Juju Mermaid Beach — Restaurant in Gold Coast City

We ordered: King Fish sashimi Scallops Chicken Beef cheek Eggplant Moreton Bay bugs squid ink fettucine

Service was pretty good. It took a little while to be seated... There was no one at the front entrance where it said please wait to be seated. The waitress was very friendly and positive! Ordering was fast and the food came out quickly... It wasn't very busy, about 8 to 9 tables in the bottom section. The presentation of each dish was very good. Well done to the chefs (apparently there was an Asian chef as well as a Western chef).

The king fish sashimi was very fresh - the presentation was spectacular! the frozen grapefruit was a nice addition, however a bit too cold for our liking. The taste was OK... Nothing too over powering.

We highly recommend the scallops with the corn puree... It was delicious! Definitely would order that again.

The chicken was cooked to perfection... The sauce worked... And it was the best dish of our mains. Tender, juicy, nice textures and good flavours, well balanced. It was the highlight of the mains.

The beef cheek was cooked well... It was moist and tender.... It was a little strong and overpowering for our liking. Certainly filling. Perhaps a steak may have been better.

The eggplant had a nice tempura crunch on the top however they poured in the liquid... So we couldn't enjoy all of the tempura. The eggplant was a little bitter. It didn't really work with the chicken and beef dishes, nor with the squid ink pasta.

The pasta was Al dente, creamy and worked well with the mussels. Surprisingly however the Moreton Bay bugs were overpowering in flavour due to the char on it. I don't recall ever having this issue before anywhere else.

Dishes 3,4, 5 and 6 didn't work to well together. The dishes in themselves were OK... But they didn't work together. I hindsight we would order the chicken and perhaps a wagyu steak the next time.

Perhaps what we should have ordered the $100 per person set menu.

Overall, an above average experience... I think our selection...

We arrived at 6:30 under the name Ruta, having booked a table for five. Unfortunately, we were seated in a small booth that was clearly not suitable for our group size, with one person uncomfortably positioned in a high-traffic area. Over the course of the evening, we ordered approximately $700 worth of food and drinks. Later in the night, we placed an additional order, including a bottle of sparkling wine. While it may not have been the most expensive item on the menu, it was still a full bottle and part of a substantial tab.

Shortly after placing this order, the hostess approached us to inform us that another reservation had been made and asked if we could move or leave. We explained that we had just ordered another round of drinks, to which she responded that she would look into it and get back to us. About five minutes later, she returned and assured us, “Don’t worry about it, you can stay.”

However, roughly 30 minutes after that, she came back and said we had been given an additional 30 minutes to finish up due to the number of incoming patrons. She dismissed the volume of drinks we had ordered, stating that she wasn't going to argue and that we had to leave—regardless of what we had just purchased.

Had we been informed from the start that we only had a limited amount of time remaining, we would have reconsidered placing the final order or chosen to take our business elsewhere. The way the situation was handled felt abrupt, inconsiderate, and lacking any real regard for customer experience.

Dining out in Australia is a luxury, especially given the high cost of living. When customers choose to spend a significant amount of money at a venue, they reasonably expect a level of respect, hospitality, and service. Unfortunately, in this case, the service felt purely profit-driven, with little concern for the people who make that...

Had a dinner reservation, when we arrived there was no-one at the front door to meet, greet or seat us.

We waited at least 15 minutes for the girl to come back out after sticking my head through the curtain to see her sitting at a table having a laugh with some diners (because why do your job, right?).

No apology, just disinterest from her.

The (I assume) manager (British accent) was no better, he was completely focused on one table the entire night, having a great time with them and completely ignoring every other table in the room. To be fair, he did walk around the room a couple of times, and brought us one of our dishes - however, when I asked a follow up question about our meal I got a super abrasive response from him before he turned around and went back to entertaining his favourite table.

No eye-contact, no smile, no sort of pleasantry.

My meal (tooth-fish) was utterly disappointing - my partners however was tasty.

The tooth-fish was essentially a bisque with a piece of fish in it - this should have been indicated clearly on the menu. The bisque part was quite foul and I wasn't able to stomach much of it.

And the music... honestly, great selection, but the volume kept fluctuating between loud and deafening. The latter being an issue when you're out for dinner and trying to have a conversation with the person sitting across from you.

The ONLY saving grace of this "restaurant" was the lovely waitress we had. I felt bad for her because she was the only one in the dining room that seemed to be doing any work the whole night.

Juju is grossly understaffed downstairs - didn't go upstairs so I can't comment on it - and the staff they do have (other than the lovely girl that served us) are unpleasant and more interested in rubbing shoulders with certain diners than doing their job.

Disappointing experience. Would...