The BoatHouse — Restaurant in Wales

All the staff were very nice at the The Boat House. We booked for 8pm and the place was absolutely full with people queueing out the door. The first think that hit me was the booming music, so loud it was really difficult to have a conversation. Personally if I’m having a meal out with family, I want to be able to chat with them without shouting over the music! Music should be enhancing and not dominating!

The wi fi was absolutely hopeless! What is the point in offering customers wi fi access and the wi fi isn’t fit for purpose?

Having worked in the catering business for 10 years I was stunned by 8pm there was nothing available on their specials board! Peak season isn’t here yet, and the restaurant can’t get their menus organised properly. To me, it’s really shoddy organising either by the head Chef or management that on a Saturday evening they can’t offer 1 item from their specials board!

Their menus desperately need redesigning, they looked too well worn and out dated. Getting the menu to look appealing is all part of the basic marketing of the place. It just shouts that the management don’t really care what they are shoving under the public’s noses!

I had the linguine and king prawn. The portion size of Linguine was small, and you just get 3 king prawns for a dish costing £14-£15, that’s absolutely ridiculous mark up! The sauce couldn’t have been made by the chef but mass produce by a caterer company by the taste of it. It wasn’t nice, it tasted cheap and straight out of a jar. It had that artificial taste which I really loath. If management want to charge these sorts of prices they need to re look at their sauces, their portion sizes and offer more than 3 King prawns!!

I tried the white chocolate pavlova. I do appreciate these would be made by a catering company, and the desert was really nice except for the red sauce, which I couldn’t even identify? It was sweet, tasteless and quite revolting. Please sort out your sauces! You can’t just dish up to the public any old stuff and expect them to pay through the nose and say nothing about it. Has management/chef even tasted the sauce?

We were sat in the lower section in the corner. I was stunned to see a massive untreated stain on the seating area, which I had no option but to sit in, goodness knows what I was sitting in?? This is beyond shoddiness and it come down to basic hygiene standards which aren’t being met. How can staff and management not see a stain almost the size of a side plate/dinner plate and not treat it with fabric stain remover or replace the cushion seating?? The stain was dry so it must have been there some time left untreated.

I took my elderly mother to the bathroom, and as she held onto the handrail going up the small flight of stairs she was blasted with such loud music, there must be a loud speaker situated there. Please turn down the music or relocate that speaker, how was she supposed to be focusing on her mobility issues with that blaring at her?

The ladies toilets were fairly clean but not one staff member had bothered to check them out because there were paper hand towels coming out of the tall bin. I would be stunned if that bin had been emptied that day! Things like this is important for health and safety standards. It just takes 1 lady to slip and fall on a wet paper towel. My mother has had a stroke, the toilet area isn’t big, so having her unsteady with paper towels on the floor wasn’t idea at all. I shouldn’t have to be negotiating a lack of health and safety because none of the staff had a thought about emptying the bin. I saw no hourly toilet cleaning rota in the ladies toilets which is best practice.

Basically it’s highly over priced processed food which I was given, with an wi fi which isn’t fit for purpose, disgusting furnishings and ladies toilets which hadn’t been sorted out, with music blaring where people struggle to hold a conversation. I sat there, I watched other couples who were sat in silence because they too were struggling with the volume of the music.

I’m not repeating this...

We booked a table at The Boat House roughly 2 weeks before our visit. Upon arrival we unfortunately got into a debate with the front of house lady. The table we were given wasn't in the restaurant area we booked and instead was in the louder busier area at the front. I expressed this wasn't appropriate for my daughter and that the pram wouldn't fit near the table either. I was told that despite booking the restaurant area nothing is guaranteed. We were then offered a table in the restaurant but told we'd have to leave after 1 hour. I said that our ability to leave in 1 hour depends how quick their chefs can cook our food. The lady said she can't guarantee that either. I expressed that we were not going to leave halfway through a meal to which she told me we would have to. This circular debate continued until I realised reason was futile and just said we'd take the table knowing full well if we hadn't finished our meal we were not going to budge. It also makes no sense that our table location apparently "isn't guaranteed" (despite booking it) yet it seemingly was for the people they were going to kick us out for in an hours time. Long story short, this isn't how people should be greeted when entering The Boat House and really not a debate I want to have especially when I'm taking my disabled daughter with us. The food and drinks were nice, apart from a fly stuck to one glass and another glass that was chipped and had broken glass in the bottom that our friend had to pick out of her mouth causing her to cut her finger. So overall not really a great showing for the Boat House. I am a regular local and after that experience I'm not sure I'll be coming back or recommending the place to anyone. The Boat House need to sort out their staff and think about who they position at front of house representing the entire...

My partner and I came in looking for a table for food, they said they were fully booked inside but we could sit outside which we were okay with, but a little bit cold.

A big family then came in, without a booking also and we’re seated to a table. Shouldn’t tell one table no and another one yes just because it’s a bigger table.

We ordered drinks at the bar, a strawberry daiquiri and a Long Island.

When they arrived, it was a frozen strawberry daiquiri which wasn’t pointed out on the menu, I said this to the women, I tried it and didn’t like it, I asked to swap it and she said she would still have to charge me.

My partner had the Long Island, his favourite drink, and it tasted like the coke in the drink was just pure syrup no gas, it tasted awful.

I went up to the bar to ask for a refund and the women, when I said about the daiquiri, said that daiquiris are frozen, I’m a qualified bartender I know they aren’t, they are frozen on request, or it should say on the board, frozen strawberry daiquiri which I told one of the girls and she just said ‘should it’ in a rude manner.

When I asked for a refund on the other drink she said she could just top up the coke, but the coke was the problem in the first place, she was very reluctant to give a refund when we had barely touched the drinks and I had explained how bad they were. Ended up with a refund and didn’t have food, neither of the girls apologised once.

The staff here could do with some cocktail training being a cocktail bar, and definitely some training in manners and how to talk to customers.

Used to be one of my favourite places in saundersfoot and now I won’t be going again, appalling...