Rainforest Restaurant — Restaurant in Queensland

We were very satisfied at the incredible meal we enjoyed at Rainforest Restaurant at Thunderbird Park. We tried 2 starters, 2 mains & 2 desserts. Every mouthful was divine. We had read reviews 3 months ago before getting a chance to properly experience the exquisite quality of meals at the restaurant. Most importantly, you MUST book especially for lunch or dinner as they are always fully booked! Seeing the restaurant only opens Thursday to Saturday therefore, a booking is essential but definitely worth the trip to Thunderbird Park. The crispy pork belly in bao buns were amazing. Every bite melted in your mouth. We had the lamb and the 400g rump and both were incredibly well cooked and perfect. The only thing I could fault was the mushroom sauce which was on this occasion particularly salty. We gave the chef feedback straight away. It was an experience I will never forget and upon turning 50, I must say I am looking for perfect experiences and this definitely was one! I will be willing to return to this restaurant and venue yearly for the quality of food, professional service and the amazing experience we had tonight. The buffet breakfast at the restaurant was well worth every cent at our previous stay (early December). Unfortunately, as we were given the wrong information, we missed out experiencing the dinner and had to settle for takeaway pizzas which were incredible but disappointing as I was so looking forward to trying the restaurant. So, happy I got to finally experience it 26 days later! I would say this time at Cedar Creek Lodges at Thunderbird Park seemed a very quiet night as opposed to the Friday 2nd to 4th December 2022 as there was no receptions booked in. In Wallaby Lodge, it was terribly noisy on 2nd & 3rd December due to yelling & screaming from drunk guests at the wedding receptions. I will definitely enquire in future if staying here if you have receptions booked in as it would make a huge difference to where we stay. Our friends in Bush Lodges didn't hear any of the noise from the reception in early December. Just a heads up for those in Wallaby Lodges as the noise carries straight into the bedrooms and we only got to sleep once the guests left venue and things got quiet. Thank you for the wonderful experience we have had this time! See...

Good food, appalling service - would not recommend.

I booked online using The Fork, however, a lovely lady named Hayley called back to say I needed to change the time because of the COVID-19 restrictions which wasn’t a problem. She offered me a place to sit by the fire as I wanted to know how cold it would be... I happily accepted but when we arrived, the table we were due to be seated at was no where near the fire and next to the open door. I explained the conversation I had when booking but they didn’t seem to know anything about it. The person who was in charge said in quite a terse tone that I can either immediately sit in the table they had allocated for us or that I could wait 15mins so they could clean a table down. I was worried about being cold so we chose to wait.

We then waited at some seating near the bar, we were not offered an apology nor a drink. I went to the bar to order while we were waiting and was told by the same lady (who seemed in charge) that I was not allowed to order at the bar - still no offer to take a drink order or an apology. It was not a welcome feeling despite trying to do our bit to stimulate the local economy by staying in the area for the weekend and celebrating our anniversary dinner.

We were then seated at our table but the chairs were still wet but a lovely waitress wiped them dry at our request. The table however, was still nowhere near the fire and right beside an open door 🤦‍♀️. We walked past 3 tables which were closer to the fireplace and would have been fine to use even with COVID restrictions.

We then sat down and wanted to order a drink. We were not offered a drinks menu, only food. We requested a drink we knew they had which came soon after and was delicious. We ordered food at the same time. Once our food arrived, we requested to see the drinks menu which was brought over, however we finished our meal and sat there for a while waiting for someone to come and take our order. That never happened. We paid and left. We have to say that the food was really delicious so well done to the chefs but the service was absolutely appalling. We were really looking forward to having a lovely meal and going all out hoping to buy many drinks but since no one asked us for a drink order we...

If I could give zero stars then I would.

Staff at the restaurant sign in with the QLD safe app. No alternative was provided. Not good enough. Dire need of training in this area.

Quote from Qld Government website.

Let the business know if you don’t have:

a smartphone or have difficulties providing your information electronically. They can record your details for you.

all the information required to check in, such as a residential address. Alternatives are available to patrons who find it difficult to provide contact information.

[Edit after Rainforest response] You had already taken details at the desk and recorded them digitally, so you could have recorded it yourselves quite easily. You chose not to do this. You provided a network that my phone could not connect to, yes I tried on several occasions and insisted this was the only way. Now that could be my phone or it could be your network. I tried on 3 different occasions to check in, so your assertion of refusing is absolutely false. 1 at the front desk on the way in, 2. at the desk before sitting and 3. at the table. I have checked in in many many different places, I have also checked in properly on paper in many places also. We left quietly, we did not storm out. The staff we saw were very polite. However, the management shirked their responsibility and could easily have cleared the situation by providing the paper based solution, or used the details already gleaned, but chose confrontation instead and chose their staff as...