Stones Corner Hotel — Restaurant in Brisbane City

Terrible, but worst was the attitude of the manager who offered complimentary main and entree if I came back, but NOT prepared to simply refund my money for the most appalling tough, chewy, dry snapper that they charged $30 for. This was two years ago so the price will have gone up. But my review 'disappeared' so I am re-posting it.

The thing about an offer like this is that it actually means they make more money out of the fact they served you terrible food in the first place, because you have to go back and spend more money just to use the disingenuous offer of a free meal. Was I dining by myself when they served the awful food? No, so when I go back, I'd be with my family of 4 and we would spend another $150 just for everyone else to eat and drink so I could have my "free" main. He said he was sorry but not sorry enough to do what I preferred and refund the meal that should never have been served. And actually IGNORED my emails requesting that instead of a free meal, he simply refund my money.

I ate in with my family on Monday night. My sister ordered for herself and I ordered for my family about 2-3 minutes later. Her meal and one of our meals came within about 10 mins. The other meals took 35 minutes to arrive from the time we ordered. My sister and my daughter had finished eating theirs by the time the other meals arrived. When you go out to dinner, it's sort of the expectation that you all eat together.

The staff are unobservant and it was impossible to grab their attention, like they aren't looking around so they dont get asked fr anything. At one point, I called out "Excuse me" twice to a retreating waitress but she either ignored or did not hear me. When they brought out the first two meals, why did the waitress not then follow up with the kitchen about the rest? Ive been a waitress so I know that to provide good service you need to be observant, pro-active and engaged. There's more to it than ferrying meals from the kitchen. We sat there waiting patiently for quite some time before it got to the point of being ridiculous. I got up and found a staff member and was told she would "check again". I don't think there was any "checking" prior to this as this was the first time I had said anything and the staff seemed oblivious (or completely unconcerned) to the fact we were sitting there without meals.

The meals finally came out and we received an apology for the long wait, however my fish (grilled snapper) was barely edible. Having waited so long, I did eat half of it but it was terrible. It was dry, tough and chewy and tasted as though it had been sitting in the fridge for a week or more. It had not seen the ocean (or the fish farm) for a very long time. At $30, I felt completely let down after such a long wait to receive such a bad quality meal. The other meals were okay, though the side salad was all lettuce and chunky grated carrot and onion. I think there was one piece of tomato. The side vegetates I ordered were close to raw, especially the cauliflower which was noticeably grey on top. I offered it around the table - "Would anyone like some mouldy cauliflower?" Cauliflower is a long lasting vegetable so this one was literally many weeks old.

The margarita pizza is advertised as having "fresh basil" - it's the first ingredient listed. We didn't get fresh basil, we got parsley. Not quite the same.

Don't bother going here. The food is ordinary at best and the manager doesn't care.

Edit: To answer your question, the review was visible on my account but not on visible to the public, thus I still had the text to re-post. If you had simply refunded me for food which should never have been served in the first place, I wouldn't have written this review and now two years later, making sure this time people will see it! My hope in re-posting this is that it does more financial harm to your business than it would have cost to refund me, which is what you would have done if you were genuinely sorry about the food you...

Edit July 2023. The new photo is of a g&t, tall glass lots of ice. You can actually get this if you go to the bar and persuade the staff...

July 2023 Before anyone asks why I have returned to this place, it is the closest pub to my house and every couple of years I sincerely hope it has improved. Alas since Paul left the place has just gotten progressively worse as in the staff could not care less, the food is sometimes ok, but sometimes really bad. The photo of the drink is an order made through the app for a g&t, tall glass lots of ice. Obviously the price of electricity has gone up so much that one ice cube is now considered lots of ice... and according to the staff a tumbler is a tall glass, why have options if you are going to ignore them?

August 2022 Thought we would give them another chance seeing we just wanted some buffalo wings and chips. Wrong, the buffalo wings which used to be nice are now not buffalo wings anymore, just coated in ABC chili sauce. I didn't think it was possible for the place to get worse / cheaper on their ingredients but they have succeeded in going even further down hill. Service once again was non existent aka bad service 2022 review - where do I start?

So Paul has gone and with him has gone the good service, apart from you Caitlyn you were fab!!!!.

Every thing else is bad, where is my service, where is my menu? Why am I paying more to get no service????

Alh why are you doing this to us?

.Wish I could give it less than one star. Since I moved to the area 13 years I occasionally give it another chance. And it disappoints, the service is just so bad, the food is okay if you can actually get someone to take your order. I wish they could get their act together but...

Average at best is the best way to describe this chain pub. It is what it is, like most suburban pubs that are all owned by a National chain. I hate to say it but food out of all of their kitchens is cookie cutter mass produced kind of gear, it’s lazy cheffing at best. It’s hit and miss when it comes to quality. Tonight we ordered a prawn and chorizo pizza as it has been good in the past, this time round though well below average sorry. For $2-$3 more I could have got an exceptional pizza at Sasso up the road. My wife ordered the chicken and leek pie that basically fell apart into the gallons of watery gravy and also watery mash to form this sloppy mess. Needless to say she didn’t eat much of any of it. Do the chefs try they food their kitchens push out at a premium price? I doubt it. Being a chef or cook for this group would destroy my soul, it’s just so bloody average and we as consumers accept it because, well what are you going to do? I overheard a manager say to another table, can I tempt you in a desert? They said No sorry, he replied with, even if it’s on me if you leave a review? I got in trouble from my manager for not getting enough reviews. Gee I wonder why when your kitchen is putting out such average quality food at what is not cheap prices. Anyway I hate to rag on my local pub, but cmon guys you can do better than this, anyone who is even remotely passionate about food and hospitality wants to make people happy with what goes over the pass, it’s why you do the job. If you don’t have that passion, even at a chain owned pub, then find another job. C’Mon Stonsey lift you’re game, things are a bit shit, take some pride in...