Blowfish Seafood ★ Steak ★ Bar — Restaurant in Gold Coast City

The fit out was amazing but this appears to be yet another restaurant leaning on its fit-out and location over its food and experience. We had Oysters, Kingfish Crudo and Signature Bug Roll for Entree. Snapper en papillote and fish and chips for main.

The bug roll came out on stale bread, which was commendable since the restaurant had barely been open long enough for the bread to have gone stale. How this made it past the army of 10 chefs I have no idea. The Kingfish literally smelled like wet dog, and I couldn’t help but ask whether they had wrung water from a dogs fur for the dressing. The natural oysters were fantastic, although the extent for which a restaurant can claim the quality of the oysters is limited. I suppose they sourced them and shucked them so kudos! The mains were priced on the high end which is ok. They need to recover their huge fit out costs somehow. The snapper was served in the baking paper, which is acceptable when cooked en papillote, but they used a paper that turns to mush and began mixing with the food. The English style fish and chips came with malt vinegar in a perfume bottle, which is an admirable gimmick but does little to cover the fact that you are being stung $42 for fish and chips. The cocktails we had did not “pop” they were simply ok, with one of them tasting like basic cordial. If you have read this far then you will understand what I mean when I say this restaurant has no love, thought or soul put into it. It is yet another example of over capitalised “instagram restauranteurs” trying to create a destination that looks good on instagram rather than an enjoyable culinary or social experience. Beautiful fit out, below average food and cocktails at extreme high side prices. I’m not one to shy away from leaving a tip, however when they put it on the tip screen and draw your attention to the fact you can leave a tip (in front of your partner) I find this to be in poor taste and I went from leaving $100 to $50 on that basis. The total bill was $289 (excluding tip) which is by no means a cheap meal but also not over the top if the...

My partner and I dined here and I have to say it was very lacklustre. The first red flag was my partner telling me that if you cancelled your dinner booking, they take $50 per person?. I feel as though for a party of two, that’s over the top. Plenty of restaurants happily accept cancellations and it was not that busy. The restaurant itself is nice and the staff were friendly however the food is nowhere near up to standard for how much you pay. We seen how small the portions were so we opted just to sample a couple entrees and drinks. I think I seen the cocktails priced from $21-27. Which is the average cost for a cocktail these days, so I disagree with the other reviewers stating the drinks are expensive. We ordered a beer, mocktail, spring roll entree (three spring rolls), and calamari entree (small portion). That alone came to approx $88…. Neither of us particularly liked the spring rolls. Definitely nothing to rave about and certainly not worth $30+ for only three spring rolls. The spring rolls also made me feel sick and I could only eat one so my partner was stuck eating the other two. The calamari was salty and again definitely not worth the $30+ price tag. It was disappointing. Especially since you can go elsewhere and get a main for that amount of money. If it was $15, I could understand that. I think the people who own this restaurant really need to step it up. Either lower the price or improve the food quality and amount served so it matches the price tag. I have no issue with splurging on a good night out, but the food was not up to scratch with such a high price tag. I feel like the local Chinese take away and fish and chip store would have served better spring rolls and calamari. The mocktail (Tropical Spritz?) was also very disappointing. I was expecting something nice and sweet and instead it had a very odd taste. I’m glad we didn’t spend anymore money here. We opted to go to another restaurant for mains and dessert, but to be honest GYG would have been a better dinner and a whole lot cheaper. Proceed with caution when...

Last night my friends and I celebrated a birthday at Blowfish Ocean Bar and Grill. Although the food was quite good, the level of service provided during our visit was abysmal, ultimately ruining our evening.

To start with, we were served the wrong bottle of wine. No big deal, mistakes happen, and when we pointed it out they corrected it. We didn’t receive much attention from staff through the evening, so we topped up our own glasses as required. Again, not ideal but not the end of the world.

We then endured an extended wait for our main course meals. After 2 hours I asked staff to check on their whereabouts and suddenly, 4 minutes later they were on the table. The food was actually quite good but the delay was inexcusable and demonstrates a lack of professionalism.

However, the pinnacle of our disappointment came when we received the bill and discovered that we had been charged $38 for still water. When I again raised our concerns with staff, we were met with dismissive attitudes and an outright refusal to rectify the situation. Their defense was that we would have been offered a choice between sparkling, still, or tap water, and had received what we ordered.

I explained that we had not been given the tap water option and at no point were we informed about the exorbitant price for still water. Their response was that all staff were highly experienced and would not make a mistake such as that.

It was humiliating and infuriating to be accused of lying when attempting to clarify this misunderstanding. The way in which Blowfish Ocean Bar and Grill staff handled this situation was truly unacceptable. Instead of acknowledging their mistake and making amends with their customers, they showed a complete lack of empathy and an utter disregard for customer satisfaction.

I recommend you avoid Blowfish Ocean Bar and Grill. Unless, of course, you enjoy being extorted for water, subjected to poor service, and accused of dishonesty when seeking resolution. Save yourself the frustration and humiliation of a ruined evening -...