Piggyback — Restaurant in Sunshine Coast Regional

In a word “disappointing”. I had so much hope. I’m a Palmwoods’ local and a raving fan of PiggyBack’s two sister restaurants, so I was pretty underwhelmed.

My wife has been before, and well, she chose not to write about that experience, it was so bad. We both put that down to teething issues and it has taken us since opening week to try it again.

Major changes need to happen to this restaurant for its longevity.

I actually understand lining up for in demand restaurants but the line up we experienced tonight was just poor staffing. There was no one inside.

Food: overall well cooked, good flavours. The menu is very different from the other two restaurants and they have not picked the locals at all, which is important for longevity. The menu is awkward, difficult to understand what to order, even with the understanding of the sister restaurants. You will need a main and a side as a minimum. We ordered for five, the dishes showed up over 40 min period which is too long. With a side showing up 10 minutes after the last dish. The menu needs a rewrite. You can’t advertise “greens” but only include one green. The Pad See Ew… cannot just be meat with Chinese Broccoli? I mean are you going for a tapas restaurant?

Staffing: they are green, very inexperienced, almost scared in nature. One plate a time, no memory of a table number they just visited, poor plate collection.

Experience: Very Poor. Line up to get in, line up to the bar. The flies, the heat. The restaurant screams table service?

I’ve left special mention for the flies. OMG, I live here and I haven’t seen anything quite like it. On food arrival they just swarm. Very annoying, hard to eat.

We were bitten by midges… could be related to recent rain. We were there on sunset.

Money spent for the above experience $150 on meals + $50...

Huge disappointment! I am a big fan and regular customer of Rice Boi, so today decided to try the new restaurant their crew opened - Piggyback. I have worked in hospitality industry for 20 years, some very busy venues, I understand that some days are worse than others, especially shortly after opening of the new venue. However, this team had opened several restaurants with similar concept, so I would expect a bit more professionalism. Let me describe my experience: 11:15 - arrival 11:30 - doors open 11:45 - allocated to the table 11:50 - lined up to place the order 12:00 - (halfway through the queue) BOOM!!: 1,5h waiting for food! Several tables left, including us. Moreover, I heard a number of people disappointed, as they were told at the counter "we don't have rice", so several dishes from the menu were simply not available. Just to remind, it was 15 minutes after the opening. The restaurant is clearly inspired by Rice Boi and Giddy Geisha, however the overall design/decorations - it's ok, but nothing WOW. The menu is inspired by its other two venues too, but... the portion size seems to be smaller, while the prices higher. I can't rate the actual food, because I did not have a chance to try it. Maybe, I will try it again in the future, but I might need to reserve at least 8 hours of my time to travel there, get the table, order food, wait for it and eat it. Overall experience - disaster... big disappointment, considering the experienced team behind this restaurant - my expectations were much higher. I know that opening of the new venue is a challenge, but if you have been advertising heavily for weeks before opening, promising to provide "truly unique experience for diners" - you could expect that it is going to be busy - so you should be ready...

First time dining at PB. Despite following them on socials since day 1. Haha, just never got there before last night.

I have dined at their other two restaurants of similar cuisine several times (Rice Boi and Giddy Geisha).

I dined in with 3 of my girlfriends at least 1 of them had been several times before.

Being a Wednesday night we thought it wouldn't be as busy, busy enough that 2 of us couldn't get a park in the restaurant car park. I parked up the hill on the grass to the side of parked cars in designated spaces (I've been told that parking fines have been given out during the day, but didn't think at night. I hadn't gotten one when leaving at 9 pm) and another across the road at the park.

PB doesn't take reservations, walk in only.

Nice ambience, low lighting, and fairy lights. Friendly staff.

Our food came out hot and in good time.

Our table had Crispy eggplant chips, spring rolls, Pok Pok Chicken Bao, Tamarind Glaze beef short rib and Pok & Garlic chive pot stickers. All the dishes were yummy and I would be happy to get any one of them again. I ordered a bubble tea, Watermelon? with green apple bubbles that burst with the most delicious apple flavour. Best bubble tea I've had. I don't like the bubble beads but these weren't the rubbery kind the burst with flavour so yum!

It has been pretty muggy lately. I don't recall seeing or feeling any air con, however, the restaurant was open at the time and I don't recall if there are shutters to close it off. There were fans mounted to the posts which are great for diners sitting within proximity, unfortunately, we weren't. So for me that was a little uncomfortable.

All in all, I'd recommend PB and would def dine again on a much cooler day 😎 be...