We came to the Criterion for a steak given Rockhampton’s reputation as the beef capital of Australia. It’s a charming historic pub with a family vibe and friendly staff. Given it was a Saturday night, there was a significant wait for our meals of over an hour. We were prepared to endure such a wait, given our expectations and hunger for a juicy, mouth-watering slab of bovine. However, much to our collective dismay, what was eventually presented to us was suboptimal, to say the least. A dry, overcooked, gristly, tough, wedge of meat was paired with a lacklustre salad, soggy chips and stodgy pork ribs. Given our hunger and the time of night, we had no choice but to choke down on the edible elements of the plate. Our experience provided us with a free digestif of buyers remorse. On providing feedback to the waitstaff, we were informed that the 250gr Rump was “a bit hit and miss”. We found this a bit hard to swallow given the pricing and the location. If you enjoy the tough old leathery steak that Dave serves you at his kid’s 2nd birthday BBQ, the Criterion is the place for you.

We were in Rockhampton for 1 night and it was recommended that we have dinner at the Criterion Hotel. The hotel itself is beautiful with loads of heritage features. However unfortunately that's were it ends. We had a 7.30pm booking and the staff made a big deal about seating us in the upstairs section, we thought wow it must be an amazing area.

Don't be fooled, it's a 3 step up to an extra sitting area in a pretty ordinary dinning room. On arrival in the dinning room area the male staff member was quite strange and kept asking my husband where was he from and said he had a strange accent. We are from Brisbane and there is no accent.

We proceeded to order within the first 10 minutes and my eldest son ordered the beef lasagne. We were told 40 minutes later that alas no beef lasagne was left and that he would have to pick something else from the menu. We did not get our meals until 9.15pm and at that point we had a very grumpy 14 and 9 year old wanting their dinners. I ordered the famed steak (Rib eye 300g) that others have mentioned - it certainly was not worth the hype. It was dry and tasteless.