The Barrel @ Clouds Vineyard Maleny — Restaurant in Sunshine Coast Regional

The venue is quite lovely, they have multiple separate areas within the barrel to cater for different functions, plus casual outdoor dining. Ample parking, and ample outdoor seating with tables and umbrellas.

The prices for food and beverages was on average also, however, that's where things started to fall apart. I ordered using the table QR codes, a couple of drinks while we waited for our remaining guests, which after 25 minutes, I asked about their estimated arrival time, of which, they were not in their system. I had to show the menu receipt, and the drinks were made immediately, all the while, the 4 staff members around the bar area seemed flustered and lacked their goal. The young girl mentioned ordering food at the bar, as the QR system held little praise.

Once everyone arrived, we ordered our food and drinks at the bar. The food took 20 minutes to arrive, but the drinks never came. Again, it took another two walk ups to ensure the beverages would be made, even then, they didn't look at the order receipt, merely asked what we wanted and it was made.

I asked for a refund on the soft drink, as we all completed our meals prior to the drinks arriving.

Regarding the food, it all looked good, however, the Chicken Pasta and Prawn Pasta were microwaved. The Prawns were microwave hot, and the pasta was never drained and tossed in oil, as there were clumps of gluggy pasta in the bottom of the bowls. (Draining and tossing in oil prevents pasta from sticking, Chef basics)

Not sure if I'd return, it seems as there were functions, that the service standards dropped. Normally you'd ensure additional staff for functions, so the standard restaurant process continues as usual, but it seems existing staff were drawn thin.

Might try one more attempt and see...

We had a beautiful day in maleny and decided to stop by here on the way home. The venue is lovely, rustic, ambient. The kids play area was great for our little girl and we wanted to enjoy a quiet drink while she was happily occupied.

We walked in and went into the bar where we were greeted by a seemingly frustrated staff member who looked as though she had better places to be.

To be honest the girl was rude, we hadn’t visited before and weren’t aware of the seating configuration outside so we simply said we wanted to sit by the play area so our daughter could play. We were rudely and abruptly told we had to sit at a table due to Covid and we weren’t to enter the play area with a drink (which we knew).

We ordered drinks and sat outside. The girl came to clear the glass and my husband said thank you, to which we didn’t hear a reply so he thanked her again and the girl rudely responded “I said ok!”

I’m not sure if this staff member was just having a bad day. But the rudeness and abruptness was completely unjustified. When arriving at a venue, especially As a first time visitor, I’d expect friendly warm and genuinely helpful service.

Considering this is a vineyard I’d also expect a little more passion and expertise when it came to deciding on beverages.

What an absolute disappointment. We would absolutely not return and wouldn’t recommend.

I’d suggest management consider hiring more passionate and happy staff members and ensure training and ongoing support was in place.

If this were my venue I’d be embarrassed to know my staff were conducting themselves in a less than mediocre...

Rude, disinterested staff with the exception of the poor overworked barman. After ordering drinks and meals for our party of five it became clear we were not of any interest to the staff. We chased up drinks from the overworked and blatantly unsupported barman explaining that we had a flight to catch. We then enjoyed our drinks watching the chef and another staff member sit down and have a meeting with another table while their other staff were very obviously not coping. This continued with the head chef bringing out cutlery and stopping to chat with other diners for about another 45 mins.We chased up our meals and received two of them which we delivered to the table ourselves - the other three meals never arrived. When we requested a refund we were told to wait for Susie. So we waited, while she ignored us at the counter for another 5-10 minutes. When we asked for a refund she glared at me. When I explained that only two of our meals we supplied and had since been finished and we simply did not have time to wait for the other three she shrugged asking what meals…… cash refund given (not back onto card) no apology, no explanation, no smile, nothing but attitude and rolling of her eyes. It will be a cold day in hell before we ever go back - I do hope that the poor barman gets another job soon where they value and support him though. The one star is for him (and that we couldn’t...