Manta Ray Bistro — Restaurant in Greater Brisbane

First impressions were just straight up bad. Tried to have lunch there, stood at the "Please wait to be seated" sign for 18 minutes as staff walked past ignoring us...(2 adults, 2 children) While waiting, we watched as two people from the line of a dozen people waiting to order were served. 2 orders taken in nearly 20 minutes.... Yeah, no. We left without being seated and without being spoken to by a single staff member.

Second impressions... Not getting any better. After trying to call them all day to book a table for Friday night dinner and not getting an answer or call back from the message left, we decided to just turn up at 5pm. They were "Booked out" but we could sit out in the crowded front area. (COVID spacing? What COVID? Elbow bumping room is fine, right??) We chose to stay and eat, despite the warning signs...

Despite the friendly attitudes of the wait staff, and despite the fact that a 35 minute wait time for food at a busy bistro can be excused.

There is no excuse for being "sold out" of the ingredients for all of the vegetarian options on the menu.

There is no excuse for the poor quality of the food that Was available. The pizzas were bland and boring. The side salad was less dry and had more flavour than the chicken parmy it was served with.

And there is absolutely no excuse for the constant, strong smell of cigarette smoke as it drifted through the whole eating area throughout the meal or the non-commital shrug of disinterest from the staff when prompted about it.

Final thoughts: Looking through these reviews, this business is NOT learning from their mistakes and they do not care about the abysmal quality of service they are delivering. Do not eat here. It is not worth it. Drive into Dunwich and...

Well, the location is good and the views are lovely. However… There is nothing fresh and healthy on the menu that comes at an affordable price, eg. a side salad for $15. I decided to go with the salt and pepper calamari, which was a mistake. It costs $18 and is literally about ten pieces of calamari on a plate with a tiny splash of aoli and one wedge of lemon. I decided to say something - I was really craving salad or even just a few pieces of cucumber or some vegetable and mentioned to them that usually this type of dish will come with a side of salad. They were very nice and immediately ran off to get me a second serving of calamari, even though that wasn’t what I wanted…. So, good customer service and an extra star for their efforts, but honestly, the food was disappointing. My daughter ordered the creamy potato wedges with bacon, but only got the smallest sprinkling of bacon on top, which she was very disappointed about. I feel for a business with that much money a little bit of extra care in their dishes would go SUCH a long way! A bit of salad, more generous portions, that sort of thing…. wouldn’t make a huge difference to them in terms of effort, but would likely get them a lot more...

I normally never leave negative reviews.I felt this deserved some kind of review. My husband and I arrived at Straddie later in the evening. We settled into our resort at Pt Lookout and rushed out for dinner. Everything on the island was closed. This was our only option. We got there 2 minutes before their kitchen closed at 8:30. Online it said it was opened to 12am and no one was answering the phones to confirm opening hours, so we discovered it was the bar that was open but no kitchen. Not to mention we forgot our masks at the resort. We were rejected into the restaurant. We went home hungry with no dinner. The shuttle bus driver felt sorry for us and ran into the pub to buy us potato chips, which they wouldn’t let us in due to no masks. That was our dinner on our first night at Straddie. Oh and it was my husbands birthday the next day. Terrible service. Shocking. And poor communication with no sympathy toward our situation. Im sure the food is excellent, just could improve on...