Patrick O'Callaghan
Google
I have been to GPO a few times now over the past 5 years and I have to say the food has certainly changed, but not for the better. Firstly, the good things; service was extremely good. We had a very good waitress who was training up a new staff member and she knew her stuff, knew how to look after customers and had an instinct for knowing when something wasn't quite right. She is a great asset to the venue. The atmosphere was nice, not too noisy but still a good buzz about the place. We were there for dinner at 6pm and once seated and checking out the menu we went for the $79 feast option which is very good value. But......the food here used to be sublime, of amazing quality and, probably because of that, more expensive yet worth every penny. My steak came out overcooked, it was patently obvious even just looking at it that it wasn't rare to medium, it was medium going on well done. The quality of the meat was average, not the best and not the worst but there was no care or love given to the meat and it was quite boring to eat. My wife had the seafood paella, the seafood in the dish was well cooked, tasted nice and had a good variety, but, the rice was very stodgy and obviously was from a larger pan which was then portioned up as the night went on. The meals came out so quick, seriously, that is never a good sign. Usually that means each dish is pre-cooked or part cooked and then finished off when the orders come in. My wife had lamb ribs which were ok, but they came out within 2 minutes of ordering. As soon as they were finished our main course came out very quick again. We had been advised by a barman at a local pub that 'their food does come out very quick', but we didn't think it would be so quick as it was. So, based on my previous experiences at GPO and this one, the food needs to be better, rather than going for a quick in/eat/get out approach the restaurant should consider going back to the quality standards it a few years back.