La Belle Vie French Restaurant Brisbane — Restaurant in Brisbane City

We recently visited this French fine dining restaurant during lunchtime to celebrate my wife’s achievements in her studies. As parents with young kids, we’re always in a rush, so we were excited to have a bit of time for ourselves.

Unfortunately, the experience fell short of expectations.

I showed up feeling a bit underdressed (forgot my shirt and wore a hoodie instead). The restaurant wasn’t crowded, but even so, we were seated at a side table rather than near the windows. Not a huge deal, but a bit disappointing for a special lunch.

The staff were polite and helped my wife with her jacket, and the table was nicely set. We’d checked the menu beforehand and knew we wanted the vegetarian menu. At first, we were told it was only available at dinner, but eventually they said they could prepare it for us at lunch.

We waited around 10 minutes before being able to place our order, during which they tried to steer us toward the meat menu twice, even though we’d made it clear we weren’t interested.

While waiting, we ordered some bread and butter from the menu (it wasn’t complimentary). It was literally just bread and butter — nothing special or memorable.

After we finished it, the staff asked if we wanted more bread and butter. But we were there for the proper meal, not just bread.

When the food finally started to arrive, the portions were extremely small. I get that fine dining usually means smaller servings, but these were ultra tiny. At least the wine was excellent.

Time slipped away, and we realized we were running late. I’d planned for a 90-minute lunch, but by then we’d only reached the third course. While we did enjoy chatting and our rare kid-free time, it felt like the highlight of the lunch was about us, not the restaurant.

We told the staff we needed to leave soon to pick up our kids from school and asked if the remaining courses could be packed to go. They didn’t seem to fully grasp our urgency and instead guided us to wait outside the restaurant, rather than letting us sit at the bar area to relax while waiting for the takeaway. That didn’t feel great, especially considering we were guests finishing a fine dining meal, not Uber drivers waiting for a pickup.

After about 10 minutes outside, a staff member brought the food but stopped before handing it over to double-check whether we had actually paid — even though I’d settled the bill about 15 minutes earlier at the counter. That felt awkward and left us with a pretty poor impression.

Overall, I wish I didn’t have to leave a negative review. The restaurant just wasn’t a good match for us. For the price and reputation, it fell short of delivering the special lunch we...

I truly wish I could have given this restaurant 5 stars overall. The service and atmosphere was impeccable. 5 stars for each of those. But the food unfortunately just didn’t quite hit the mark for a fine dining French restaurant.

Walking in at night the restaurant has a beautiful ambience. Perfectly lit with dim lights on each table…. elegant decor and a wonderful view of pretty suburban lights.

The table has lots of space which I really appreciate when dining, and we weren’t too close to other patrons. Also really appreciated. The restaurant felt warm, cosy and classy in its atmosphere. The service from the moment we entered was faultless and the timing of dishes was spot on.

We started with the 1/2 baguette with salted French butter which was simple but lovely. Unfortunately there wasn’t nearly enough butter for even half the serve of bread, and we were charged extra when we asked for more.

For starters I had the baked Camembert with orange marmalade and toasted sourdough. It was really delicious, but the two small pieces of toast wasn’t nearly enough for the round of Camembert.

My friend had the French onion soup, which is usually one of her favourite French dishes, and she said it was nice, but not the usual wow.

For our mains we had the confit of duck with green beans and potato mash. And a side of broccolini. The duck itself was very tender, although not a lot of meat. The beans were cooked perfectly al dente and the mash was simple. The dish lacked any richness of flavour in any of its components, and the sauce was quite bland. The dish was well cooked but quite underwhelming in taste… which was disappointing.

Our final dish, the dessert, for me was the Hazelnut Mille Fiulle… and for my friend the Crème Brûlée. Both dishes were quite nice, but again just lacking that something special.

Overall the experience was very nice. The staff did a wonderful job and my friend and I had an enjoyable night. 3.5 stars for the food and 5 for everything else. $115 per head. No alcohol. (Sparkling mineral water only). I’d go back again and try some...

Was really trying to like this restaurant. I normally don't write reviews because both my partner and I are qualified chefs so I know what it takes to make a good meal

I was looking forward to this for 2 weeks as it was a birthday gift but was let down by the food...

The good The service as excellent The ambiance of the restaurant were amazing

Then came the food ...

We chose of the menu I ordered the camembert cheese for the entrée which was very tasty for a quarter of a camembert deep fried with a "salad" I use that term loosely because in my eyes salad has more than one ingredient not just a few cut up pieces of a baby cos lettuce

My partner on the other hand ordered the "King Prawn "s".... I put the quotes around the s because that implies 1 or more... in this case we paid $20+ for a single prawn --- yup a single prawn and a bout an inch deep of bisque which was so rich -- unless you really liked bisque would be hard to finish

So at this time we had spent the best part of $50 for 1 prawn + one inch of bisque in a small bowl and about 5 pieces (cut into cubes) of a cos lettuce

OK the mains will be better (I Tell Myself)

We ordered 2 rib eye steaks "salad" and chips - it was in french and sounded a little more appetising

I ordered a medium (came out rare) - the second steak was orded medium rare (came out still jumping around)

Now normally I can eat a rare steak if the meat itself is a good quality cut.

Unfortunately the meat was so tough and full of sinew the only optio was to send it back...

The waiters reply "oh I can take it back and cook it some more"... that's when my night was over unfortunately ... getting an uncooked steak taken back only to be told they would essentially cook it again would only end badly for my already tattered taste buds

We paid the $105 bill and went to Mcdonalds on the way home ...

On a positive note the fresh crispy bread was...