I could be really wordy here, but I figure Tonic isn’t worth my time. The occasion was a family get together to remember my grandparents who died in a car accident 10 years ago. About Tonic:
1. It’s a restaurant at Bulimba near the ferry on Oxford St
2. It’s one of those modern restaurants with cement on the floor
3. $15 entrees and desserts, $30 mains
4. Eat dinner before you go to dinner because you don’t get much.
5. Your food will be displayed beautifully
6. Don’t ask for water because they will serve you bottled water and charge you $6 for the privilege. Don’t they know about the unspoken rule where you order bottled water using the brand name?
7. The service is not apalling but it’s not snappy either. The waiter was pretty quick with the seating and orders but the meal took a bit of time. We were a table of 11 though which makes it difficult.
8. Duck liver pate with green apple sorbet is nice!
Overall feeling was a bitter taste in the mouth. If they hadn’t stuck us with the 6x$5 bottles of water bill I’d have gone away satisfied. But the trick with the drinks was just really unprofessional from a restaurant like that.
If you need to know more, check out the Courier Mail’s review.
Also, the corkage of $3.50 per person is steep considering they are not licensed anyway. If they were, we wouldn’t have had to bring our own wine.
Many restaurants devote their energies to the presentation aspects, rather than the true reason why you would go to a restaurant – to connect with your friends and be part of the “scene”. The design, the name, the location and the menu will look fantastic. Plus, I think a lot of staff aren’t really people people – even the ones who think they are. Some places can pull it off, but no all that many.