Boatdeck Cafe — Restaurant in Adelaide

Unfortunately, my experience was not good. My husband and I was hoping to have a good lunch after he picked me up from work as I did some Saturday overtime. I ordered their signature dish, boat deck steak and my husband ordered a pepper steak, both medium well. We sat at the corner (table#5) and at first, there's no one at table #4, there was a couple at table #3 eating their pizza. We waited for our order, 35 mins had passed after the drinks were served and still no food yet being served to us and I feel so hungry already. I asked my husband if it will really take that long to order steak since we are really not used to ordering steak in a restaurant, but I cook steak at home and it only take me 10 mins to grill the meat. Anyway, we still keep on waiting. I finally decided to ask the staff when I saw that the couple on table #3 had finished their lunch and went out and the newly arrived couple on table #4 have their ordered pizza arrived after they finished eating a plate of cheese bread entree. We arrived there first but still have no food, so I think something is not right. I spoke to a girl staff to follow-up and she said our food will be out soon. Finally our food was served, but to my disappointment, both our food were cold, the steak cut is small and tough, it was very chewy and not enjoyable at all. I'm just wondering if both dish should be the same because ours have exactly the same sauce and veggies, the only difference was that mine has 2 pieces of shrimp on top. Overall, the food does not taste great, the meat was so tough, very hard to chew and most of all, the food was served cold. I believe, our food was forgotten somewhere that it became cold and will not be served if I have not followed it up. I asked the staff if it will really be that long before they can serve the steak, and she said yes. (I don't believe her). The customer service is frustrating, not even hearing a simple sorry to keep us from waiting, considering that the food taste so ordinary. Its just a waste of money, paying $76 for our lunch. I feel I was ripped off spending that much and I still feel hungry. Definitely I will not go back there. The food is expensive, not worth it. It really ruin my day. The only good there...

So this place has great food and great variety. However, it's not as good as it used to be 2 years ago. I used to come here around twice a week for lunch, back when the baguette rolls were under $13. I know we're in a cost of living crisis, but a footlong Subway with as many fillings as you want for no extra cost, is $15 and the baguette roll I've been getting here is $14 but if I want anything extra, it vari3s between $15 - $17 now and the service has got quite poor. I used to order takeaway and go elsewhere to eat because it's sooooo loud inside, it echoes and the place has no sound minimising acoustics. But despite ordering ahead, I still get asked to queue up behind people placing their orders or who still don't know what they want to order yet (not good if you're on a limited lunch break). Last time I ordered about 3 months ago, I rang to put my order in ahead and the person who answered didn't know how to take a phone order, they told me so and asked me to hold for someone who could take it for me. I was on hold for 14 minutes and gave up waiting, instead driving to the restaurant and during that time, tried repeatedly to call to get my order in but it was constantly engaged, obviously someone had forgot to hang up the call or not checked to see if anyone had been on hold. When I put my order in, I asked for boatdeck sauce to be added to the roll, however when it got handed to me in the takeaway bag, the sauce was in a little container for me to take the roll apart and add to it myself. NOT what I asked for and how hard is it to add sauce to a baguette? Like I said, the place has fabulous food if you're not struggling through this cost of living crisis or can afford to splurge, but the prices and service have really taken a nosedive over the...

My friends and I decided we'd go out to support local businesses as soon as the COVID-19 restrictions had eased.

After some research, i contacted The Boat Deck about whether we could 'dine in' using the outdoor seating. I was advised i needed to make a booking to do so (which was understandable), so i did.

My friends and i all arrived at the same time, and entered the business one minute before our booking, and waited for 4 minutes for the one staff member behind the counter to finish making coffees before we were acknowledged - other staff were wandering around cleaning an outside table, serving one customer, but didn't seem bothered by us waiting.

When we were finally addressed, I explained we had a booking, provided them with the name the booking was under, and the staff member appeared confused. They moved over to look down at something behind the counter for a couple of minutes, interspersed with looking outside, and eventually responded that they already had people sitting outside under the name i had booked under. The staff member didn't seem quite able or willing to actually look at us as they said it though, and didn't seem willing or capable of saying anything else.

We inquired whether this meant they had a table for us or not, and the staff member responded slowly with "we already have a table of people with the name xxxxx". One of my companions then asked 'so we need to go somewhere else then'?, and the staff member didn't even look at us or respond - they just started to 'busy' themselves behind the counter.

Needless to say, we walked out, went next door to Millets (absolutely great experience by the way!), and spend our $287...