Mango Hill Tavern — Restaurant in Greater Brisbane

Update: I have changed my review rating from 1 to 4 due to the outstanding follow up I received from Simon the manager. Thank you Simon for sincere and honest answers. Based on this we will back soon. Note: Simon got in touch very soon after the review. I was just slow in updating the review

—— Original Review

I hadn't been back to Mango Hill Tavern for over 12 months due to the average 3 star experience last time. It's a real shame just how far this place has dropped in the 4 years since I first went. But the kids wanted to go out and still remembered the play area so they were super keen. I had my reservations especially now I am a Coeliac (nothing to do with past reservations) so I wasn't going to eat anyway. So found a booking at 7.15pm via Google My Business ...bit late but was only available on Monday night. Arrived on time and seated promptly...pretty busy night so expected a delay on food. As expected the play area was open but nothing to play with as it had all been removed (thanks COVID). They had a new at your table ordering system powered by Mr Yum (if you are paying credit card you get charged extra if you go to the counter but no charge using this system). I thought this was great as I didn't have to line up and could focus on time with the kids. All ordered and payed with Apple Pay. 15 mins go by...20 mins go by. Someone comes over and says "Did you order the Beef burger?" "yep sure did" "sorry but we are out of beef patties. can we do something else?". My kids are really hungry (not kids meal the $20 ones), they look pretty cut up but say they will have southern fried chicken. 10mins go by...someone comes up and says "did you place an order?" "Ummm yeah...via the App." "We don't have a record. Can you show me the receipt?" "Here you go" and show them. "Can you come over the counter so you can speak to the Manager"... Let's just say no manager came and spoke to me...too busy trying to organise the pass in the kitchen is what I could see. The young staff were trying to sort things out. I told them they had the original order because someone came and told me they couldn't do the burger. 15 mins later we get our meal and a complimentary garlic bread. I was asked it they could give me drinks but it was already past 8pm and I didn't want the kids to have any more soft drinks. The meals were pretty ordinary...top of the meat lover pizza fell off ($23!!!), chicken burger was small ($19), carrots in the kids fish n chips was soft on the outside freezer burn hard on the inside. I didn't order a thing because I can't trust GFO (my problem ... not restaurant .. I know how hard it is to prevent cross contamination). Anyway...just proves again why I wouldn't go back. Poor form from management who really didn't care... I could handle the 3 star food for the sake of the kids, but the lack of care from management is disappointing at this...

UPDATED REVIEW I've decided to update our review based upon the excellent customer service we received following our original review. Simon (the manager) made time to chat with me on the phone, thank us for the review and also let me know some of the changes they'd made after reading our feedback.

We then booked ourselves in for a dinner and he made himself available that night to greet us at the door. All the staff we met with that night were very welcoming and Simon should be extremely proud of the team who made our trip so enjoyable. Even when our 1 year old cracked the sads because we didn't allow her to wander around the tables, instead of getting the 'eye'...you know the one, the 'can't you control your kid' eye...one of the staff came over and had a giggle about kids with us.

I'll be honest, the food was ok, the kids area smelled exactly like a kids area and it could probably use a spruce up at some stage. But that truly didn't matter. I appreciate any business that takes feedback on board and takes the time to let you know that you are valued. Thanks to Simon & the Mango Hill Tavern staff!

ORIGINAL REVIEW We decided to drop in as a spur of the moment surprise for the little kids. Be there once before as a walk-in with a friend and had a lovely time. Google said you were open so away we went. Arrived at 5:15pm and then had that awkward encounter with an automatic door...you know when you walk up and it doesn’t open so you keep walking back and forward like a numpty trying to figure out if you’re not standing in the sweet spot or maybe the bistro has closed down...we could see someone inside but unfortunately they chose to just watch us. No signs up on the outside with opening times, no times on your website and Google says you open at 10am. Called the number, sat on hold for a few minutes and decided to move on with life. We weren’t sure if maybe there was some event on tonight.

I’m guessing you don’t start seating until 5:30pm which is fine - not everyone rocks the early birds like us. We’d just like to have some way of being informed of that for us non-regular customers. A sign on the door, someone answering the phone or the person who was a mere 3m inside the locked door coming and telling us when we were quite...

I went there to play Keno last Thursday afternoon (10th Jan) and the staff did not know how to place a combination Keno ticket. I asked the girl if she could get someone who DID know and she said she didn't think anyone there knew. I said someone MUST know or they wouldn't bother putting the combination tickets out for use and asked her to get the manager. A twenty something year old came out after five minutes, 'Brett' I think his name was and I said to him that I had wanted to place a combination Keno ticket but the girl behind the bar didn't know how to do it and that she had told me that she didn't think anyone else there knew either. I said to him if they wanted to sell Keno then they should train their staff how to place the combination tickets. He asked 'And why would we do that when we only sell the combination tickets, once in a blue moon'? I said no wonder they only sell them once in a blue moon if their staff don't even know how to put them on and reiterated that if they were going to sell Keno, they should train their staff on combination tickets. He then told me he didn't care for my aggressive attitude! I calmly told him that I was not being aggressive, I was just telling him something he obviously didn't want to hear. Having had enough of the whole saga, I told him not to worry about it, I had written all the combinations out on separate tickets while I had waited for him to come out and handed them over the counter. He then told me that I could take my Keno tickets and put them on somewhere else. Talk about small man syndrome! I am a local and I definitely won't be going back to North Lakes Tavern if that's the caliber of management they have and I will be making damn sure everyone I know is told this story. I worked on Keno in a Casino for five years and I can tell you first hand that some of our biggest punters played combinations, some of them bet over $1,000 per game! If your staff don't know how to even place a combination bet, how can they promote combination Keno tickets to the punters? It's a false economy not to train your staff AND to place such rude, incompetent people into...