The Boathouse Restaurant & Shop — Restaurant in Scotland

I've reached a surprisingly 'middle' age to writing about my first ever 'afternoon tea', but that I guess is of my own doing.

Maybe I didn't really understand what it offered - I learned yesterday that I had been missing out and have been denying myself a number of culinary adventures. For that I feel somewhat silly.

So, if you are going to have your first experience whilst enjoying your 5th decade of living, then you'd better make it a good one. So I did.

The Boathouse Restaurant is a wonderfully located, picturesque and brilliantly staffed eatery. But what good would all that be if the food served didn't live up to the billing? Well fear not, despite everything else being excellent, the food surpassed it all and more than surpassed my expectations. It was simply sublime.

I was with my partner, on her birthday and had just visited Caerlaverock Castle, which itself was great. Afternoon tree was an event as challenging as raising the ramparts. The choice, the quality, the food, the taste...I could go on - and indeed I did, right until the end.

We met the owner (Denise) who asked where we'd heard they did Afternoon tea. We received apologies for the fact that it wasn't served on the traditional tiered cake stands. That last fact was aesthetic only, and I like food to eat, not just look at.

The tea, red box was delicious and plentiful. The sandwiches diverse and delectable. A dressed salad was much more than garnish. There were warm elements too, a quiche (which I'm not too proud to admit I liked) and the best sausage roll I have eaten ever.

The deserts had a lot to live up to, and they certainly did that. Bakewell, cupcake, mini macaron, lemon curd mini tart and of course, a scone - even I knew they were involved.

I had two problems with the experience. Firstly there was a lot to eat, I easily got over that no problem. The biggest problem though was where the heck to start and how to finish. The choices were that good.

Service was fabulous, the environment felt safe and spacious, the location was first class, but again all that matters not one jot if you get bad food. We didn't. Nothing went back, maybe a solitary crust, and some stuff had to come home for supper.

If you are anywhere near the Boathouse, please go and support their great business, you'll be more than delighted you did. And, if you don't live that near, make it a part of a trip, but remember to do all the walking before you eat, otherwise you might just be a little too full.

Highly recommended and we...

I visited this establishment with my father on a quiet Saturday morning at around 1030am. The place was empty, save for a party of six who were already being attended to. Point to note: my father is 82 years-old, disabled, walks with a stick, and loses his breath very easily. Having negotiated the long slope up from the disabled parking bay, he was understandably quite keen to get a seat as soon as possible. On arrival we were greeted by a waitress who told us to wait before being seated - an odd request given the place was 80% empty, but we nonetheless complied. A period of time elapsed and - after watching aforementioned waitress walk past us again on several occasions - my increasingly out-of-breath father took it upon himself to sit down at a table. In an instant, a second waitress appeared, reminding us not to allocate ourselves a berth without authorisation. I explained to her that my father was disabled and needed to sit down as soon as possible. She did not respond and left the scene. She reappeared a few moments later, informing us that the table my father was sitting at was reserved - again, quite a surprise given that no 'reserved' signs appeared to be visible. He would now have to get up again and move to another empty table before being served. Again, we duly complied, although at this point I was becoming concerned with both my father's physical health and the complete lack of basic hospitality being shown towards us both. After a quick discussion with my father at our new table, we both concluded that it would be best to leave the establishment without ordering. On leaving, one of the waitresses remarked "come again soon". I assured her that this...

Decent food but terrible service. First impression; we mistakenly went through the back door as we had wheeled our bike to the grass area, to be told quite rudely "the front doors over there" and asked if we had a reservation. We did not, we were passing through. We were told it was fully booked, despite the restaurant appearing pretty quiet. We were told we could get takeaway food and drinks which was fine with us, but we weren't offered to wait for a table to come free. While waiting for 2 breakfast rolls and 2 coffees which took around 30 minutes, we witnessed several walk-ins with no reservation who were offered a table in a very polite and accommodating manner. A very different welcome to the thorny one we received. A very dissapointig representation of your business from FOH staff. It could have been handled so differently, for example "oh sorry guys we're fully booked today, would you like to wait for a table or we can offer takeaway?" And also having the decency to check with us first before offering later arrivals the tables that have since freed up. Just weird, frosty and hostile attitude, the only reason I can think for this is because we were in lycra and the staff are in some way...