three blue ducks

as soon as we arrived we knew theservicewas going to be spot on - we were welcomed at the entrance by friendly staff. bar staff obviously love their jobs & we realised everyone’s focus was on making the dining experience the best it could be. great ambiance & venue. we were only disappointed that they’d run out of the lamb (for sharing) and fish of the day - it would have been better to have been advised when we were seated rather than later when taking our order because our first choice was lamb, my second was the fish. however, all dishes were fabulous - the sides were great (potatoes, pumpkin & carrots). we had the steaks - bit pricy & larger than we’d have chosen, in hindsight we could have shared & had a smaller dish also. we’ll definitely return & recommend if you’ve not dined there.

we went to the three blue ducks with an expectation of great quality responsible food and fantastic service.
unfortunately theservicewas far better than the food. the menu sounds great however is put together with poor practice and delivered with a slap hazard attempt at true chewing.
my wife had the bugs which were cold i cleaned and essentially just cut in half and put on a plate with a side sauce. if your serving seafood in a high end restaurant please be professional enough to warm the product clean the eggs and devein the big first. if your feeling really fancy cut away and dress the shells for your guests.
i had the porketta which i was very much looking forward to as i don’t cook it much for myself anymore. the chef needs to look up this dish before putting it on the menu. please porketta is not rolled pork belly. if your going to use a name cook the dish. the sides were nice we had three. enjoyed two. we left before dessert so not to participate in further disappointment. pick up your game or you will not get any return business.

4.5/5
3bd somehow synergises loose + luxe - in atmosphere, food &service- like a boss. for those who might not love its hotel lobby feel (i personally dgaf), then obvs the outdoor tables are for you & frankly the place to be anyway. enjoy that view!

love the sustainability & locally sourced ethos. it’s transparent, honest & makes for a surprisingly versatile menu. all the food at our table was stunning with a rustic, earthy feel. had the swordfish been served medium rare as advised, it’d be full marks. not gonna lie though: still the most succulent i’ve ever had so merely a technical blip in an otherwise flawless day.

service truly enhanced our special occasion lunch. staff are energised & efficient, even recognising a now treasured photo opportunity. thank you.

highly recommend.

worst dining experience i have ever had!!!

i never thought i would ever write a review where i say the restaurant completly ruined my partners and my night.

we made a reservation so we could see the southbank riverview (it was our anniversary)

instead, when we got there, we were seated in the very back corner (literally the last table of the back of the restaurant) right near the toilets (i could literally see who was coming in and out of the toilet)

our view was an overpass where we started counting how many taxis were passing through.

meanwhile, we asked the server, if any tables become available, could we change tables as we were trying to be understanding that they were busy (even if we had made reservations to avoid this)

moving on, we decided on our meals to be told we were given the old season menu and 2 of the 5 dishes we wanted were no longer available. why are you still handing out old menus? you are a restaurant for god sakes, at least get that done right! you are not a cheap take away shop, have pride in what u are selling and be more attentive to detail.

now at this point we are both saying to each other, let's make the most of it, we are here together and we were happy to be in each other's company to celebrate and had a laugh about the whole situation.

an hour and a half later with 2 glasses of wine down (approx 8:45pm by this stage) we were both starving and getting hangry to have only the entree come out. this is beyond ridiculous, we were already treated like rubbish patrons by the lack of attentiveness to now be waiting an hour and a half for just our entree!!

that's when we both said "let's go"

to theservicemanager on that evening, you have failed in your duty. we are all busy and things can slip, yes, but your main job is to ensure your restaurant patrons are taken care of, we didn't yell or make a fuss, we respectfully told the waiter if we could be moved when seating became available, we were not rude to anyone and tried our best to see the positive in the situation but your negligence caused what should have been a good night for us into nothing but disgust and dissapointment.

the final spit in the face for us, was when we said we are leaving (cancelled the order because we didn't want to wait another hour for our mains)
we see not only one, but 4 empty 2 seater tables with beautiful views of southbank available, by this time it was 9pm and people were leaving so in noway would those tables be reserved.

congratulations to theservicemanager and owner of three blue ducks, may you read this and realise even though you pay high rent and commend yourselves to be a respectable high end restaurant who deliver in good food and service, you failed in every aspect that night. please get off your high horse and pay attention to your patrons. you keep this kind ofserviceup and you will not survive this industry. may you learn from this and hire a more attentiveservicemanager. safe to say will not be recommending.

