Moku Bar + Grill — Restaurant in Queensland

First, let me say the food is amazing. I really, really appreciate how many vegan items they have, in every section of the menu, and how diverse, hearty, and not-salad-y they are. We particularly enjoyed the corn cob spare ribs, the fried cauliflower, and the BBQ pizza. We had a hard time deciding what to order (and over-ordered as a result). I love that they offer three vegan desserts — not just fruit salad and sorbet, either. Cake! Banana split! The drink options were great too, lots of classic tiki drinks and alcohol free versions. I had a pina colada and my family had alcohol free pina coladas and a hibiscus sour. Another note: kind staff. Our older son was cold, he hadn’t brought a sweatshirt, and the front desk let us borrow a towel for him to use as a blanket. So, now the weirdness: the setup is unusual. You’re supposed to find a menu, choose a table, then go up to the hostess station to place your order and tell her/him which table number you have. Ok. Apparently the hostess was supposed to tell us when we ordered that the wait for food could be an hour, which would have given us pause with two kids. As it was, we watched all the tables around us get food, and we could have sworn a lot of them sat down after we arrived, and then we tried to ask a passing server what the status of our order was. He said he’d look into it . . . and did not circle back. So, at one hour after the order time on my receipt, I went to the server pick-up area and asked for a status update, and my husband went to talk to the hostess. We found out that from their perspective, everything was as it should be . . . because we were supposed to know that the wait would be an hour. The older more senior staff was really nice about it and got everything for us in in boxes to go as our kids were starting to nod off in their chairs. I signed a form for them to allow me to take the food to go. Then we had a quick 3-block walk back to our hotel to try to not melt the banana split. After all that, we ate at our hotel, and as per above the food was top-notch. The atmosphere while we waited was nice too, it’s a pretty resort and the restaurant is overlooking the pool with indoor and outdoor seating. Just, mind the wait (ask about it),...

Enjoyed a great meal here last week - good quality, generous portions. Came back on Monday night to take advantage of a special where particular mains are $19. Our party of four ordered via the QR code on the table, which is the restaurant’s ordering method given they don’t do table service. Only after submitting the order did I realise the discounted meals had gone through at full price, which totalled $32 more than the advertised special. When I queried this with the manager I was told, “Oh, yeah, the app doesn’t accommodate specials, so you have to order from the front desk for that…” This isn’t stated on the menus or the app, and it didn’t sound like the first time it had been raised, either. I was then told there was no way to fix this, other than to give us more food or drinks, which we didn’t really want, for free. Paying in cash is fine, of course, but opening the till and handing over $32 apparently isn’t an option. Nor is reversing a card transaction and redoing it for the correct amount… something every business does every day when they make a mistake. Good food when it eventually arrived … 55 minutes after we ordered, though one plate was missing an element and another had been swapped entirely for something else, without asking, because “the kitchen didn’t like the way the other thing turned out.” Two free undersized drinks from the surly bartender who kept the queue waiting while he flirted plus two free desserts made up for it financially, but the experience left...

We looked around town and have been to Cairns many times but not tried the food here. It looked pretty reasonable price wise and had some interesting dishes. We tried a range of food from the menu. The Fijian inspired curry was delicate and fragrant. The brisket was beautifully cooked. The calamari was also excellent with a lovely fragrant coconut sauce. The wine list was ok - could do with Pinot Noir from NZ and an oaked style Chardonnay in the list. The prices were pretty cheap per bottle - with most less than $50AUD. The cocktails we ordered were well made and we enjoyed them. The atmosphere in the restaurant was ok but you can probably find better down by the warf, but expect to pay higher prices. There are a lot of families with kids - it’s basically a family friendly resort so to be expected, so probably more suited to family meals than a romantic dinner for two. There wasn’t much to come by in the way of service in the restaurant, tables were sticky and we cleaned it ourselves to make it appropriate to eat off. The bar staff were much better and were engaging and polite when we ordered happy hour cocktails from...