Leichhardt Hotel — Restaurant in Queensland

I have stayed at the Leichhardt several times over the last 20 years, with three of those visits within the last 2 years. Unfortunately, what I once enjoyed about this hotel is gone. What was once old world charm is now a poorly maintained shadow of its former self. ||||On our last visit we rang the hotel while we were inbound to Rockhampton and booked for one night, including what we were told was a buffet breakfast. More of that in a moment. ||||On checking in, the room was disappointing. The carpet was badly rucked up and distorted sufficient to trip you up in the night, the two single lounges were badly stained, the moulding around the base of the walls was falling off, the lampshades were falling to pieces and so on, some of the furniture was damaged and some fairly rickety. There was evidence of poor maintenance everywhere and evidence which was quite visible and immediately apparent. To the credit of the staff on duty, on raising these issues with them we were immediately moved to another room, a suite in fact, which was much better, having recently had the carpet replaced. But in conversations with those staff, it appears many guests have recently raised maintenance issues and these have been ignored by management. The rooms no longer have a mini-bar, and the two bottles of water in the room are not complimentary. Or cheap for that matter. ||||And so to the buffet breakfast. A small table of boxes of cereal, a few croissants, a bowl of fruit and a tray of packaged spreads. No bread to put the spreads on, and no toaster if there was. Additionally, you were serbved a plate of bacon and eggs. There was no choice in the hot dish, bacon and eggs or nothing. This was a continental breakfast, and a very basic one at that. But even as a continental breakfast it wasn't great. In no way could this have been described as a buffet breakfast. ||||I'm trying not to be too negative here, because we have preferred the Leichhardt over a roadside motel as we pass through Rockhampton. The staff here are usually pretty good and the beds are excellent. But the sliding maintenance is at the point that we will probably look elsewhere during...

When I walked up to the bar, the bar tender had airpods on, so I say excuse me. But she was busy working on something (maybe uni homework or something), so I try to make some noise to get her attention. But I timed it, it took her 5 mins to react to my presence. Luckily she turned off her music to serve me, then after getting my drink she promptly went back to her corner back on her phone and air pods.

I went and ordered some food, got a special deep fried chicken and the steak. The bar tender asked if I would like the chicken as entree and I did. Unfortunately both meals came out at the same time.

It was approx. 2pm so there was about 5 staff moving the tables for 5.30pm reservations. But none of them were able to wipe a table down, so unfortunately the only available tables were dirty. I observed one woman who was more interested in coming out to the table with her iPad and looking at the tables every 10 mins and going back to the bar.

The chicken thighs came out really overcooked (very hard to overcook thighs) but they managed it. Seasoning on the chicken was really nice though. I ordered Diane sauce and got gravy instead. Vegetables with the steak are fresh out of the freezer, bought in bags and just thrown into a steamer. They had a sweet chilli and cream sauce but they didn't mixed the cream properly so there was just a big chunk of cream in the sauce.

Overall, just a bunch of kids working unsupervised and they don't care about anything.

Probably an ok atmosphere to catch up for a couple of drinks, but don't...

Ok ..🤔 I know this place has just opened so this rating is generous as I believe it has GREAT potential and right now it is still ironing out issues. Positives were: The atmosphere is wonderful inside, I loved the rustic country/old concrete beams from the old previous building and the amenities for ladies were amazing! I wish I had there to go when I was younger. But there were Negatives; 2 bar staff at the bar for over 150 people (doing drinks and meals) is unacceptable. I booked on the app but no one was at the front booking table (the whole time we dined), so we as well as people turning up were lost, not a good welcome. I found our own menus as the staff were busy (right side of the bar) and found our own table. I then lined up for drinks and to place our meal order along with many others. The meals actually came fast and were a decent size for seniors meals at $18 each. Mum loved her rissoles and veges and I had a good schnitzel (I have tasted better). The chips need work but were ok also.

Also there was no disability parking close to the side entrance to the Leichhardt, only 2 over near the bottleshop so we parked there and weaved our way along the narrow one way street to the entrance. This needs changing asap.

Overall a great environment but a need to improve staff numbers to improve service/welcome people better and recognise App reservations and room to improve with meals. I’m sure it will...