Boat House — Restaurant in England

2/5 — Disappointing Experience Given the Price and Expectations

We recently visited The Boathouse in Daventry with high expectations for a relaxing and enjoyable meal. Unfortunately, the experience fell short on multiple fronts — from service delays to food presentation and poor handling of feedback.

Service: From the outset, the service was noticeably slow. Despite a relatively calm atmosphere with hardly any people in the restaurant, it took an unusually long time for our food to arrive. Even after reminding the staff, there was no urgency or apology. The inattentiveness set the tone for what followed.

Starters: We ordered the Garlic & Cheddar Baked Mushrooms and Crispy BBQ Cauliflower Wings. The wings were served in the tiniest bowl imaginable, making them awkward to eat. Presentation aside, they were average in flavour and lacked the crispiness expected. More seriously, the baked mushrooms — ordered specifically as a vegetarian dish — came topped with bacon. When flagged, the staff simply took the dish away and returned it with the bacon removed, which does not eliminate the bacon grease already absorbed into the dish. This handling of dietary preferences was careless and quite concerning.

Mains: The Halloumi & Red Pepper Signature Flatbread came soggy, with all ingredients layered directly on the bread. While the flavours were acceptable, the dish was nearly impossible to eat neatly. A better approach would be to serve the grilled components separately, allowing diners to assemble the flatbread themselves. The Beetroot Sweet Potato Burger was passable, though nothing memorable — especially given the premium pricing.

Desserts: The most disappointing course was dessert. We ordered the Melting Chocolate Dome, described as a rich chocolate brownie and salted caramel ice cream under a chocolate shell, melted tableside with hot miso caramel sauce. Sadly, the dome didn’t melt as advertised, and the combination of ice cream and caramel sauce made it overwhelmingly sweet. We returned the dessert uneaten, providing honest feedback and expecting it might be taken off the bill as a gesture of goodwill. Instead, the staff replied with a curt “it is what it is” and charged us anyway — a frustrating end to a disappointing meal. The Vanilla Cheesecake was decent, though by this point our expectations had already dropped.

Overall: For a restaurant positioned at the mid-to-premium price point (££), the experience felt unworthy of the cost. Between the lacklustre food, dietary oversight, and indifferent service, it’s unlikely we will return or recommend The Boathouse in Daventry. There are far better options nearby with more care toward customer experience and...

We had Christmas dinner here today. We aren't from the area, and are staying in an Air BnB nearby for the week, so we didn't know much about the pub. It was ok...I mean I'd describe it as a bit 'meh'. We stood for over 5 mins at the entrance for someone to spot us and seat us, then we waited ages at the bar to be served as our table wasn't ready. Not the bartenders fault, they're offering a lot of cocktails and not staffing it sufficiently to make them quickly.

Starters came almost immediately once we were seated, pate was nice but the bread was so stale it was like a biscuit. Obviously been sliced/ toasted way before serving and it was inedible. Took a long time to get fresh bread to us- it should all be fresh to be honest. The lady serving at the carvery was so lovely. Our interaction with her really elevated our experience. Turkey was lovely, not dry, same with the beef. Yorkshires, were good, carrots delicious, bacon on pigs in blankets was like leather, cauliflower cheese needed more cheese, roast potatoes were not crispy, more hard. Christmas pudding was a bit odd- had a questionable sauce in there with the ice cream- was it icing? Chocolate trio- brownie was gritty but tasted good, ice cream was lovely, mousse lost all of its integrity and looked like someone had planted a fake turd on the plate. It wasn't the worst in the world but some disappointments, parts were great Was it worth 75 quid a head? Absolutely not. We don't pay much more for Christmas dinner at higher end gastropubs in Birmingham and they are always really impressive and innovative. I'm sure it's a lovely pub for a weekend lunch or drinks,...

When we were seated the waitress told us someone would be over to take a drinks order. This never happened, my partner went to the bar to get drinks after about 20 minutes. I had to ask a waitress to come and take a food order. She did say that they were short staffed but wasn't exactly professional in doing so. I understand it's a stressful situation for the team if you are short staffed but working in hospitality generally means you should be hospitable. She did warn us that the food might be a while, and it was. We sat down at 6:30 and finally got food just before 8pm. The food was pretty mediocre. We sat with our dirty plates in front of us for 20 minutes before giving up and going to pay at the bar. We had originally wanted desserts but no one seemed interested in giving us any service so we left it. The bar tender was really friendly but by this point we probably weren't the most receptive to it. There was also no soap in the ladies toilet and no toilet paper in half of the cubicles. We went to this restaurant because we received a voucher for it, I can't understand why you would promote yourselves as a business if you can't handle the customers when they come. It's worth noting that it wasn't...