Walter's Steakhouse and Wine Bar — Restaurant in Brisbane City

My son took me to Walters for a special occasion, I was excited to go as I'd only ever looked through the window where it looked inviting.

On arrival we were told our table wasn't ready, this was just over 17:15 hrs, we were asked to wait in the bar and we'd be called when the table was ready. There were a few other folks waiting in there and after about 10 minutes they were escorted into the dining room. Other folks were arriving and they were taken straight through to the dining room. After approx. 15 minutes I spoke with the maitre d', quite clearly she had forgotten us, we were then whisked, at speed, through to the far end of the dining room to be seated on the banquette. This banquette clearly has seen better days, I'm not tall but I felt like a child at a tall table, my son who's over 6' swapped places with me and even he felt short. The banquette desperately needs to be re upholstered.

The dining room, whilst being large does have a cosy feel, it has been well designed with the dark woods and dim lighting. Having lived in NY for a number of years, the owners have captured a bit of a New York vibe.

Anyhow, after being offered water we sat there and waited and waited and waited. After 15 minutes I got up and wandered looking for a menu, the maitre d' asked what I was doing when I said 'looking for a menu' she rather brusquely replied "we'll bring it to you, we'll bring it to you", I bit my lip as I was so tempted to ask when, bear in mind we'd been there over 30 minutes already.

I don't know how the servers are set up in Walters but we had one take our order, one deliver the order, one ask if every was okay and finally another one that cleared away. However, each of them was friendly and efficient, I just hope they pull their tips, I'd hate to think the last one got all the cash tip I left.

The menu was duly produced and we ordered, I went for the NY strip, my son opted for the eye fillet we also order a couple of sides each. Each side was lovely, my son enjoyed his medium eye fillet but I have to say my medium NY strip was best described as chewy, I'm sorry to say but I've eaten a lot better steaks in pubs.

The whole experience wasn't memorable and in some respects disappointing especially for my son as he paid the bill that was just under $300, this included 2 drinks each.

Would I go back again - no - would I recommend the place, well there are a lot of 5* reviews singing Walters praises so maybe we were just unlucky but, I'd be unwilling to take the expensive...

Made booking on-line, added details about the occassion (50th birthday) and dietary limitations, even picture of us so that the venue "can recognize and greet us at arrival". The additional details were duly ignored and 100% unnoticed by the venue. Not a good start.

The dinner room is extremely noisy with no sound isolation at the walls, we had hard time hearing each other and the waiting staff.

Experience when arriving to the table was disappointing; utensils and water glass were worn and scratchy, table was sticky, salt dispenser had solid layer of grease on it.

Service didn't heighten the experience either. Few things that draw the down experience; waiter reached over my partner's plate to fill my wine glass (ot the other side of the table!), bread and butter plates were not cleared during the meal (even that we put them clearly aside), water glasses were not filled after the water bottle was brought to table, wine glasses not filled without asking (we bought a full bottle and asked to kept off-table in the cooler).

Food was a mixed bag. Bread hard and tasteless, beef tartare and mushrooh tarte tatin starters were quite nice. Lamb and fish mains were ok, fish actually good. Of sides the creamed spinach side was very good. I was really looking forward for the cauliflower side dish, unfortunately it was burned and taste was ruined, and thus returned to kitchen.

When returning the cauliflower and not wanting to have another one (because main course was already at the table!) we were asked if we wanted to remove the dish from order - that should be clear without a doubt! The waiter didn't offer any compensation, discount, glass of wine or anything to us. Didn't leave us feeling as valued customer. Maybe because we didn't order steak?!

After main course, when we declined dessert the waiter quite rudely said she'll get the bill, indicating we should leave the table at once. We had last seating of the evening and we had an hour left of the allocated time, so there was no rush... Anyway, the bill didn't come until we asked for it from another waiter after a decent wait.

All in all, this experience was not what we expected from the price level the Walters maintains. Food is just ok not great, service not good, the fact that you get smell of grease of your clothes after the evening doesn't improve the experience.

Walter's didn't meet our expectation not was value for the price level they ask for. Not...

Our evening of six best friends celebrating a birthday started off wonderfully. I had one of the best martinis I’ve ever had, in the bar. The atmosphere at the beginning of our evening, including service, was exceptional even the Mattre D was cordial and remembered the birthday boys name. Two of the steaks we ordered were cooked to the incorrect doneness but this is something that does happen from time to time and did not ruin our evening. What did ruin our evening is the fact that we didn’t get sat for our 6 o’clock reservation until 6:25 and didn’t have entrees delivered to the table until 6:40 pm. By 8 pm we had finally ordered our dessert but before it arrived they rudely asked us to vacate the table as we were told they had a second sitting. I’ve been in the restaurant business a long time and you always have contingencies with an extra table or two for walk-ins or late diners. We told them we prefer not to move to the lounge to have our dessert but they insisted we do so which dampened the entire evening. We told the waiter, who was excellent, that we were disgruntled by this but throughout the rest of our time there no manager acknowledge does or came to discuss it with us or apologize. Worse yet, the six of us had to go to the only table left in the lounge which had five stools and one of us had to stand, for the dessert serving. They decided to turn down their dessert as they didn’t want to eat it standing but we were served and charged for it anyway. No discussion from any management at the restaurant and we all left there knowing we would never return. Terrible management. The arriving late diners at 8 pm could’ve been offered a drink in the lounge instead so we could finish our desserts and leave by 815 or 820. Walters seems a good restaurant but the management team needs training in customer service. I am sure they will rebut this review with their statement that you only had two hours to dine and vacate but when they take so long to serve you, they must put plans in place to ensure customer satisfaction. It is restauranteurism 101. Next time we’ll take our...