Patina at Customs House — Restaurant in Brisbane City

I have an issue with the dining spaces here. Inside is super elegant and looks awesome, but there's also two outdoor areas - one more formal and the other with a fantastic view of the bridge. How am I supposed to choose? They're all fantastic. Service is excellent and you can tell they have some high-brow clientele through here. Polished. I had the occy for entree and to be totally honest I wouldn't get it again. Bit tough. I'm forgiving of this though because I've tried to cook octopus before and my goodness what a trainwreck that was. Absolutely inedible. To get it right isn't easy and man, when I cooked octopus it was so far from being right it was left. Theirs was at least nice enough to be worth finishing, save for the overabundance of coriander. For real though what is with restaurants and coriander? Ease up. Worth noting on the entrees that the oysters would be some of the best fresh oysters i've ever had. Ooh la lah. As for mains I had the eye fillet and it was fantastic. Cooked medium-rare. Not how I ordered it but it was the right call from the chef for that particular piece of meat and I respect that. The mushroom was nice and buttery in flavour but texturally was chewy and a little disappointing. The giant leaf seemed unnecessary but surprisingly I enjoyed it. I paired this main with the Kangaroo Island cab franc which had a bouquet of peppered fruit and was right on the money in terms of pairing. My father (whom I treated to dinner for his 60th birthday here) had the seafood platter. It comes with a lot of rocks which is deceptive because there's actually not as much food there as you think. That said it's enough for one. No finger bath or towel provided for the seafood platter either which was inconvenient to say the least. Thankfully at 60 you're not precious about anything so it wasn't a big deal. As to desserts. My oh my. What a standout. For me, there are few sweet things I enjoy. Two of these are doughnuts and sticky date pudding and would you believe my luck, on the dessert menu is a doughnut FILLED with sticky date. It's incredible. Try it. Even if you hate doughnuts and sticky date this is truly a taste of heaven on earth. My old man had the creme brulee. His marriage was tested when it slipped (probably due to a few wines) that this brulee was on par with my mother's. My mother (whom we all love and cherish), makes a mean brulee, so this is high praise. Even though some things werent quite on point, the dining experience here is well worth it so five stars boys -...

Do I write a good review or a bad one? This meal had elements of both. I'll write a good review because the restaurant righted their wrong so the dinner turned out well. However, they made mistakes with the order that no fine restaurant should make.

In our group of 3 we had one who was celebrating a big event and he ordered 3 courses. The other two ordered just one dish (a main) each. See the end of the review to read about the mistake(s).

The setting is immaculate being right on the river with wonderful views of Story Bridge.

Our main person had quail for appetiser, swordfish for main & tiramisu for dessert. He was happy with all of them. As he told the restaurant when making the reservation it was a celebration they also provided him a complementary dish saying "Congratulations". It was unexpected and a nice touch.

The others had a main dish of red emperor and wagyu beef flank. Again, both were good with positive feedback.

Overall this is a good restaurant in an unbeatable location. I'm happy we chose it to mark our special event.

Now the bad news. Their menu is confusing. You can order dishes on a course by course basis, or you can order 2 dishes at a set price or 3 dishes for another set price. To make it more challenging the appetisers are listed on the menu as being shared, while mains & desserts are served individually. We had one person ordering the 3 course meal and two ordering just the main course. It was quite confusing. They also gave us a trainee waitress who thought Shiraz is a white wine.

When the meals were served they brought out the appetiser and the swordfish main dish at the same time. They also brought out the swordfish main dish for the second person at the same time as the first person was served the appetiser. I sent back both main dishes as they should be served after the appetiser was finished. The service staff then came to us and said there was only one swordfish left so would we be OK with substituting the second one with a red emperor? And this is why I'm sure they cooked new dishes and didn't just reheat the old ones because when the mains were served there was only one swordfish and one red emperor. So while I'm disappointed in the serving mixup, I'm impressed that they fixed it properly and didn't try to...

After reading so many positive reviews about Patina I was looking forward to a wonderful meal. The menu read so well that it was difficult to make a decision with regard to what to order. Ultimately we ordered the scallops, the octopus, the roasted cauliflower and the slow roasted lamb shoulder.

The service is very good, friendly and helpful. A real positive and something Patina can be very proud of. The seating inside could do with a little bit more of an inspired decor but is nice none the less.

First to arrive were the scallops, the octopus and the roasted cauliflower. The scallops were slightly over cooked and the chorizo crumb was far too coarse and in a quantity where it completely overpowers what should be a sweet delicate flavour of the scallops.

The octopus was bland, the balance in the dressing was missing completely, with a complete lack of acidity. It would have been far better served with a some caviar or even salmon roe on top to add that slight texture surprise and salty burst than the poorly contrived olive pieces.

The roasted cauliflower, simply wonderful. The texture, the balance it was so simple yet perfect. If only we had ordered multiple servings of this.

For the main we had the slow roasted lamb shoulder with a side of char grilled broccolini. It was succulent, soft falling apart, but that's where it ended. It hadn't been seasoned, there was no sign of salt or pepper. Plus it was completely overpowered by the lemon slices they had added to the cook. For some reason it was completely bitter. I can only imaging it was cooked with far too much pith and or seeds from the lemon.

The char grilled broccolini was just a little over charred.

I can tell the produce they use is top notch. It's unfortunate that some simple mistakes led to an ordinary experience.

Please note I write reviews to provide constructive feedback in the hope that the next person hopefully has a...