spirit house

simply the best. we had a large work party at the spirit house for lunch yesterday and wow, it was simply amazing.

the food and service were both incredible. the coconut soup of salmon was anexperiencenot to be missed. the pork belly was beyond description, just so juicy and tender and tasty. the desserts were out of this world too.

simon, our waiter, was attentive and well versed with the food and the appropriate wine selections for our dishes. he gets a 10/10 from me.

do yourself a favour and head to this amazing gem on the sunshine coast. you will not be disappointed.

again an amazingexperience, as usual the flavours outstanding . the food is always so consistent . but what makes it that much more amazing is the beautiful surrounds and ambience and the incredibly attentive service . this would be one of our favourite restaurants ever .

beautiful, but a little short of amazing. i definitely liked it, but it was one of those times when high expectations can let you down - theexperiencewas not so amazing as i hoped it would be. this restaurant is so beautiful - the night time walk through flickering torch lit bamboo is magical, the menu is very exciting, the decor spot on, the staff highly professional. we had the banquet menu, which covered a good variety of dishes - the coconut salmon soup was gorgeous, but i felt some of the dishes were not quite as special as they could have been.

my husband and i dined here on a saturday night and ordered the classic banquet menu at $80 p/p. the first 4 entree courses were brought out to the table swiftly within half an hour. these were amazing.
unfortunately we waited about 1 hour and 10mins for our main courses, in this time the couple who were seated after us and ordered the exact same banquet menu received their mains before we did, (10-15mins before we did)
during this time we had asked what looked liked the restaurant manager (french guy) he said it would be 3-4 minutes wait, anyway this approximate time was exceeded with little care taken from the restaurant manager.
upon finishing our banquet we thought it was appropriate that we asked for our drink bill to be waived due to the extensive wait time for our mains. we were told that they do not waive drinks but they could offer us a tea or coffee. very very disappointing with the lack of care shown as i had been wanting to try this place for sometime. considering that our bill was just over $200 you would think they would try and keep their customers happy. it didn't surprise me though as the restaurant manager seemed very arrogant with little customer service.
as i said i couldn't fault the food however the aboveexperiencewill stop me returning again.

set in beautiful gardens overlooking a dam, this thai inspired asian fusion restaurant starts your journey to a culinary wonderland the moment you enter their gardens. an explosion of flavour is the only way to describe each mouthful you take. delicately plated, you almost don't want to eat the food because it looks so beautiful. it is no surprise they have consistently won prestigious awards for their food from reputable organisations like gourmet traveller and the good food guide.

the best way to dine here is to share dishes. this is one shared diningexperienceyou do not want to miss and they cater for vegetarian and gluten free. order the crunchy pork scratchings with satay dipping sauce while you ponder the rest of your meal. the waiting staff are excellent helping you choose and will also recommend wines to match your meal. it's difficult to write a review when you cannot fault a dish so it's easier to tell you what you must try. for starters, make sure to order the sour pork sausage terrine and wok seared scallops. you can't go past the darling downs rib eye steak and lemongrass and tumeric grilled chicken. both dishes are perfectly cooked, the meat moist and tender. the whole crispy fish with tamarind chilli sauce gives you a chilli hit, without it overpowering the dish. this is the ideal restaurant to visit with friends, especially those who feel thai food is too hot to eat. there is much to choose from and you will be thinking about your return on your way home.

my partner and i have dined at the spirit house a few times and eachexperiencehas been wonderful. the food is honestly some of the best we’ve ever had and the atmosphere and ambiance makes the perfect experience. my favourite dishes so far have been the coconut soup of salmon, massaman curry, moreton bay bug, rice ice cream and the whole fish. the food is pricey but it is definitely worth it.

six of us went here for dinner in february as we had a voucher to use there. the surrounds and ambiance is incredible. when we were seated, the waitress was very attentive and went through the menu options with us and her recommendations on amount of food to order.

unfortunately that's where the service ended - it seems she may have been distracted after this and i had to ask twice for a drink and felt that she was almost non-existant for the rest of our time there. and when she was around she was quite pushy with moving the food around the table. we had already rotated the food around us and we told her this and she still took a plate from one end and moved it to the other end.

onto the food.... we got 3 entrees, 5 mains and 2 sides for the 6 of us which was plenty of food. it may just be me but i really struggle to justify $47 for thai curry considering i can get something very similar around the corner from home for a third of the cost. the food was lovely but nothing incredible, i felt like the curries for example, really needed a little more spice flavour and a bit more creaminess and richness. the pork curry i felt was quite salty and one dimensional. and the prawns were unfortunately very old. my mum actually took and bite and spat it out, they were very obviously off. the best meal for me was the scallops - so refined and beautiful complex flavours very carefully put together. the scallops were what i was expecting with a place like this.

don't get me wrong, the food was good but for the price that you pay, i would much rather invest this into a diningexperiencethat is nothing like my local thai joint and has thought and detail go into the meals. i feel comparing it to the fine dining modern aus restaurants in brisbane, they are on a much higher level and worth the money.

this was one of those experiences that was perfect all around. it’s a bit of a drive from noosa and from the moment we arrived, we had goosebumps. apparently the property used to be a nursery, and the winding path from the car park was lit with lanterns. had some perfect canapés to start that included green curry arancini and salmon straws. a salmon coconut soup was the most delicious 100ml of soup i’ve ever had in my life - so rich and flavoursome, i wish it had been a bigger bowl! the pork belly that followed was so sweet and juicy and the scallops were on a delicious purée. warm beer salad = amazing. duck green curry to die for. could not fault anything. wish i could relive theexperienceand do it all again. 6/5 but the app won’t let me rate that high!

