Aquitaine Brasserie - Brisbane

Greed, arrogance and bad service. We booked this restaurant with a “good food” voucher 3 months ago. Reservation was accepted and in fact we received about 6 mails and sms to confirm that we are coming. Already gives you a bad vibe about a restaurant, being so panicky that people don’t show up. We are just about to go to Brisbane for our dinner today and the restaurant manger calls and says that the voucher we have is the wrong colour and is not valid. That is 3 months later. Very arrogant attitude and bad service. Just need to cancel. I never write bad reviews but I will make an exception for this one.

We ordered the confit duck (called the Hawkesbury Duck on their menu), the confit pork belly, as well as starters and desserts. They have a $60 per head deal for a three course meal, which we thought was good value. The quality of the food was really good, and the duck in particular was excellent. Just as good as you can get in Paris. The crème brûlée was decent, but the flavour was just a little different to a top quality one elsewhere. We were quite disappointed that we were charged $10 for table water. The waitress asked whether we preferred still water, or sparkling. We chose still water, then she came back with a plain caraffe of water, and filled our glasses. However when I saw I was getting charged $10 for bottled water, I questioned it. The waitress claimed that she had offered us tap water, still water or sparkling. I pointed out that she didn’t offer tap water, and my wife confirms that she didn’t. But I didn’t want to create a scene, even though the manager had approached and had offered to look into it. I just paid the entire bill, but I decided not to give them the $15 tip I had ready in my pocket. The food was very good, so we’ll probably return someday. But we’ll be aware of their unfortunate table water practices next time.

Pleasant but not what we expected for this calibre of restaurant. Had indicated with our online booking that we were celebrating an anniversary and that 3 in our party were coeliac. Wait staff made no mention of either when we arrived. We ordered set menu, confirming gluten free requirements my olives arrived with bread product on the plate, and GF sourdough was just supermarket square bread. 2 entrees arrived, we had to ask for the other 2, 1 arrived after about 10 minutes but we had to ask again for the fourth which arrived after another long wait without the accompaniments which we again had to all staff back for. We had to ask for our water to be refilled. Meals were pleasant enough pork belly was dry, duck and fish were well cooked but lacking flavour. It wasn’t busy and we felt awkward having to ask so many times for simple requirements. The online booking had invited as to advise dietary requirements and we had also indicated it was n anniversary celebration there was no acknowledgment of either when we were greeted or seated. Will go elsewhere next time. The company of loved ones and the gorgeous day saved the experience.

Having had a great lunch 6 months ago booked again.The three mains were very disappointing. Quality ,preparation and presentation was so poor. Meals were worse than pub food. Pork , duck and lamb shank were surely reheated . Accompaniments ... scarce. The chard with lamb was inedible.The lamb i took home for the dog.Who was the cook? Not a chef surely. It was such a looked forward meal with my daughters and such a let down. How could two visits be so different? The bread and pate was nice.The venue is lovely, but we won't be returning.

This was a lovely place to celebrate a 70th birthday and we had an excellent evening. We all felt the portion sizes to be perfect in that we were able to enjoy 3 courses without feeling overwhelmed or uncomfortable. The time between courses was great too as we were able to enjoy each other’s company without pressure to be eating. A relaxing evening with delicious food. Pork Belly with celeriac and Scallops with squid ink tulle for entree. If you have ever been disappointed with dry duck this restaurant will renew your faith in this delicious dish as the Duck with parsnip purée and a delicious jus did not disappoint. The quail dish was also a hit for main course. Blueberry sorbet and lime meringue and chocolate del-ice for dessert. Friendly and helpful waitstaff willing to explain some of the more exotic ingredients to us. The cocktails were delicious too, would love to return to try out other items on the menu. Thank you for a relaxing evening Aquitaine, it was very appreciated.