Balboa Italian Restaurant — Restaurant in Gold Coast City

Had a booking on 1st Feb 2025 Saturday evening 5:45pm for B Wilson.

My wife and I were gifted a voucher from Christmas by our family, so we decided to come here for our anniversary dinner.

The night started off well, we arrived a couple minutes early and the nice gentleman was happy to escort us to our bar table upstairs in the balcony area.

We were greeted by the blonde waitress that served us for the night. Things were actually nice at the start, it started to rain a little bit and the other waitresses upstairs came and checked on us to see if we wanted the cover down. We ordered 2 soft drinks (and an extra soft drink later on), 2 entree's (aricini and garlic pizza), 2 mains (lamb backstrap and Rigatoni alle Carbonara) and a side of chips.

Around 6:10pm we received our entree's and our 2 soft drinks which were actually great. My wife and I finished up around 10 minutes later - to which the blonde waitress commented "Wow, you guys did so well". We told her that we've had a long week at work and were excited to have our first meal here. She then proceeded to set up our cutlery for mains.

This is where the night went downhill for us. My wife and I literally watched everyone else around us receive their entree's, drinks and mains for the next hour. At around 6:50pm we actually had to ask one of the other waitresses about our mains, and the blonde waitress got back to us 5 minutes later saying that we should receive it shortly - as there was a delay in the kitchen for some reason.

This was strange as we had ordered our entree's and mains earlier around 5:45pm. If you're serving others on the same floor surely you would notice something is off when you've set up cutlery for your customers but haven't delivered mains.

Our mains didn't come until 7:10pm that night. My lamb backstrap was okay ... small portion for $44 and it was a bit uncooked in the middle. The chips were burnt, only ate the unburnt chips and left the rest. My wife's rigatoni was actually decent however was put off towards the end of the night due to no communication on the wait time for our food. The blonde waitress came back 5 minutes later to check on us, she saw that I had quickly finished my lamb and loudly said in front of the other customers 'Wow, you didn't just eat that... you inhaled that' and laughed awkwardly. We shortly asked for our receipt so we could leave after such a bad experience.

Honestly, throughout the night we were not given a 'sorry about the wait' or any compensation for receiving mains around 7:10pm when we ordered at 5:45pm.

At 7:18pm we paid using a $150 voucher, and had to pay an extra $14 on card which was not explained to us. The blonde waitress just showed us the receipt covered by the card machine. In total we ordered 3 soft drinks, 2 entree's (aricini and garlic pizza), 2 mains (lamb backstrap and Rigatoni alle Carbonara) and a side of chips. We just left immediately.

Would be a 1 star review in general for food and atmosphere if it wasn't for the nice gentlemen that led us to our tables and the entree's. Won't be returning any time soon. And we hope you do something about the blonde waitress who served and treated us poorly...

We live in the other end of the Gold Coast from Palm Beach where Balboa Italian is located, but kept hearing good things about the restaurant. It did not disappoint.

The two level brick restaurant, with its sophisticated yet warm design, had plenty of indoor and outdoor seating, but still felt intimate. Not that it’s what we were looking for with our 4-year-old daughter with us.

We sat upstairs along the railing next to the balcony, overlooking the trendy bar area. All the staff were very welcoming. Our server was professional and very nice. The customer service felt as good as I used to get back in my home country of Canada. Attentive.

The food is where Balboa made its lasting impression and will guarantee our return. My wife had the truffle gnocchi, I had the Carnivore pizza, and my daughter had a generous sized margarita pizza off the kids menu. We had the chips (fries) with truffle seasoning to start. Yum. Our meals were incredible. My wife raved about it from start to finish. The table next to us ordered some fancy colour changing drinks and my daughter exclaimed “Can I sit at their table?”

The only sore point was half of the staff weren’t wearing their masks properly. We’re under a mask mandate right now and, mostly the male staff, had them pulled below their noses. Our server wore hers the whole time and set a good example. We appreciated it.

They had onsite parking, but the driveway to it was blocked off for some reason. Perhaps they only open it for the evening?

After our delicious meal we walked around the corner to the beach and watch our daughter laugh with delight as the water lapped around her feet.

We’ll definitely recommend this restaurant to friends and family, and hopefully get a chance to visit as a couple on some future romantic date. But parents of toddlers know how difficult that can be :)

Thanks for the...

Okay so this one will be a bit longer but I got the names of everything. This is a very beautiful Italian restaurant, hidden in the heart of Palm Beach. If your one to try new things this place will blow you away, I felt like I had gone back to Venice. Staff are attentive, but also give you time, perfect staff in my opinion. The chefs I can not regard high enough, their work with the hand made pasta is amazing. Bar tenders know exactly how to combine anything for anyone's taste buds. We paid $125 for the following(I haven't added the drinks because well their selection is huge, we chose 4 drinks to suit our taste palette) but for what we got ummm I was expecting to pay over $200. HIDDEN GEM!!!! Entree: Fiori di zucca ripieni: Zucchini flowers stuffed with truffle ricotta and vegetable caponata Bruschetta alla Milanese: Genova style focaccia, smoked eggplant purée, home made cheese yoghurt, paprika aioli, fresh herbs CAN NOT RECOMMEND ENOUGH, DEFINITELY GIVE IT A GO. I chose these because they are things I would never be able to do myself or be an item I would choose everyday. I am all for trying new things.

Main: Roasted lamb cannelloni: Black cabbage, porcini béchamel, parmesan, tomato confit, black truffle mushroom sauce Beef cheek gnocchi: Beef cheek, roma tomato, button mushroom, parsley, chilli, truffle oil

O. M. G if you want something to absolutely blow you away well... this is it. It was put together so exquisitely, the combination of flavours and texture. Wow. My partner has the gnocchi and he loved it.

Desert: Blueberry doughnuts, lemon curd, vanilla gelato and something. Haha can't get the name of it but holy smokes. Guys this is now my go to. Hand made doughnuts with everything else creates an explosion of flavour....