Cleveland Sands Hotel — Restaurant in Greater Brisbane

I’ve been going to Sands Hotel with my family and friends for years, it has always been great; good service and good food, but the last few times we’ve been there, it was very unpleasant; a lack of service and the delivery of food was very slow, often other tables arrived after us would be served before us.

Last night, we took our 12 years old daughter there to celebrate her birthday; as she requested because she enjoyed going to Sands in the past. We booked a table over the phone and arrived at 6.45pm. A lady put us on a table and that was it for the next 20 minutes; no menus, no greetings, no come and check on us, nothing happened. We waited patiently as we want to enjoy our daughter’s birthday celebration, however it got to a point I feel like I need to get someone’s attention, so I went up to the counter and asked for some menus, another lady came by 5 minutes later and told us we can’t just sit down here ourselves, we have to wait to be seated. My husband was a bit annoyed and told her we had a reservation and a lady sat us here, but she just never came back to serve us. So this young lady brought us some menus after that. 30 minutes later as we read the menus over and over again, ready to order, no one has paid us any attention, not even an eye contact as they walk past many times. Our 12 years old birthday girls was trying very hard to keep everyone in a good spirit by making lots of conversations and funny jokes, because she knows my husband was not happy at all. I stopped one of the lady who walked by many times and told her we are ready to order, and we waited for I don’t remember how long, finally she came over to take our order, at the point, my husband said to me “Let’s go somewhere else, this is ridiculous.” And he started to phone other nearby restaurants. The lady who was going to take our order looked surprised and confused about what’s going on. I said to her “don’t worry, we are going somewhere else”. Then we left and decided never go back there again.

We end up booked in a table at the Sirromet Winery. When we arrived, we were greeted by a nice gentleman, who took us to our table with menus, a lovely young lady came not long after to offer us water and took our drink order... The night at the Sirromet Winery was wonderful; fantastic service, beautiful food...

The service here was SO BAD that we were honestly laughing our heads off! Basil Fawlty runs a Michilen Star restaurant compared to this joint. We had booked a table for 4 & after waiting a short time for the girl (Jess?) at the front counter, she eventually seated us at a table on the veranda. The table was filthy with spilled drinks etc from previous patrons. It was stickier than fly paper. Jess buggered off before we could say anything. I went straight away back to the counter and found a male staff member who I asked to wipe the table, which he did. While I was away another girl, who was on her first day, brought cutlery and was placing it on the filthy table. Those two then scarpered without offering to take any drink order or even offering water. We then sat and waited…& waited….& waited. My wife then went back to the front counter where she asked for, and obtained water & 4 glasses & ordered a bottle of wine. She brought the water back to the table pretending to be a waitress, which we all had a laugh at. Meanwhile the barman had to run to the liquor barn next door to get the wine, as they had run out. Then we waited again…& waited….& waited. My wife the went back to the front counter to order our meals and a beer. 2 beers turned up a few minutes later. We pointed out that only one was ordered & the guy said, “Sure you don’t want two?” We declined. (The declined beer still remarkably made it onto the bill). The meals turned up in a timely fashion and were ok although a “share plate” of crab & prawn roll consisted of only one roll. Jess pointed out the difference of “roll” & “rolls” in a particularly condescending manner, commenting that, “Seafood is expensive you know!” As we were halfway through our meal, we were advised that the veranda area was closing in 30mins and that we would have to move. Why we were not seated inside originally I do not know. We moved inside. In summary: Food ok. Service non existent. Jess rude, maybe having a bad day. Not once were we served by staff at the table. We went up to the counter if we wanted something. My wife joked to the barman that she was the new waitress and he actually...

Unfortunately I have to change my review…. What an absolute shambles our Valentine pre-paid dinner was last night. The lady offered wine but didn’t know what the house wines were on offer for the deal (not a deal breaker). The entrée was like what you would buy out of a hot box and seriously, 1 beef croquette (we cut it in half as it was a shared menu) The mains were just over the size of an entrée and average, but the sauce on the pork and potato dish was the yummy but once again, minimal. Once our mains arrived I had to pull up the waitress for cutlery, obviously she didn’t notice that I didn’t have any when she put my plate down. Once mains were finished, we piled up our plates which sat there for 30 to 40 minutes waiting to be cleared. We had staff walk pass at least 20 times but obviously their empty hands were too busy. I just couldn’t wait anymore as it was getting late. I walked up to the male staff member, possibly manager. I asked him nicely if we could have our plates cleared as they’ve been there over 30 mins and if we could have our dessert. The manager did come and clear our plates but what he said pissed me. He said, thank you for bringing this to our attention… Hmmm…. No sorry for the delay. The dessert must have been a joke, what was presented you’d get at a kids birthday party or even a wake. Very disappointed. I looked at the previous reviews today and someone keeps replying from at least 3 months ago to date – “We'll take your comments into consideration to improve our future events” Obviously this isn’t working. What a disappointment.

This review was 3 Years ago - Complements to the chef. My steak was ordered medium to well and it was cooked to perfection. The staff were very good and polite. Just a very lovely relaxing meal and atmosphere. I'll definitely...