Red's Kitchen & Bar — Restaurant in Gold Coast City

Easily one of the worst dining experiences I’ve ever had – and I’m not someone who complains lightly.

We were a party of four adults and one child and arrived just after opening, expecting a nice meal in Sanctuary Cove which is a great location. What we got was a disaster from start to finish.

We ordered soon after arriving. The only thing that came quickly was the child's meal – a cheeseburger that was so undercooked our 6-year-old wouldn’t touch it. The lychee martini tasted absolutely nothing like a lychee martini should (or anything remotely drinkable), though the wine was fine but overpriced and really just regular BWS standard certainly nothing special – just ok.

Then came a completely unacceptable 1 hour and 10 minute wait for our food, with a feeble excuse that "the grill wasn’t working." I understand that equipment failures can happen but any good restaurant would keep the table updated and maybe offer other options not just leave you for well over an hour with a tired child.

When the meals finally arrived, all four steaks – 200g fillet steaks at $69 each were dry, flavourless, and well below the standard you would expect for the price. I'm not sure if they buy in cheaper steaks when they have a special deal on during the week ( I think that was the next day from memory) but these were certainly not premium cuts. The “mashed potatoes” deserve their own warning label: salty, cheesy sludge with the texture of wallpaper paste. Truly awful I mean how hard is it to make mashed potatoes!!

The manager gave us a free glass of wine and a bottle of water and a bread roll for our 6 year old as he was starving. The bread role was actually very good although the suggestion to dip it in the cheesy sludge was ignored.This was not my idea of an apology, quite honestly it just added insult to injury. When I went to pay the bill I told him this was quite possibly the worst dining experience of my life but I was very polite as I realise that everyone can have a bad day, I assumed he would offer a substantial discount but presumably he thought there was no chance we would return after such a debacle so he offered a half-hearted “sorry” and handed me a bill for $355.

I'm amazed a restaurant like this can survive in Sanctuary Cove, where people are used to fine dining and have come to expect at least a minimum standard of food and service. Avoid at all costs. There are plenty of better options in the area, particularly Pablitos the Mexican directly opposite which has fantastic food and cocktails. Disappointing and...

I really hope the owner/management take this review on board because I want this to continue to be our “go to” nice restaurant as it has been for the last year or so. We are local customers who frequent Red Steakhouse Sanctuary cove regularly & for the most part love it but it is really hit and miss. 3/5 times we visit it will be great. 2/5 times we leave disappointed. Here is our feedback… 1. Front of house staff need a lot of improvement (they make the 1st impression and when they are slow to greet you & unfriendly & often treat you like an inconvenience, it’s not a great 1st impression! Last night for example there were 4 sets of customers waiting to be seated and the guy seemed to have no idea what he was doing but it’s not just him, I’ve also had a female who didn’t even say hello, just rudely made us follow her to table!) 2. Drinks (this is a big one and a huge loss of income for the business!) - it takes too long to get 1st drinks order in and then our glasses are left empty for a good 30mins while we try to get someone’s attention for another drink! We look around and can see there are many tables with empty glasses - this is a basic task (to offer more drinks when glasses are empty!) & when an Asahi is ordered, it needs to be always served in Asahi glass please, that’s why we ordered that beer! 3. Service - again, takes far too long to place order and even when we grab someone’s attention, its like they then go out of their way to NOT take your order or do so with great disdain (& that’s when it’s not even busy, they were just cleaning tables or chatting to other staff instead! Let’s get the orders in guys!!!) 4. Food - most of the time it is absolutely amazing but sometimes it is not and last night was one of those occasions with the flat iron wagu steak tasting really terrible and I’m certain it wasn’t the right cut of meat (it was something much cheaper, not what we paid for!). 5. Tables - the tables for 4 people are more suited to 2 people , always uncomfortable when 4 of us squeezed into these tables! I do sincerely hope that this review results in some improvements in these areas so that we can continue to visit frequently and so that we can eventually edit our review to 5 star because overall we do love this place and want it to be...

What has happened to this place??

This used to be my favorite steak place in all of the gold coast....but my god has it gone downhill.

I decided to treat myself and my wife for my birthday. We spent over $200 on steaks and sides.

I knew the moment I saw the fries that this was a mistake.

The fries came out wet and soggy... like they had been sitting in a covered up container for a long time. They were sad and unseasoned.

I asked the waiter if we could maybe get some fresh fries and he took them back.

I thought I could forgive bad fries if they just fried up from fresh fries...

However the cooks just re-fried our old fries we sent back for and brought them back all way overcooked, tasting like burt potato...

I knew it.. if you cant even get a bowl of fries right in a supposedly premium resterant how could I expect good stakes.

The steaks came out next and oh boy.. what a disaster.

I ordered what the menue said was the most premium choise marbled steak for myself cooked to a medium... and my wife ordered the M8 fillet, well done (I know, I know... but thats how she likes it).

My steak was well done, and hers was cooked to a medium.

The worst part is how underseasoned the steaks where... no crisp edge at all on either steak,

For my steak i was expecting a nice thick m5 angus steak (or whatever the menu said)... instead I got a thin, pre cut sad looking excuse for a steak.

I could cook myself a better steak from woolworths.

Did we send it back? no... you cant recook an overcooked steak and my wife had already lost or appitite anyway so just accepted our fate.

My wife was hoping to at least enjoy a side dish of carrots. It used to be our favorite side dish...

but it tasted... dissapointing.

The carrots were undercooked and the honey... i mean not even a hint of caremalization in the carrots or the honey.. not sure if cooks are even tasting what they are serving.

The bread was nice, so my wife filled up on that.

I don't mind spending a couple of hundred on dinner, I've had better steak dinners at the outback steak house...

let that sink in.

This used to be my favorite resteruant on the gold coast...

Sadly, I wont be comig back... and I am even so dissapointed that I am doing what I rarely do and...