September 5, 2026 — 5:00am
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When Sunshine Coast retiree Eamon Hannan reserved a table at one of Brisbane’s most acclaimed restaurants, he had no idea the business had already shut its doors for the last time.
Hannan had plugged his bank details into the web form for Restaurant Dan Arnold on Friday, August 7, and booked a table for September 10 – his wedding anniversary.
Since opening in 2018, RDA, as it became known, was a standout in Brisbane’s food scene, offering seasonal French-driven degustation menus relying on top-tier local produce.
Dan Arnold’s businesses have crumbled. Markus Ravik
“It was a very special occasion,” Hannan said, adding he and his wife rarely ate at such establishments and had booked a hotel room in the city for the night.
Two weeks later, his son, who had bought him a $480 voucher for the restaurant, told Hannan he had read about the restaurant overcharging customers and potentially shutting down.
When Hannan checked his bank account, he saw the restaurant had already withdrawn almost $1000: $200 on the day he made the reservation, and two $396 payments on August 11 and 15.
RDA was a must-try restaurant for many in Brisbane. Sally Tsai
That was despite the restaurant claiming at the time of booking that it did not take pre-meal payments.
Hannan has since taken action through his bank, and tried to contact the restaurant by email and phone, to no avail.
“The call just disconnects. I think the number is gone,” he said.
This masthead has spoken to multiple RDA customers who had the same issue, both before and after the restaurant shut down.
The restaurant has been empty since early August. Julius Dennis
For Dan Arnold, whose hospitality journey started at a Sizzler grill and would take him to the Michelin-starred kitchens of France, it is the fall from grace few saw coming.
Just two years ago, Arnold was running three of the hottest restaurants in Brisbane and was one of the city’s most celebrated culinary sons.
Staff who worked at RDA in the early days speak highly of Arnold, both as a professional and a person.
Daniel Hernandez, a chef who worked with him at multiple restaurants, said he was a good boss, and considered him a mentor and a friend.
“I never got paid like that in the industry – top money,” he said.
“Great chef, one of the best. He looked after me financially.”
By 2022, Arnold’s eponymous Fortitude Valley venue had survived COVID and was thriving.
He bought half of the successful Spring Hill French restaurant and wine bar La Cache a Vin, alongside its then-manager Romain Maunier.
The next year he opened Pneuma, a high-end snacky affair, with former GOMA Restaurant head chef Matt Blackwell in a loft space on George Street.
The upstairs Pneuma venue was unlike anything else in the CBD.Tammy Law
Before Pneuma moved in, the spacious dining room had been home to Greenglass, owned by another Brisbane hospitality figure, Cameron Votan.
In an interview with the Deep in the Weeds podcast in 2024, Arnold said he signed a nine-year lease for the loft space, which he saw as an investment.
The George Street spot was conveniently located between the new casino, the Roma Street site then slated for the Brisbane Live arena, and the law courts, he said.
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“It was going to go to market or just disappear into some other sort of operation, and I managed to pick it up,” he said.
“The rent is ridiculously cheap, ridiculously cheap, so I took a nine-year lease on it – three plus three, plus three. I said ‘to hell with it’, because I could almost pay the rent basically from my own back pocket, and I think in the future, that space is going to be prime realty.”
In January 2025, Arnold was representing Australia for the second time at the Bocuse d’Or – widely considered the most prestigious cooking competition in the world, where chefs are treated as rock stars – paying homage to his mentor, Serge Vieira, who had recently passed away.
Arnold had worked under the 2005 Bocuse d’Or winner at his two-Michelin-starred Restaurant Serge Vieira on the outskirts of Chaudes-Aigues, a tiny town in south-central France.
Arnold credited his time with Vieira, who affectionately called him Brisbane, as the foundation of his success.
“He was like a second father to me, and not just from a cooking point of view,” Arnold told this masthead last year.
“We were in each other’s lives for seven years, side by side. His second child and my first child were born one month apart.
“[Without] the time I spent with him, I wouldn’t be where I am today.”
Arnold finished 16th in the Bocuse d’Or. He had earned an eighth-place finish in 2017 under Vieira’s tutelage – the best performance by an Australian in the competition’s 48-year history.
Back in Brisbane, things were starting to fall apart.
Matt Blackwell was Pneuma’s creative force. Tammy Law
In July 2025, Pneuma shut down after Blackwell jumped ship, saying the restaurant was no longer aligned with his vision.
“I put everything [I had] into it for the last nearly two years – like, everything. Having to call it was really, really hard, but I know it needs to happen,” Blackwell said at the time.
He declined to comment for this story.
From the outside, it looked more like a blip than a death knell. RDA was still receiving high praise seven years in, and when Pneuma closed, Arnold said he was keen to open something new there.
In August that year, his La Cache a Vin partner, Maunier, moved his French bistro, Little Provence, into the CBD space. A couple of months later, in October, Maunier took over Arnold’s share of La Cache a Vin.
Despite having a tenant and paying cheap rent, Arnold would soon be in hot water over the deal he struck with Votan to take over the former Pneuma space.
Best known as part of a duo with brother Jordan, who operates neighbouring Fortitude Valley Chinese joints Happy Boy and Snackman, Votan is a shrewd businessman who first made his name as co-founder of online fashion retailer The Iconic.
When acquiring the George Street space that would become Pneuma, Arnold agreed to pay Votan $300,000 in two instalments, transferring the first lot in November 2023.
The second instalment was due two years later, and according to documents filed in the Brisbane District Court, it went unpaid.
Cameron Votan took Arnold to court in May. Dan Peled
The documents show Votan’s lawyers made multiple attempts to get the money from Arnold, as well as another $15,000 he owed for GST. He eventually took court action in May this year.
In June, Judge Dominique Grigg ordered Arnold to pay Votan the money, plus interest. For his part, Arnold had not filed a single affidavit, and according to Votan’s lawyers, had never asked for a deferment or waiver.
Maunier declined to comment for this story, and Votan did not reply by deadline.
Meanwhile, RDA was in trouble of its own, with an external administrator appointed in December 2025 and creditors voting to reject a proposed restructure in February.
Maunier’s Little Provence now operates out of the Pneuma space. Julius Dennis
By July, there had been a significant staff turnover, and diners had started complaining about money being taken off their credit cards when they made reservations.
Sofia Ammassari and her husband, Duncan, had been given a $500 RDA voucher as a wedding gift, and made a booking in July for August 28.
Over three days in July, the restaurant took four payments of $396 – again, despite stating they would not take money before the reservation.
After multiple attempts to contact RDA about a refund, Ammassari said she went to the restaurant and spoke to a manager.
RDA was located in the Chester Hotel in Fortitude Valley. Julius Dennis
“I wasn’t very pleased with the fact that I had been ignored for two weeks by then, and I was still down $1600,” she said.
Ammassari said the manager assured her she would get a refund soon, but when she didn’t, she posted her complaint online.
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“I think I was one of the first people to leave a review … that’s when I realised it was a pattern,” she said.
She managed to get her money back through the bank, but her $500 voucher will remain unused.
Arnold did not respond to a request to comment for this story. However, he told this masthead on August 4 the payments were part of a glitch in the third-party reservation system, and the restaurant never had their hands on the money.
“We take any payment issue seriously and have been responding to the isolated number of affected guests individually to ensure each matter is resolved as quickly as possible,” he said.
A day later, Restaurant Dan Arnold did not open for service. A month later, you can still get a voucher on the RDA website, or book a table for one day only – September 9.
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