The Boatshed Restaurant — Restaurant in Scotland

After looking for seafood restaurants on the Isle of Lewis, the Boatshed was one of the three restaurants we wanted to try. It happened to be the only one with tables available for the next day (a random Wednesday). Although within 36h slots went from almost all times available to fully booked. Everyone who came in during our visit who hadn’t booked, was turned away.

Upon arrival we were seated quickly. The restaurant is lovely and the lighting is perfect. They have a standard menu and specials menu, although the specials are not rotating daily, as we were informed that the calamari listed, haven’t been caught in a while and therefore unavailable.

We got mussels and langoustines as our starters, the mussels were a huge portion, suitable as a main, the langoustines came as a set of 3. They had to be cracked by hand, but tools are provided and the staff are happy to advise you. We definitely recommend trying the meat in the claws as well. It was overall very delicious.

For our main we chose monkfish and scallops. The portion was generous, which is greatly appreciated for the price. The fish and the scallops were seared to perfection. The scallops were massive and so fresh that you could eat both parts, not just the usual meat section. The greens were juicy and the carrots sweet. We happily demolished everything.

Even though we were rather full from the feast that was our starters and mains, we were tempted to share the chocolate fudge cake. It was perfectly moist and neither too sweet nor bland, which most chocolate fudge cakes tend to be. It was a proper indulgence.

Overall fresh, delicious seafood and great desserts. Rather pricey but good value for your money. Portions are massive and they could benefit from a downsizing. A neighbouring table complained about the massive portions. We would have loved to try another dessert but that would have been too much.

We hope to return eventually, although this visit was towards the end of our stay on the...

Staff were absolutely fab, before I say anything else. But, unfortunately I was extremely disappointed with my dinner. I regularly eat from the boatshed without any complaints but I was extremely disappointed with my meal this time round. Our starters were great, langoustines were great as per usual but very very little meat. Venison soup was absolutely fantastic! Unfortunately the main was poor. We ordered sirloin steak and feather blade beef. Sirloin was very tough, with the only option of gravy, not peppercorn sauce. It was a very average steak but for the price very very poor (£32). The feather blade beef was very tender but very bland, no flavour. Not many vegetables on the plate and bland mash potatoes. Our pudding was unfortunately the worse of all. We both order a white chocolate and raspberry cheesecake and I first noticed the puddle of water that surrounded the crumb base. The cheese part of the cake was warm and felt almost curdled. No flavour, no chocolate taste at all. The plate was also warm and the cheesecake felt very warm. Unfortunately I feel the cheesecake was defrosted as it also came very very quickly (5mins). Our bill came to a total of £135 which i felt was totally overpriced! As for our drinks aswell, our strawberry daiquiri was just a glass of ice. I am so disappointed as I do love the boatshed very much but I was not impressed in the slightest, as it’s definitely overpriced! Great service but...

I'll start by saying we absolutely loved stornoway, it's truly amazing. We booked this restaurant as our holiday was coming to an end. My wife was desperate to try the seafood and was keen as were our travelling partners. After much debate my wife's cousin had paid for the meal and we all proceeded to leave. As I was viewing the local properties in a nearby estate agency, I could see the waiter running towards me? I had assumed one of us had forgotten an item of clothing but to my surprise he had questioned if we'd paid the bill? I was taken aback and replied of course, I even paid the tip to the manager. So I decided to go back in with him. I could see that there was some miscommunication and gave me a fairly vague excuse as to why the waiter didn't know what was happening. It was such a disappointment end to our holiday. The meal for 6 people wasn't cheap, and to think we would have skipped out on the meal was utterly ridiculous. The food was average and quite frankly overpriced considering the quality served. Not much more to say. This is my first negative review, but quite...