Mr Percival's — Restaurant in Brisbane City

!!!!! BEWARE OF DISCRIMINATION AND RACISM !!!!! My wife and I were recommended to visit Howard Smith Wharf during our Brisbane weekend holiday. We arrived at Mr Percival's on the night of 9 November around 10:30pm. I had a single beer while my wife had a glass of soda water followed by a cocktail. As we were standing by the bar a security guard came to us and asked us to leave due to alleged intoxication. We were shocked however didn't argue and left the venue, but then came back to chat with the security guard as we felt we were maltreated. While heading back we were followed by security guards and ultimately stopped while trying to cross through the wharf, not even attempting to re-enter the venue. Security lied and said we can't pass since they're closing the wharf in 5 minutes. Time was roughly 11pm. While I challenged security with the fact that there are hundreds of people still sitting and having drinks at a relatively early time, took literally 10 seconds for police to show up asking security if there's a problem. I was initially relieved that police was there and we began telling them the story of what happened in Mr. Percival's. Surprisingly, police officers were biased to support the security guard's position that we were deemed intoxicated and therefore must leave the whole area of Howard Smith Wharf, not just Mr. Percival's venue. We were clearly not intoxicated and kept chatting with police asking for any reasoning or evidence to the security claims. No one could nor made any attempt to provide us with further reasoning or rational explanation to this incident, we were not allowed to know the identity of the person who deemed us intoxicated and were repeatedly asked to leave the whole area. We left feeling humiliated, dismissed and mistreated by QLD police and the elusive Mr. Percival's management. There's an extremely awkward Big Brother vibe to the venue, you are being continuously monitored as if an animal in a zoo rather in an upmarket hospitality venue. There is a clear agenda on how one should manage themselves in the venue dictated by management who consider themselves above any law, ethics or Australian values. We felt a degree of white supremacy agenda and racial preference. As Australian citizens and high earning professionals, we felt disgusted to witness this in 2024 Australia, let alone in a hospitality venue. We felt violated and looked down upon, no reasoning or rational given, they just wanted us out of their playground, utilising and lying to already biased police officers in order to shoe the brown people. We didn't want to believe this, however neither felt obligated to provide us with any particular reason why we should leave besides "intoxication", which we were clearly not! Police did not take the time to take a statement from us or deal with our concerns. Needless to say this incident darkened and ruined our Brisbane weekend. On our way out we spoke with people that were shocked to hear this but also said they are not totally surprised as the venue does have that selective type of vibe. Looking at previous reviews, it seems we are not the first to report of this conduct by security and management. As we consider legal action, this is to alert good people to avoid this venue and not support their cause and agenda, these types of businesses should be banned by aussies, tourists and all who support the core values of Australia, inclusiveness, freedom and equality for the sake of...

I'm not one to complain as I work in hospitality myself and understand how hard it can be at times. But I have never been so appalled by the attitudes of some of the staff at Mr Percival's. To start with, the man on the door was disgustingly rude. We waited in line for a total of 1.5 hours, after witnessing many people be let straight in before my friend went to ask why they were being let in straight away. We had tried to book a table for our night, but we're told they do not accept bookings for under 8 people. My friend asked multiple times why people were being let in before the people in the queue, and was told they had made bookings, even though noone checked any booking list for the majority of these people. She was also told that if we had emailed then we could have made a booking for two people. Why would we email when it's clearly stated there are no bookings for less than 8 patrons? The man in the door continued to spout lies about why certain people were let in and how their policy works, stating all bars and restaurants work that way, which I personally know is false. He also ignored any of the current social distancing rules, even though as we were in the queue we were regularly checked to make sure everyone was 1.5 metres apart, however he claimed because he was on the door those rules didn't apply to him. I understand 1 member of staff cannot be in charge of how we view a venue, and so I continue to a very rude member of bar staff who showed no etiquette when serving and was very rude when my friend asked if she could order a drink. I hate complaining or writing bad reviews about places as a member of hospitality myself, and always try to see the good in places, however my night was ruined by the disgust of the staff we encountered here and the unorganised manor of serving. I understand covid has made service harder and places are adapting but the interactions were disgraceful to us as paying customers. As I said, I like to see some positives in places, so I have given 2 stars rather than 1 as we had one lovely girl who showed us to our table, and the drinks were quite nice, even if the service was slow on those too. I hope something can be done to sort out the service here as I had heard good reviews of the place and had high hopes, and would hope this service does...

I made a booking for 14 people as I had a colleague and his family visiting from the US who asked me for a recommendation for all of us to have a meal. I had previously been to Mr Percival’s and have enjoyed the food and the drinks so paired with the location, it seemed an easy choice. What we experienced tonight was a total embarrassment for me and we will not be returning.

We placed two orders through, one at 722pm and one at 733pm. Within 20 minutes all of the pizzas that we ordered were delivered to the table (6 in total). Of the remaining meals and sides, only one was delivered after this. Around 820pm, I spoke with a lovely young lady by the name of Abbey to enquire how much longer we should expect to be waiting for the remainder of the meals. Abbey printed out our receipt and cross checked what we had ordered (docket and my confirmation emails) vs what we had received and then proceeded to speak with the kitchen to have this rectified. We received our last meals at 850pm which included sides of sweet potato fries and a salad. I am astounded how this could happen as it was not busy being a Tuesday night.

I accept that Abbey offered us a dessert to compensate us for our experience but by then the damage had been done and we did not want to risk any further wait time to take her up on it. She also refunded one meal. Further comments from our group was the that the food some received was cold and chewy (steak frites) and the salad had no dressing or oil on it. As I said, a complete embarrassment which left me apologising to my colleague for even suggesting Mr Percival’s. I don’t work in hospitality but I do know that it does not take an hour plus to cook any of the food we waited on especially the salad or the sweet potato fries which came out near last. We will not be returning and I would not recommend Mr Percival’s to anybody after this experience.

To end on a positive note, I would like to thank Abbey for her assistance tonight. She was extremely pleasant, empathetic and apologetic after learning of our situation. We understand that this wasn’t her fault and the blame clearly lies within some IT system or the back of house function. Either way, it is evident that whatever is in place currently is...