St. Augustine Fish House & Oyster Company — Restaurant in Florida

Overall, I had a mixed experience. I will go ahead and share it with you.

First things first, they have rebranded to "The Boathouse" now. New menu and everything.

We had reservations set for Friday evening, at 5:45 pm. Arriving there, the place was very busy, but that's why you make reservations, right? We were seated quickly after we were able to speak to someone at the front. Additionally, we dropped off a cake for them to hold onto until after the meal, as we were celebrating someone's birthday. No problem at all, they took it for us, and didn't even charge us a cake fee.

We were seated and settled, and our waiter came to take our drink orders. After taking our order, he promptly came back with our drinks. We then put in an order for a few appetizers. We ordered the Smoked Fish Dip, Calamari, and Grouper Nuggets. The appetizers came decently quick, about 10 or so minutes after we ordered them. We then placed our order for entrees and dove into the apps.

I am unfortunately not able to review the grouper nuggets as the portion size was very small and I was not able to have one before they were all gone. The other members of my party liked it though. The calamari was tasty, and had the fried rings of banana peppers which are always wonderful. It had a very generous portion. The smoked fish dip was served with about 10 slices of small bread, far too few for how much fish dip there was, and the dip itself was tasty, but very very salty. Too salty for my tastes, but YMMV.

We destroyed the appetizers in about 7 minutes, thinking our entrees would not be too far away. Unfortunately, we would have to wait over an hour from finishing the appetizers to when the entrees appeared. We were served drink refills regularly though, so that helped, but it was still far too long of a wait. The waiter apologized to us a few times, and went and checked on our orders a couple times, but reassured us that they were busy but moving. I could also see other tables getting distraught as well. I could hear the lovely lines of "were they here after us? why are they getting served before us?". This was a feeling I also was sharing as the wait time was extremely long.

Finally the food arrived, and all was well. I ended up trying some of the fried shrimp poboy, the double shrimp tempura sushi roll, and the salmon wonton taco. All were fine, but by this point, we had waited so long we were anticipating something much better, especially for the price. The food was serviceable, but for that price, it needed to be better than serviceable.

Others at my table had the lobster rolls, and one person had the steak. All was fine. No complaints on flavor, but no praises either unfortunately.

After that, our waiter came to the table and asked us if we were interested in a dessert option. Cue awkward glances between all of us because we had the cake stashed earlier. Turns out, they never communicated that with our waiter, so he was totally left out of the loop. He left and came back with our cake. We were given small plates, forks, and a butter knife to cut and serve it. We should have brought our own serving utensils, but we had imagined a place of fine dining would accommodate this. Oh well, lesson learned.

So after a total of two and half hours of time in there, we had finally paid the bill and left, with a certain sense of disappointment. It's not that anything was bad persay, it was just off. Maybe it was a rough night for them, but the wait was far too long between appetizers and entrees, and the food was not as great as expected.

All in all, I don't think I can recommend this place anymore. Which is a shame, as they used to be a wonderful spot, before...

Food is wonderful and the ambiance is amazing, especially if you can score an outside table on a cool night. For an added bonus, they have live music some nights (on the last night we were there, it was bluegrass). Perfect date night, apology night, win her back night or family get together.

This is my wife’s favorite spot when we come out to the beach. She loves the outside area, she loves live music and she loves their clam strips. I am with her on the venue, but for me the wait time on the food is usually so long it is uncomfortable. As long as I keep those expectations, I enjoy the evening.

You can make reservations online and I highly recommend doing that.

On this particular night the band was playing a set shortly after our reservation and the people coming to watch the band started just taking tables, which frazzled the staff and made seating for them harder. To top it off, once they laid claim to tables they flooded the bar so we could not get a drink while we waited. I know the service team was frustrated, but not to worry the management team was wonderful and scored us a table and a free drink, apologizing profusely and explaining what happened. That really helped my wife, because she was very frustrated before that. After that, we had a lovely meal.

Our server was John C. and while we did not see him a lot, he was fantastic. Everything was brought out exactly as we requested and his positive energy and enthusiasm made the night flow so much better. I could have used a few more refills, but that is nitpicking, like most places they are understaffed.

But the food, what about the food?

Goombay Smash - after two of these, my wife was singing along to the music. Brussels Appetizer - slightly charred, slightly crunch, unquestionable DELICIOUS. Sausage Appetizer - interesting when paired with Brussels, but so good. Cheese Grits - I am from the south, so I am picky about my grits. These were creamy, perfectly cooked and really good. Sweet Potato Fries - good, but the marshmallow sauce that accompanies them elevates the dish to EPIC status. Trigger fish - read my reviews, I love trigger fish and they do it right. So good. Clam Strips - my wife loves them. Blackened Shrimp - another solid choice, my only gripe is they leave on the tails (okay, nitpicking I know).

Okay, now on to my pet peeve. The food took almost an hour to reach us, once we ordered (58 minutes to be exact). We were outside listening to music and enjoying each other’s company, so we did not mind and as I mentioned I have grown to expect it on weekends. I doubt it is the same during the week, but I cannot say that for sure.

On a budget - choose a sandwich or one of the nightly specials. Nightly specials are only during the week, but they look good.

Want to splurge - sit outside, choose a wine and definitely order a few appetizers to sample. Make sure one of them...

It pains me to write the review tonight, as I know how good this place can be. And to be fair, my review and scoring does consider all of my experiences. FOOD: I took one star off the food rating simply because it takes entirely too long to get your food. Every time I have come, I go ahead and order an appetizer or main meal when they take my drink order. More often than not, it takes 40 minutes for anything you order. Tonight, I called my order and then went to pick it up. From the time I entered the facility until I received my food, it took an hour (to get only two of the same sushi rolls). So, 1-1/2 hrs for two rolls. I requested extra ginger and wasabi, both of which I received. I never thought I would need to ask for any soy. In my mind, it’s a given that I will have soy sauce when ordering sushi. I was wrong. If you order sushi for pick up, be certain to request soy sauce, should you need it. Both the wasabi and the ginger were sloppily thrown on top of the sushi rolls, not in separate containers.

SERVICE: The young lady at the checkout appeared and acted overwhelmed. When I called to order sushi, I needed her to tell me what tuna sushi rolls they had. While I tried to look for a menu online, I could not find the sushi specific menu. So, needed her help. She could not tell me whether or not they served a spicy tuna roll. She then transferred me to another person. It is my opinion that the staff know the menu. Even if they don’t, she should be able to look it up with a menu that she would have at hand. Regardless, for those that like sushi, I am attaching that menu in photos. Because the hostess was not communicative with me, nor the patrons that had been waiting in addition to not knowing the menu, I have deducted two stars.

ATMOSPHERE: As it usually is on a Wednesday night, this place was hopping!! The interior simply lacks ambience. The bar is interesting, having been built around a lovely old tree. The outdoor seating has great views and a fire pit. Additionally, there is a stage for a live music on the weekends. Truly, it’s the lack of character in the interior dining that has me taking away one star.

With that said, I do love this place! I highly recommend it if visiting St Augustine (or if you live here)! I find that the best time to arrive is during their happy hour. Not only are there great prices, there’s usually ample seating...