The Monkey Tree Bar & Restaurant & Bar — Restaurant in Queensland

Extremely disappointed. Will never return. Asked wait staff if there was a table in the restaurant…which they advised there wasn’t. (Actually there were tables, which weren’t used for the 1.5hrs we were there). Tried to place an order through the QR code to see every item was ‘sold out’. Called to a waitress who then said ‘oh it’s Mother’s Day, we have a special menu, I’ll get it for you’. To tell you the truth, nothing ‘special’ about the menu selections. Nevertheless we ordered 3 burgers and 3 drinks. We were advised it’ll take 35 minutes to arrive. My daughters were a little disappointed, but we decided to stay. I then set an alarm on my phone for 40 minutes, telling them we’d see how quickly our order would arrive. Milkshakes arrived…only half full for $8…ridiculous. It then started raining and I asked if the patio heater could go on…it was freezing…but was advised they had no gas. I walked inside to see if we could get move to an inside table as we were very cold and getting wet. There were about 4 vacant tables and seats available at the bar. But I was told no again. We continued waiting and observed another table getting their meals and they’d arrived about 15 minutes after us. At this time my 40minute alarm went off. I returned to the counter to ask for a refund on our meals. That’s when Chrystal appeared and said we hadn’t been waiting for 40 minutes, and the other customers must have ordered before us…yet I clearly saw them arrive, because my daughters and I commented how they snagged a hut protected by the rain, as others were leaving. Nevertheless, Chrystal wasn’t entertaining a refund and said we could sit at one of the inside tables and she was ‘bumping’ up our order ahead of 3 other orders. She did everything to try and make us feel bad. My daughters (both children) were very upset as they picked this place to take me for Mother’s Day and thought the day had now been ruined. As for the burgers…nothing special. Bacon and cheese burger…meat patty was extremely dry, plastic cheese melted on top. Certainly not worth $26. Then to watch Chrystal chugging a beer behind the bar was just the icing on the cake. My daughters were horrified to see this…no wonder they didn’t want customers sitting inside. Anyway….chalked it up to a very bad experience. Will never be returning. Overpriced, meals substandard and staff really unprofessional.

UPDATE: I was NEVER rude to your staff…how dare you imply I was. And my ‘first complaint’ as you say, was actually NOT a complaint…it was after 40 mins and I asked for a refund. That wasn’t even entertained by your staff, so we had no choice but to stay.

And if you want to go against Safe Work Aust and consume alcohol whilst working…let me give you a tip….don’t do it where the customers can...

Firstly I want to say the food was great, we've been many times and the eggs benedicts are brilliant.

The staff we've dealt personally with in the past and today were great. I did have to follow our drinks up when our food came out and we still didn't have them, but the ladies sorted it out super quick.

The venue is lovely outside, but the inside for eating was cold on the chilly day and none of the actual heaters were on in the restaurant component, only near the doorway of the Cafe entrance.

Unfortunately today left a sour taste in our mouth after witnessing the owner/ manager deal with some other patrons in a really poor way. We've seen his abruptness and lack of customer service before, not sure if he's jaded about people but it really came off that way. The atmosphere left afterwards had all the other patrons (6 of us) feeling really uncomfortable and honestly everyone wanted to get out of their pretty quick, yes we were talking about, it wasn't just our opinion.

To sum up I don't think this family did anything wrong, mum, dad and 2 teenage daughters. Prior to their food coming out (ordered and paid for), the girls went up to the counter and asked where the toilets where, they were directed to use the public toilets approx 150m down the road (there are toilets onsite). On delivery of their food the father asked why they were directed to the public toilets, the immediate response was defensive and aggressive and that they, two teenage girls of approx 15, didn't say they were patrons. Keep in mind our tables are 10m from the counter. Obviously the response wasn't well received by the father. Of course had they, monkey tree, asked if they were patrons, issue solved, however it was inferred the girls lied when asked Clearly that doesn't make sense. When the father asked if he'd at least apology, "I am sorry the girls didn't mention they were customers when asking for the toilet" was just down right rude. The father said your a rude prick, and then the owner/manager told them to leave and he'd have them removed. Walked away and got them a refund dumped it on their table and said leave.

These poor girls!

We and the other 2 couples around us were flabbergasted.

Don't come at me about the toilets and having to pay for them, I respect your right when this costs you and there are public facilities close by, but the poor communication and the response 💯 are your responsibility. While I wasn't the one it was directed to, exhibiting this has really soured our consideration if we were to return.

Do better with dealing with customers when it's not...

Visited The Monkey Tree Bar & Restaurant today and had a very strange experience. We sat down and ordered through their QR code system with no issues. Order was placed at 3:15 with lunch service ending at 3:30. 5 minutes later the owner asked had we ordered yet because the kitchen was closed and the chef had gone home. We told him we ordered 5 minutes ago and the order went through and was paid for. He then continued to tell us that the chef had gone home as he decided that lunch service would finish at 3 that day as they had a large group coming in in the evening. We asked if it would be easier to just refund the order and we would go elsewhere, he told us it was up to us but he didn't make it feel that way at all, he made us feel like we were a burden. He proceeded to get our drinks and to see what he could do about the situation (reluctantly). He came back with our drinks and told us he asked the chef to come back but wasn't sure if they would. We were left for 15 minutes not knowing if the chef was coming back or not. We didn't want to drink our drinks as we had planned on leaving if we weren't getting food. We were then told the chef was back and our food would be out soon. We couldn't fault the food and we were very appreciative of the chef having to come back and make our sandwiches. This is the only reason I haven't given a 1 star review. At the end of the meal I also noticed that my beer was out of date. It didn't effect the taste whatsoever but it's these small details that tell you everything you need to know about an establishment.

Update (after owner response): The fact of the matter is we shouldn't have been put in that position. Fair play for trying to give your employees a break before a big group is due, but don't make us make the decision on whether or not to call the chef back or not because you messed up. If you want to do give your staff a break between meal shifts then your employee roster should have been updated and guests told before they pay for their order. Not after. The beer was also finished before I noticed. Like I said, it didn't make a difference to the taste, it just shows you don't take care with stock rotation, and if that's happening with drinks what else is it happening with? I'm not hiding behind a keyboard, you wanted nothing to do with us and were nowhere to be seen after polishing your handrails. Stop blaming the customer for your poor management and lack of awareness. Based on the reviews here it's quite a common theme. Man up...