never experienced such...