Bacchus

Loooooove this place. Went there yesterday for my birthday with my husband. The décor is interesting, kinda retro 80s cigar bar glam, but nothing too distracting.
The staff are quite nice, nothing special to comment about. But the food, OH.MY.GOD. They were so good!!! Everything is flavourful, very nice plating, decent size plates, and every bite just makes to want to eat more. My favourite was the duck dish but the wagyu Tri tip was excellent as well. And the chocolate soufflé — yummmmmmmm!!! The only downfall I suppose is the price tag. Being fine dining and all our bill came up to about $ 250 (1 entrée, 3 mains, 1 dessert, 2 glasses of wine), but it was expected so it was more than acceptable to us. And the bonus is, it’s on the entertainment book so it was $ 50 off!!! I would definitely go back again!!!

I could not love this place more! I went here a few weeks ago with a girlfriend and we got the quintessential high tea for two with a selection of coffees and teas.
Everything was so delicious, i got the Paris tea and loved it!
The staff are lovely, very tentative and efficient. We sat down, ordered our drinks within a few minutes and got our yummy treats within 10 minutes.
I would highly recommend this place for a day out with the girls, birthdays, mothers day or just because. Definitely will be going back!

One of the best fine dining experiences in Brisbane.
We went to Bacchus celebrate a friend’s 30^th and booked in to do their Dessert Degustation (O-​M-​G!). This isn’t our first visit to Bacchus, we also went for our anniversary a couple of years ago and were blown away by how amazing it was and I’m glad to say we weren’t let down this visit.
Bacchus delivers on all fronts — service, quality and even though as a fine dining venue it is on the high end for $$ you never feel like you didn’t get your moneys worth.
Now, about the Dessert Degustation… Holy Amazeballs Batman! It is like you died and went to dessert heaven where everything is chocolately caramelly sugar coated nutty deliciousness and these amazing people keep appearing and bringing you more.
5 courses of dessert plus a bunch of hidden suprise courses that come out between them created as per the chefs discretion and are beautiful surprises (see photos and die of jealousy).
Truthfully you will feel like you could fall into the deepest sugar induced coma ever but it’s totally worth it.
Sidenote: Cocktails are superb! Just do it.
The staff are always attentive, professional and friendly. I would recommend Bacchus to anyone looking to have a high quality food experience that will not disappoint.

After passing Bacchus numerous times on my way to South Bank Cinemas, me and a few friends found ourselves lounging in their couches after a movie one night. The location is pretty unbeatable, as it’s located in the Rydges hotel two blocks down from the cinemas and restaurants in South Bank. Only hearing about this place in an article, Bacchus originally made an impression on me for being described as an upscale bar housing a swimming pool.
We didn’t go into the swimming pool that night, but the place is a slightly upscale lounge, with dim lighting, and excellent service. Upon arriving, the bartender came around to fill a couple of glasses with chilled lemon water. Their cocktail creations weren’t as appealing as I had hoped, but I ended up ordering the Social, a mix of Patron Silver, Dolin Bianco, house strawberry and rhubarb cordial and fresh pink grapefruit juice (20). The drink tasted mostly like the Patron, and was a bit bitter — and while I do enjoy Patron, it didn’t taste much like a «mixed drink.» The Dionysus was also a bit of a miss, as I don’t think I like Maraschino liquer much…

My partner and I had a nice night at Bacchus. We had a couple of cocktails in the poolside bar area before dinner. The area is really nice with a classy atmosphere which was spoiled by the yobbos they let in. Seriously, if I wanted to rub shoulders with people who dress in singlets and shorts I line up for happy hour at the local pub… However, we were looked after well. The restaurant experience was better, good service and good food. My partner and I both had steak and each were cooked to perfection; quite sublime really. We were even offered a choice of nicely designed steak knives which was quirky in my experience… Nice wine chosen from the extensive (and expensive) wine list and killer coffees too. Would do it again; and we don’t say that about too many restaurants.

