Stanley Restaurant — Restaurant in Brisbane City

Can't fault the atmosphere here, absolutely stunning view & perfect weather in the evening.

Unfortunately the food was not as up to par as I thought considering the prices.

I met my friend at Stanley who was already seated, and it took 15 minutes for a waiter to simply provide us water. No waiter seemed willing to take our order so I waved them over & the guy didn't seem too impressed/was in a rush. Considering we ordered our food items first which was the banquet, he was about to rush off when I asked if we could order drinks as well. Of which he obliged, and then my friend stated his drink order of a cocktail. Then he was about to leave & then I told him "ummm, could I order my drink as well?" which was a bottle of Sparkling Water. He then leaves & then comes back with the list of the banquet which was nice for us to see while we ate so I'll give him so pointers there. But then service was short again after that. For one, I never received my bottle of sparkling water, which was annoying. I know the sparkling water is free flow as well, but I specifically asked for a bottle anyway knowing that they were going to take so long to refill our waters. And I was right as they really never refilled our glasses unless asked. With consideration of every "fine dining" venue I've been to, the expectation typically is if I finish drinking my water, I would like some more unless I say so. Call me snobbish but eh, it is what it is. Also, one of the waiters dropped a fork on my foot when trying to put it in the bowl for one of the mains & apologised which was fine, I get that this stuff happens so no need to be dramatic. But it would've been nice if he actually got us another fork and put it back in the bowl instead of leaving us hanging.

Onto the food now.

We had the "experience banquet" for 2 with the add on of the black angus with oyster mushrooms and black pepper sauce. So the total for the banquet was $88 + $16 = $104pp.

The King Salmon tosazu, olive oil and green chilli salsa was alright, salmon didn't taste as fresh though.

The cucumber & salad, enoki and sesame dressing was amazing though so props there.

The stanley signature steamed dim sum platter was mediocre. I've had better at my local Chinese.

Duck & Vermicelli spring roll was also just okay, a bit bland.

Hot & Tangy Chicken was pretty good, and had that good "tang".

Steamed QLD Coral Trout was nice, especially the ginger & shallot with soy they've added into it.

Fried rice was pretty bland. Not enough salt or MSG for that matter to give it that nice umami taste like other places.

Steamed Asian Greens & Oyster sauce was too salty making it too overwhelming.

Stir fried black angus with oyster mushrooms & Black pepper sauce was alright, again a bit too salty.

Lastly, dessert was alright at best. The pineapple with vanilla gelato & lime sago was meh. Couldn't taste much of the pineapple.

Overall, Stanley has seen a decline in quality compared to when I last visited back in 2023. My friends agree as well that the food has gone down in quality, & the service has also fallen dramatically. For the prices we're paying, as well as being situated at Howard Smith Wharves, the expectations are high, thus making the experience subpar. I hope they can improve & would be keen...

2021 review: This is a long review, but necessary. We booked for the CNY banquet, however was not told nor was it written anywhere on the advertised menu/ reservation/ the "what's on" section or on their Instagram posts that the banquet is for a group of 4 minimum.

Seeing it was a very special event and we booked a week in advance, we clearly noted in our reservation that we wanted the CNY banquet for 2 people. We just wished someone emailed or called to notify us beforehand regarding our booking, then we wouldn't have gone here for CNY.

Anyway, when we arrived our waiter suggested we ordered "for 4 persons" if we wanted the banquet still, which obviously we politely declined and went ahead with the ala carte menu.

Overall the dishes were okay but overpriced. The Peking duck was good. The dim sum platter was okay, generous filling but very sticky skin. Definitely overprice for the Coral trout (3 slices for $44). The rice was undercooked, dry and hard .. shocking!

Service was underwhelming and disappointing. Repeatedly trying to get attention from the many, many staff that walked around but seemed uninterested nor making any eye contact. In the end, we just gave up trying to order anymore dishes or drinks because it was taking too long!

Also, not once did anyone ask if our food or drinks or anything was okay, even as we were paying. Just wow.

Definitely not a fine dining restaurant.

At least, the cocktails were great and the restaurant is stunning.

But.. I doubt I'll go again.

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2019 review: Good, not great. Had the $88 banquet in the private dining room. Stand out dishes of the night were the salt and pepper prawns, sashimi and pipis with crispy noodles. All the others were just okay - fried rice quite bland, sweet and sour pork too sweet.

Cocktails were amazing especially Hong Kong Sons, Stanley Highball and Mr Xu? Don't quite remember their names.

Service could be better. It was chaotic and timing was also off, for example going around asking if we wanted a drink out loud in the middle of a speech. Sometimes they were 3-4 waiters in the room and at times they were none. Also took a very long time to get our drinks. Not exactly...

The absence of customer service and ordinary food shocked and disappointed me.

Expensive and overrated, I emailed them to provide my feedback and they didn’t even bother to respond.

Super proud of Brisbane, I was mega embarrassed by the unwelcoming and shambolic experience for what should have been one the most memorable 50ths in such an iconic location.

The birthday boy who paid a small fortune, booked well in advance and travelled from the Blue Mountains should have had the best night celebrating with friends.

Instead, right from the get go we got asked about our booking with no counter staff aware of it, then sending us upstairs after finding his partner’s name (we clearly named both) where no one had a clue either.

After being asked no less than six times by staff for our booking we got told well after our 6pm booking that there was a table downstairs. More questions and then we stood around waiting for it to be ready.

When it was, we sat down and, following some dietary questions, the banquet items started arriving. Food was plonked on our table with no explanation or idea on what food was coming or when.

There were two vegetarian baskets with two dumplings. Other food arrived slowly but again no idea of what was in them or how to know if items were for the rest of us, were vegetarian or what was coming.

Throughout our meal, there were extended periods of no table service which meant we couldn’t get a glass of wine for the birthday boy and the table was a filthy mess with uncleared plates and items that had fallen off dishes left sitting there.

Having been to a lunch catch up at a very busy restaurant of similar scale in the suburbs, the customer service and friend satisfaction ratings stood in stark contrast to this disorganised and uncaring experience.

I’m truly upset that these guests paid so much money to be treated so poorly on such a special occasion.

The whole experience left a bad taste in many of our mouths and hole in their bank balance. I won’t be back.

If you want somewhere special for dinner, save yourself the expense and disappointment and go somewhere with memorable food and service...