George's Paragon Seafood Restaurant — Restaurant in Gold Coast City

DON'T GO TO GEORGES!!! its not what it used to be. New management has implemented a queuing rather than traditional booking system to make the restaurant look more exclusive - and it is not working. The organizer for the evening tried to book a table for the party that included a visiting VIP but was refused and told that a first come first served policy had been implemented - Yet were were not served in the order in which we arrived. We waited 1 & 1/2 hours in the cold with 3 disabled people who needed to be seated urgently. Louise is 93 and they made her stand for all that time in the cold – I felt so sorry for her – but we also had an MS patient and a person with cancer with us - it’s just abusive. Staff ignored us us as we asked for a chair or a glass of water for the elderly people with disabilities whilst they waited outside in the cold - I urged our party to go elsewhere as there are so many TOP restaurants on the Gold Coast veing for custom, that we did not need to be treated with this sort of contempt. However, the others kept thinking that it would not be much longer. Couples were brought from the back of the que and seated before our party again and again. When we said that we were leaving if something did not happen for us immediately they eventually decided to split our group up into three and seat us on opposite side of the restaurant - Half the group desperate to sit down agreed to this which did not leave the rest of us much choice. Upon final entry we were dismayed to find that the restaurant was more than half empty - and the staff seemed to be very confused about the seating possibilities - We asked if our party could be seated at adjoining tables and the table pushed together - but were told that due to social distancing that was not possible - we explained that we had all car pooled so there was no need to be social distancing between the members of our group who knew each other very well we were just one group that needed just one table. We explained that if we pushed tables together the distance around them increases as the distance between them disappears -and that we would actually have a greater social distance between our group and every other table in the restaurant - but that kind of basic physics was ignored, they had their orders. Ironically, there was no worry about social distancing in the shivering ques outside- - The waiter was pleasant but when were were eventually served the food was average - everything served with chips or masses of rice as a filler -certainly not first class meals, and to add insult to the injury of ruining our night, they decided to slap a $67 surcharge on top of the bill (just an average Saturday night not a public holiday) - No apologies - no compensatory drinks or garlic bread - they did not care!!! I have lived on the Gold coast all of my life and have taken many visiting dignitaries to George's for a meal - but I am sorry to say that after tonight I will NEVER GO THERE AGAIN - very, very ,disappointed. Sorry to say that George's has changed for the worse. BEWARE - and my advice is that you pick another restaurant for your...

Visited George’s Paragon for dinner Thursday night for the first time in many years. The restaurant atmosphere is absolutely amazing, beautiful fairy lights everywhere makes it feel like another world (I’m very big on lighting) The service and staff were so friendly and attentive, you are not waiting at all for anything. Now for the meals as a party of 8…… Oysters kilpatrick were delicious and well priced for a doz @ $33, garlic bread was average with 2 serves ordered, 1 was overcooked and rock hard and 1 was undercooked and soggy with a hard crust @ $7.90 per serve which was only 2 pieces each. Chicken Paragon was delicious but a bit on the sweet side from the mango. Lasagne was nice but lacked flavour, came with salad only. Eye fillet steak came with mash potato (weird tasting and no gravy on the menu) requested medium -well done and came out very rare in the middle, this was ordered with a side of vegetables which consisted of green beans, heaps of broccolini and 1 baby carrot, quite bland really. Both lasagne and steak meals didn’t come with chips and had to be ordered separately which was very surprising because when the seafood meals came out, they were served with chips. Sides of chips arrived in a big bowl with feta cheese sprinkled on top. My friend and I ordered garlic prawns which lacked any taste or smell of garlic at all and so much bland sauce drowning the rice underneath. My son had barbecued baby octopus served with chip and a small salad on the side. The octopus was so flavourful of true bbq/charcoal taste infused with lemon yummo! I’m Greek and this dish was very true to the flavours I have been brought up on and was lucky to eat his leftovers. Chicken Parma was delicious from the feedback of another party member. The one thing we couldn’t make any sense of was that the steak and lasagna didn’t come with chips but the seafood dishes did, they would have been better with salad on the side. Overall we had a fabulous relaxing night, prices were very reasonable, the location and view of the super yacht’s in the marina was lovely, the staff were amazing and the lighting in the restaurant was so beautiful. Will definitely be going back for that bbq’d...

I remember first coming here years ago for their half price lunch menu. This was when Sanctuary Cove was the only George’s Paragon store, before the Southport one came (and went), and the Brisbane and Mt Tamborine branches appeared. It’s been a while since my last visit and I was surprised to see that the half price menu now applies all day long. But the sting in the tail is that prices have gone up, and there’s a weekend surcharge of 15%! Bad news for us visiting on a Saturday...

We ordered: barouti, $37 - fish of the day (barramundi), prawns, scallops, bbq bugs, garlic, white wine, cream, served on rice with French fries Atlantic salmon, $21 - served with broccolini and fries ravioli, $17 - spinach, ricotta, garlic, napolitana

The food took about 20 minutes to come out, and I was happy with my barouti in terms of flavour and portion. I also tried some of wifey’s salmon and mopped up the remainder of the boy’s ravioli after he quit eating - both were pretty decent, and I was very full after all that food.

I did however have a niggly feeling that the barouti seemed markedly more expensive than my memory of previous meals (I’ve ordered it a number of times) so I had a dig around and found an old photo from 2007 showing that this dish was $23.95 at the time. Another photo from 2013 shows the price at $26.50.

The Atlantic salmon, on the other hand, has only gone from $18.50 to $21 in the same time.

Upon closer inspection it turns out that the barouti used to be a half price item and listed under the general seafood section, however on the latest menu it’s been moved to the “George’s special selection” section which is not included in the half price specials. So... was at $26.50 half price ($53 full price), now at $37 full price... ie. it’s actually technically cheaper but you just don’t get the discount anymore, so you end up paying more anyways. Guess I’ll stop defaulting to this...