George's Paragon Pizza Wine Bar Sanctuary Cove

I remember first coming here years ago for their half price lunch menu. This was when Sanctuary Cove was the only George’s Paragon store, before the Southport one came (and went), and the Brisbane and Mt Tamborine branches appeared. It’s been a while since my last visit and I was surprised to see that the half price menu now applies all day long. But the sting in the tail is that prices have gone up, and there’s a weekend surcharge of 15%! Bad news for us visiting on a Saturday...

We ordered:
* barouti, $37 - fish of the day (barramundi), prawns, scallops, bbq bugs, garlic, white wine, cream, served on rice with French fries
* Atlantic salmon, $21 - served with broccolini and fries
* ravioli, $17 - spinach, ricotta, garlic, napolitana

The food took about 20 minutes to come out, and I was happy with my barouti in terms of flavour and portion. I also tried some of wifey’s salmon and mopped up the remainder of the boy’s ravioli after he quit eating - both were pretty decent, and I was very full after all that food.

I did however have a niggly feeling that the barouti seemed markedly more expensive than my memory of previous meals (I’ve ordered it a number of times) so I had a dig around and found an old photo from 2007 showing that this dish was $23.95 at the time. Another photo from 2013 shows the price at $26.50.

The Atlantic salmon, on the other hand, has only gone from $18.50 to $21 in the same time.

Upon closer inspection it turns out that the barouti used to be a half price item and listed under the general seafood section, however on the latest menu it’s been moved to the “George’s special selection” section which is not included in the half price specials. So... was at $26.50 half price ($53 full price), now at $37 full price... ie. it’s actually technically cheaper but you just don’t get the discount anymore, so you end up paying more anyways. Guess I’ll stop defaulting to this the next time.