Gilhooley's, Brisbane City

Two Fridays ago I felt like treating myself so I went to Gilhooley's for steak.  There are a number of steak destinations I could have gone to but Gilhooley's was the easiest to get to.  The first thing that I like about having steak at Gilhooley's is that they are less rigid than some other venues about the side dishes you can have with your steak.  This being the case, I had the rib fillet (rare) with chips, mashed potatoes, and mushroom gravy.  When my meal arrived, the first thing I noticed was that all of the food was piled up on top of each other.  This was unnecessary.  It was not the case that there was so much food that this needed to happen.  Neither was it the case that the plate was too small.  However, this is more of an observation rather than a valid grievance.  Once I separated my food I was a little disappointed to see that there were less chips and mashed potato than I would have liked.  Had I known that the portions of the side dishes were so small, I probably would have ordered a bigger steak.  This is not to say that the portions were excessively small; just not as large as I think they should be from an establishment such as Gilhooley's.  Quantities aside, the quality was there.  The chips were on the thick side and were almost exactly the kind you would expect to accompany a good steak.  The mashed potatoes were also quality.  However, mashed potatoes is such a common household dish in Australia that I am of the opinion that if you are serving them in a restaurant, and in particular a nice restaurant, they had better be something special.  So while the mashed potatoes could have been better, they were certainly better than what I'm used to, and I'm really not that fussy when it comes to just about any preparation of potato.  When I first bit into my steak, I noticed a burnt, charred taste.  However, subsequent bites were free from this flaw.  The rarity of the steak was more or less to my liking, and overall one of the better steaks I've had in recent memory.  The mushroom gravy was low on mushroom and high on gravy.  This was not much of an issue because I ordered the mushroom gravy for its gravy content, not its mushroom content.  The gravy itself was slightly lacking in flavour, but once I added the right amount of salt and pepper, it turned out just fine.  So while I have some minor quibbles, this was a worthwhile celebratory meal.