The Boathouse — Restaurant in London

Entered the pub and two waitresses were behind the bar, either of them looked at us. I approached one of them , she was working on a laptop. Asked if we could have lunch, she said yes you can sit anywhere. She looked bored and grumpy. We went upstairs and waited for someone for some time as we needed a high chair for my daughter.

No one showed up so we endedup lookong for highchair and getting one ourselves. I then went downstairs and asked to order and I was told no table service. Fine, I ordered a 3 course lunch off a la carte and spent over £100.

Starters arrived and once we finished eating the staff seems to had forgotten we were even there. We waited and could see our main courses under the pass , no one seemed to be in the kitchen either. Eventually we ended up taking the plates from under the pass and basically serve ourselves. The waitress showed up at that point and looked very pissed off. I even apologise to her and said we didn't want our meat to get hard under the pass. She said "OK that's fine and sorry " and she left. She didn't clear the starters plates from our table. We stack them up on the side. Our mains finished and a guy showed up and finally cleaned the table. Desserts were served and we left. No one say bye , the bar was empty. The guy then called us while we were outside to tell us we forgot to pay for 1 coca cola which we paid immediately.

Only 2 tables were occupied at that time so I guess not very busy. There wasn't any manager on site , no one cared or showed the bare minimum hospitality. Not a smile not a thank you or how was your meal.

The service was appalling and I wasn't even given a check. Im sure ive been charged tips for a dreadful experience.

Your 2 waitresses are bordeline rude and have no experience in the job. For an empty pub to bill £100 on a dead January Wednesday afternoon should be a good thing considering the crisis in the industry but it felt like your staff had enough of being there and care...

Thank you for asking how my visit to The Boathouse was... Honestly...? Probably my worst visit of eating-out this year. Our table was booked for 1.15pm and although the restaurant upstairs was not at all busy, which was a little strange as unsurprisingly for the weekend before Christmas, Putney High Street was heaving - it did take a while to be seated. We ordered our first round of drinks, plus some tap water and our Sunday lunches (a special event for my daughter's birthday) - two of the lunches were the 28day matured beef option. When the water arrived, we had to ask for clean glasses as the ones served were disgraceful. Then, when the meals arrived, they weren't overly warm, especially the Yorkshires but the presentation was so lacking. Worst of all the beef, which should've been wonderfully 'melt in the mouth' was impossible to cut, and once that had been accomplished, was actually inedible; chewy, sinewy, thoroughly disappointing. However, having ordered our four meals, because they didn't appear terribly quickly (not really a problem as they were being freshly prepared - weren't they) we ordered a second round of drinks. We waited for them to arrive and asked again where they were. After another wait, we repeated our request for our second round of drinks - and eventually they arrived a just shy of 30minutes after they were first ordered. By this time, we were losing heart that this might be a special lunch and just accepted that it might be better to finish-up and go. My daughter went to use the ladies toilet only to find there was no toilet paper in any of the cubicles - and had to come and ask her mother for some tissues. I hope now you understand quite why this was one of the worst experiences of lunchtime dining I've encountered in recent times. My daughter lives in Putney so we visit her often, however we won't be visiting The...

Ate here 3 years ago on two occasions and both times were excellent...in reference to the upstairs restaurant which is the same kitchen as the pub downstairs. Came back 6 months ago and it was one of the worst meals had in awhile. My partner had the scallops with what can only be described as a coffee-flavoured jelly. She could not eat it...and she loves both scallops and coffee! The combination is actually worse than it sounds. It just doesn’t go. The chef thinks he is Blumenthal. I had the pan-fried sole which was not cooked properly and was soaked in some sickly cream sauce. Again, I could not eat it. The combination just didn’t work. When we told the waiter he offered us something else but by then we had lost our appetite. We decided to share some type of waned cheese...an English “Camembert” with a type of “jam”. It was also disgusting but we ate some of it with copious quantities of bread to “wash” the taste out of our mouth. The waiter was polite and apologised and then explained that they had a new chef. They politely didn’t charge us for anything...which was fair. They then took our e-mail addresses to invite us to a new “tasting” menu evening as an opportunity to give feedback. Neither of us have ever received any contact. The pub/restaurant benefits from being adjacent to the Thames in a nice little square. The building and decor are actually quite nice and welcoming. The restaurant holds pride of place with its outdoor veranda and great views overlooking the square and the Thames...really nice in the summer. It’s a shame they are not putting much effort into the food otherwise this could be an amazing experience. They should still to the classics and do them really well instead of experimenting with ridiculous combinations...