Sofia’s Restaurant & Bar — Restaurant in Gold Coast City

Three of us had dinner on Sunday 22/06.

I cannot fault the atmosphere of the place as it was lovely, the service was average, however the main problem is with the food.

The starters were very mediocre, the tomatoes in the tomato salad tasted watery and like they came out of a supermarket shelf, instead from a reputable, quality supplier. They tossed some subpar balsamic on it and dressed it with 3 interconnected leafs of basil and called it a day.

The bread wasn’t bad flavour wise, however the oven floor was running too high to the point where they were unable to get the proper colour / leoparding on top as the bottom was charred.

We then ordered pasta. Me and my wife ordered the cacio e peppe and our friend ordered the special.

We made a horrible mistake.

The cacio e peppe arrived and it was the saddest thing we’ve ever seen. The pasta was overcooked by 4ish minutes at a minimum. It had cream in it (which to be fair was listed on the menu), however that ingredient has no place in that dish. It distinctly lacked the “Pepe” part, with barely a light sprinkle on top, where, as the name suggests, is supposed to be a big part of it. It was luke warm, however that doesn’t matter as we’ve sent it back after having a bite. That abomination of an Italian classic tasted and had the mouth feel of a poorly made Kraft Mac and cheese that places put on a kids menu because the kitchen labourers they employ can only barely work a deep fryer and microwave.

If you put a what’s supposed to be a 3 ingredient dish on the menu, there’s nothing to hide behind, so you REALLY NEED highly trained people that know what they’re doing, especially with silver service.

To the staff’s credit, they accepted the return without a blink and we ordered a single serve of rigatoni to share. Despite requesting it al dente, the pasta was still overcooked by 2-3 minutes, though the general flavour profile was enjoyable.

Our friends special was also a pasta, the flavour profile was good, though again, the pasta was clearly overcooked.

All in all, I would have no problem returning for a drink / cocktail (my wife’s Aperol was done well and I enjoyed the wine) as the place is quite cozy, however I’d skip...

We dined at Sofia’s Broadbeach on Saturday for the first seating of the night and left disappointed.

Some starters were already unavailable even at the first seating. Two breads came out, one heavily over-salted and the other lacking any seasoning at all. The plates on the table had multiple chips, and when asked about it staff said they were too expensive to replace. Service was disorganised from the beginning. Ordering was chaotic, drinks were forgotten, and after entrees came out it took over an hour for main meal orders to even be taken. Three beers were ordered, two arrived quickly, but the third took another 15 minutes despite asking three different staff. Waiters seemed impatient and unsure of which dishes were which, leading to wrong entrees being delivered and mislabelled. They specifically asked if it was a special occasion and we said it was a birthday, yet nothing was done with that information, not even a happy birthday. Why ask at all if nothing will be acknowledged?

Food was mixed. Oysters, cocktails and tiramisu were excellent, and desserts were decent. The steak listed at 1.6kg for $170 was brought to the table in packaging before cooking, and both steaks shown were only 1.5kg. While the meat tasted good and was seasoned well, it was cooked medium well instead of medium rare. The peppercorn sauce was tiny, overloaded with capers, and very salty. When questioned, the waiter told us to use less sauce before reluctantly bringing more. The $40 prawn pasta was undercooked and the pasta water lacked salt, with only four small prawns in the dish. The $80 for two servings of pasta rolled in the parmesan wheel was hoped to be a highlight, but it arrived raw with store-bought pasta. Although replaced, the redo was cooked better but again in unsalted water, and even that much delicious cheese could not save it. The rack of lamb at $70 came out with only two bones and lacked both quality and quantity.

Sofia’s sets its bar as fine dining, yet both front and back of house lack the training and execution required to deliver that standard. It was a memorable occasion for all the...

If this was my first time here I’d consider it to be an off night, but it’s my third time in this location and there’s been no improvement.

While the restaurant is beautiful and our waitress (Belgian who speaks French) was very lovely, our experience left a lot to be desired.

They use beautiful hand painted plates, but every single plate that I received had huge chips in them.

We were served and charged for still water automatically, instead of being asked for our preference in water.

The food did all arrive together (for the most part) and was hot and well presented. I ordered the Cacia de Pepe, which seemed to be the pick of the bunch from our table of 9. Sadly, half the dishes were under seasoned and flavourless

The truffle fries were the stand out (they were sensational), though I would suggest it would be better to serve them with a plate or bowl under the pot, as it’s not fun trying to play jenga with the chips in an attempt to stop them all falling on the table

When it came to ordering drinks, we often had to flag someone down and they would quickly scurry away (not the above mentioned waitress) to place that order without checking if the rest of the table also wanted more drinks. This resulted in a lot of back and forth with very slow service for the table

Lastly, there is an automatic tip of 10% added to the bill of any table that has 8 or more people. That wouldn’t be such an issue if the food and service were better, but let’s take a moment to remember that THIS IS NOT AMERICA!!!

If you want to charge fine dining prices, you need to offer a fine dining experience.

I will say that the crème brûlée was fantastic, but not enough to bring me back.

There are plenty of other wonderful restaurants on the Gold Coast that offer better food and service for the same...