this restaurant actually disappointed me. the only advantages were itsserviceand good view of south bank. i tried twice, last year and this year. dishes here were not very delicious and didn’t match their prices. the tentacles of squid were over-cooked and tasted bitter. as fine dining, the proportion for the dishes were too much and cooked roughly compared with other fine dining restaurants.

today l visited brisbane for the first time in twenty years. my hostess, determined to make my stay a memorable one made a booking by the window for lunch.servicewas, from the start, of the highest quality, discreet and without the obsequy that is unfortunately all too common in similar establishments these days. the menu was limited but interesting, and l chose the moreton bay bugs as, for me as an adelaidean, they are an infrequent delicacy. my hostess chose the tiger prawns.
our dishes arrived after only a few minutes. i was dismayed to see that both were accompanied by chopped kale a trendy green that until recently was fed to cattle and imho should remain thus, the coarseness of the stalk being much inferior to that of spinach or silver beet. to the detriment of my bugs they were awash with a good deal of unwarranted vegetable oil which was not evident with the prawns.
with both dishes there was a pervasive charred taste which spoiled the delicate flavours of the flesh.
we finished the meal by sharing an interesting cheese platter
on reflection, the wood oven is most suitable for a pizza restaurant, not the subtleties of seafood, and kale should remain in the cow shed.
the menu could do with a less trendy and more classical treatment

overhyped, food promises more than is delivered on the plate. food quality does not correspond to prices, well meaning though unpolishedservice... more cafe than resto

dined here for dinner last night with friends who were staying at the w hotel. the setting is casual but nice with a great view of south bank. i wasn't super hungry so skipped entrees and had the steamed mussels. the wait on food was verging on long but when it did arrive, the 5 at my table who ordered the 500g rib fillet on the bone were very excited. the steaks filled the whole plates and looked delicious! they then brought out my mussels but my friend with the moreton bay bugs was told "2 more minutes". no one was keeping count but maybe it was another 5 minutes. the server arrived with the meal and without a hint of a complaint from my friend, he said that he would be waiving the cost because the wait was unacceptable. the wait didn't feel excessive enough to warrant waiving the cost but the gesture was very much appreciated and all at the table were impressed.servicewas good - we were checked in on for drinks and our water glasses topped up frequently. my meal was nice enough but i think i prefer a broth-like sauce with my mussels rather than a creamy sauce. just a personal preference though. the accompanying flatbread was a nice addition. while i didn't have dessert, those i observed around the table were huge!! a 3.5 overall.

this is not a positive review. the brisbane arm of three blue ducks fails to live up to the hype associated with its bronte and byron siblings. it failings are almost universal across the criteria common to restaurant reviews. the food at three blue ducks is, unfortunately, yet another example of the mediocrity that many brisbane restaurants of a similar ilk appear to be settling for. the drying meats and fish displayed in a cabinet on entry lead one to believe that this restaurant, like its southern forebearer, prides itself on high quality food. not in the white-table-cloth-and-classical-music tradition, but in the good-food-done-well tradition. it's neither. we shared all our dishes: the haloumi (an uninspired variation on an outdated concept overpowered by a garden of parsley) and tandoori quail (a very underwhelming marinade considering the depth and complexity characteristic of tandoor) to start, the 500g bone in ribeye with burnt onion and chimichurri (a reasonably well-executed dish, but not for the $60 price tag) and carrots (advertised as include honeycomb, but noticeably absent from our serve) for main, and chocolate parfait (perhaps the least inspiring item we ordered) and crème brûlée (boasting the inclusion of vanilla … as much a staple ingredient of crème brûlée as eggs and sugar). the decor is confused. laminated table tops; part faux wood part concrete flooring; downlights on rails alongside modern pendant lights; mismatched seating with a scandinavian feel ... what is going on here?serviceis poor, lifeless, and, sometimes, condescending. to draw on the recent experience shared by my wife and me, our server carried an air of arrogance complemented by yet another attempt at hipster wait staff attire (an outdated look). when our dessert order was incorrectly placed, our server offered an insincere apology. there are other small, but equally noticeable aspects that contribute to the overall listlessness of three blue ducks. if the rather large vacant space towards the back of the restaurant isn’t off putting, the battery-powered tea light candles in the bathrooms are. how could a couple be justified in paying over $100 per head (including 1 glass of bubbles and red each) for such oversights? interestingly, in this weekend’s wish, the magazine published as part of the weekend australian, jeff bennett, one of the co-owners of three blue ducks, described how he had an uneasy feeling about opening an arm of the restaurant in brisbane. perhaps these reservations were well-founded.