The Lighthouse Restaurant — Restaurant in Greater Brisbane

We are local. When saying this is A True Dining Destination the emphasis is on the word destination. The oyster shots and coq au vin for my partner 4/5 stars. The service 5/5 stars. But given what happened and knowing the owner was in house and did not come to speak to us at any point 0/5 stars. I was not going to post but with no response to emailing privately I have changed my mind: "Truffle butter with ciabatta, the bread was fresh but the butter flavoured with truffle oil broke down quickly in the heat and some visual truffle element would have been nice, as I can add truffle oil to butter. After the foil that I chewed in my risotto, it certainly upset my partner. We did not 'eat together' thereafter. In fact I had to go and take ocean photos to avoid this meal. Before I even ate the risotto I knew it looked like white or basmati overcooked rice and tasted shocking, not even my own worst dish on a bad day. It was also blanched because the beetroot was not juiced or even freshly derived. The dill yoghurt was something I looked forward to but mixed through in this strange way, it overpowered the whole dish. Im okay with usual arborio, not even vialone nano or carnaroli but when you offer a vegetarian dish (which is a good thing given couples do dine together) then serve good arborio. I know this was not risotto rice, even overcooked I know it would not be what was served. Which is why I knew by the super sized dish also, it was poor and lacking trying to compensate for its $27 price (which we didn't pay for thank you, of course it was inedible and without love). I knew I couldn't eat it before the mouthful of foil and I had my partner try some after my first small mouthful to see how poor it was. It makes me 'heart sad'. My partner loves seafood. We watched 2 tables served a strange 'high tea' of seafood, they paused then picked at it and partook. Not in a wow partaking way you would want with seafood. It looked inferior and honestly the iced display on entry was not like the seafood displayed on the new website, it was less than and this is problematic as it says much about relationships with distributors perhaps. The free lemon impossible desert (to compensate for the risotto) not a scrap of lemon taste it was failed flat doughy and eggy with over sweetened cream that would not be necessary had it been a success. I ate it because I was hungry. Firstly, I know junior chefs might suffer as a result of feedback and I would absolutely not want this. They should be supported. Its harder to perfect a risotto than to put cold seafood on a platter with regards to prep. We havent returned until recently because of covid. We like the changes with ordering and timely interaction from wait staff but that's all. Because not having a Manager come to the table after foil in a dish was poor form (and if the one who came over was, he didn't identify...

I have been a regular customer at the lighthouse cafe and restaurant for coffees/lunches/dinners since 2011. The cafe in the last 2 months has really gone downhill with very slow service and staff who just don’t seem to care. Ordered coffee and cake this afternoon 18/6/2025 at 430pm. When we got our coffees there were no spoons. When I asked for a spoon, I was told to get a wooden one. I didn’t want to use a wooden spoon to stir my coffee and eat cake with. I had to actually ask again for a silver spoon. There was no water or glasses out. When my husband asked for a glass of water, the guy serving said he would fill it up. I then asked for a cup of water from the tap. Same guy said he was too busy and would bring it out. There was one customer at the counter. Waited 10 minutes and as the guy was chatting with another server, I told him to forget it. Still no water or glasses out when we left after that. Last Monday after ordering 3 coffees and cake, the coffees came out and after nearly 10 mins, I had to ask for them to bring my cake out as my coffee was going cold. They said they would bring it out but I told the server to do it while I waited at the counter for it. Last Friday morning waited 25 minutes for two coffees and had to go back and ask where our cake was. Week before that 2 coffees came out together and after 5 minutes, had to go and ask where other coffee, hot chocolate and cake were. If you order a couple of coffees and hot chocolate, they never come out together. Cake is even later. You guys need to get your act together and start giving better, faster customer service. I know I and the three other people I go with, won’t be coming back. It’s a shame because we frequent...

We came for lunch yesterday on Good Friday with no reservations and they were happy to seat us, seeing as it wasn’t that busy given the weather.

Staff were mostly polite and attentive, checking in on us regularly so full points for service.

We ordered the deluxe seafood platter and a whole baked fish for lunch and unfortunately this is when things took a turn.

Seafood Platter ($129) This came as a two-tier makeshift platter so while the presentation was alright, it made for some pretty awkward eating as you had to constantly reach underneath to get the dips and sauces.

Grilled prawns were not fresh as the flesh was soft and squishy. Oysters were some of the smallest I’ve eaten and comparable to what you might find in a supermarket deli. As for the other seafood (crab legs, bugs, mussels and prawns), they tasted like defrosted seafood as they was little to no taste/sweetness to them.

On to the fried stuff - the battered fish was okay and decent in size but got soggy very quickly and because they came served on top of a bowl with the calamari buried beneath, by the time we got to it, the calamari was all wet and soggy.

Whole Baked Fish ($45) Cooked garlic butter style, it was a tad too rich for our liking as the entire fish was swimming in butter. As it was baked, we expected the flesh to be firm but it was all too soft and mushy, heavy with butter. The saving grace were the baked potatoes which were done really well.

Verdict: Will I return? Yes, just not for seafood. Come for the service, ambience, drinks and...