The Boathouse at City Point — Restaurant in Hopewell

Embracing the new Ultra Posh in Fine Dining, The Boathouse at City Point is a flash model of Contemporary Cuisine and Expensive Plumbing. Properly enough, it is entirely aimed at Dining for Memorable Occasions for Wealthy Lovers, and even at lunchtime its Electronic Inkblot Menu is impressively rich in variety and healthy options—I believe if one were to consider all available options on the menu, ordering alone might take hours. But of course ordering on the iPhone 20 or equivalent, the order goes to the kitchen at approximately the speed of light. There are few delays from that time on . . . .

I have no difficulty recommending The Boathouse at City Point for the most extravagant of your dreams to come true. The Boathouse at City Point is clean, it is beautiful inside and out, the staff is clean, beautiful, attentive and competent, the food is quite well prepared and very beautifully presented, and frankly my only regret was that Sheila was not with me to enjoy the experience THIS time.

There is a shortage of staff, and it is desperate enough that jobs and pay ranges are posted in the lobby. On this occasion there was only one waitress for the entire restaurant, and it was absolutely necessary to wait for a table to become available. As the waitress was herself brilliant, experienced and assisted by a speedy and cheerful assistant, an entire busload of commercial diners had been served indoors and on the deck before I arrived, so my wait was not long and the kitchen was still in high gear and peak performance. A “Service Charge” of 20% is a part of every meal, but in my opinion it is not enough to touch the value of the services actually rendered, and happily it is easy to add an additional tip before making your payment on your own smartphone—which of course enables you to complete your payment at near the speed of light!

The view of the Appomattox River (at its confluence with the James River) is splendid, whether you prefer to dine inside or al fresco on the spacious deck. I was so impressed with the interior that it was an afterthought even to photograph the exterior of the building—but I can imagine that for dinner all the elements will combine to make an absolute fairyland for your entire dining experience, no matter what wonderful experience from your own past you may be celebrating!

My only concern is that it all seems too good to be true, and although I was drinking only unsweetened iced tea and ice water on this occasion, it might all have been a dream after all. Plan it all out as best you can: make a reservation always, make it weeks in advance if possible—everyone at The Boathouse at City Point is so friendly and accommodating I know that they will do all that they can to help you realize your dreams! But help them to plan with you and for you—they will give you their best...

We just left The Boat House at City Point, and I’m utterly disappointed. It was my mother’s birthday and Memorial Day Weekend, making it a special occasion. I had seen the restaurant on my Instagram feed two weeks ago, and coincidentally, my mother expressed her desire to eat there today. Naturally, I was excited about our visit. Unfortunately, the experience was far from what we expected.

The service was abysmal. Our waitress mixed up our drinks, forgot to serve some of them, and messed up an allergy-specific food order. One of our plates arrived 15 minutes before the others, which left some of us waiting awkwardly. Despite having noted the birthday celebration in our reservation and informing them upon arrival, the staff did nothing to acknowledge my mother’s birthday. They also failed to ask if we wanted dessert.

The food was equally disappointing. The Rockfish plate was incredibly cheap, clearly made with basic Uncle Ben’s white rice and generic Walmart-style canned peas. The fried food dishes, like the fried shrimp dinner and chicken fingers, were full of fries and had very little meat. It felt like the focus was on filling the plate with cheap sides rather than providing quality food.

Adding to the disappointment, some of us drove two hours to dine here, only to be met with such poor service and subpar food. The aesthetic of the restaurant is beautiful, but sadly, that’s the only positive aspect of our visit. The food and service were atrocious and not worth the money. Had it not been for my mother’s birthday, I would have complained to the manager on the spot.

Save your time and money; this place is...

After a concert at the Beacon we stopped in to grab some late night appetizers and check out this place. First it's very beautiful, even at night you could still kind of get the view of the Appomattox River, I'm sure during the day it's quite spectacular. They have a good amount of seating outside which is quite perfect for this location. We ended up sitting at the bar since that was the only thing that was open and ordered a few items. The food was good but portion size for the cost I felt was a little off. We got the crab dip and there wasn't very much in it at all. Taking a scoop with the bread barely covered a third of the piece. We also ordered some asparagus and spinach and again both were really good but for the price I thought you might be able to get a little bit more especially on the spinach. The staff was wonderful they get even more than five stars. They're great to talk to and took very good care of us. We ended up getting a melted chocolate cookie with some ice cream which again was really good. We've been to The Boathouse in Richmond and it seems with speaking with the bartenders that they have a really good happy hour. There's a gentleman a little bit down from us that was at the concert as well and he actually got a meal which looked really good the crab cake looked like it was mostly crab with very little filler and the shrimp were pretty enormous. It's a fancy place or at least it wants to Trend that way so I'm sure that's why the prices are a little bit higher but the atmosphere makes up for it and if you're looking for a very cool and scenic place to have a dinner this is...