The Spaghetti House — Restaurant in Brisbane City

Came for a dinner to celebrate my graduation and my experience was ABYSMAL. From service to drinks and mains - here's my unfiltered honest experience. Skip to the bottom for ratings out of 10 and over all recommendation.

From the moment we sat down our waitress seemed annoyed. I asked which cream dish was most popular and she listened every dish with cream and said I can order any dish with cream/extra cream. We ordered our appetiser and drinks. When we ordered drinks she largely ignored me and spoke to my date. She said we could order a spirit with sugar free lemonade but after a moment, said they didn't have the mixer. That on its own was totally fine and told her I'd have a French Martini instead. When she read the order back she hadn't removed the spirit and she was told again that it's a French Martini instead - again not a big issue and had it been just that I wouldn't have bother with a review but it gets worse.

We asked her to return in 2 minutes for the mains order. Several minutes later we're attempting to wave her down multiple times which goes unnoticed. The table beside us was getting cleared and I asked that waitress if we could order mains. She goes to get our waitress (her words) but returns herself for our order. I got the Gnocchi lobster, a dish with cream already in it and ask for extra cream and the other main was the Risotto funghi with chicken - an option listed on the menu.

The appetiser, Bruschetta, was devine. It was perfectly balanced and flavourful, a stark contrast to the mains. The drinks too were delicious and balanced.

Between the appetisers and mains I attempted to wave down any of the waitstaff with a wave and an 'excuse me' which were unnoticed/ ignored again. The table beside us was getting served by another staff member and my date loudly got her attention and ordered a second drink.

15 or so minutes later with no drink our first waitress returns and I ask her where the drink was? -she returns with my drink that had clearly been sitting out several minutes judging by the condensation and the not quite cold temperature. It was delicious though and on pa with the first. But it gets worse.

The mains were delivered by the staff who took our order and I immediately noticed the sauce  was a dark orange shade and not extra creammy as I had ordered. I flagged this with the waitress immediately as she sat my plate down, she told me it was right and walked away.

The flavour was overly acidic and tangy with no indication of the creaminess I ordered. The gnocchi was fluffy and light which was the only positive of the dish. My date swapped meals with me because again my attempts to flag down waitstaff were unnoticed and I was getting frustrated. His Risotto was heavy with a gruel like texture and the chicken was tough and rubbery. I again try multiple times to flag down staff and eventually give up on having an enjoyable meal.

After 1/3 of the risotto and some gnocchi with as little sauce as I could possibly get our first waitress returns and we ask for the check and a takeaway box. My date asked why I wanted the box and I told him that I thought he liked the Risotto but he agreed it was unpleasant so I rejected the container when she returned.

When paying she asks for the first time how everything was and I was honest. I told her how unappetising the food was. She looked shocked and mumbled an apology on behalf of the kitchen and told us she'd pass on our feedback on to the kitchen.

All in all;

Cocktails: 8/10 Bruschetta/appetiser: 9/10 Mains: 2/10 Service: 2/10

Recommendation: likely better in off peak times but for the price I'd expect...

It is not often that I leave a poor review, but in this circumstance, I must share our experience.

Our booking was for 7:00 pm, 4 adults, 1 child.

• minimum $50/head on Friday and Saturday It's in the T&C's of booking

Our dining experience started with our extremely arrogant, condescending waitress

We ordered the Bruschetta, Garlic Bread and Calamari for entrees. The Bruschetta was served on old, uncooked, cold bread The calamari (inclusive of baby octopus) was undercooked and, for the edible part, bland. The garlic bread was the best part of the ENTIRE dining "experience".

We waited an hour to be served our mains. 2 spaghetti, 1 pizza, 1 scallopini, 1 chicken parmi, 1 x kids schnitzel.

The spaghetti resembled the home brand version of tinned Heinz spaghetti. It was nothing more than pasty, sloppy mush (photo attached) - inedible The chicken parmi was burnt entirely on the bottom and sides, also inedible. (picture attached) The kids' menu schnitzel was so overcooked that it was dry, and the crumbs had pulled away from the cardboard chicken. She ate most of the fires that accompanied the meal as she was starving – inedible (picture attached) By this time it is 8:30pm The scallopini was served last and was cold – ate ¼ of the meal The pizza arrived with the scallopini. It had pools of liquid (felt like water, was definitely not oil or fat) on it, presumably from the half a dozen frozen prawns on top – also inedible (picture attached)

The "cardboard personality" the waitress asked how our meals were; besides the fact, the entire table of food was nearly untouched. We informed her of the situation. Her only solution was to return the scallopini to be re-heated; the thought of a $35 meal being zapped in the microwave was not appealing after we had all finished "eating". As for the other meals, she said she would get back to us, cleared 70% of the table. We waited 10 minutes. She did not return, so we left the table to pay. When it came time to pay, we were advised by the "manager" (by assumption) that the chicken parmi had been removed from the bill and a discount applied. She was shown images of the meals and acknowledged that the parmi was burnt but said the rest appeared fine. She couldn't care less about the issues raised and was quite abrupt and defensive about the honesty given about their service and food.

Considering we collectively ate 1/5th of our meals combined, the amount we still paid was ridiculous. If wish I would give it zero stars, I would, because that is what the entire experience deserved.

KFC or Hungry Jacks in the car park would have...

Update (14 Jan 24): As per below, Simon Raynor had invited me to engage with him further in relation to my dining experience on 23 Dec 23. I had forwarded an email to him the very same day; however, I have not since heard back from him which again is disappointing.

I understand that it is a busy time of year but if an invitation to further discuss the matter is made and a response immediately forwarded for that sole purpose, surely a three week timeframe is sufficient to expect a reply - otherwise it would seem that Simon's response to my experience, and possibly his similar responses to other negative reviews here, may simply seem as paying obligatory 'lip service'.

So Simon, could you please respond to my email dated 23 Dec 23?

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I arrived with my family and for my meal, I ordered the spaghetti marinara. I had noted on the menu that the meal was $39 so I was expecting a meal befitting of that price particularly regarding it’s freshness, flavour and portion size. Unfortunately however, the meal was very disappointing indeed. The portion size was quite small and there was a minimal amount of seafood in the meal. The meal also tasted quite bland apart from a hint of occasional chilli. Most disappointingly, I noted that the calamari in the entree and the main did not taste like actual calamari but rather the ‘formed/manufactured’ version. Real calamari has a slightly resistant and chewy texture of which the calamari that was served had none. Having caught and cooked many a squid in my day, I know what they should taste like and feel like on the palette. To further support this, I was informed by the manager when I queried about it, that the calamari is delivered frozen and pre-processed in a box and hence, there is next to no way of confirming that the calamari is actually the ‘real deal’ - apart from the staff admittance that it’s not actually ‘fresh’ produce. The only redeeming factor was that the spaghetti itself was cooked to absolute perfection - a slightly chewy texture. Other than that, the meal was very disappointing and a common conception amongst my three other family members present and certainly not worth the $240 bill. I look forward to chatting with you further about my...