The Boathouse Rose Bay — Restaurant in Sydney

What a lovely waterside lunch on a sunny day! Read on for my adventure with potato scallop, seagulls, and fresh seafood!

First, a defining characteristic of the outside dining area seems to be the presence of seagulls. Watch out for the seagulls! Hint: they have a seagull spray that you can use! These are the most aggressive seagulls I’ve ever seen in my entire life, and I’ve eaten at a lot of beachside places. But don’t let that dull your experience here! Once you squirt them with the seagull-water-bottle-spray, they will go away. They also have woven-domes to put over your food if you need to go to the bathroom or leave your table with exposed food.

It’s a fairly large menu. They only serve breakfast until 11. But the lunch menu has a lot of fresh seafood on it as well as other offerings such as a vegan bowl. Our companions said that the vegan bowl was excellent. I ordered fresh shrimp, and it was very good. The only mistake I made was that I ordered the potato scallop. In the United States, potato scallops are potatoes that are smothered in cream and cheese and cooked. A little bit of the cheese is crunchy on top. Delightful!!! Cheesy goodness. Not so here. These “potato scallop” were literally potatoes that had been fried…Flat. I guess I would call these “potato pancakes” in the United States? That’s my fault for not knowing what they were! They were fairly hard and crunchy, so I tried a few, but they were not to my fancy. Perhaps this is what potato scallop are supposed to look like? Who knows? Well, I suppose the Australians know… but it’s not what I had in mind. This could be the best potato scallop that I’ve ever had; I’ve just never had an Australian potato scallop! They also had burgers and some other non-seafood options. Overall, a nice selection with something for everyone. Our companions said they really enjoyed the Caesar.

Rose Bay is easy to get to by ferry. We just took the ferry from Sydney and hopped off and walked a short 10 minutes to the restaurant. We were meeting some people from the office. We have offices in a lot of other countries and we have not met the Australian people, face-to-face, for years. It was wonderful to be visiting from the states and to have them pick out this delightful place.

We all had limoncello spritzes. We introduced the Australian office to them, and they were enchanted. The sparkle of the limoncello spritz on the water was rather perfect.

The atmosphere of the restaurant reminds me of one of those classic New England seafood restaurants that’s been around 100 years and will continue to be around 100 more. It’s got that great life-vibe, like it was built into the community. It really seems to fit.

A very pleasant way to spend...

I recently had a very poor experience at the boathouse in Rosebay. I had ordered eggs on toast which came with a serving of avocado and goats cheese and ordered a side of bacon. I had expressly ordered the eggs be hard-boiled. After more than 25 minutes of waiting for the order the dish arrived and the eggs were runny. I went up to customer service and in the meantime a seagull had swooped in and taken bacon and other food off the plate. The staff were happy to remake the dish and acknowledged that they hadn’t correctly advised the kitchen that I’d ordered hard-boiled eggs. I noticed that there was one person in the kitchen cooking and the venue had more than 40 people there for breakfast and it seems that meals were coming out slowly and there wasn’t enough staff to cater for the demand of a busy morning breakfast weekend schedule. Due to the delays I told them I was happy to just get a refund but they insisted on remaking the meal. Another 20 minutes or so later the dish arrives and the eggs are hard-boiled. However there’s no avocado on the plate and I received a tiny portion of bacon which was an off-cut, barely a full piece of bacon, cold and hard and burnt. I told the staff that the avocado was missing and they took the plate and came back and I’d received only a quarter piece of avocado for the whole dish. Originally I had received more than half an avocado the first time the dish arrived. I didn’t have the energy to say anything further so finished the meal, but was quite unhappy with the portions given that I had paid $35 for essentially two eggs on one piece of toast with scraps for a side of bacon (which was $6), and a quarter piece of avocado with one single smear of goats cheese on the single piece of bread. Eggs on toast is an uncomplicated order and I would expect from a venue like this and the prices that they charge that a meal of this nature could be prepared and delivered without any hiccups and to a reasonable standard of quality. Further they insist that you order via the QR codes on the tables yet the QR codes were not working when we were there and we had to wait up and lineup to order food directly from the staff. The kitchen staff looked unenthused and the single chef that was cooking did not seem to have the energy to be there which can only be reflected by the food that is prepared. I will comfortably not be returning to this particular venue for breakfast as there are plenty of venues in Sydney that offer a meal like that to much higher standards for less...

Unfortunately, our experience was disappointing due to the attitude of the floor manager from the moment we walked in. This was suppose to be a specials birthday occasion.

She was dismissive and unprofessional, making us feel unwelcome. We had a booking at 11:30 AM, and while taking some photos at the entrance (as the location is beautiful), she approached us at 11:45 AM, visibly annoyed, and told us that our table was only available until 2 PM. so we “better start ordering.” The timing wasn’t an issue for us, but the way she rushed us and her rude tone were completely unnecessary.

After our lovely lunch, she returned to our table at 1:40 PM with a firm, unfriendly tone, telling us we had to place our final orders because we must leave in 10 minutes. We were shocked by her attitude and did not want to interact with her any further.

Thankfully, another staff member—who was actually kind and professional—approached us and offered to move us to a free table so we could enjoy our dessert and drinks without pressure. Later, another manager came over to apologize for her behavior, which we appreciated.

However, we are still shocked that someone in a leadership role, especially in hospitality, could be so unprofessional. Hopefully, this issue is addressed so future guests receive the welcoming service...