Wallaby Hotel

I booked a table that was confirmed by email. At reception I was told very brusquely “No booking for that name”. I tried to show the confirmation but was ignored, and felt that it was my fault. Later, I complained to the receptionist who argued with me and talked over me to the extent that I said if she shut up for long enough, I could explain why I was upset. She stormed off. Disappointing food:- Our 10 year old granddaughter thought that the Kids Menu Pizza was a bit small, even with the chips. Probably enough for a much younger child. My wife’s lamb shank was large but tasteless, with none of the red wine jus and tomato braise. My eye fillet, medium, was well done and tough. For a meal that was not cheap, it was poor value. I would recommend that the receptionist receive some retraining in customer interaction skills. Are we experienced diners? We dine out twice a week and cruise two or three times a year, but never get treated so rudely. Nobody approached us to ask if our meals were OK. 2 out of 5 is a fair review, considering that we have eaten at the Wallaby many times over the past 30 years.

I have had lunch at The Wallaby four times this year with a variety of family, friends and work colleagues. On each occasion the food and service have been excellent. The meals are always hot, the chips scorchingly so. The schnitties, steaks and seafood are always perfectly cooked, the salads fresh, colourful and crunchy. The staff are polite, professional and personable. We have eaten at many other pubs and clubs on the Gold Coast in recent times, frequently disappointed with cold meals, and slow and indifferent service. Not at The Wallaby! Consistently excellent fare, consistently impeccable service. Highly recommended!

We always love visiting this pub. It's a great venue with lovely staff. I had the jalapeño poppers, which were lovely, but the side of creamy mash was stodgy and definitely not creamy. Phil's lamb kofta bugger was a good tasting lamb burger, but nothing outstanding. All in all it was a pleasant visit, with a good choice of meals to suit all tastes.

Food was very average, over priced for what you got ; and a long wait . Obviously the Hotel was understaffed in the kitchen and wait staff run off their feet . The live music act was great downstairs ( Wendy Mathews) ; predictably the drink prices were expensive & service again average . Cramped area with minimal seating, garbage bins placed around the venue for your plastic cups . One gets the feeling the place is tired & rundown ; time for a major revamp.? I’m not rushing back . Perhaps I’m spoilt from well run city venues. You be your own Judge.

We have been here quite a few times for dinner and their trivia, which is great fun. Sometimes the food is absolutely amazing, but it really depends on the night. It’s absolutely hit and miss. Quite a few times they have lost our booking, one time they booked us, then I received a mysterious text saying it was cancelled due to origin footy, I called to confirm the text was actually from them, they knew nothing about it and confirmed the trivia event was actually still on. When we turned up it wasn’t on. Recently we have had a few negative experiences, one night it was absolute chaos and they were clearly understaffed, meals were all wrong, not very good, heaps of attitude from staff and one member of our party never received their food at all, even though being reassured it was coming a couple of times by the cranky and overworked waitress. (Not her fault) We went the week after and it was all good again, except they didn’t have our booking- the bookings are done in Melbourne and the communication with the actual hotel is not great. They squeezed us in to a couple of little round tables. Ok cool. Then we went again last week, confirmed our booking twice as we had visitors coming from interstate who wanted to experience the trivia we loved- we all ordered our meals and the food was nice this time… but no trivia. When it was due to start we checked whether it was still on and we’re informed it was just “running late”. It never eventuated as nobody showed to run the trivia, the place had no idea it wasn’t running and the trivia company didn’t let anyone know apparently… So, this place CAN be good, but there seems to be no communication about what’s happening and the booking system is an absolute mess. I think we will go elsewhere and try to find a better spot where it’s not such a hassle to book, food is consistently good and trivia actually runs.

I have to say, I have stayed at this place before and this was my 4th time. 1st time i was a bit duvious as some things not overly clean, had a continually leaking tap but they moved me which I appreciated and other room was great. Been back twice since and even had someone with me on those times and room was clean and money spent was well worth it. Cost met the standard I could say. In fact very happy with my stay. 4th time not great......(April 2023) took me 20 mins overall standing at the bar to check in, got to the room to find unclean floors, back door wide open to anyone walking in, couch cushions not even in the right way and sticking out plus dirty and I mean dirty dishes out on the sink. Went out for dinner at local restaurant which was amazing, returned with my bottle of wine to clean my own glass, sit down to watch the football and guess what! Reception is aboslute garbage. Stayed in room 4, light globes out, vaccum happening outside (guessing the cleaners) at 8pm at night, so could not watch footy or go to bed. Just plain annoyed. This place has been my go to but may rethink for my stays in this area.