Shingle Inn City Hall — Restaurant in Brisbane City

We went as a group outing to see the concert in city hall. Booked lunch for after, well ahead of time and the free concert is a regular event in the hall. On the internet when we researched the Shingle Inn, the choices looked great and I have had many very positive experiences at the Shingle Inn in Browns Plains. In fact they are 5 stars every visit.

They seated us outside the venue which was great considering our group size, so excellent for our groups social outing thankyou for this space. There was only 1 item on the menu that was gluten free for lunch which is very poor in this day and age. So I had no choice at all. We had to chase my meal up at the end as everyone else had eaten. The Fritatta was so watery I could not eat it and the salad tasted like it had a blue cheese dressing on it which I can not eat and made the plate just smelt awful (this was not the stated dressing in the menu).

3x members of the group ordered chicken and avocado sandwiches but there was no avocado (they had run out). 1 x member questioned this on ordering and was given extra chicken but the others were not but were still charged full price. Honestly, the meals were sub par, the lack of choice ridiculous. The staff did their best with the tools they had but mixed up about 3 drink orders, bringing out wrong coffees, doubling up on some of the coffees and then just the delays on the meals themselves and forgetting a meal, etc... The iced chocolate one member had even seem to curdle in the glass and so she stopped drinking it.

The most successful dish one member had would have been the pumpkin soup. I don't think you can mess that up though.

We drove 1.5 hours for the concert and a lovely lunch. Enjoyed the concert and the social outing as we always do, but wish lunch was somewhere else and will be next time. ☹️ .................................................................................... MY REPLY to Kathy (Head Office) as I can find no other way to reply. Your response only means that maybe you were not advised there would be one Coeliac amongst the group. This does not address any of the issues I have raised about the food. Your standard menu only has ONE option on it. There are NO allowances to have anything else catered to someone requiring GF. The missing Avocado and the fact that alternatives or a partial subsidy were not offered are not okay. The curdling Iced Chocolate is not okay. I am happy that you took the time to read my review and respond. It is wonderful when businesses can learn from their mistakes, but passing the buck on all issues because you were not informed of one Coeliac amongst the group does not help anyone. When you know you have multiple bookings on a day and one group of 12 coming in, wouldn't you ensure you have extra stock on most items. Thank you for your response...

It was my first time visiting Shingle Inn, taking my parents there who were visiting from overseas. Unfortunately, I need to agree with a lot of the recent reviews on here that the service was very poor with mediocre food and drinks. We only started reading the reviews whilst we were waiting for our order to be taken. We arrived shortly after what looked like it must have been a fairly busy lunch period, as all the tables outside were empty (of people) but absolutely covered in dirty plates and glasses. However, it appeared the inside was just as bad. There were plenty of empty tables, but every one of them dirty. Upon waiting to be seated, we had to wait another 5-10 minutes before a table could be cleaned for us, with the young waiter, carrying things back to the kitchen one by one by hand, (may I suggest you invest in a trolley so you can clean more than two things at once off a table) and then obviously being instructed to take things out of the kitchen to other tables between visits (and I believe getting distracted by another customer who seemed to be reporting an issue with their high tea). Once we were seated inside there was about six tables occupied with a total about twenty customers in total and I visibly saw five staff, so in my opinion, past the lunch time rush. Unfortunately, all the empty tables surrounding us were still dirty by the time we left an hour later. The young lady who was doing the majority of the till work, seemed to not be doing much behind the till, when I feel her time could have been much better spent clearing and helping the younger gentleman waiters who although were doing a lot of walking around, they were not really achieving much (when they could have utilised every walk back to the kitchen by collecting some dirty items). I reckon five minutes of 'ok everyone lets get all these tables cleared' would have done the job to make it look a lot more pleasant,

It is sadly being let down by poorly trained staff and everyone looking very flustered, but not really getting much done.

The food and drink was average. We ordered an almond milk milkshake, but advised the cream and icecream it was served with wouldn't be dairy free, which was fine. When it was served, no cream and ice cream in sight. I ordered the frittata, but it was more like an omelette. The fish burger did look nice, and the chips were very pleasant.

Overall, it means I probably won't be back, unless the reviews start to improve. It's a shame, as the venue is quite quaint and lovely. Hopefully, the owners listen to all this feedback and makes some much needed changes to turn it around! If I do ever return and it is improved, I will have no hesitation in updating this review to...

Have been to the Shingle Inn several times over the past few years and have enjoyed the experience in those previous visits. However today was disappointing. They were moderately busy but we were seated quickly. My partner and I both ordered the Devonshire Tea (I chose coffee and my better half chose jasmine tea). On the table were upturned glasses for the complimentary tap water but no water was offered at the time of our order being taken, however we asked the male staff member that delivered our Devonshire Tea for some water..............and waited...............and waited.............and waited. Well despite many other tables being provided with water it became an impossible task to gain the attention of either of the staff working the floor. Until eventually after much hand waving (it's a tiny and compact area inside) we finally got the attention of the male staff member (yes the same one we asked originally) although the mature female staff member remarked that she would provide water to us.................and promptly began to pour water for other guests before serving us. Which almost felt like it was done on purpose......... Well OK you may be thinking we were a bit precious and complaining about a "first world problem", but hear me out, we had just walked several kilometres on a bright Brisbane sunshine day in approximately 27° temperatures, we were paying customers, and needless to say we were thirsty. The shingle Inn obviously kept overturned glasses on the table to easily provide water to their guests but despite that it was just a disappointing and frustrating part of our visit. The Devonshire Tea was the fairly standard - 2 X microwaved scones, a ramekin each of cream and jam and included a hot drink of your choice. They weren't exceptional but no better or worse than most places. What will keep me coming back is the rather quaint historic atmosphere of the place but if you don't like hard back solid wood compact booth style seating, this is probably not a place for you.

In closing I would like to mention that this beautifully historic location does appeal to me and I expect I will return next time I am visiting Brisbane. However the staff could be considerably more warm, welcoming and observant (eyes on a swivel) than they...