Bosun's Restaurant — Restaurant in Bishopthorpe

We went for Sunday lunch as a farewell meal for my mum. We were greeted warmly, and seated at a decent table with plenty of space around us. Ordered drinks and our meal from the Sunday menu (2 courses for £26 or 3 courses for £32) We ordered 2x Prawn cocktails and 1x chicken liver pate, the Prawn cocktails were delivered in Martini glasses (see pictures) and they didn’t have a plate under them, 1. To put lemon on after squeezing it, and 2. To catch any spillage when eating (which is inevitable due to the glass) The Marie Rose sauce was slightly thin and thus ended up in the bottom of the glass and when you dug down to get some on the forkful you were going to eat this resulted in the spillage I was on about earlier! The pickled cucumber strip in the cocktail teas so strong that it overpowered the prawns (which were small and minimal) the Chicken liver pate was nice but there was too much pate for the thin toasted sourdough pieces that came with it. These were £6 (seen the price on the bill breakdown at the end of the meal. The mains considering they were £20, were disappointing!. All 3 of our Yorkshire puddings were overdone and slightly burnt around the top (see attached pictures) the Beef and Ham were delicious but the pork had lots of fat around the slices and the crackling was only partially crispy. The side dishes were nice enough but the cauliflower in the cauliflower cheese was undercooked.

The service was good and the waitresses were pleasant but only paid lip service when we commented on the issues with the starters.

Overall an underwhelming experience for a farewell meal after my mums visit.

Overpriced and under delivered, which is a shame as we’d been before and had a...

Extremely disappointing. First of all let me say, I never write reviews on meals out, but the food was so underwhelming for the price in this case I made an exception. As a family who eats out regularly from fine dining to pub grub, this was one of the most overpriced meals in terms of quality per £ spent we've experienced for a long time. I have to say the service and environment was great. The food however was not. We went as a family of four for a 50th birthday dinner and our bill was £250 with 2 rounds of drinks. First of all, it was one of the most basic menus I've seen in a long while, for a place that calls itself a restaurant. Pub style dishes and limited to a few choices. Burger, 3 x steak options, a pork dish a fish dish and I think 3 x vegan or veggie choices, so much so that we all went for steak in the mains because it was so limited. £28 Sirloins and they were chewy as hell, ordered medium rare and they were close to blue. Honestly I've bought better cuts of beef at Aldi. Everyone can get a bad one in a group of four once in a while but we were all frantically chewing just to get through them. Mine had so much fat and sinew I couldn't even cut through 1/3 of it, let alone eat it. The pepper sauce at an additional £4 per steak was watery. On starters two of us had salt n pepper squid (cant mess that up), two had duck and the duck was a dry as a bone. The deserts were great. I'm not the type who complains on the night because it just makes a bad meal worse and sours the evening even more. I pay my bill smile and leave. I just don't go there again and this is definitely a place that's on...

Ah, Bosun's! That charming riverside retreat adjacent to the River Ouse where food usually delights and the atmosphere is always great. I've enjoyed around ten successful and enjoyable outings here and have even been cheeky enough to recommend it to friends (though not too many; we don't want it getting too popular, do we?).

Unfortunately, my latest experience here was less 'cruise on the Riviera' and more 'Titanic post-iceberg'. Chaos reigned supreme amongst the staff, and my heart went out to the two young lads desperately trying to steer the ship through rough waters. The menu was a litany of 'not available today' items—no eggs, no toasted bread, and an assortment of other culinary casualties.

While the hot dogs we ordered were decent, I have to lament the £6.50 Bookers burger (yep, Bookers, as loudly announced by the staff dashing off for emergency stock). My patty was overcooked, the bun dry, and a measly slice of cheese tried, but failed, to lift the ensemble. Most definitely not good food that we come to expect of Bosun’s.

Then there was the ice cream fiasco—just two semi-melted flavours on offer, with the staff having to dash yet again to Bookers to restock the so-called 'premium Yorkshire dairy ice cream'. All this shouting and to-ing and fro-ing disrupted the normally tranquil atmosphere and felt decidedly unprofessional.

Bosun's, I hope this was just an off-day or a temporary change in management, because the place is generally a gem. However, this last visit was definitely more shipwreck than luxury cruise. Here's hoping for calmer waters on...