Ariala Kippa-Ring — Restaurant in Greater Brisbane

Honest review: not really an enjoyable experience

Many people hyped this place as being like sizzler’s but better….. HOWEVER …..!

I went very early but there was still a cue at the door, which was okay as it moved pretty quick. I found the wait staff friendly, helpful and readily available to assist, which was really good considering the size and crowds of the place.

Not only are there cues to get inside but there are also greedy cues at the buffets. As I was standing in line I saw an 11 yr old girl eat rice with her index and thumb, licking her fingers and continue around using serving tongs which grossed me out. It’s overall a very loud, chaotic feeding-frenzy. Very limited (plain boring) vegetarian options.

The seating arrangements are very crowded. Forget about having a nice conversation over dinner as it’s so noisy and the next table is so close so as to overhear every word.

The food:

The food isn’t bad. But it’s just not that good. It’s very plain and average. Nothing intensely delicious or full of flavour. Very basic “take-away” shop. The egg noodles tasted like they were drenched in burnt oil, as did the stir-fry veg, which had no flavour at all other than oily. Potato bake was very standard and runny. Wouldn’t touch the salads or the seafood with a 10ft pole as they just didn’t look fresh or appealing. Fresh fruit was nice tho

The desserts: Plentiful, but the cakes were dry and crumbly and not that moist. The rest of the desserts aren’t that remarkable; just small jellies, puddings, and ice cream. They have a chocolate fondue fountain that has had every 5 yr olds fingers in it (silly parents lifting them up!). The coffee machine doesn’t taste very good at all either. Undrinkable.

My highlight was the lemon lime bitters drink I ordered - which says a lot for the food. Oh and their hand sanitiser smells nice too.

Dinner for 2 with drinks $100 - better off going ala carte or getting fresher seafood somewhere else. It was pretty much a feeding frenzy for people who like quantity over quality. I won’t be going back. I’d prefer to spend more on one nice flavoursome meal than have loads of very average food and have to cue in crowds of greedy hungry people. The staff are absolutely perfect though and do an...

If you miss Sizzler, Ariala is worth a shot. Like Sizzler, it's a buffet restaurant. Unlike Sizzler, there are no made-to-order steaks or seafood options. Steak, seafood and roasted meats are part of the 'all you can eat' package.

If you're picky about how you like your steak, Ariala is a bit of a lottery. The cuts of meat are fine, but there's no way to know by sight alone if the batch of steak they bring from the kitchen is medium rare, for example. Plus, it's hard to know how long the batches have spent under the heat lamps.

From entrées to dessert, there is plenty of choice. Salads, soups, stir fry, steaks, plenty of sides, like chips. The dessert section features a range of small cakes, small brownie squares, as well as a chocolate fountain with a selection of fruits to dip. There were large pieces of banana with the skin still on, presumably because the pieces go brown very quickly otherwise.

My five year old niece was looking forward to the novelty of the chocolate fountain, but didn't get to try it because another young child was seen sticking his hand into the cascading hard shell chocolate, which resulted in the machine being disconnected (makes one wonder how many little people hands go undetected).

Ambience = virtually zero. Clearly the goal was to fit as many seats into the floor space as possible, so there are no noise dampening dividers. The result is an ambience not unlike a packed beer garden. The service is good, pleasant wait staff who are quick to snap up empty plates, an essential ingredient of buffet style dining.

I hope Ariala succeeds, because it's good to have the option of a buffet restaurant. I get the impression, however, that they are relying heavily on filling tables and turning them over as quickly as possible in order to loosen the...

For 45 bucks I got stuffed like a turkey. All the staff girls were very welcoming and keeping my table clean. Although it's not the greatest selection of food I've seen at all you can eat, even vegetarian like me can eat plenty. The salad bar was good, everything looked very very fresh. Soup tasted like someone actually cooked it, pretty nice! Fried noodles and rice were greasy, but guess what! They usually are. The rest of the food was probably better thank okay, you can mix everything with different sauces so at the end of the day the options are pretty decent. By the time I got to deserts, I could barely breath. No chance to swallow any ice cream. I came right after 5 and eat almost two hours. Started pretty quite and got little busy. I can imagine it can get crowded around the food when the place is packed. I looked at the drink menu and no exadurated prices, pretty decent. Defo effortlessly doesn't feel like they're loosing if food and making it up on drinks. Free hot drinks well appreciated, hot green tea keeps the scran going down the throat. The place was kept neat and good looking all the time I was there. Also there are signs asking people not to eat around the food are so if someone does, they're stupid. I was thanked and asked how my experience was when I was leaving so if I wanted to complain there was the option. Conclusion: Yes, it's worth that money and...