special event byporsche centre brisbane invite to today drivingexperienceevent. driving the ultimate dream car.
++++ #love that porsche having launch at spirit house!  hemisphere, service, food~ every is perfect!!

highly recommended, you must go if you gonna have trip to sunny coast from brisbane. you will love it for sure~>

update jan 2018:
visited again after our very goodexperiencelast time. this time we had the $85 banquet and all the meals with the exception of the deserts were fabulous. the salmon soup was divine as was the fried whole fish. it was a 10/10 in food and service until we got to the deserts...which sadly were terrible. the apricot desert was incredibly sour and the chocolate desert was also pretty bad. we ended up leaving both half eaten which for us is a big deal as we love deserts normally (in fact our last trip here, the desert was our favourite!)

overall a greatexperienceonce again albeit this time finished on a bit of a bad note given the very poor deserts.

first visit 2016:
fantastic location among a tropical rainforest like setting. the decor and atmosphere is wonderful.

the meals were generally of high standard. we had the coriander chicken (beautiful smokey flavor), the quite good pork belly, the decent but not as good as expected crab cakes with the main disappointment being the dry, bland and burnt (!) $8 roti bread. that really needs to be improved. thankfully we finished with the sensational kafir lime cheesecake (wow good!). while we didn't have the whole fried fish, we noticed lots of other tables ordered it and it looked fantastic.

the service was excellent and friendly. well worth driving there from noosa for an excellent experience. expect a fair hit to the credit card though, many of the tiny entrees are in mid $20s and if it's a public holiday there is an additional $10/person charge.

came here over xmas holidays with high expectations. unfortunately we were let down by a few things...
1) we had heard great things about the banquet, but one of our guests was very fussy with food and preferred to order al a carte. it was very disappointing that spirit house were not able to accommodate us by letting the other 3 people have the banquet.
2) the pork belly with dumplings was so salty that you couldn't taste much else
3) the tamarind fish was enjoyable, but did not live up to its hype.

aside from that, the setting is spectacular sitting alongside the lake. we would come back so we can try the banquet, and hopefully ourexperienceis better next time.

a great venue for a celebratory dinner. i have eaten here before years ago and had forgotten just how far from brisbane it is was but it was worth every kilometer travelled.
in a lush, tropical setting the tables are set cleverly throughout the property to maximize privacy for its diners. i haven't dined here at lunch so it would interesting to visit during daylight.
being a celebration we chose the banquet of eight dishes. each course was served at a nice pace by a very knowledgable and friendly server. the star dishes where the signature whole crispy fish in a lovely sauce and everyone's favourite, the salmon soup which blew our socks off. even my wife, who isn't a fan of soups, loved it going back for seconds as there was a generous amount served. the other courses were very tasty also and made us look forward to the next.
the only small criticism was the size of the scallop dish. as tasty as it was, one small scallop is just not enough to enjoy. at that size i would have hoped for at least three. one delicious but small scallop is just a cruel tease i could have done without.
the wine/cocktail list is very well though out. pairing drinks with the spiciness of thai food was made easy by the waitress but as i said to her, you can't go wrong with bubbles... it was a celebration after all.

the desserts to finish the meal where spectacular and the wholeexperiencereminded us why we loved it so much before and to make sure we don't wait as long to visit again.

came here with my husband and instantly loved the setting. the service was attentive at the start. the selection of wine was good. the starters came quickly. we ordered the moreton bay bug miang (quite tasty), caramelised pork belly with tender coriander leaves, shallots, chilli and a sprinkle of roasted rice grains. the belly was slightly dry, as if revived in the deep fryer, or held a bit too long. i was disappointed. the smoked fish coconut soup looked amazing, and had every potential to taste amazing, but it was over seasoned with fish sauce which overpowered the delicate flavours, and was unpleasantly salty. for mains, we had the crispy tamarind fish, lovely flavours, but a bit too much between two persons (our fault!). we also had the king prawns with korean noodles, again, with a heavy dousing of fish sauce which again made the dish unpleasantly salty. what was most disappointing about theexperiencewas that the waiter was quite happy to chat about how great their chefs were however as soon as we mentioned that a couple of the dishes were too salty, he stopped being attentive and didn't want further clarification. would probably come again, there is sufficient interest in the rest of thr menu, perhaps the chefs were having an off day?

disappointed 9/8/14. very disappointed with spirit house. first went 3 years ago and was amazed, left saturday night disappointed.
the food seemed heavy with too much flavouring (making theexperienceof eating almost confusing!) or thick with coconut milk or fried....:there was a lack of 'light and freshness, the rice was hard and i craved the multifaceted play of flavours per mouthful, which was an original experience...

siblime. my wife and i attended spirit house for a special night out on friday 28/2/14. on arrival we were impressed by the ambience, surrounds and gardens leading past the renowned cooking school to the restaurant. we were seated at a lovely table which afforded a picturesque view of the water and offered a tranquil place to relax and soak in all this special venue has to offer. we started with cocktails and were impressed by their unique flavours. upon listening to our waitress explain the menu, we selected the banquet to savour as many flavours as possible. the salmon soup for starters was fragrant and delicious. we then enjoyed scallops and the famous pork belly for entre. it's almost impossible to find better flavours and textures than the pork belly! we enjoyed the whole fish and beef ribs for mains - to see the fish presented on its platter was unforgettable, and the beef fell apart and melted in our mouths. we finished our evening with a chocolate raspberry sweet and a mango parfait. the flavours in each portion of our meal were sublime - from chilli, to ginger, to lemongrass, the banquet was well thought out and linked each course with scrumptious flavours. our waitress was courteous, friendly and a lot of fun. for a truly specialexperienceand to take a few hours out of life, you cannot go wrong with the spirit house restaurant at yandina.