Spero — Restaurant in Sunshine Coast Regional

I’m not one to leave reviews that could cause harm to a business as I work in hospitality myself, but my experience here was quite appalling. Last Thursday I had a table booked with one other. We were seated and greeted just fine, but seconds after taking our seat our server came over asking what we’d like to drink; we hadn’t even opened our menus. We told him we’d need more time so he left. It didn’t take long for us to decide what we’d like so we closed our menus and continued chatting waiting for him to return. 20 minutes pass and he’s still no where to be seen. A bit fed up with waiting for our small table of 2’s order to be placed, I head up to the counter and politely ask a girl there if we could have our order taken. She tells me she’ll have our server over ASAP. Another 5 minutes pass and he finally returns, no apology, no acknowledgement that we’ve waited nearly 30 minutes for an order to be taken on a rather quiet Thursday night… He bluntly takes our order, seeming so completely disinterested in his job or our experience at this restaurant and leaves again. The food was amazing, no complaints from either of us. Although it took quite a bit to arrive considering it was a quieter Thursday, both of us thoroughly enjoyed all of it. We head up to pay and coincidentally our server is at the POS waiting to take our order. Once again, he bluntly delivers his lines and charges us a $130+ bill. Neither of us take much notice initially and walk out of the door, but discuss how wrong of a price that sounds for what we ate. We ordered 2 mains, an entree and 2 soft drinks, so theres no way it should have been $130+. We head back in and go to the counter once again and a different girl is there. We mention how we feel as though we were overcharged and she says we were charged for the wrong table’s order… by the server of our exact table… She (without apology) offers a cash refund, stating that’s the best they could do for the inconvenience and we agree. She comes back with $60 cash… We take it and leave, no compensation, no attempt to make our awful experience less awful and not even an apology from anyone… After looking at other reviews left about this place, it’s clear many others have an issue with the abysmal quality of service provided here. Clearly not much is being done to fix it which is just disappointing. A review I read even mentioned a negative experience with the same server we had that night (guy with the man bun). Please do better… there was so much that could have been done to amend this situation and avoid me having to leave this review but we weren’t even given a...

Was really excited to try Spero for my birthday dinner and was beyond disappointed.

We made 2 orders, one after the other, at 7pm. One order had x2 entrees which we indicated we wanted before the mains of both orders. And we confirmed twice we were both at the same table number.

The mains of the first order came out around 20mins in. We waited for the entrees or the rest of the mains but after 10 mins nothing came so our friends started. At 7.55 pm, we had still received no more food.

Given the delay, I went to ask about our food. The girl went to the kitchen and returned with the manager. He was defensive straight off the bat. He brushed off my questions about our food stating we had ordered at 7.20pm, so hadn't been waiting long and proceeded to repeat back the wrong order. I corrected him on when we had ordered and what but again was dismissed. He stated that as we had ordered separately that this was the problem. I explained that we ordered straight after and the girl put us on the same table so we could eat together. Again, was meet with defensive reasons for why it was our fault. Stunned by this I returned to the table.

My brother went up with our receipt to speak to him. He returned and said he was chasing it up. The manager came out to the table, and proceeded to keep blaming us for ordering separately. We inquired about the point of the table numbers if this was the case and why our entrees had still not arrived but yet again he was on the defense and kept making excuses anytime we challenged anything.

Seeing the conversation was going nowhere and shocked that he would double down on this behavior, we asked him to see where the food was.

Shortly after this, our mains arrived, and 10 mins later the entrees, which was pretty pointless at this stage. The whole situation left a sour taste and curbed any appetites we had

We also ordered baklava which was pretty much burnt on top and incredibly dry.

The mains and entree weren't bad. But to be honest, I'd rather cook than have my family be treated like that. Especially on my birthday. And for the ridiculous amount we spent at your establishment it was...

What a disappointment. We went on New Year’s Day in the afternoon, with my parents, a friend and his young daughters. Our experience was so bad, it’s taken me a week to put it into words.

It was quiet when we arrived, only 2 other tables. It was our first time, and we were shown to a table without being told we had to order everything at the bar. Only after 20mins of waiting, and one of us asking a staff member were we told how to order. The guy at the bar taking orders was arrogant and rude. I ordered several entrees, and asked for the total: $85. I then added 1 ginger beer and 1 extra entree. New total: $145. ‘How did it go from $85 to $145 with only 2 more items?’ I asked. ‘There’s a public holiday surcharge BUDDY’ I think it goes without saying if you are letting a customer know they are about to pay more than expected, it’s best not to be rude and condescending. I left it alone as I had my friends 4yo daughter by my side. But I was disgusted. My mum then ordered mains and we returned to the table. Entrees arrived and there were 2 more entrees than what I actually ordered - so obviously the guy at the bar over ordered and overcharged me. The food was ok. Some of it. Saganaki was cold and dry. Octopus was rubbery and covered with way too much sauce. ‘Confit’ Lamb shoulder was so dry it took 6 of us to attempt to eat it and we failed. Calamari was way too spicy, I loved it, but the kids and the older parents couldn’t deal with it, maybe dial it back a bit? The saving grace was the mousaka and the spanakopita- which was slightly undercooked but still delicious. Staff were visibly miserable. Not a single smile, and when we told them about the food they just walked away. Both times -when we let them know that’s not what we ordered, and when we complained about it. Shocking service. By the time we left the ‘food line’ was blocking the entrance and out the side door. If there’s at least half a dozen staff on, maybe table service could be an option? One of the worst experiences I’ve ever had. This is not a restaurant, it’s a cafeteria, and a bad...