The Old Boatyard Restaurant — Restaurant in Scotland

Well done Master Chef !

As you will see from the photographs I posted, I had a great experience dining at The Old Boatyard Restaurant Arbroath.

From the time we arrived until we left all members of staff at the restaurant were very attentive. At all times great attentiveness was shown to each customer present in the restaurant and every couple or family group was very promptly shown to their reserved table.

As we are still in the SARS COV-2 pandemic times, we noticed everybody in the restaurant was respecting social distancing and there was a one way flow (entering the Restaurant, and existing on a different area)

We noticed that the management at The Old Boatyard Restaurant have placed in the lobby area a nice wash/ sanitizer with a pleasant fragrance for the people to sanitise hands before entering the Restaurant. There was also a permanent staff who would ensure the table was cleaned and sanitised straight away after customers left.

We ordered mains: sea-bass and fillet of monkfish ( please have a look at the photo of menu attached to this review for more details). Without exaggerating, our order for drinks was taken straight away and drinks were brought in a couple of minutes, for our mains it took about 10 minutes. The food was very fresh, delicious & tasty, thoroughly cooked and very filling. We had two member of staff who were "keeping an eye" on us and ensuring that we were happy with everything.

When one of the waitresses came to take out plates away after mains, and she asked "how was everything", I told her that "I wish I could take the chef with me at home". The chef at the Old Boatyard Restaurant is a Master Chef one!

Our desserts: sticky toffee pudding with caramel sauce and coffee ice-cream. Very, very delicious. I wouldn't change my choice of desert....

It is first time when I dine @this restaurant but for sure it will not be the last time! Before booking I had a quick look in Google for some reviews about this restaurant.

Trust me, The Old Boatyard Restaurant Arbroath is a 5* Restaurant! Fresh food, prompt and courteous service and nice ambience! And who doesn't love fish? And who doesn't love a special dinner cooked to perfection??

Book The Old Boatyard Restaurant and you will not be...

Awful!!!. A close friend visiting from England loves seafood and I thought a trip to The Boathouse in Arbroath, on the coast, would make a pleasant day out, with the highlight being a good lunch. I'd eaten here before and found the food to be acceptable and decently priced. I chose a dish from the set lunch menu, which I'd eaten and enjoyed on a previous visit, for my main ( Hake served on a bed of Lemongrass scented Risotto ). For a starter I selected Arbroath Smokie Chowder. I presumed this would be similar to a New England Clam Chowder or our own Cullen Skink. How wrong could I be! What was served was a generous bowl of thin watery stock, lacking in substance, apart from a few uniformly cubed, undercooked pieces of carrot and potato, which looked like they'd come straight from a catering bag of frozen veg, and minus much evidence of any fish. Inedible! I complained politely to our charmless waitress, who said she'd report the matter to the kitchen. She returned quickly, not to inform me of any apology or reparation, but to reveal the the Hake was no longer an option but I could have Cod with the Risotto instead. Hungry by this point, I agreed. My dining partner was equally unimpressed with her starter which bore little resemblance to the illustration on the menu, but succeeded in choosing a reasonable Blackened Salmon Caesar Salad for her main. I, unfortunately, was served a bowl of sloppy over cooked rice floating in too great a quantity of oddly flavoured sauce, containing unidentifiable morsels of vegetation; set, forlornly, in the middle of which was a tired looking lump of Cod. The poor fish had died in vain. The woolly texture spoke of inexperienced treatment in the cooking process. Sadly, the management charged my companion full price, denied there was anything wrong with the meal or the skill of his chef, despite our polite protestations to the contrary. The service was mediocre, the atmosphere was chilly owing to a malfunctioning air conditioning system, but both pale into insignificance compared to the obdurate and recalcitrant attitude of the manager. We shall not trouble him with our...

This is one of those situations wherein regardless of how good the food, if the service is bad, it still leaves a bad taste in your mouth.

We went to this restaurant for a late lunch. It was relatively busy. All the staff were busy. Very much understandable. But the manager (I assumed he was the manager as he was dressed differently than the rest of the staff), he made it sure everyone knows that he's busy. He was dragging chairs all over the place, walking really fast (and we were seated in the middle of the restaurant - don't understand why he put us there seeing that there were other seats by the window or in the corner), talking loudly, etc. We felt that he had to let everyone know that they were busy. We get it. There's a lot of people around but you need not act manic.

When he eventually took our order, he was halfway gone even before we could finish ordering the drinks - had to shout our order. When the food finally arrived, he forgot to give us utensils. Again, understandable in normal circumstance, but then getting his attention was really hard so we had to sit there and pray that some angels would whisper on his ears that table 9 are missing their utensils.

The whole thing was just bizarre... he made it so!

Would have given 1 star but the food was alright (nothing spectacular) so I've added...