Maggie Choo — Restaurant in Gold Coast City

Hopefully this review will help the management of this establishment improve and visitors to the Gold Coast enjoy the best the Coast has to offer. As a Gold Coast local and a regular on the GC dining scene there are so many great restaurants to enjoy and this is NOT one of them. The food is hit and miss (we ordered the banquet so tried many dishes). 50% of the dishes we sampled were delicious and the other half were greasy, overly sweet or smothered in overpowering sauces. The decor is quite pleasing inside but on an outside table it really has that feeling of old Gold Coast dining, row after row of restaurants along a road with very little in the way of atmosphere.

But where this place really fails quite shocklingly is in THE SERVICE (OR LACK OF IT). The staff were at best, unattentive, and at worst, rude and to be quite frank a bit bizarre. It honestly feels like they have recruited in a rush and not offered any training or education around service or company ethos as each server had their own disjointed approach to service.

As a busy working mum a night out without the kids is always something to look forward to. I was very excited to order a cocktail and relax. However it took me 30 minutes to get my first drink!! I had to remind the staff 3 times. Then the same thing happened with my second drink so it was not an isolated incident. Looking through other reviews it seems this is quite a regular occurrence. We had a 6 course banquet but ended up leaving before our dessert as we requested this several times but it never arrived. Interestingly when we requested the bill (and reminded about our dessert) the bill came instantly but the dessert (which was a sorbet so hardly time consuming to make) never arrived. The staff just stood there and watched us leave, it was extremely rude.

I don't normally write reviews (and definitely not negative ones) but this place really needs a wake up call).

On another note (and this is not the main focus of my review) there was one member of our party of six who was perhaps a little overexcited and may have had one too many drinks. Just to put this in perspective I am talking about one person in a group of six mostly sober people who was perhaps talking a little loud and joking with the waitress. He was not standing up, being unruly or violent or anything of the type. The staff (understandably) asked this person to have a glass of water and would not take a request for a beer from this person. I respect this as we understand RSA well. However the way it was handled was pretty appalling. Shortly after ordering a 6 course banquet this person was cut off before even receiving the first course. He was asked to drink water and left with the tepid bottled tap water on the table, and then he was ignored. The first couples of courses came and went but still he was ignored. He was quiet and calm, yet still he was ignored. He requested another beer and the waitress laughed and walked off. In the end (appalled by the treatment) he and his partner got up and walked out before the main courses arrived. (interestingly he went on to another establishment up the road coincidentally owned by the same people who own this restaurant and enjoyed a few quiet and uneventful beers before heading home).

Still at the restaurant the remaining 4 guests asked if we could drop the rest of the courses back to 4 people and were told yes but you will still have to pay for 6! Well that just goes to show where the priorities lie for this business, cash over customers. We ended up paying the almost $500 bill including for the guests who left through embarrassment that we had booked this establishment. We own a service based business and if our staff treated guests this way they would not be working for us for long.

With so many great Asian dining experiences on the Gold Coast please don't waste your time or money on this one. Check out Hideaway, Etsu, Ally chow, Mr Hizola's, Jimmy Wahs or others away from the...

I visited Maggie Choo tonight with high expectations, only to be thoroughly disappointed with the entire experience. This place failed to meet even the most basic expectations of a reputable establishment. As the administrator of a significant community group with 10,000 local members and I feel obligated to inform them of this disappointing experience, as nothing was done to meet us halfway. One of the friends dining with us owns several restaurants and was completely appalled by the lack of customer care.

First and foremost, let's talk about the cocktails. Not only were they ridiculously overpriced, but they were also absolutely revolting. No one at our table was satisfied with their $24 cocktail. I have never tasted such poorly crafted and unappetizing drinks in my life and it was the first time I returned one. It felt like they were trying to mask the inferior quality of the ingredients with excessive amounts of sugar and artificial flavorings. We were appalled by the lack of skill and care put into them.

But the worst part of our visit was the incident involving a precious painting I had gifted to my friend for her birthday. The food was ok, but this incident left a bad taste in our mouth and ruined the entire experience. We were given a booth, and she placed the painting on the back of it. We went away from the table for a minute, and a member of the staff thought it was a great idea to place a tray with freshly washed glasses on top of the painting. As a result, water spilled onto the painting, damaging it. Thankfully, I made the painting so I can fix it, but it was a heart-wrenching moment, and the staff's response only added insult to injury.

When we brought the issue to their attention, they displayed a shocking level of apathy and indifference. Instead of taking responsibility for their negligence and offering a proper solution, they nonchalantly brushed it off and only offered a free dessert as compensation. However, the dessert turned out to be just as disappointing as the cocktails. This meager attempt at compensation was an insult, and it only further emphasized their lack of professionalism and regard for their customers.

To summarize, my experience at Maggie Choo was a disaster and I feel bad for picking that place to take my friends out. Cocktails were overpriced and disgusting, the staff demonstrated a shocking lack of care and responsibility, and the compensation offered was inadequate and unsatisfactory. I cannot recommend this establishment to anyone seeking a pleasant dining experience. Save yourself the disappointment and find a different place to enjoy...

We unfortunately did not have a great experience when we went here for my friend’s birthday dinner last Saturday night. We booked a table for 5 earlier in the day, and when we arrived a table for 4 was reserved. The staff did quickly put another chair on the end of the table, but it was in a walkway so I was constantly moving forward to let people through. When ordering drinks, two people in our group asked for two drinks that our server hadn’t heard of (one of which was on the drinks menu, the other was an enquiry if it could be made) and said he would check and asked what they would like if those drink were not available. After about 15 minutes they received their second options. We then ordered our food, and after we ordered we were told that the menu was designed to be shared so the meals we’d ordered would come out at different times. If we’d known this before, we would have ordered different items to accomodate. When our food did arrive, one of our dishes did not arrive by the time everyone else at the table had finished (which was over an about a 30-45 minute period). After we’d finished our server asked how our food was, and we let him know that one of our dishes hadn’t arrived, and requested that it be removed from the bill. He said absolutely it would, but there was no apology. One minute later he then came back with the missing dish, telling us that when he went to ask the kitchen about the dish was had just been finished and ready to serve and asked if we wanted it or not. We just agreed to take it to not cause a drama, despite us just wanting it removed form the bill. It the. became clear that this dish was not fresh and had been sitting for some time (the dish was chicken and truffle dumplings, and the dumpling skin had a paste like texture. We had order two other types of dumplings that arrived on time and the texture was perfect). We asked for the bill, which was including the dish that was late, and when our server brought over the eftpos machine, he told us to select one of the tip options and then proceed to the next screen to pay. Given our experience, we bypassed this screen and paid our bill and left. We still didn’t receive any acknowledgment or apology for the issues we had during the night. I have given 2 stars as the food we did receive on time, and 2 out of the 4 cocktails were nice. The venue was busy so I understand that sometimes things are missed in that kind of environment. But unfortunately we didn’t just have one isolated incident but a series of them. None of our group will...