Shiraz - Best Persian Restaurant + Bar Gold Coast — Restaurant in Gold Coast City

Shiraz. An Iranian city, my favourite alcoholic beverage and as it turns out, a restaurant on the Gold Coast.

We were looking to celebrate a 40th birthday and after some deliberation all three of us arrived at the same conclusion "we've never had Persian food before". Booking online was effortlessly accomplished the night before. Parking available at the Bridge Club next door.

We didn't know what to expect. In our group, we're all familiar with Turkish food, I'm also familiar with Iraqi and Pakistani cuisine due to my quirk as a foodie rambler. Well, isn't Persian food just this little gem that's unique in itself.

Considering that many Persian people don't drink alcohol due to religious/cultural reasons, the cocktail menu was stunning - and well executed. My wife and her cousin chose the Persian Love, I had the Persian Paradise. Later drinks included the Virgin Dragon's Delight and I couldn't personally pass up an opportunity to have a glass of Shiraz at Shiraz.

The entree was delivered swiftly, and served on a formidable platter as a Mezze. A big olive fan, my wife's eyes rolled back in her head after sampling the Zeytoon Parvadeh - definitely a favourite of ours. She normally doesn't eat Hummus but made an exception here - it was fantastic! We also purchased a garden salad that was as large as my head but was incredibly tasty - especially the fetta and Enoki.

Food from this part of the world often contains lamb or mutton - so all of us went that way. Mahiche, Shishlik (extra Saffron Joojeh skewer) and Gardan were our choices. Wow - this kitchen knows how to cook lamb.

Portions were anticipated to be small by the menu price but quite the opposite - they were massive. So much that we couldn't eat all the rice, but we were allowed to take the surplus away - that made a formidable fried rice the next day. The barberries are amazing!

Desserts were a lime and pistachio cheesecake - my wife remarked that this was light and not overly sweet (a big compliment) - whilst the others were the Bastani Sonati. Saffron in Ice Cream needs to be a more widely accepted concept.

The atmosphere is beautifully lit, occasionally interrupted by tram and motor vehicle traffic. Teal is also my favourite colour - that Shiraz feature prominently. Service attentive and polite.

An amazing experience that punches above its...

I visited this restaurant with my sister, her husband and their daughter (2). We got the $94 share plate between me, my sister and my 2 year old niece, my brother in law got a 2 kebob plate with rice and we shared flat bread and a dip.

The food was delicious, tender, flavoursome, couldn’t fault it. The dip we got with our bread was much needed with the meat and rice, so I’d suggest getting a share dip if you’re having kebobs, even if you don’t get a bread entree.

Personally, I wouldn’t say the share plate was worth $94 (4 small lamb chops and 2 kebobs with rice), my sister was still hungry after it but the flavour was there and it was cooked to perfection.

We all got our own desserts and every single dessert was incredible! The Shiraz cheesecake was divine, the orange cake was amazing (I don’t like orange or cake but even I liked it!) but the best dessert of them all was the pistachio and lime cheesecake. I am going back just for that!!

I love a good cocktail however, I had the Shiraz flower cocktail ($21 I think) and holy heck, it was like drinking perfume straight from the bottle. I’m not sure how it was made, but I ended up making 3 drinks out of it by mixing it with creaming soda! I definitely would not recommend, but hey, if you enjoy the taste of pure gasoline, you might love it!

To be fair, it was the only cocktail I tried and some of the ones I saw being served looked sooo good!

My sister got a mocktail and she said hers was pretty terrible as well, she had to mix hers with soda water. I’m not sure if this is the norm for their drinks because it was my first time there.

Overall, I’d highly recommend the restaurant. The food is cooked well, high quality and full of flavour. Yes, it’s expensive and probably shouldn’t be as expensive as it is, but it was all very enjoyable.

The staff were very kind and accomodating. On the particular night we went the restaurant was super busy, so service was pretty slow. But hey, it was worth the wait!

(We got too excited and ate the main course and I forgot...

I used to consider this establishment a five-star restaurant, but under the new management led by "Yonis," its quality has significantly declined to a one-star rating. Despite spending $200 on my order, the food took an excessively long 1 hour and 40 minutes to arrive. Upon calling the restaurant, I was informed that the food had been ready for an hour, and they were waiting for someone to pick it up. I clarified that I ordered through their website for delivery, having paid an additional $9.90 for the service. The cashier then put me on hold to arrange delivery. I have told him that I wont except the food if it is cold and asked for fresh order or a refund. He promised to deliver another fresh order but moments after hanging up, I received a message from doorDash that the food was on its way. I called back and informed him that I am not happy for them to deover same cold order. Despite my request for a refund or a fresh meal, the cashier insisted the food would remain hot and advised me to call if any issues arose. The food got to me 30 minutes later and was cold as I expected with overcooked/burned meat, and I also received an incorrect order. When I contacted the manager to express my concerns, I faced a rude and unapologetic attitude claiming that non of what happened are the resturant fault. When I told him that "the customer is always right," the manager responseded unprofessional claiming that he job is to defend the resturant reputation. Upon informing him of my intention to share my experience with the owner, he responded dismissively and abruptly ended the conversation. For that reason , I have decided not to dine or order from this resturant again. Customers are and deserve respect; if the employees there lack this concept, then this place is not worthy of visiting...