This will start with a rant:
For some reason, when arriving at a restaurant we are always put at the worst table. This happened upon arrival at Bacchus, so we did ask to be moved (the original table = squishy with no room and poor lighting, behind a huge structure/​potplant/​somethingorothericannotremember)… At first they were resistant, saying all 2 person tables were booked.
This confuses me, because those people hadn’t arrived as yet and have no clue as to what table they were getting
a) we had ALSO booked, probably about 3 – 4 weeks prior actually
b) last time I checked, when booking a table at a restaurant, you dont click which table you prefer like a seating plan on an aircraft. ie tables shouldn’t be SO preallocated that a change is impossible.
Rant over, they did end up changing us to another table, but I felt that they weren’t particularly happy about doing so.
We were asked three times by three separate waitstaff if we wanted water, and so the sparkling water we requested didn’t actually come to us for about 15 – 20 minutes.
The sommelier was clearly on a mission to sell a particular wine, we went with it, even though we thought we were being sucked in, but the wine was actually really amazing.
The food: beautiful presentation. Each dish is supposedly matched to a particular olive oil, and in my entrée/​mains I could definitely detect that particular oil, so this was quite interesting. I had beef carpaccio for entrée, and chicken ballotine for main, which were both excellent, my husbands dishes of red claw ravioli and duck breast were both excellent as well.
Desserts err interestingly on the savoury side, eg goats cheese, fennel, basil are listed ingredients.
I had apricot soufflé that was just eggy tasting with very little apricot flavouring, but the lemon myrtle sorbet was delicious.
One interesting thing to note: on their website, they have listed a «Grill» section with sides, however this was completely missing from the menu… not sure why, should have asked.
Overall, I am erring on the side of liking this place, teething problems/​new venue probably explain the lapse in service, which did become friendlier and more improved as the evening went on. We definitely loved the food, desserts not as much though.

We had heard about the pending opening of Bacchus and it coincided with a friends birthday. I contacted them and ensured our group would have somewhere to sit and enjoy the club. We arrived to smiles and staff immediately there to help us. The Snr Coordinator showed us to our spot. Lovely round, high back lounges and right near the bar.
We had a great night, were looked after exceptionally well (including well cleaned and tidied table, well stocked replacement drinks). The décor is very modern and cool. The only downer was the weather, we weren’t able to sit around the pool area as it was raining.
We will definitely be going back! Can recommend Bacchus to anyone looking for fine dining, a chilled place to relax, a quick dip in the pool, a great sunday sesh… the list goes on. Try it!

OK. Fine. Nice.
At our recent trip to Brisbane’s newest fine dining restaurant, located at Rydges Hotel, South Bank, we found the experience to be just that: OK, fine, nice.
Which is why it was disappointing.
The food, while being lovely, was not as great as I expected. Fine dining, to me, suggests something special, something that makes it above good bistro fare. And I don’t think Bacchus was quite there. The flavour combinations of the pork croquette with beetroot purée and the pan fried white fish with peas, broad beans and vongole were fair. The cucumber and scallop carpaccio, however, was a little off; the tomato jelly consommé too watery and bland. And the beef tenderloin was good, without being anything special. In the review I read prior to our visit, they mentioned that there was an emphasis on matching olive oils to the food which I found quite intriguing. But the only time I noticed the addition of any olive oils was in the mashed potato (which admittedly, was quite more-​ish). The waiter didn’t mention it at all, which was surprising.
But above the food, other elements also detracted from our experience. Particularly the sommelier, who appeared to be an obligatory part of the meal rather than optional. After stating we only wanted one glass of wine each, having already had a couple of aperitifs before dinner, the sommelier proceeded to dismiss what was available on the «by the glass» list as average and steer us towards a very expensive demi of French white. After my partner had indicated he wanted to drink red. And not even enquiring as to our food choices so as to match the wine appropriately. *And* referring to the Veltliner as being there «just for show»… I could go on.
I would be interested to read what other reviewers thought, but based on our experience, we won’t return (at least any time soon).
My restaurant star scale:
1 star: rubbish
2 star: majorly let down by one/​multiple aspects
3 star: positives and negatives average it out
4 star: minor detractors only
5 star: as close to restaurant perfection as you can get!