Lennons Restaurant & Bar

Basic cocktails (2 shots) quickly put together was $ 18. Expect much better for that price given the competition nearby. Cocktails were not impressive were not worth the price. $ 11 for a schooner of Peroni seemed overpriced but I haven’t had beer in a while so it might be reasonable. Tried to use entertainment voucher (only reason we came here) but they said there was a condition that you had to buy food. Over priced and poor experience. Would not return. Went elsewhere and had a much hotter experience. Some of the beers were not even available.

Just tried Lennon’s lunchtime deal — a different class of meal each day for $ 15. Monday’s (today) is burgers (any of the burgers on the menu, including chicken, pork, wagyu and chickpea) plus chips for $ 15.
I got the pulled pork burger on brioche. It was really yummy — with crunchy coleslaw, fresh fennel and apple. The chips were fresh, crisp and nicely spiced.
Altogether good value for $ 15 — the price of a food court meal in much, much nicer surrounds!

My boss from the States needed a place to stay and I suggested the NEXT Hotel based on it being new and having fancy-​sounding tech features plus they were offering excellent prices. He chose to get breakfast included so I took the opportunity to check out the breakfast options at Lennons (attached to NEXT).
It’s a typical breakfast buffet deal with standard hot and continental options spread over several stations. For those with a sweet tooth, fill up on fruit salad, Bircher muesli, yoghurt (including dairy-​free coconut yoghurt), pannacotta, pastries, muffins, cake or there is a large range of cereals available. If savoury is more your caper then you have basic options of eggs, bacon, sausages, grilled tomato and mini potato roesti. There are also some savoury pastry items — I saw savoury scones and a vegetable tart when I was there. Poached eggs are cooked and kept in one of the heated bowls (like the rest of the hot food) but you can order scrambled and fried eggs to order which are served fresh on toasted buttered dark bread. The bread selection is actually what stood out for me here — they have several types of sliced quality fresh bread available which you can toast yourself including bagels, sourdough, the dark (rye?) seeded bread, a delicious looking fruit bread and gluten-​free bread, which I’m pretty sure was either Sol Breads or Zehender. There is also a range of condiments to spread on your toast if you’d like.
Drinks are covered with self-​serve filter coffee, tea (bags and hot water provided), juice, milk (full cream, skim, soy) and water. Note that if you order an espresso coffee, you will be charged extra, which I wasn’t warned about. Service was accommodating but you need to approach them to get anything. I found that it took a long time for my table to be cleared (despite having eggs delivered) and there were plenty of tables waiting to be cleared when I arrived, to the point that despite there being a large number of seating, only a few were cleaned and able to be sat at. This wasn’t due to a lack of staff however. Due to it recently being refurbished, it is a nice setting with comfortable seating and a decent view out to the Queen St Mall.
Overall, I’m not sure how much the full buffet costs so I can’t comment on value for money but it was a nice buffet. Apart from service, there wasn’t much to fault. I would have liked to see more fresh fruit available and maybe poached eggs made to order but really there are plenty of options for everyone there. Some more signage would be helpful too, especially for people with food intolerances. The coconut yoghurt is a great inclusion but it wasn’t signed and I only knew when I asked what it was. Personally I wouldn’t choose to return for it with all of the other great breakfast options around the place (plus I have a terrible tendency to seriously overeat when faced with a buffet) but if you’re staying there already, it’s probably worth going for it!

Want a lunch option that won’t break the bank or have you apologising to the boss that you stayed out longer than your allocated 60 minutes? Look no further than Lennons in the newly opened NEXT Hotel on the Queen Street Mall.
Surprisingly, the escalators to the main restaurant and hotel lobby area do a great job of making you feel like you’re no longer on the Mall. The restaurant, while busy, is a calm oasis compared to the bustle below.
A colleague and I dined here for lunch before she had to dash to the airport and I was pleasantly surprised at the efficiency of the whole she-​bang. Our orders were taken and meals delivered in a timely manner (helps that they have a lunch promotion running whereby your meal is free if it isn’t at your table in 60 mins). I ordered the ragu and the entrée serving is ample, the pasta fresh and everything perfectly balanced. My colleagues squid ink crab linguine looked equally appetizing.
As far as lunch goes, Lennon’s shows a quick lunch doesn’t have to sacrifice style and taste. In fact, it shows that you can have your cake and eat it too — all in an hour lunch break.

Oh dear, so much potential… yet all the potential has not been ignored.
So what has this place go going for it?
— Central location
— Cool design following a lovely renovation and transformation of an old worn out hotel.
— Afraid the list disappointly stops there.
We arrived and on looking for a table were greeted and shown a spot for dinner. We were given the food menu and told the drinks menu would be brought to us and so we settled in to enjoy the new venue in Brisbane and chose what to eat.
Time passed… and passed… and then a waiter arrived with an iPad mini and asked to take our order. We gave our order choices but also let him know we had not actually received the drinks list which is normally my first priority when it comes to eating out. He apologies and went and found a drinks menu. Some time later our drink order was taken…1 beer as an apéritif for me and a bottle of wine with a desire to try and make it last the whole evening.
Again time passed… and passed some more… and yes even more. I checked out the bar staff. They stood to attention behind the bar looking very smart but looks like the iPad mini ordering system had failed to send a link from our table (10 meters away) to their beer pouring and wine opening hands.
Drinks were served around us and we enjoyed seeing groups and couples enjoying their evening whilst we longed for a sip of something alcoholic to kick off the evening.
Oh watch out… service heading to our table… expectations rise… beer and wine desire overload and the waiter presents the offering… our food order! Wonderful.
He then comes back and apologies for the delay to our drinks and says the bar team will be onto it (the bar team who seem to be cleaning bar tops, beers taps, everything but pour a drink.
Ok so now the drinks come over… result, I hear you say… well yes a result in the fact they served us drinks half way through our main course but there is another story to tell here. Our order was for one beer and one bottle of wine. Kinda simple but delivered was 1 beer and 1 glass of wine.
We eat our meal and the as our mains are being cleared away we are asked if we want dessert.
Ok thought process… you take my food order before my drink order and leave the wine menu on the side of my table for the rest of the evening. You take my drink order and somehow manage to deliver my food before my beer and turn a bottle of wine into just a glass. Do I trust you to deliver my dessert order correctly and do I want to stay here any longer and pay for disasterous service … yep you guessed it… a polite «no thank you, just the bill please» and I was thankfully walking out of this restaurant for the first and last time.
I am so bitterly disappointed. This place has been fitted out really well and on first sight it looks a lovely venue. Sadly the hotel has failed to recruit service staff that understand real service and opted for work experience staff that are fitting this job around their studies. Brisbane has many new establishments opening up around the city but what is making or breaking new eateries is their ability to attract skilled service professionals vs. temporary talent.
To summarise a very long review — the food was fine, the design is lovely but the service atrocious, I am reluctantly therefore giving this eatery a very generous 2* rating.