Boathouse Asian Eatery — Restaurant in California

Heard great things about this place offering freshly prepared dim sum in-house by a Master Chef. Was very excited to enjoy a meal. Oh, what a crushing disappointment it was!

As typical with dim sum, we ordered several dishes to try. Disappointingly only three were up to par, all the rest were substandard. The Master Dim Sum Chef should be very embarrassed with the food quality served.

Overall, everything lacked flavor, tasted like it was hospital food for special diets. No salt, no sugar, extremely fine maserated meat, over-steamed and falling a part. Bland, flavorless, everything tasted the same - like nothing.

Saving graces were the daikon beef brisket stew (however they were only 2 small pieces of daikon found at the very bottom of the dish), this was the only dish that was decently flavored, and it was delicious. The snow pea shoots were also good, and the most expensive dish at $16, but a large portion. And lastly the red bean and tapioca pearls dessert was good.

The har gow, and chaozhou and chive fun gor were over steamed making the skins too soft so the fillings fell out. The shumai, and tofu beancurd wrap were tasteless, did they forget the spices? We had high expectations for the BBQ pork, hard to mess that up, right? OMG, they used fattier than typical cut of pork, you would think it would add a richer taste, but no, it gave an oily mouth feel to a tasteless piece of meat. Char siu is supposed to have a rich and sweet taste; they went for a low sugar profile without they Asian spices to lend it its distinct flavor. The taro cakes were undercooked and powdery. The egg tarts were barely baked with doughy shell and under sweetened custard. The sweet dough dumplings barely had any filling and was dripping with oil from frying with not hot enough frying oil. The meat in the beef rice rolls was so finely maserated it reassured us that it's safe for people who forgot their dentures; the traditional soy and sweet sauce that should have slathered the rolls was watered down soy with a forgotten hint of sweetness. The soup dumplings actually held its broth, too bad the broth and filling were equally tasteless.

Service attempted to be good, but it was obvious that the staff did not understand the foods they were serving and how to best server it. They just plopped dishes on the table without ensuring appropriate eating utensils were provided. Both the stew and dessert soups needed bowls and spoons to serve and eat with, but none were provided and we had to ask for bowls and spoons. At a dim sum house, empty serving dishes are removed immediately as they can accumulate with all the small plates. Here the wait staff ignored the empty serving dishes and let the stack of dishes pile up and crowd the table until it became obvious they needed to be removed. Staff was pleasant but needs more training for this type of meal.

Despite claiming to have an in-house Master Dim Sum Chef (who I hope wasn't working when I visited to explain the disappointing food quality), the dim sum place in Santa Rosa outshines this place in quality and service. Even with the rumored food being brought in from San Francisco China Town, the dim sum is so much better in taste, quality, quantity, and price.

Sorry to say, this place missed the...

Email to owners, below. Just called and was told the owner "Cat" would not take my call. I was told on the phone that the manager I dealt with was Guillermo.

Dear Mr. and Ms. Do:

I’m writing regarding my recent visit to The Boathouse Asian Eatery restaurant on Saturday evening, 08/23/2025.

Our group of 60 often visit Rohnert Park for business. After getting a referral to your restaurant from a colleague, I made a reservation for 10, then immediately called back to advise it might only be 5-8 when other individuals decided to dine elsewhere. The reservation was secured with a credit card, but no other terms or conditions were provided.

When we arrived, we informed the hostess we would be 4-5 and asked for a smaller table downstairs. She refused and insisted we stay at the large table upstairs.

The menu highlights multiple crab items, but none of them are actually crab. They are fake "krab" (pollock and food dye, which, to be clear, is NOT crab), and nowhere on the menu is this disclosed. No asterisk, no clarification, which is misleading, at best.

Thirty minutes into our meal, the manager approached and announced he would have to charge us $50 per empty seat (six total). I stated that I was not informed of that policy and made the reservations on speakerphone, which my colleagues attested to. I also further advised that we had called back immediately after making the reservations and advised we would be a smaller party. Lastly, I also informed the hostess upon arrival that we would be a much smaller party of 4-5. The hostess insisted we were sat at the table for 10 when we preferred a smaller table and asked for one.

Instead of addressing this reasonably, the manger proceeded to stand over us and then crouch next to the table, lecturing us for five minutes—during a business meeting. He scolded, admonished, and warned us about "next time." For the record, there will never be a “next time”. After explaining the multiple contacts to the restaurant and our position, the manager acted as though we should be grateful that he "decided not to charge us" for a policy we were never informed of, in a restaurant that wasn't even full on a Saturday night. If my card had been charged for so-called "no shows," it would have been disputed and charged back immediately.

The biggest mistake, however, was this: he chose to threaten and harass me in front of business colleagues, in the middle of our meeting. That crossed the line. I bit my tongue, but it took everything not to walk out on the spot. And yes, we noticed--had our group been men, I suspect the treatment would have been very different.

After finally leaving us alone, the focus of our meeting was ruined and shifted to discussing the manager's behavior. We left feeling harassed, embarrassed, and unimpressed—both with the food (fake “crab” a.k.a. krab) and with the service. Our waiter was fine; even though he got a drink order wrong, he corrected it immediately.

Never again. Congratulations on alienating a professional group of 60 people who meet monthly in Rohnert Park. They will hear about this experience, especially the colleague who recommended your restaurant.

This manager needs some serious retraining and the immediate development of “customer...

Ok, this is probably the absolute worst place I have EVER eaten. My husband and I were out to celebrate. We had an incompetent waiter, which didn't help matters any. And, sadly enough, he was actually the high point in our visit. First off, the waiter got our drinks wrong. Ok, that happens. Since the drinks look similar, I didn't catch it until I tasted it. But, ok, mistakes happen, I'll live. So then we ordered the special. It was a crab dish. My husband and I wanted either lobster or crab for dinner. It arrives. There are two completely empty crab shells on our plates. Mine couldn't have been emptier if you have let a dog lick it clean first. There were a few other pieces of shell. I got less than 1 seafood fork on the whole plate of crab. Now, get this. You are going to love this. When I went to complain that my crab did not contain and crab, the manager informs me that they don't use real crab meat due to the cost. Lol then couldn't I have gotten a little crab meat? Good thing I'm not allergic to crab substitutes, or this could have been a real problem. It was not labeled anywhere. Anyway, I did notify him of the problem of petty much 0 crab in our crab dish (the people beside us had the same problem). He refused to give us any substitutes. Told us crab was out of season and it was our problem. Way overpriced and way horrible service for what they are. And worse? Their food isn't worth it. I wish I could give them a negative 10. Save your money, sadly the chain Red Lobster is actually better. And I NEVER thought I would say that. Worst place I...