Garden Kitchen & Bar — Restaurant in Gold Coast City

Parking at the main entrance for The Star (casino, entertainment, nightclub similar to Crown Metropol in Melbourne) was full. There were no super fancy cards unfortunately . My dad went to the massive multi story car park place, there was plenty of parking, idk price but was low I think.

First impressions were that the place was very big, there were people everywhere at the entrance, the bar was very big and had lots of workers. The music was super good particularly because it was live with a person singing and playing an electric guitar. My international sister pointed out to me that the musician is very good.

After waiting about a minute we were allocated our seats for the night. I didn't like having to wait, haha. Once we were seated the waiter who was very cheerful and happy. Poured each of our glasses with tap water. I always love when they do that. One interesting thing was that she had an air peace in her ears for communication between other waiters.

Now for all dining ware things: Table, for the 5 of us was decent size, it was a real marble, had split in the middle which I didn’t like lamb was nice, Seats were booths and just normal seats both add decent quality, Napkins wore cloths which I always appreciate and love. And lastly the cutlery was normal but good.

Menu matched with the garden theme because it had flowers on back, it was only one sided a4 thinner cardboard. The choices were just right neither big nor little. Formatting was normal, on other hand readability wasn't too good, bit confusing reading prices. Also the drinks menu was like a binder, it was hard to turn pagers I didn't look at for that reason. I'm not big on ordering drinks anyway, I didn't look at it much.

The main meals arrived in about 15 minutes, not too long at all. Our meals came out in two trips. I ordered the eye fillet steak, which was served with mashed potatoes and a mushroom, with the mash placed on top of the mushroom. The dish was finished with a drizzle of sauce over everything. Now, what did I think of it? Well, I absolutely loved every part of the meal except for the mushroom, but that's just because I don’t like them anyway. Other than that, the steak was cooked to perfection, exactly medium-rare as I had requested. It was incredibly tender, practically melting in my mouth. The sauce drizzled on top was rich and flavorful, complementing the steak beautifully. And the mashed potatoes? Easily the best I’ve ever had, and I’ve had them plenty of times.

My Mum, Dad, Sister, and international sister all enjoyed their meals as well, finishing most of their plates. My dad, in particular, was especially impressed—he loved his steak just as much as I did. He even had a conversation with the waiter about it, who then brought in the restaurant’s steak expert. This guy had a strong American accent and talked to my dad for a solid 10 minutes straight, sharing what seemed like infinite knowledge about steaks. My dad was so happy with the experience that he booked another dinner for next week, this time for his birthday to try the big, premium Tomahawk steak as recommended by the expert.

We decided to skip dessert, paid the bill, and headed out. The total for four meals, one kids' meal, and a couple of drinks came to AU$240. Considering the quality of the food, I think that price was very fair. There was one major mistake that wrecked everything, the waiter handling our bill accidentally charged us for the wrong table, which meant we initially overpaid. Luckily, my mum caught the error, and we had to undo the transaction and redo it correctly. While this was a pretty big mistake, it didn’t affect my overall rating because I was so happy with my steak. If the steak hadn’t been as amazing as it was, I probably would have rated the experience 4 stars instead. Would I recommend it? Yes definitely the service and infrastructure is amazing and I would especially recommend it because of the steak. Price is cheaper compared to other stakes with this type of quality. It is just amazing and has made me back to love eating...

Update on Oct 2nd 2023: Booked a 12 person table for dinner with family and friends while my husbands parents from Colorado were in town and had a fabulous time, our server Johnathan was AMAZING, friendly, patient and went out of his way to accommodate an alternative request from us on one of the dishes, we also thank the kitchen for being so flexible. The food was all delicious, I had the rib eye, my husband had the lamb cutlets, both cooked to perfection, we also shared the prawn risotto which my mother in law said was the best risotto she's ever had. She eats like a bird and usually has to take food home in a box, the fact that she ate some risotto, plus 2 pieces of bread (which she also raved about) and finished her entire nourish bowl and a piece of my dessert was very surprising and means she really enjoyed the food. My father in law had some grilled bugs with garlic butter which he said were awesome, along with the prawn risotto. Our friends had salmon and beef fillet, my family had beef fillet and the tomahawk steak and some shared sides, one of my brothers also had the entree special (a sashimi carpaccio dish which he said was mouthwatering). They also brought out a bowl of yummy sticky date pudding with candles for my belated birthday, and some sharing plates because it's a rather large dessert so I was able to share. Everyone was very happy with their meals and with Johnathan's top service.

Jume 2023: Came here with the family to celebrate my husband's birthday and my sister in laws arrival from Colorado. We had a fantastic time, our server Michael from Florida was truly the best, he's my parents favorite staff member there, they request him whenever they dine there. The food was delicious (although the seafood platter was quite pricey for what you get), cocktails were fabulous and desserts were scrumptious. The reservation came with a bottle of wine, we love the atmosphere in there, it's a large restaurant but still somehow feels nice and cozy. Will be back for more of that tomahawk steak, prawn risotto and those...

Thank for your accommodating us as I didn't make a booking and we secured the last table available on a Friday night. I was really excited to try this place as the menu sounded really good even as a vegetarian. Unfortunately the food and service was disappointing :(

Ordered drinks and watched our drinks sitting at the bar around 4 metres away from us for about 20 minutes lol as we were waiting for drinks and water after ordering food. Had to ask waiters multiple times for water. The waiters looked disorientated and disorganised, and would for some reason crowd around in the area where a bunch of glasses and look like they didn't know what to do lol. This was happening I was watching my poor drink as the ice was melting for a long time. I was wanting to go grab it myself.

Then as soon as we got our water and drinks after asking a third time, the food came altogether. I ordered the cauliflower as it was the only vegetarian main dish. It looks pretty depressing and I was hoping it would at least taste better than it looked for $31. It hardly had any flavour and the pomegranate seeds and the tiny bit of hummous on the side wasn't great either. I only took a few bites of this. The salad was also a big disappointment. Over $20 and even the leaves couldn't be cut up? I've never in my life ordered a salad and had to use a knife and fork to cut the leaves. Some pumpkin and avocado but not much other than those huge leaves and some tahini sauce.

My partners steak he said hardly had any flavour. Regretted ordering it as it was $65! I was glad I ordered the chat potatoes as its the only thing that tasted good, so that was a save.

Hope they get more organised and can review their menu items because I wouldn't recommend to anyone based on that...