Ablaze Grill & Bar

So being that my mother is a fussy eater finding this place was a long and tiring process.
The good thing was that she was so hungry I thought she may take off with a waiter’s arm while we were waiting for our food.
But back to the place itself. Blink and you’d miss it. It has a few people outside showing a bit of leg and gentleman with impeccably shaped eyebrows. My eyebrows felt a bit lacklustre compared to his. My mother even noticed.
They usher you into the hall and call the lift for you and as they greet you and smile, before you realise it you’re in the lift going up a floor. There seemed to be outdoor seating but since the storm of crazy hit town we opted for inside lest we get blown, washed and hailed away. The doors didn’t seal so there was a gap in them and because we were sitting next to the glass doors that led out to the terrace the winds from the Arctic were doing their best to freeze my kneecaps — I kept my jacket on during dinner. That’s how cold it was. My mother moved so that she used me as her meat shield as she ate. At least she was warm!
The seating is cozy with the outside not available. There’s not as many tables inside — but there was enough to seat quite a few people who were obviously starving before seeing Cirque Du Soliel as we were.
I ordered a bunch of tapas plates for my picky mother who wanted to have fish and chips. We had the chilli prawns, the Spanish meatballs, garlic mushrooms, the haloumi and the Spanish potatoes.
The tapas plates came out rather quicky for which my mother was grateful. Although I do have to say the only thing that really got us both going yum was the Spanish meatballs. The sauce was chillier than everything else put together. The garlic mushrooms didn’t really speak to me, I do them better. There wasn’t enough garlic in the frying process. Either that or they didn’t use enough olive oil. I’m not sure. The cubed potatoes were a hit, but you can’t mess those up, can you? The chilli prawns weren’t really chilli, but they were fresh and went down ok.
Service was nearly 5 stars here, the waiters and waitresses seemed engaging and checked in with you often. It’s a pity the tapas was a bit hit and miss though. But it’s definiately somewhere I’d come back to if only to try other things on their menu. Like the rib rack.

Food was nice but service was poor. Rude woman at front desk. Had 3 things spilt on me at separate occasions. Waiters couldn’t get orders correct or to the right tables. Been here before so assuming they were just having a bad night. Very disappointed

Had a dinner here to celebrate a friends birthday. Atmosphere was good with nice Italian tracks playing, along with a lovely bar and wood fire pizza oven to look at whilst we chatted away. Food wise it was fair in terms of serving size, a little pricey but quality overall was pretty good. We did not wait long for our food. Drinks service was excellent from the bar staff. Service from the guys was great, the girls looked like they needed something to do and did not look swithed on. Options for vegetarians we great. We also had a couple who wanted to order a special meal as they were on a health diet — the staff certainly accommodated to this and brought out a menu specially for these people. The pizza was great and authentic, pastas looked thrown together. Fish dishes looked great. Not a bad place however I left feeling like we could have gone somewhere else that may have been better overall in terms of food, service and style.

When I arrived at Ablaze Bar & Grill at The Entertainment Quarter, it was a bit fancier than I thought it would be but it was a pleasant surprise.
There’s an ala carte and dessert menu but tonight we decide on having tapas. The thought of sampling a few dishes is always a bit hard to resist and with quite a number of us we can really go to town and order heaps, which we do!
We start off with a few breads and dips but don’t want to fill up on these too much as we have some haloumi, meatballs, chicken wings, calamari and prawns to sample. We decide on a couple of dishes of each to make sure we all get to sample everything and by the end of the meal we’re all quite full up. Especially with our wines that helped wash it all down.

Went here before a movie with a group and experienced really bad service. The food was not fantastic, and definitely not worth the prices they are charging.
The tapas were smaller than expected and not that nice, we got buffalo chicken wings, haloumi and garlic prawns. There was a ribs special on which I ordered as a main, but the ribs were not tender — there was no meat falling off the bone or anything. Sauce was ok, but quite sweet.
Drinks were also expensive, the cheapest bottle of wine is $ 29 and a beer is $ 6.90.
I doubt people go to fox studios especially to eat — they are usually eating there because of another reason, a movie, concert, sports game or comedy for example. Coupled with high dinner prices makes for an expensive night.
On another occasion I grabbed a steak sandwich from the barbecue downstairs for a quick lunch. It was awful.

If you’re looking for something a little fancier than Pizza at Mi Piace, then you’ll need to head upstairs to its sister restaurant Ablaze. Here’ll you find a mix of tapas and Modern Australian fare — with steaks being the main attraction of the latter. Fortunately they know how to cook for their carnivores, so you can go for a New York Strip or a Wagyu rump and really sink your teeth in.
The wine list is a simple but solid list of Australian and NZ fare, or there are $ 15 cocktails if you’re feeling a bit more festive. Oh and if you can manage to save room for dessert, I can recommend the sticky date pudding — with some seriously delectable butterscotch sauce.
Definitely book if you’re coming on a sports or show night — as it seems many Entertainment Quarterers want to set themselves Ablaze.
But…if you miss out, or if you are looking for foot on the go, then head back downstairs to Ablaze BBQ. Here they churn out burgers, chips and steak sandwiches to hoards of hungry folk — and at $ 7.90 they’re a darn sight more affordable than the steaks upstairs.