Federal Hotel — Restaurant in Queensland

My wife and I dined here on a Fri night during the Spring Flower Fest. Luckily we had taken the precaution of booking ahead because soon after arriving, the place quickly filled up, creating a lively, energetic and fun atmosphere.

The Fed is carpeted throughout, and with its exposed brick facades, low mood lighting, stylish timber features and wooden furniture, with upholstered leather chairs, it has a comfy, warm and homely ambience. The minute that you walk through the front door you’ll feel happy that you made the decision to dine here.

Even though it was a busy Fri night, everything ran smoothly. On arrival we were greeted by a friendly maître d and shown to our table, in a nice spot near the window.

The Fed is part of the A.L.H. Hotels Group, so you can order in the old fashioned way at the bar, or by using their much faster and more efficient app. We used the app, and it worked well. You can track your order as you go, adding or deleting items as necessary, so it’s much easier to manage your budget this way. The whole order can be sent off at once with a request for entrees to come first. Payment is taken immediately, meaning that there’s no hanging around after the meal waiting for the bill to arrive, then queueing again to make the payment. It’s all fast, simple and efficient. And my Monty’s Rewards Club membership is linked to the app, ensuring that I always get the generous 5% discount on food and drink.

And the post-ordering service was pretty professional too, with a bevy of waitresses on duty, all neatly turned out in smart black uniforms. No matter how busy the place is, you can be assured of fast food delivery with no long delays. It took only about 10 minutes after ordering for the meals to arrive at the table, piping hot and fresh from the ovens. And it was of the usual high standard that we've come to expect from A.L.H. Hotels. We ordered the roast of the day, the salmon patties with extra calamari, and apple pie with cream, ice cream and custard for dessert. It was all fresh and tasty, prepared with love, care and attention to detail and presented to the table on stylish white crockery. My roast beef was tender and flavoursome and accompanied by a varied selection of colourful, wholesome vegetables. My wife's salmon patties were neatly made with a crispy outer coating, filled with lashings of fresh, tasty salmon. The apple pie was sweet and moist with a crispy pastry. It came with a dollop of fresh cream, a serve of ice cream and a little bowl of custard. The perfect way to end the meal.

All up, and including three drinks, we paid a modest 70 pesos. That's excellent value for money in this era of hyperinflation in our country, so thanks to the A.L.H. Hotel Group for keeping dining out affordable, especially for long struggling seniors. Being a member of Monty’s Rewards program also helps keep costs down. If it weren’t for venues like this one, we could never afford to eat out.

And finally, to top off a perfect night, there are clean and well provisioned toilets just behind the dining area, and ample free parking in the venue’s own car park, which it shares with the popular Dan Murphy’s liquor store, making it extra convenient to stock up your liquor cabinet on your way out.

We will definitely be back for a return visit next time we're...

Overall very disappointing experience, went to the Federal Hotel for lunch and the food plus the service was really great, the girls were going to a musical so we thought to drop in for lunch and then I would stay at the sports bar and watch some rugby as well as afl game. I checked the night before to make sure that what I wanted was going to be broadcasted (actually also confirmed an hour before we got there for lunch). Unfortunately, the ladies looking after the tvs really had no idea as to what to do, apparently you cannot simply set the fox channels to the number you want watch, for example, if you want 504 you can't do that, you need to blame fax and the duty manager, so instead of watching the game, all I was told that there was a problem. About 3/4 hour finally got what I wanted on the screen but then the girls thought that it was easier to take off what I was watching and ending up with no sports on any of the screens (take a look at at the main screen... blank, finally they good rid of the screen altogether) longstory short, although there was no large screen, if it was not for the duty manager there would not have been any sports what so ever. The food was great, the service for the food was also great but the...

Always enjoyed the food here but I actually get anxious and ready to walk out the door when I see the older lady with the short hair serving at the bar. I think I heard a staff member call her "Karen" which really fits her personality. She could even be a manager, i'm not too sure. Twice now when I've ordered food or a drink being extremely friendly with pleases and thankyou's, she stares at me for a good 30 seconds with the most sour look on her face as if my whole existence is agitating to her and I swear im not exaggerating, even my mum who is in remission, wanted to put her in her place but I made sure she didn't. Then without saying a word she will put in the order. She did the same thing to my father when he ordered. I've worked in customer service for 14 years so I totally understand when you're having a bad day, you can't always be super happy and bubbly but she is like this everytime to every customer and it makes you feel like your bothering her which makes it super awkward. She then said something rude to me when I ordered my drink. All the other staff are always lovely but this lady really needs to reconsider being in hospitality if she doesn't enjoy interacting with...