Boatyard Launceston — Restaurant in Launceston

This was our first visit to Boatyard after walking past the restaurant many times. I've seen the amazing food photos come up on my Instagram feed quite often and since hubby's birthday was coming up, what better way to celebrate it than with some good tasty food.

There were quite a few items on the menu that we wanted, but we decided to restrain ourselves and settle for the Slow Cooked Beef Croquettes, Sauteed Tassie Salmon, Seared Tassie Scallops, Slow Cooked Chicken Breast and Slow Cooked Beef Cheek.

Everything looked and tasted amazing. Fresh, well seasoned and presented beautifully. Most of the dishes included some form of spice or chilli in them and I was worried that the heat would be too over bearing, but they were balanced perfectly in each dish.

My favourite would definitely be the Slow cooked chicken in chilli cream sauce, served with crispy potato and olive dust. I believe this is one of their newest items on their menu. I don't know how long this dish will be on their menu but I highly recommend ordering it next time you go. The Slow cooked beef cheek in red wine and tomato sauce with mashed potato was also a tasty dish. The beef was cooked to perfection. There was really nothing to fault.

The 3 share plates were also very satisfying. The beef croquettes were crispy on the outside with a nice fluffy mash on the inside, served with spicy mayo... which I preferred not to have.

The salmon dish would probably be my least favourite dish, purely because I prefer my salmon more on the raw side. The salmon was served on a bed of mashed potatoes and chilli oil, in little bit size pieces, which in turn can make them a little on the drier side.

The seared Tassie scallops were soooo tasty. I loved the combination of the scallops, buttery corn puree, Worcestershire sauce and crispy bacons bits. The scallops were cooked to perfection! My only fault with this dish is the size of the scallop pieces (5 tiny pieces), considering the price tag ($25). If you are hungry, I suggest to order something more substantial.

All in all, we thoroughly enjoyed our first experience, the staff were incredible and we look forward to coming back again soon....

Read the other reviews and don’t bother coming here.

I debated bothering with writing this review as it seems the responses to other reviews are being generated by AI and the advice from other patrons falling on empty ears.

I had high hopes for Boatyard when I went there - great spot and great set up.

The service while friendly was extremely disorganised. It didn’t appear anyone had sections and I had 4 different wait staff over the course of my time there and it was clear there was minimal communication between the staff. It was also clear that some of the staff didn’t understand their menu which could be remedied with a bit of training.

I am always happy to splash out a bit of extra money for some good food but it was the biggest let down. None of the seafood was fresh which was very obvious and also baffling to me considering how much amazing and fresh seafood Launceston has access to. None of the produce was fresh either which explained why the food lacked flavour. We’re in the peak of summer and there is an abundance of fresh, local produce around and this place opts for cheap, tasteless supermarket tomatoes? To charge the amount you do for cheap, tasteless ingredients is baffling to me.

This place has so much potential if they appoint a decent chef and fork out the tiniest bit more for good produce, and trains the staff on the menu and organises the waitstaff.

But currently, the food is bland and extremely disappointing, and not at all...

My husband and I were in the area looking for a place to eat. We saw that Boatyard Restaurant was open, we decided to give it a try. We walked in at 9:35 am, I asked the gentleman at the counter if they are open as it seemed we would be the first customers. He said they are open but fully booked for the day being Mother's Day, but will check his computer if there is a table available. We took the table that was available. Few minutes later, a staff came to our table to take our order; we said we wanted to have breakfast or brunch. The staff member (woman wearing glasses) said they don't serve brunch until 10:00 am but we can order coffee. Being our first time there and without a menu to look at, I asked what we can have with our coffee, in a rude tone she said - coffee. Reluctantly, we ordered coffee. However, moments later we decided to leave because of the rudeness from the said person. We went to the front counter to let them know we are leaving. The staff member behind the counter asked us what we would like to order; she'll check with the kitchen staff if they are able to make the food we like to order. Within 10 minutes (9:50 am), the food was served at our table. That was excellent customer service from the young lady/staff member. Thank you! The rest of the staff were very nice and pleasant except for the rude behavior from...