Hampton Estate Wines — Restaurant in Tamborine Mountain

Restaurant visit for Christmas in July.

Food: $42 p/p and we all left hungry. Two small courses only- small main, smaller dessert. Not even bread served with the main. Alternate drop. Ham rubbery & tasteless, one small slice of turkey, all swimming in an unappealing gravy. One drop had nice vegetables. The other meal virtually nothing on plate except the small underwhelming chicken Ballotine. Tiny version of sticky date slice, mine had a large seed in it that i fortunately did not bite down too hard on before discovery. Service: Disappointing on all fronts. Took 3 calls to secure the reservation. I called back once to make a slight change to alternate drop to find no reservation was made despite an earlier call with Karen to place the booking. Didn’t feel confident after second call, so called back a couple of days before arrival to find no yet again no reservation in my name. Had to run through all details again. Entered, waited inside restaurant for longer than required for a half empty room, approached 3 times by different staff, told to wait. My husband eventually followed up by approaching a waitress, taken to wrong table (no Christmas in July deco), spotted the right table, taken there & left with menu’s for drinks. No one returned to get drinks order. Husband went again to find a waitress. Placed drinks order. Meal arrived before drinks. Bottles of water, cider placed on table-lids taken off & we were left to pour ourselves. Extraneous wine glasses not removed from table which was overcrowded, however some dinner plates were removed before all four of us had finished our meals. Those not finished were left sitting there until dessert. Bill was incorrect at the end in our favour by $164-. It is a shame we were so honest (& noticed the mistake raising it with the staff) as $60 (original bill-only covered drinks) was really all the lunch was worth. When our dissatisfaction with food & service was raised at time of payment, mild apology offered & nothing more. Ambiance: Zero. The room felt empty, cold, loud. No feeling of ‘love, care or attention to detail’. Huge fireplace, which in past visits has been warm & inviting, didn’t add any warmth at all. Toilets dirty. No special touches, not even a christmas tree. Everything had an ‘on the cheap’ feel from the token piece of plastic christmas deco & cheapest christmas crackers one could buy found on the table by the unlit tea light candle, to the lack of a nice soap, room freshner spray or hand towels in the grubby bathroom. Grounds: Lovely looking cabins & fire pit. Shame you have to pass by the rear entrance to the kitchen to get to and from. Wouldn’t be so bad if that entrance including deck & stairs wasn’t piled with disorganised junk, rubbish bags, mops, gas bottles, spare stacks of chairs etc. An eyesore & the only view from at least two of the cabins. Used to be our special place to visit....

YOU REALLY FEEL LIKE YOU'RE IN THE HAMPTONS

We celebrated our wedding anniversary by going to dinner here. We were greeted to a warm and cosy atmosphere and were shown to our table by one of the owners, Karen. She took a genuine interest in us and what we liked about Mount Tamborine. She allowed us to choose either a table by the fireplace or the window. We chose the window. Normally you would be overlooking the mountains, but it was nighttime, so we just enjoyed intimate dining. We were able to have a conversation without loud noise or music around us - a big plus! There was background music of different genres and we loved the variety and how unintrusive it was. The toilets are situated outside and they cater for accessibility issues. Our waitress Chloe was amazing! Always checking on us and making sure we had enough to eat and drink. We chose the dinner menu of 2 courses for $52. I chose the entree of Baked Arancini - which we shared. There were five of them and they had a great range of flavours and baked in cheese. Perfect amount for two. For main meal, I had the incredible duck! It fell off the bone and the glaze of orange was superb. It came with veges and bok choy. Try eating the bok choy first for a full burst of flavour. Hubby had the Beef Cheeks and it was so tender and full of flavour, I had more than a few taste tests! Great meal for winter! We shared the dessert and hubby chose the 2 cheesecakes. Oh my goodness!!! A baked cheesecake and an incredible continental cheesecake.

We could not fault any of it. From the wine, to the food, to the atmosphere and care from the staff and owners. It was a true Hampton Experience.

They now have cute studio cottages (one is accessible) and we will definitely be back to stay in a cottage next time and dine in style again!

A huge thank you to Karen, Chloe and staff for an...

We went for lunch - I cannot comment on the accommodation. Something worth noting, despite them calling themselves "Hampton Estate WINES" - is that they do not produce any wine themselves. They purchase someone else's wine and then relabel it. Don't be fooled.

The best thing I can say about our whole experience is it was beige. The service wasn't rude, but it wasn't cheerful either. Our sparkling mineral water (750ml bottle) was brought to the table and plonked down, without the waitress even opening it. Odd. Linen tablecloths - but paper napkins. Paper napkins?? At those prices?? Bugs and debris lining the windowsills. Dirty windows. Tacky plastic lawn furniture marring the otherwise beautiful view of the scenic rim. Tacky artificial flowers detracting from the gorgeous old building. No flowers or other attractive decor on the tables.

It took 25 minutes for them to clear our starter of four tiny croquettes (which cost $18 and were mac n cheese - expensive!) and then another 20 minutes for our mains to be brought out. I had the salt & pepper squid - the salad was drowning in dressing. A tasty dressing, but drowning. For every positive, there was a negative.

We had to get up and go ask for our bill. Not once were we checked on to see if everything was ok or if we wanted anything else. We sat without drinks for an hour. We had planned to have coffee & dessert, but honestly just couldn't be bothered to commit another god only knows how long of our lives to being there.

I'll add there were only two tables dining - ours and a table of four. I'd hate to see how bad it would be if they were actually busy.

Gorgeous views of course - but you can get them elsewhere on the mountain with much, much better service...