The Cornelian Bay Boathouse — Restaurant in Hobart

I have had wonderful meals at this restaurant in times of old. It was a destination choice for family celebrations and special occasions for our family. I dined here last night with a group of friends that had been looking forward to seeing each other for a long time. Firstly, one of our group went to the bar to order a drink to be greeted by a young man who announced that he had not started his shift yet! There was no attention given to the fairly large group as to any of them requesting a pre dinner drink. The floor was not busy, there were only three tables occupied. All pre dinner drinks had to be ordered at the bar area and the staff were obviously put out by the requests. Ordering was a complete shambles because the waitress, pleasant as she was, had obviously had little to no training as to how to service a table of more than two people. You were lucky that we had a lot to discuss as we waited for a very long time for our meals. Firstly, a waitress arrived with one meal in her hand, second approach was with two and then back to the one. Seriously? Would you really come to a table of ten with less than three meals in hand? It would have taken around 5 minutes for the table to be served, not good. And then we come to the food…. Several guests ordered the seafood chowder. It was nothing more than prawns scallops and and a few sad bits of potato boiled in yellow cream, and a lot of yellow cream. That is not, nor has ever been a chowder. The mushroom gnocchi was served with the most basic bulk buy not really even gnocchi little rubbery bullets that students on a budget might buy. My own meal was an eye fillet steak which was cooked well, but presented as if it was an elevated dog’s birthday. The house fries were thrown on the plate beside the meat in a haphazard and completely unappealing presentation. People go out to dine on food that they don’t feel confident to produce in their own homes. To present them with dishes that are probably less appealing than a beginner dinner party is really taking the piss. I am angry that you can take this exemplary venue, literally the best view in Hobart and serve such dreadful food in it. You should be ashamed of yourselves. Your wait staff have had minimal or no training, although they tried hard, there was no attempt to upsell any drinks or dessert items. I reluctantly parted with my money and will certainly be warning against dining in what could be one of Hobart’s destination dining spots. Come on, people, that view can only...

May 2022: The Cornelian Bay Restaurant remains a four star rating. We attended again a few nights ago, and service, although good, was patchy, with a different member of wait staff attending the table each time, with limited communication between them. Still stuck in the early 2000's the décor is still not retro enough to be cool again. Bread was served as a slice of French Baguette for each person, however the bread was freezing cold, as it it came directly out of the fridge. The dip, which looked like olive oil and balsamic vinegar, turned out to be honey and possibly vinegar or molasses... I'm still unsure. The Oysters (natural and Kilpatrick) were delicious, the main seafood chowder was huge, and overfilled with supermarket quality seafood mix. I would have preferred less seafood of a higher quality, and more of the delicious chowder broth. The Turkish delight parfait was lovely, however I was expecting Turkish delight infused flavours, rather than chewy drops of packet Turkish delight hidden inside. Don't get me wrong, the meal was delicious, but not fine dining quality, rather upmarket bistro.

May 2021. ⭐⭐⭐⭐ I've always passed the Boat House and intended to try it out. The location is wonderful with a beautiful outlook over the bay and the Tasman Bridge. The Venue itself is quite dated, with designs that are stuck in the late 90's to early 2000's. Give it another twenty years and it'll be retro "cool". Meals were on the dearer side for what was offered and portions presented, however beverages were reasonably priced. The seafood taster was lovely, but the promised grilled salmon did not truly exist, rather it was a piece of salmon smaller than a postage stamp hidden below a small salad. The Chowder was However filled with seafood and the Calamari was pub style fried and hand cut. The seafood pasta, although delicious, was served with pasta shells that were stuck together and under cooked. It would have been preferable to have served with fettuccine or linguini. One last gripe was when the table ordered bread for everyone, there was one serve missing. Upon questioning this with the member of staff, we were quizzed, almost told off and accused of lying. It was almost as if serving a $1.80 serving of bread would be a sackable offence, they were that defensive. We did end up recieving it, but were made to feel as if we were not telling the truth. We'll give the Boat House another try, hopefully it'll be a much...

I've never had to post a review as bad as this before

I rang to make a booking and was asked, sure, what time? When I asked for 12.45 or 1pm, I was told "sorry, only 12.30 or 1.30". I opted for 1.30. When we arrived at 1.15pm, I checked at the door whether we could enter the restaurant early and was told we could have a drink but not able to order until 1.30pm. I had my 91 year old mother with me, so wanted to ensure I could bring her in before I got her out of the car. The attitude of the staff wasn't very welcoming but we gave it a chance.

We sat at our table and ordered drinks. I was trying to obtain a menu and I could see the waitress was avoiding me. Eventually I approached the bar and was told "You can't order until 1.30 anyway" and I said "Well at least we could look at the menu". We eventually got the menu at 1.30pm and were ready to order within a minute or so. I was trying to get the waitstaff's attention to no avail. The waitress then said we couldn't yet order because the kitchen was backed up! It was now 1.35pm.

Someone approached our table and he looked like the manager. He asked what the problem was and I said we are trying to order. He told me off for bullying the staff and asked what we'd like.

I said to him, I don't think it's a good idea for us to stay here now and he said "Pay for the drinks on your way out" !!!

It's the first time I've had to leave a review like this but I couldn't believe how rude he was, but also how "put upon and unwelcoming" some of the waitstaff were. Perhaps it was a case of being overworked and bullied by managers! Anway, I feel sorry for them and hope they get better jobs in other...