Boathouse Eatery — Restaurant in Midland

On July 31, our family have visited the Boathouse Eatery. It started a bit weird, with the hostess claiming that the only seats available on the patio were right next to the live band, and it's going to be very loud. We agreed to be seated inside, which was dark and had almost no people as pretty much everyone was seated on the patio outside. We stayed there for a while but before they brought the food and after we spilled some water, we asked our waiter to have us re-seated on the patio. This is where our troubles started. The waiter hesitantly said OK, motioned us to the patio, but did not follow us and went to talk to other customers instead. We were basically left to fend for ourselves. We came onto the patio and saw a number of available tables, to our surprise not just in front of the band, who weren't even that loud. Was the greeting hostess trying to fill the seats inside? We asked for permission and sat at one of the tables, but no one seemed to have "claimed" us, and our waiter was nowhere to be found, as it probably was not his "territory". Still, the ordered food came, and we asked for some water and utensils, since up to this point we did not even have forks at the new table. One of the girls brought the utensils, but not water as it probably was not her responsibility. After some time, I went to some idling waitresses and asked for the water again. This was within an earshot of a waiter passing by with the drinks. Instead of offering to bring us the water in a minute, he started lecturing me on why we did not have water (because we changed seats!) in the most aggressive manner. He was an older (compared to other very young staff) tall slim dude, maybe early 30s, in sunglasses, with 3-day stubble facial hair and a beige-orange fanny pack. We have never been treated in a restaurant this badly as by this gentleman, and with table manners like that, I'm surprised he is still employed by this establishment. Eventually, somebody (not him) did bring us water. No condiment pack was ever brought to our table, so we had to scavenge for some ketchup from the table vacated by other customers. Only after some time, the original waiter finally showed up, probably having negotiated a deal to still look after us and collect the tips, even if on the patio. He asked how we were, and went on his merry way. So while the burgers were fine, this joke of a restaurant cannot handle any slightly non-standard situation, even as trivial as changing tables, even with the staff nearly outnumbering the customers. And they employ the most obnoxious condescending waiter I have ever...

We went with our daughter and son in law to celebrate my hubby's bday. We felt good, plexi glass has been installed between the booths. A lot of space between booth and bar area. Space felt safe. We had been there in the past, this was the first in a few years. They may have done more interior changes, but it also may just be the relocating of tables. Very nice space.

Our menu choices were: Chicken guac on a bun with sweet potato fries. She said it was good, but she felt she got the short straw tonight. It was just alright.

Burger topped with pulled pork. One of the tallest burgers I've ever seen! He said it was great.

Hubby had chicken parm entree. He said it was absolutely delicious. The noodles were very wide and hard to manage, but delicious. Nice shreeded parm on top.

I hit the jackpot with the brisket entree. A very generous portion of brisket, great scalloped potatoes with possibly bacon in them and awesome veggies (not the frozen soggy usual veggies) and a delicious gravy. The brisket was perfectly salty.. simply delicious. I could not finish mine, but hubby certainly polished off what I could not finish. He said next time he would be ordering the brisket or maybe the short ribs, if they can do brisket like that, the short ribs would be awesome too!

Portions were all very generous. I believe mine was $29 and his was $26

Our waitress was great. She messed up our bills a bit, not in the amount but by giving and charging us each other's bills... she noticed it when she went to do the second bill... she had to go get help to fix it up.. but it really did not bother us at all.. and she appologized many times.

Hubby was offered a free dessert because it was his bday.. none of us could eat it, so she offered...

I took my lady to this restaurant to celebrate our anniversary and so we drove 45 minutes to get there for our dinner reservation. I had booked a table with a water view thinking this would be really nice. When we were ushered in to our table, the room was lit up like as if there were halogen lamps meant for a renovation. Not very romantic and I requested a different table. We eventually placed our orders, chicken caesar salad for my partner and I chose the slow cooked beef short ribs. Started to eat and the chicken was barely warm and very dry! The "mashed" potatoes were no where near what one would describe them as mashed. They were pureed and had a yellowish colour. The vegetables consisted of 3 scrawny, shriveled carrots and 3 broccoli sticks! The evening was totally disappointing and underwhelming. During the course of our dinner, the waitress came up to us and asked how was everything and without hesitation, I mentioned to the waitress my opinion on the quality of the food, especially the chicken and she said that it was out of her control, which of course is understandable as she is simply delivering the food. Went to pay and she mentioned that she removed the cost of the salad, which again, at $18.00 was totally not worth it as was the cost of $30.00 for my meal. The decaf coffee that we had was also lukewarm and horrible tasting and I asked her how long was it sitting there for, to which she replied, 2 hours. I don't recall the last time I was ever this disappointed, but clearly the food was sub-standard and over-priced. Having read some of the reviews, its clear that this establishment is geared for burgers and fries only. Will...