One of the really nice things about the area we moved to last July is that there are many more restaurants nearby than there were where we lived before.
Yesterday evening, I decided that we’d try the local Thai Eatery. My daughter told me that the Food was good – but the Personality was pretty poor. ‘What on earth are you on about?’, I asked. ‘You’ll see’ she replied.
We were greeted by a tall, thin man with a long face who told us to sit wherever we wanted – and then wandered off.
We gulped at the cost of a bottle of wine – it is, after all, a restaurant in the outer suburbs of Brisbane – but decided to continue with the experiment.
Bearsy, being far more mindful of healthy food than I am, ordered a Thai Beef Salad…
‘Oooh!’, said Mine Host ‘We don’t do that when we’re busy – takes far too long and the wife can’t cope’.
We looked around – there were no more than half a dozen other tables occupied beside ourselves.
We were asked if we would like rice with the meal. Bearsy asked for noodles. ‘Don’t do those except with ***’, was the surly reply.
The starter came – and before we were three-quarters of the way through, Mr Happy turned up to take our plates away… I am aware that what I regard as an indication that I have finished eating, i.e. that my eating utensils are neatly placed together, is not, now, universally used. But, I would have thought that the proprietor might have recognised the fact that we are not from the generation that wave their knives and forks frantically in the air while they are eating – and that there was still plenty of food on our plates.
The face got even longer when we said that we’d like clean plates and eating utensils for the main course.
Bearsy got his second choice meal, and I got mine. To be fair, I thoroughly enjoyed what I had ordered – Bearsy did not.
We were asked, at least twice, whether we had finished. Well, I was not going to be finished until I had drunk the very last drop of that over-priced bottle of wine!
By the time it came to pay the bill, I understood exactly what my daughter meant by ‘Poor Personality’.
Guess What! We won’t be going there again! It’s a shame. Since the level of ‘good service’ has improved here dramatically in the last few years as businesses have come to understand that if they want people to return they have to provide good, cheerful service.
Boadicea's Chariot 
Evenin’ Boadicea. May i humbly suggest the Breakfast Creek Hotel, the Story Bridge Hotel, the Café CBD in the Queen’s Street Mall and particularly that restaurant on the Brisbane River on the way to the airport, the one with the pelicans on the wharf and the name of which escapes me?
OZ
Hi Oz! The Breakfast Creek Hotel was good last time I visited, the cafe in Queen’s Street Mall is also good, I don’t know the other two restaurants you suggest.
The problem is that we like to eat out near to home.Driving half an hour to and then half an hour back from a restaurant is a real chore – especially with the drink / drive laws here.
A ‘special occasion’ is somewhat different – but the cost of a cab from here and back to the Breakfast Creek Hotel would pay for another four meals out nearer to home.!
My father’s younger brother taught me how to deal with pushy waiters who try to take food away for it’s finished — keep eating and aim the fork at the waiter/waitresses’ hand.
I do hope you avoided the gambolling tofus that such establishments will keep tethered at the back door, nice and handy…….
I never eat Thai anymore. Many years ago there was an excruciatingly expensive one opened down towards the Church in Henley. Superb subtle food, plenty of gubbins etc and lovely staff, used it as regularly as poss with their eyewatering prices, it set a very high benchmark. Thai restaurants do not happen in wild west Wales, so a monster interregnum and service was resumed up here in the Pacific NW.
What an eyeopener, no great selection of ingredients, definitely nothing too oriental, too much carrot by half and disgusting soy sauce based gravy with varying amounts of chili, end of! They had to be bloody joking at those prices. Tried most in town, then worked our way through the Chinese, virtually ditto and finally declared a fatwah on all ethnic food as being poor value, poor staffing , grubby premises and I couldn’t see the kitchen. Too many tales/pictures on the TV of filth in immigrant kitchens, serious yukk!
