The Boathouse — Restaurant in Wales

I have been to the boat many times in the past - the past was great good atmosphere great food and well catered for. However my recent trip was like something from Ramsey kitchen nightmare!! (Think season 1 episode 7)

Starter, pork bao buns - unexpectedly sweet sticky buns with a hard outer white sheet which had been microwaved leaving soft areas in places but the base was really hard and tough from the microwave. Sesame seeds on top did little to sway the appearance of what could have been a delicious starter as the pork was a orange colour that reminded me of diarrhoea... The pork itself was very fatty and was more fat and gristle than the quality pork you would expect at an establishment like the boat. The gristle in the pork actually chipped my front tooth when biting into the bun.

Calamari- frozen shop bought so it was very chewy.

Mains

Onion rings, frozen shop bought buy were actually the most edible thing we ordered. We got a very generous amount(20?) I was thankful we had so many as I had to eat them to settle my stomach from the main I ordered.

My all time favourite pub food is a steak and ale pie. The steak and ale pie (home made - but its a restaurant why specify this? Because most of the stuff was frozen?) with chips and peas. I recied an A5 sized portion of a pie it was a middle edge section meaning at least 6 one slices had come from this pie - that's fine not everywhere doe individual pies but that suggests 5 other people could have eaten this monstrosity of a pie. The pastry was sweet, like desert sweet and also undercooked with semi raw bits of pastry especially on the bottom, the top looked like it was only just starting to brown off. But the pie itself tasted sweet not like a steak and ale. We asked what ale was in the pie and got told a bitter beer (can't remember name) and I've had that beer before it is not sweet, it's in the name - bitter. So I decided to just eat the meat but there was still a funny taste like red wine; we think the gravy for the pie may have been made with mushrooms to get a rich sauce but no mention of this was on the menu or allergen list was on the menu. The gravy that came with it was already on the plate eveb when we wanted it separate and was so watery that there was no point to it. The chips were hard as if they had been cooked in an oven and reheated in a microwave like eating something crumbley rather than fluffy. The peas were so over cooked they turned into mush in your mouth.

Fish pie - if you like cheese and mash and don't like fish this is great as fish bits were smaller than a fingernail and was like a treasure hunt to find the pink bits of fish in the white of mash and cheese. The occasional prawn (3) were in the fish pie which perhaps should be renamed cheesey mash with sea food garnish.

The steak pie was so bad I was actually sick in the restaurant and was violently sick for the rest of the night. - we did get the pie comped but I haven't felt so sick after eating food ever before in my life I don't think, it really was a memorable experience. One that has clouded all my previous good experiences at this restaurant.

We did try to feed back to the maitre'd but he didn't seem interested in what was wrong with the food trying to leave before we were done explaining how the pie tasted funny ect. He just didn't care and said he would tell the chef. We saw the chef before we left looking uncovered and like he was fed up with his job. The chef had no passion for his career of creating quality and fresh food at this awesome location in a place with access to some of the best fresh ingredients around. His chef coat was completely clean and he was just milling around the front of house chatting to the maitre'd and waitstaff.

I used to love this restaurant and the great memories I had of it but one bad trip has ruined all of that. This place has gone down hill so...

We arrived, and were politely greeted by a waitress and showed to our table, which was lovely and looked over the coast.

Our drinks arrived promptly, we then ordered our food. The calamari, monk fish tacos, cauliflower bites and the scallop special.

The starters arrived and looked lovely. The waitress dumped them down and left. The wasabi mayo was not enough for calamari rings, so I was hoping the waitress would be back shortly with the small portion of muscles we had ordered to share.

The waitress came back after the rest of my party of four had finished their starters and I was down to one calamari ring so there was now no point ordering extra mayo. We asked where the muscles were as we asked for them to come with starter.

The waitress said that she thought we wanted them with our mains, we had specifically said with the starters please. She offered to bring them straight away which we agreed to.

Muscles came they were over cooked and rubbery and didn’t seem as if they’d been cooked in the sauce more topped with the sauce. Which lacked flavour.

It took a long time to clear starter plate and muscles plate. Once this was gone our mains arrived promptly. 3 prawn and crab linguine pastas and one chowder. All was hot and flavoured well.

We finished our mains and a good 20 minutes went by and our plates were still in front of us. We wanted dessert and had to eventually ask for the dessert menu.

We ordered the lemon roulade, cheesecake and chocolate fudge cake. We had specially asked if the chocolate cake was served hot, the waitress said yes.

The cheesecake and lemon roulade was lovely. The chocolate cake was cold and had a chemically taste.

We were hoping the waitress was going to return to check in on us so we could tell her the cake was warm and ask to have it warmed. But she didn’t.

20 minutes after the other guests had finished we had to ask for the bill and a card machine. Another 10 minutes after the bill arrived no card machine. So we got up to pay at the bar. We reported the issues with pudding and the general lack of service - the waitress blankly just said ‘oh okay sorry’.

We liked the Majority of the food and the rest of the issues could have been resolved if the waitress had looked after the table instead of chatting with her colleague at the bar.

Shame as in a nice spot and the majority of the...

I was really disappointed with this place.

The food was really not good;

To start I had the ‘duck pancakes’ - the duck, mixed with cooked onions and peppers came out in a little bowl which had clearly just been blasted in the microwave as it’s contents were hotter than the centre of the sun. This was served with 3 cold Chinese pancakes with rips in the centre so everything just fell out, and a green salad.

For my main I got the burger. The less said about this the better. I felt like Gordon Ramsay, opening the burger up and just thinking ‘what an earth is that?!’. I’d never seen ‘bacon stuffed cheese’ but I found it on this burger. The burger was also one of those patties which is a mix on mince meat and egg which I personally do not like but my disappointment was compounded by the fact it was also obviously defrosted. My girlfriend had the fried whitebait which were also defrosted and the smell was SO fishy. We both had chips which were unfortunately really disappointing - anaemic and damp but also the most palatable part of the meal (except the pint of kaltenberg) Forgot to mention the coleslaw which I can’t see how you could get it wrong but this chef found a way - I suspect he didn’t clean the cabbages as it was very bitter.

I was duped into visiting here because of the promise of views over a beautiful bay. There is a bay, and there are views, but not from anywhere in the restaurant as the parked cars in the car park block the view pretty much completely.

All in all it was an incredibly disappointing experience on our last night, but I’m not giving them 1 star because it’s the new year and I’m trying to be more positive - maybe they can have one for trying their...