We wouldn’t normally think of going to Teneriffe for dinner, but we were looking for something with a bit of quality, and thought we’d give Salon a try for a dinner for three.
I called on Saturday afternoon to book for dinner, and was told we could come at 8. It was a tad late (this is Brisbane after all), but clearly this was a popular place and they were lucky to fit us in at all, right? Wrong. We arrived at 8 to find barely a third of the tables occupied. So that got us off on the wrong foot.
Perusing the menus, we were surprised at the high prices – all of the mains were $35 – and felt misled by their ad in the Entertainment Book which priced the mains at $22 to $32. That was strike two. So we tempered our appetites and ordered a few tapas-style sharing plates rather than full mains.
There was nothing particularly wrong with the food or the cocktails at Salon, but nor were they particularly remarkable. Passable but expensive.
Strike three, for us, was the service. Don’t get me wrong, it was polite and reasonably prompt, but we detected an air of suppressed snobbery. It was as if our waiter had taken one look at us, presumed that we were neither rich nor stylish enough to be Teneriffe regulars, but decided to be overly friendly in a way that was almost patronising; as if to say “You’re not good enough for this place, but I’m going to be nice to you anyway, even though you don’t deserve it, because that’s how good a waiter I am”. This may sound a bit harsh, but it just made the experience a bit uncomfortable.
We wouldn’t recommend you go out of your way for Salon, it’s not worth it.
- Salon, Shop 5A, 110 Macquarie St (Cnr Florence St), Teneriffe +61 7 3252 3911
I totally don’t agree with this review!
I went there last weekend with a friend, we had a great night. The food was amazing, and priced around the $20 – $25 mark for a main/sharing plate – I don’t think anything on the menu was as expensive as you suggest.
Service was great too – they were busy but still made time for us. Again, I’m not sure what your on about with the “snobbery” thing – that was not our experience at all. We had both just come from uni and admittedly did not look like big spenders, but the waiter (turns out he was an owner) gave exceptional service.
Perhaps a lot had changed in 6 months. This place definitely deserves an updated review!
Hi Natalie
Thanks for your comment. You’re right, maybe a lot has changed since the review and it’s always good to hear another opinion, especially as Salon is quite popular. As we’re not professional food critics we only write our reviews based on a single experience, so it’s possible that we caught the restaurant on a bad night.
Jetsetting Joyce