Dakabin Hotel — Restaurant in Greater Brisbane

We hopped into the new Dakabin Hotel today to give it a try given they've just opened and wanting to show some local support in their first week.

The positives? The food, (well, what food we had) was great. Fresh ingredients and great flavours. They've put a lot of thought into the kitchen with an "East Meets West" concept, which is good to see.

Unfortunately, this is where the "great" ended though.

We arrived at 3:30pm to find very few people sitting in the restaurant. Admittedly, we hadn't made a booking - which is on me, but I figured by late afternoon there would probably be a window to have a late lunch in between lunch and dinner where the place is quiet. The entire restaurant was almost empty, with only a few tables with people sitting at them.

Seeing no attendant at the reception, we headed further in towards the bar to enquire about a table. We were handed two menu's and encouraged to take a seat outside, which we did (I mentioned we didn't have a booking). We reviewed the menu, which was on the pricey side ($16 for a kid's meal) but decided the food quality was probably worth the coin.

Upon heading to the kitchen area to order, I was asked if we had a booking, to which I replied I didn't. I was advised that because I didn't have a booking, they wouldn't be able to take my order. Looking at the rows of empty tables, I asked if I could make a booking but advised that they were fully booked. I had to contain myself from bursting out laughing, thinking he was joking, but it was evident he wasn't. I advised that we had menu's and a table and would be gone well before dinner time, again pointing to the twenty or so tables that were empty, to which the young man advised that he was in the middle of "clearing the whole place out" and if I didn't have a booking I couldn't be served and would have to vacate the table also.

Dumbfounded, (I've never had a restaurant knock back a paying customer during what was still clearly lunch) I asked where else we could go. He pointed to the "cafe" area on the other side of the bar and said we could order food via a QR code there, if there was a table free. I returned to our table to move myself, wife and two kids to the cafe area, where we found a table and QR code. Upon loading the code, we found that the menu in the Cafe was a limited version of the restaurant, with only a half dozen Asian plates and a bowl of chips to order. Not even a Burger or Kids menu!

We ordered a bowl of chips for the kids and a plate each for us, which as mentioned before, was quite good, but lacked some attention to detail (sauce only over half the chicken - the other half plain). Slow service via the QR code (drinks took almost twenty minutes to reach the table, with wine that wasn't chilled) and what can only be described as non plussed service from the staff, who didn't look happy and didn't feel approachable the entire visit. I had to ask twice for a separate bowl be brought out for the kids to share some chips, and when the drinks did arrive it was almost as it were an inconvenience.

It's their first week in business, so I get it - they're still finding their feet, and this takes time. Where the wheels seem to fall off the cart is the level of training the team have, with very little flexibility or leniency given to customers, for - well, anything really. They've obviously been instructed to follow a matrix and not encouraged to think outside of that framework to support their patrons. Add to that the lack of any thought into a more comprehensive menu for those dining in the cafe area (this seemed to be an afterthought), and more importantly - turning away paying customers during a period where lunch was evidently still being served seems bordering on ridiculous, and probably not in the interest of their balance sheet.

I wish them well, the food (at least in the cafe) was good, but they have a long way to go. Give this place a miss for the next six months. We won't be coming...

Unfortunately, I would not recommend this place. Usually, I try to defend the staff as there is usual a reason for poor service/mistakes, however, I genuinely cannot defend the service that me and my family received today.

Firstly, we had a party of 16 and had booked prior to showing up. Five of us showed up firstly, and were put on the outside table where the table could only seat eight people. We were a little confused, but figured since we had arrived early, they had not had time to set up the tables. However, as another two arrived separately, they were seated at the table next to us, which was a few metres away, and would not make sense for a party of 16. We waited for the others to arrive, as we figured it was some sort of placeholder. However, when the others arrived, they were then seated at another table inside. The staff were just as confused as us. We moved inside, figuring they had made a mistake and that was the table we were supposed to sit at.

However, the manager came and approached us, stating that the table we were seating at was already booked and the party was waiting to be seated. We told her our side of the story, how we had been seated separately at three completely different tables. We questioned how half of them had been seated at this table for 16 if another party was waited to be seated at our table. We showed our correct booking, and she then walked away to go "figure it out."

She came back and told us quite bluntly that "we could sit here, but we had to be out of here by 2pm" as the other party had this table booked for 2pm. So she lied, cool. We were a bit miffed that she had not offered a full, sincere apology and did not explain to us what went wrong. She had only said sorry once, and that was when we were expected to move. Unfortunately, I did not grab her name. Her entire demeanour was rude and unfortunately, she treated us as an inconvenience. I do understand her frustration, but she lied to us and acted like we had caused the problem.

I felt bad for her staff. The way she talked to us paying customers was quite disgusting, so I could not imagine how she treated her own staff. Hopefully they are treated a little better.

The food was quite pricey and expensive, but it was sort of worth it? I unfortunately got the wrong dish, but I sort of don't blame them, so that was fine. They also gave our dishes out at completely separate times so half were eating while the other half wasn't - also not a big deal, hard to organise 16+ dishes to come out at once.

It was quite loud outside due to the intersection, and it was also quite loud inside - I had to talk a little louder and listen a little harder. Not their fault though!

Overall, I would not come here again or recommend it to anyone. Hopefully their staff gets some retraining and the manager fixes her attitude,...

my partner and I came here for dinner last night, and we genuinely really enjoyed most of our experience. On arrival we were greeted with friendly faces and smiles from the ladies at reception and explained how things work and how to order. Ordered and paid for our food via table App which was super easy.

Food we ordered :

Pork & Ginger Dumplings $18. 8/10 We thought the price was a little much for 5pc but when these came to the table they were huge and good flavour especially in the Szechuan sauce.

Burrata & Pickled Tomatoes $24. 6/10 Really nice and refreshing dish but quite a small portion of cheese for the price (just our opinion).

Beef Paccheri $32. 10/10 This main was the highlight of the night. The slow-cooked short rib with Truffle and smoked Ricotta was melt in yo mouth tender, al dente and portion was massive so perfect to share.

450G Rib Eye on the bone $58. 10/10 The Chef cooked this to medium rare perfection. Was like butter and matched it with a red wine jus and also chimichurri on the side to taste with both and they were equally flavoursome. Would highly recommend to anyone craving a fat Steak 10/10. (Would be great to have a decent steak knife though).

Pizza “The Dakabin” $30. 10/10 We love the Sandstone and Eatons hill pizza and assumed it was the same and sure enough it was good as we expected it to be, yum!

Beef Short Rib Rendang Curry $39. 1/10 This main definitely missed the mark. Was looking forward to a nicely spiced and flavourful curry, unfortunately this was non existent. Curry was full of sugar and that’s all she wrote. Overpriced and really disappointing it was inedible!

Flourless Chocolate Cake $14. 1/10 This dessert looked the part but was tremendously dry, literally need as chug of water just to get a bite down. Flavour was there but disappointing again.

We really wanted to try some things on the menu but felt the prices were a bit up there for our liking such as 3 prawns for $24..

On a side note, There was no attentiveness from any staff after food came out to ask how everything was or if we needed anything. There’s was no takeaway boxes for our pizza, we got given plastic containers to squash it all in, no bags to put all leftovers into. We went for a play in the gaming room as we arrived early for our reservation and it would be nice to see some security keeping people in order with people lounging in between machines, being loud and throwing out racial slurs, was a sloppy area. Also in our opinion think the prices for drinks were overly expensive.

Nonetheless we will definitely be back for the food and to try some other options...