Benowa Tavern — Restaurant in Gold Coast City

DO NOT RECOMMEND FOR FUNCTIONS!!!

Horrible experience with this tavern for a 21st birthday event starting at 6pm only given max 2 hours (from 4pm) to set up no staff members came to assist, offer help or even give a general welcome/safety procedure on the event, who is the main staff contact of the night, emergency exits, ect the functions coordinator Piper informed the set up party that the room wouldn’t be available until 4pm…then left without another conversation. The room was roughly set up how we wanted but communication with this staff member ceased at that point which left us alone for the majority of set up. with set up from 4pm onwards, sound check happened around 5-5:30pm. Was told by a staff member to lower the volume because tavern customer were eating dinner. If given appropriate time to set up, we could’ve completed sound check while customers were not eating dinner. Better yet, a door/another sliding panel should be used to fill in the massive empty gap between the function room and tavern area tavern has a noise cap at 10pm, so we comprised with the staff to complete our programme before 10pm. We were playing some final dance songs at 9:30pm when the manager on that shift Belinda told us to turn it down…despite the agreement of a noise cap at 10pm during the birthday persons thank you speech to the guests, Belinda interrupted announcing to everyone the noise had to be lowered. Not only was this completely inappropriate and only repeated a conversation just had, but killed the mood completely, especially when Belinda walked out yelling “Jesus Christ” and was heard by everyone in the function. Regarding more conversations with Belinda on the sound, a decibel reader was brought out which caught the sound reading in the appropriate range for that time period…

On one hand, the young bartender Daniel was excellent, great customer service and hospitality! Such a contrast to the often cold, distant and inappropriate comments and actions by other staff members.

As a paying client, the service and communication of the majority staff members was disappointing. A 21st birthday made special by the people attending, not the...

UPDATE2: Had the opportunity to visit Benowa tavern for some of the sporting events being broadcast on the big screen TV's again during the weekend. Really enjoyed the experience. Even though it was really busy with loads of people adding to the atmosphere, the food was great, did not take long to get to our table and all the staff were attentive, friendly and supportive of all supporters from both sides of the competition :) With loads of parking outside and plenty tables in various different areas within the tavern, inside and outside, I would definitely recommend Benowa tavern for an enjoyable experience.

UPDATE: Glad to report that we went back to Benowa Tavern for lunch yesterday and the Manager came over to take responsibility for our previous experience. Daniella was outstanding in taking care of our meals and continuously checked in with us to ensure everything was perfect. Thank you for the complimentary voucher and living up to the high level of service that we have gotten used to at Benowa Tavern.

ORIGINAL Our visit here on Friday night 9 August left me feeling embarrassed, hungry and sad. After paying for meals and drinks we sat down and waited. After 20 minutes a staff member informed us that the kitchen closes at 9 pm and the MANAGER says we placed our order at 9:02 and even though our order was accepted and paid for, because it was placed after 9, we will not be receiving our meals! The staff member was obviously embarassed......

Where is the managers backbone? It is not a good look to hide in the kitchen and expect juniour staff to deliver this...

I'm sorry guys, this is a rough one.

First off, the good. Our table got the southern fried chicken burger and pork ribs. Both were good!

Now the bad. We also got 2 pizzas, the vegetarian and meat lovers. These were awful, lazy, and tasteless. The base is frozen and pre-made. Making dough is really easy and cheap (probably cheaper than your frozen bases?)! Do it the night before and chuck it in the fridge. It tastes much nicer and isn't difficult! Dough keeps for a while too (and gets nicer as it sits and the yeast does its job more)! The tomato on the base was flavourless or nonexistant. Even a basic cheap passata and some garlic, salt, oregano, and basil would've done better here! I don't quite know what you guys do (passta, but a thin layer?) but it wasn't good. The cheese was just flavourless shredded mozzarella. Real buffalo mozzarella or fior di latte would've done much nicer here! Or anything nicer than what you used - whatever shredded cheese you used was awful! Even the toppings were flavourless. I understand for cost reasons you want to use stuff you can freeze to save wastage, but it would make so much difference to use as much fresh as you can! If it is fresh disregard this - maybe the above points let the fresh stuff down.

I know pizza probably isn't a main focus and is a side gig for you guys, but we were really disappointed with our pizzas and they weren't that cheap (our two were $48). Definitely in the bottom few pizzas I've ever had, and as a lover of pizza it just really bummed me out.

Hope you guys can look...