Thank heavens we have some of the best fish in the world up here and a couple of excellent fish restaurants otherwise we wouldn’t bother to eat out at all. But everything here is still 40 minutes away down in Bellingham. Are the police in Brisbane that hot? I never could understand the amount of alcohol limits, I drink that before I go out whilst dressing! Add a bottle per person with this that and the other so by the time one drives home one isx3 pissed according to them. Never hit anything in 45 years or weaved, or been nicked! never could understand why people can’t hold their liquor. One good reason to live in the boondocks, police too thin on the ground!
Better luck next time and choose a differing continent! Hint, do dodge the local Somali joints they are the worst, most likely to put you in hospital, they appear to have the foulest reputations!
Re: my #1. Fisherman’s Wharf??
OZ
My short term memory is not what it was and we’re talking a decade here. It’s on the road from the CBD to the airport, half way between Fortitude Valley and Eagle Farm. Help!!
OZ
Boa, Mrs J has always liked to place her knife and fork parallel to one another between bites (“My mother told me to keep my knees together,” she asserts) but it once created an incident. A teenage Indian waiter who had obviously been taught the rules whisked away her half-full plate before she could protest (which she often has to do). Consequently she had to ask the maitre d. for her plate back since she had not finished. The next thing we knew, a cry of pain erupted from the kitchen and the downcast young waiter carried the plate back to our table, with a tearful apology. I have suggested Mrs J might compromise with convention but to no avail. 😦
Boadicea.
We have an enviable choice of eateries in this area, and general the service is pretty good. The food varies, and I’ve had a few disastrous meals, but the prices are horrendous. The choice is expensive or obscenely expensive.
The other annoying thing is they seem to change hands so often, especially the village pubs which are rarely places to grab an inexpensive bite to eat any more, they are all restaurants. Just when we become regulars they change hands and either the standard of food drops or the prices go up.
There is not a great chance of being caught when drinking and driving round here, but I really would not take the risk, although some do. Living here and being banned from driving would be extremely inconvenient.
Yes it is a shame Ara, started a good thirty years ago and just got worse from there. Remember when they turned the Stonor Arms from a decent pub into a cuisine minceur joint and we all came home and I had to cut ham sandwiches for everyone! Bloody ridiculous.
Parts of Monmouthshire have gone likewise to accommodate the English who can no longer afford Gloucestershire and flopped over the border. Thank God it hasn’t spread to Wild West Wales yet, they haven’t tried but then they would have gone broke in a week. You don’t separate old Welsh farmers from their bank balances quite so easy as that!
Indeed Tina, it’s absolutely typical.
The Stonor Arms was closed for some time, I believe, but it has re-opened again. Must put it back on my list. Any reports as to what one can expect?
No, too long ago, everyone is either dead or moved! Everybody I know seems to have migrated to Wargrave.
It was all very obscure, when it was a pub it was still leased from the Camoy’s estate. Then the tenant left, they were old, but I suspect pushed. I could never quite work out whether it was on a lease or actually sold. I suspect the Camoys still had an interest if not owned it still, but were careful never to declare so. If it is still owned by the estate the rent would be expensive there and any place will struggle to actually pay their way. That is the trouble, all the owners round there, Brakespears etc now charge arms and legs for leases. People only see the income of a humming gastro pub to actually achieve the turnover to pay it. Too many around and not that much money to spend, so a lot go to the wall PDQ, they always did. Only if you own premises can you really make it work long term.
Christina – We certainly avoided the ‘gambolling tofus’! There are, as far as I’m aware, no Somali restaurants nearby. Indeed, one of serious defects of Brisbane is the lack of good ethnic eating places.
Janus – I’m sure that Mrs J is far too civilised to hang onto her cutlery when eating! As an ex-waitress in some of the best banqueting house in London – albeit many years ago! – it really is up to the staff to work out whether someone has finished eating, and, if in doubt, ask!
Araminta – I haven’t been in the Henley area for many, many years. But, I do have to say that I find eating out in the UK a great deal cheaper than I did before I left 25 years ago.
What this particular restaurateur seems to have forgotten is that ‘front of house’ is almost as important as the food – and he really didn’t have a clue about making one feel that our custom was important.