Mr Hizola's — Restaurant in Gold Coast City

I really didn’t want to write this bad review, but I had no choice because I think everyone should know about our experience. Let’s start from the beginning. I’ll spare no details as I believe that they are all relevant for anyone that wants to come for a good experience at this place. Please bear with me.

Tonight, my partner and I were very excited to celebrate our anniversary over dinner. We were taken inside to a corner table overlooking the corridor for the storeroom/cool room. We asked the waiter politely if we could change tables as it felt quite claustrophobic. She was very nice but unfortunately there were only tables outside. Despite the cold weather we still felt that it was better, so we accepted (8pm).

Another waiter came to greet us at our new table and told us that he was going to serve us tonight. He seemed a little too extraverted, but we found him funny. We asked for our drinks and a little more time to decide for the food. We ended up deciding for the Emperor’s Feast which sounded appealing, and most reviews said great things about it. In the next 10 min the same waiter came to us 3 times, and in all 3 he asked if we wanted to order drinks, when he was the one that took our drinks order just 10 min before. At this stage we were joking about how this waiter couldn’t remember what he did just a few min ago (red flag). His eyes were glary, and his pupils were the size of walnuts.

At 8.40pm the food started coming and the drinks still hadn’t shown up. The waiter was nice enough to keep asking if we need anything else, but all we wanted was to get our drinks, it had been 30 min since we ordered them. We finished the first 3 dishes and asked to speak to the manager. She apologised immensely and even offered the drinks for free due to the wait. She brought them straight away.

2 min later the waiter confronted us in a passive aggressive approach, as he was told that we complaint that our drinks were ordered one hour ago. We replied politely that we said 30min. He was so altercated that he even turned on his phone torch towards his face. He then understood and apologised for the wait and tried to offer us shots to which I thanked and replied that I couldn’t have them because I was driving. He replies “sshhhhhh you don’t have a say on this!”. We thanked him again and refused the shots politely, but we felt pushed and treated with disrespect.

Until 9.15pm we asked our waiter a couple more times if the rest of our food was still coming as we had finished our starters a while ago. He blamed the kitchen being real busy but the restaurant was only half full and we saw him leaving the restaurant with several of his mates disappearing from view as they turned around the block. We thought he had left so we asked to speak with the manager again. But instead of the manager this guy shows up and asked us “what’s wrong now?” in an aggressive tone. I replied that I knew that he most likely meant well but several times he hadn’t treated us with respect. He started getting extremely rude and aggressive but luckily a different manager (Jordan) approached the table and saved it from escalating.

At 9.30pm we explained to Jordan the situation to which he said, “I can’t say sorry enough, I have had an argument with that waiter about one hour ago and I think he’s drunk or something”. “Or something?!” I thought to myself. Let’s leave it to that. We expressed that we were feeling very uncomfortable and that we would like to leave. Jordan offered to give us a discount and a voucher, but he hadn’t known that we barely had any food. He was so embarrassed that he couldn’t even look at us straight. We ended up leaving without paying but with a traumatising experience. It wasn’t our goal to leave without paying.

End of story, the behaviour of the waiter was reprimandable, but the worst part was that the manager knew that he was “drunk or something” and did nothing about it. We left incredibly disappointed to say the least, and not wanting to come back despite the $100 voucher.

PS: all 3 dishes...

UPDATE No longer a 5 Star dining experience so now reduced from 5 to 1 being poor. First time was great , dining here for a Birthday dinner celebration. From the moment we entered Mr hizolas we were welcomed and the night just got better. The restaurant for Wednesday night was full. The staff were all very friendly.All tables well managed. Lots of interaction with customers when needed Made suggestions for the menu. We opted for individual dishes, the food was delicious my dish yang yang crispy beef looked & tasted delicious as was my cocktails. All food portions were a good size. Our waitress the lovely Pia recommended for dessert The deep fried ice cream with butterscotch sauce DEVINE. That went down well with my boys. Another great personal bonus was the music being played 70’s 80’s Birthday boy was on 7th Heaven with the music classics so good a great night. Thank you guys and a special shout out to Pia an asset to Mr h team you are all doing a great job. I highly recommend mr hizolas based on our first visit and will return. UPDATE! We returned here on Saturday 4 December 2021 evening meal. Unfortunately this time our dining experience was very disappointing. Our table was cramped in a corner for 4 of us, we had barely enough room for our dishes the waitress might as well have been a robot disinterested. The dishes the Starter 2 plates of Chicken Satay full of oil overcooked and at $9.50 per dish for just 2 small potions equated to $4.50 each a rip off. The mains Duck fine Pork Belly fine as for the noodles it came with burnt Tofu and the quality of the chicken was cheap off cuts there was no flavour , overall bland.The chicken with ginger had no taste apart from being very spicy. The fried Ice cream as previously ordered before was fine. At one point in the evening there was a pungent burning smell coming from the kitchen very off putting. We paid $210 for 4 diners. Verdict overpriced flavour less Certainly not worth the money. Sadly we will never return. The recent 3 photos are for the dishes which were disappointing Chicken Satay noodles with added Tofu and chicken options and Chicken & Ginger. The only dish that was of the same standard as our previous visit was the baked ice cream. Last photo....

I am a Hong Konger (whose main language is Cantonese) There was only one Asian chef (looked more like Kitchen Hand to me), and the rest of the staff were Caucasian, which did not give an authentic vibe when I walked in. Also, the menu did not have a "Cantonese" feel to it, instead it felt more westernised. If it is cantonese dining, why is there a Japanese and Mongolian dish? Is it why it is called "contemporary cantonese", so they can add some western twist to it. The only one item on the menu, the egg tart, is written in the Cantonese translation for "egg tart" : Dan Tar. I am only getting this "try-hard" vibe from them.

The food and drink was too overpriced, not worth the small portions. $28 for less than half a slab of Wagyu steak on a stone?, nah. Other Japanese restaurants have bigger and tastier Wagyu steaks.

The taste did not have much flavour, perhaps its because of the Caucasian chefs cooking their "style" of asian cuisine. The siumai was disappointing, it is not the traditional Hong Kong siumai I know, and it resembled a Gyoza instead. The skin was too thick and rubbery.

For dessert, the Chocolate Custard Bao is a no-go. More bread than filling. I expected the filling to spill out, but it was literally only a tiny bit of chocolate custard in the middle. Atleast they did not add it to the bill when we gave them feedback. The egg tart (Dan Tar) was mushy. In fact, the traditional egg tart is supposed to have a pudding-like texture for its filling.

Overall, it felt like they were trying to strike for trendy, but...