For those that don’t know me well, seldom do I write a formal review of a restaurant – but here are some honest thoughts on 16th on Park, located at 16 Park Rd, Milton, Queensland 4064.
Let me set the scene. The night prior to my visit, I did some ‘googling’ to find a suitable place to meet someone I was seeing for the first time. First impressions matter a lot, so I figured I’d go somewhere that a) the coffee would be good, b) the service would be friendly, prompt but relaxed and c) the food would be reliably tasty. I wanted to try somewhere different this time – the same old haunts can be a bit too familiar when meeting someone new.
My first qualm is with their website. Although seductively designed, it doesn’t contain some seriously important information – the opening hours! Relying on a review website, I gauged they would most likely be open and took a chance. Restaurants and cafes should understand that if a customer is browsing the website, they want all the information needed to dine in that venue on the website. Call me crazy, but the last thing I need in my busy schedule is to have to call the venue and ask them for their opening hours, after already spending a good 5 minutes looking for the hours online. A good restaurant website lists opening hours.
We went for a brief coffee and lunch on a Wednesday. I don’t know if it was the rainy weather that week, or perhaps a severe dislike for people – but our waitress was truly the rudest I have had in Brisbane, Sydney or Melbourne to date…! I do not say this lightly.
I arrived to find my guest waiting on a comfortable sofa – nice decor, I thought. We opted to move to a table so we would be more comfortable eating and drinking. Being caught up in introducing ourselves, we forgot to take our menus with us to the table. Rather ungraciously, the ill-mannered waitress brought the menus to us and, I quote almost verbatim here, said in a sarcastic tone: “It’s ok, I’ll just walk the menus over to you then.” If I was with someone I had known better, we would have walked out right then.
Needing some liquid salvation after being abused, we ordered coffee. (Perhaps we should have opened a bottle of red…) For the following five minutes, she returned three times, each time I requested more time as we were catching up. I’m not a fan of waitstaff that have no intuition when it comes to table service, but this was just plain ignorance. So, to remove any doubt, generally if a customer asks for more time, they mean it.
We ordered and the food came out within a decent amount of time. I had the Chicken and Pumpkin Risotto with Maple, Pine Nuts and Sage. My dining partner sampled the House Made Potato Gnocchi with Slow Roasted Tomatoes, Chorizo, Spinach and Bacon.
Despite the risotto being averagely prepared and under-seasoned, the flavour was actually pretty nice. My partner seemed to enjoy the gnocchi, though there seemed a bit too much chorizo and bacon which I’m sure would have left a fatty mess in his mouth. The waitstaff wouldn’t know what we thought though unless she read this post, because she didn’t even bother to ask us how the meals were, nor provide any follow-up service. Honestly, she could have gotten another round of coffees out of us, if only she had bothered to ask. Rather unimpressive, even for a Brisbane cafe.
The coffee was not too bad and it was presented very quickly, considering the lack of staff and the number of lunch diners.
I have to make a business observation here – strange, I know.
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Having worked both in Australia and overseas for very good restaurants that hold themselves out as specialists in desserts and patisserie, I’ve come to understand how money is made in these places. I was surprised that only a lunch menu was offered to us at the table. I think, absolutely in fact, that a dessert menu should have been offered at the same time. In fact, if it had we probably would have selected from it, rather than the savoury menu. From a financial point of view, there is an enormous profit margin to be made on desserts, compared to savoury meals which cost more to prepare. By not presenting the dessert menu as an available “first-choice” option, it also dilutes the impressive marketing image the company is trying to maintain on its website – as a dessert specialist.
…
Needless to say, despite the fantastic company and conversation I found in my new friend (who I will most assuredly take on future, hopefully more pleasant restaurant excursions!), we decided to head out and go for a walk instead of contemplating dessert or more coffee. Truth be told, we just didn’t feel welcome.
The deformity of service in young venues like 16th on Park is not uncommon. However, it is a strong determinant of success or failure. I will certainly keep visiting Freestyle Tout and other similar venues where I know the service will be more acceptable.
http://www.16onpark.com.au/
