Rainbow Beach Sports Recreation and Memorial Club — Restaurant in Queensland

A slightly odd welcome, having made a booking of 20 people for our ultimate travel tour. Despite our regular custom we booked in advance but where informed that we had to sit at separate tables because ‘it is to difficult for the staff to manage a big table.’

The chaos then continued when we came to order and we were rudely greeted by an off duty manager because we were not lining up in the correct place. A friendly “could you queue over here please” would’ve sufficed.

The food itself was adequately tasty but, make sure you’re hungry because these portions could serve a small country. At least they had some take away boxes for my lunch tomorrow tho!!!!

Also please ensure that you communicate your allergies efficiently as apparently carrot on squid is a common thing in Australia. As one of our party received their squid and noticed the carrot garnish she politely requested it to be remade without the carrots to which the waitresses immediate response was ‘did you tell them when your ordered.’ I recon that made her feel so valued as a customer. After she agreed to ask the chef the next dish came back with shocker, more carrots!!! Now I’m not sure about the allergen training of the staff here but I’m not sure telling a customer “we cook a lot of veg here” and “maybe you could just pick out the carrots” would be considered best practice, especially when the menu doesn’t actually advise of any allergies. I’m just glad she that they are keeping the people of rainbow healthy with all their vegetables.

As the night drew to a close our group decided we would pay a visit to the lovely bottle shop, which again our tour group provides regular custom for. We were approached by one of the members of staff who made it clear that he did not desire our custom. Feeling pressured to evacuate the premises we grabbed our drinks and went to pay. Unfortunately the payment declined, to which the staff member cried out in absolute disgust. We proceeded to pay with another card, shortly after which this man decided he could no longer stand our company and swiftly ran off to the bar with a grand total of no customers. Personally I feel attacked and ashamed but not surprised at the lack of customer service skills .

Despite our trial and tribulations of the night I must say our entire group were very happy with one waitress in particular by the name of Alex. She was polite and friendly and even encouraged us to attend an event the next evening. She is the reason that one star has been awarded by this ultimate travel group.

We would love to hear from the management in response you...

My first ever negative post, the night didn't start well. We made a booking for 4 people to dine at 5pm..just prior to being seated we were told we needed to vacate our table by 7pm...one of our guests is 91 years young by the way!!! But OK we can move onto the pokies at 7. We went to the bar to order drinks, a bottle of bubbles and a beer..Sorry we are told you need to purchase the bubbles from the bottle shop down stairs and then pay $7 corkage... in the bottle shop we settled for a deal buying two bottles for $48, normally $28 per bottle. We asked if one bottle could be drunk during dinner and the other placed in our car for consumtion at home...thats ok we are told...pay for one now at bottle shop and we will take the othere up stairs and you can pay for that with the beer and corkage...OK...(NOT)...we ended up being charged ($28 for each bottle...a $18 bottle would have done the Job). Two meals arrive....lamb shanks...Luke warm only, we asked the waitress politely if they could be heated up...not a problem...then the next two meals arrive (traditionally I would have thought all four meals should come together), call me old fashion..one of those meals was over salty...a refund on that meal was accepted...only 3 eating now...My meal was bland but edible. The replaced shanks where also mostly enjoyed...but by this time our night out was to be forgotten....until I decided to re-live it in...

If you look handsome, and are under the age of 25, prepare to bring your identification. Not just one, but two forms of ID. You will be checked several times for proof of age between walking to the bar and ordering your drink to sitting down and trying to enjoy your chilled beverage in this hot Qld environment. Any further betting or similar activities, requiring you to be of responsible age will have you chased up for more proof.

Food is good, delivered in exceptional time with great quality. Wide variety of modern drinks on tap suited from the young to old patrons.

All in all, great venue and atmosphere but no one wants to be stopped multiple times for an ID check, making it feel like the customer is in the wrong place, to be then question about the validity of presented documents, by the same staff member at one point might I add.

Won’t rush back, Cheers, Not overly...