The Ship Inn Bar Bistro and Function Centre

This is one of those nice little pubs tucked away in the corner of Brisbane’s Soutbank. When I came here with my brother it was a little quiet, but it is in a handy location if you happen to be at the Maritime Museum (since it is across the road — and is probably why it is called the Ship Inn, though I don’t think it would have been one of those places that I would visit back in the days that it was a dry dock). There is a nice outdoor area though I was a little disappointed that they didn’t have free (or any) wifi — namely because I was in a sit at the table with my laptop mood as opposed to read my book mood. Still, they did have a decent selection of craft beers on tap, and I certainly could have spent quite a while tapping away on my laptop, if the battery hadn’t gone flat that is.

The Ship Inn used to be a regular after-​work haunt back when I was working at QUT’s Gardens Point campus, but only recently did I discover they boast a function area when a friend held their wedding dinner reception there. The space is quite spacious to hold at least 100 people and the food, while not mind-​blowing, was nonetheless acceptable. The drawback unfortunately was that despite the trained staff, randoms still came up from the Ship Inn’s regular bistro to sneak a free alcoholic beverage and needed kicking out.

Excellent experience !!! The food was divine not your stereotypical pub food. The chef at Ship Inn puts a lot of passion into his creations. The presentation was even on point. They only have three dessert options but don’t go past the dessert menu because they do those items VERY WELL. One of the best brownie desserts I’ve ever had. Will be back definitely.

To sell us two bottles of wine for 4 people and then say we have less than half an hour is sheer stupidity. The beer garden area would be great during the day as it’s open and shaded. I could imagine it being standing room only when it gets busy tho.

I’ve heard good and bad things about this place, but the only thing I can really go on is my experience.
Although the food is good here, seafood fresh, meat tender and not really all that fatty. Steak crisp around the edges and cooked to near perfection (except that one time I told them to take my well done one back for a medium rare)… the atmosphere is good. If you go there when there are lots of students, it can be a bit slow getting your food, but just drink some beer while you wait I guess.
Our food arrived after about waiting for 45 minutes. The staff member who served us practically threw our food onto the table, i’m surprised everything didn’t just slip off. She also served the food over my baby… not a great thing to do lady… accidentally slipping and covering my son with burns isn’t something I take lightly.
Besides the service, the food is good, the atmosphere good but sometimes challenging… we’d definetely go back. Maybe the casual staff have a high turnover rate? You never know.

The Ship Inn is an ideal pub to enjoy a few drinks on a late afternoon. I came here with a few friends on a Sunday and we all had a nice relaxing time whilst enjoying the warm summer breeze coming from the river. The service from one particular bartender was exceptional.
There was four of us enjoying beers on one of the outside tables in this fairly intimate pub. We liked that it was it was away from the busy touristy end of South Bank therefore we could have pleasant conversations without feeling cramped.
There was one bartender (an older gentleman) who was particularly friendly, he gave us a free cocktail when he made a mistake on an order! Every time we went to bar to order drinks, he would make jokes and was just an all-​round nice guy.
The Ship Inn is a very pleasant pub with great service.

The Ship Inn represents to some Griffith uni students what the RE used to be for UQ scholars –an entertaining alternative to that boring midday lecture, a place to go with your fellow students to wax lyrical about novel ideas that no one else has thought about, the anywhere-​anytime pub from Monday mornings to Friday afternoons.
I distinctly remember hanging about on a Monday morning at 10am and guiltily asking the bartender if it was legal to serve drinks at that hour.
Their Beer Garden is the perfect place for a casual lunch with a decent gastro pub menu including steak sandwich, lamb burgers and chicken Caesar wrap. I would be careful about ordering their steaks or lamb racks. It isn’t bad but it is pricey. Best to stick to their lunch time meals which range from $ 15 -$ 25.
During my uni days, I’ve also organised many functions here. The staff are lovely and helpful. There is no venue hire fee and you can either order off the menu or try one of their function platters. For awhile, I was regularly coming down with a group of students on a Monday night after some extra-​curricular activity at the Griffith Film School. Even though their kitchen was technically shut, they were perfectly happy to organise hot bar foods for us provided I called ahead of time to confirm my weekly booking. Like I said, the staff are just really helpful and down-​to-​earth.
My uni days may be behind me but the Ship Inn has become a regular drinking hole or lunchtime stop whenever I’m in Southbank.

Coming from a long line of maritime men (my grandfather was the Harbour Master of Brisbane and my father in the Merchant Navy, just to name a few) I was quite interested to find out when I went to have dinner at the handsome old colonial pub that The Ship Inn was once a rowdy sailors’ den (before the gentrification of the southern banks of the river of course).
A corollary effect of the civilisation of the area is that The Ship Inn has become a bona fide ‘gastropub’. Sure it offers your standard pub dishes like ‘Steak Sandwich’ and ‘Calamari and Chips’, but it also goes a step further with offering like «Tagine of Lamb — Slow cooked lamb fillet sliced with preserved lemon, green olives and spices, served on a bed of couscous finished with Greek style yogurt» (they clain on their website to specialise in lamb) and «Linguini a la Funghi — Wild forest mushrooms lightly tossed with garlic and parsley finished with a white wine, cream & parmesan sauce, topped with fresh rocket». I had the latter for my dinner, adding chicken for an extra $ 2.
Being a pub there’s a good selection of beers on tap as well, the perfect accompaniment to any pub dinner.