The Waterline Restaurant, Keppel Bay Marina — Restaurant in Queensland

There are so many great reviews on this place and so we really were looking forward to it. Unfortunately, apart from the really tasty food, we were let down by nearly everything else. When we arrived, we were seated and given menus….. it took us 15 minutes to realise there was a QR on the table to order from. 7:15pm we popped through and order for drinks and a starter. Wine came out, wine temp was fine but the glasses were still hot from the glass wash. Didn’t bother me too much. 7:30, starters come out, delicious and at 7:40 we order some dumplings. We wanted a bit of a progressive and slower dinner to chat and really enjoy. One of the team, the first of the night, came over and tried to clear our plates before we had finished and then asked if we wanted coffees and dessert. I explained that we had only just ordered starters and had just ordered some dumplings and potentially some sushi after that. At no point did she say that the kitchen closes soon or that we wouldn’t be able to order food past a certain point. I do realise kitchens closes about 30 minutes prior to the restaurant closing but it was 7:50pm and it had the restaurant closing at 9pm. At 8:01 we tried to go back to the QR code to order some sushi….. the kitchen was closed. After spending $130 already on drinks, starters and some dumplings…. and not even being close to full, it was a major disappointment as we had only just ordered a second round of drinks. The kitchen and floor team looked like they were too busy mucking around on the front of house floor to do anything about the 10-12 customers that were still seated in the restaurant. At 8:10pm they started cleaning up around us. We left in a hurry.

Bitter disappointment to feel like not only were we an afterthought, but that they wanted us out ASAP, even though we booked in at 7pm and they were listed as closing at 9pm. There were about 6 staff on the front of house doing what looked like not much at all.

I would have sent this in a private email but there is no email listed on the phone website, so I’m posting it here.

I’m sure this was just an off night or there are some new staff…. But at no point during the evening did we feel welcome. I would have preferred to order their delicious food takeaway and eaten it on the beach with a bottle of my own wine. It would have been a much better...

We’ve now been to the Waterline many times, and unfortunately, only for the food. However I have to say, disappointingly, the front of house is still as bad as when we first went and only seeming to get worse. Mainly because I agree with other reviews in as much as I hate online ordering from tables. I go out to enjoy the service and food, not to spend my time and frustration conversing with a dumb computer!

We recently took our friends from Brisbane there and were embarrassed at how it all went. They too enjoyed the food, they were totally blown away by the poor service.

The Waterline has so much going for it. Get location and great food. I have to say though, the poor front of house experience/s is wearing thin. I could go into many.....many examples but will only cover one. Our daughter ordered a bowl of chips for her kids at breakfast. She waited, and waited.....and waited. She then asked about the chips, only to be told “we don’t do chips for breakfast “. “But you took my order and my money” our daughter replied. The reply from a senior member of the front of house was, along the lines, “we don’t do them, so we can give you your money back”. It took a looong time for that to happen and alas, we have many, many other examples from our trips there.

So, please......please find and hire someone who runs a good/great front of house and listen to them. It just doesn’t work and it’s such a shame given how good the kitchen is.

You have plenty of front house staff, they simply need to learn from somehow how to do their job well and those who are rude, they need to look for another work experience.

Going there for the food alone is wearing a...

We attended with a large party for breakfast. We had a booking for around 30 people and when the person who booked it all arrived, she warned them that there may be more people and was told that it was okay and that we could sit at the tables around the big one. Once seated, we ordered food and coffee and it was a wait (which is totally fine because they were so busy). After about 50 minutes and in the middle of drinking coffee, we were told we had to leave the table because it was booked and they had arrived. When we explained we were with the big party and we were waiting for food, we were still quite rudely told to leave the table and the server didn’t seem to offer a solution to move to another table, I had to ask for one which I was then told I needed to go inside and ask. I went inside and when I explained the situation was rudely told “well you had a least another 30 people turn up” which wasn’t a problem earlier. Again, no solution offered, I had to ask for another table which seemed to be an inconvenience until I asked for a refund and an available table happened to appear.

There were no reserved signs on any of the tables and we probably should have be told it was booked for a certain time when we sat down considering they would have known the food would take a while with how busy they were.

The location is lovely and the coffee was great but unfortunately that is let down by rude service and the food wasn’t up to scratch after all of that (particularly the Halloumi and Zucchini fritters and hollandaise that...