Boatman Spirits Co. — Restaurant in Raleigh

TL;DR: go here for weeknight cocktails or to check out a unique restaurant design. Food and service were not great, restaurant is incredibly loud.

I’ll preface this review by saying Boatman is brand new, and clearly still figuring things out.

The atmosphere is really cool. It’s a unique space that they clearly put a lot of thought into, and I appreciate that! It’s unlike anything else in Raleigh. That said, it is incredibly loud in the restaurant. At about half capacity, we struggled to hear each other. Not somewhere I’d go for a quiet date night or with someone hard of hearing.

The service was not great, but not terrible. It didn’t feel like the wait staff were that experienced - maybe they’re still learning? The whole process felt rushed. Staff were way too eager to take plates away from us. Overall just odd to put a ton of effort into your concept and aesthetic and have mediocre service.

So…the food. It was not great. We ordered hummus, tuna tartare, the fried halloumi salad, and the falafel platter. The hummus was great, but only came with a handful of small pita triangles - clearly not enough to eat all the hummus. We asked for more, and were charged $3 extra for additional pita. The fried halloumi salad was actually pretty good! Would eat that again. The tartare was fine, but hard to eat. It was served on a flat plate, and with these giant cracker things I had to break myself. It’s not possible to scoop something off of a large plate, let alone with shattered cracker pieces. Lastly, the falafel platter was bad. Falafel pieces that tasted like frozen food, unseasoned dry white rice, and a handful of cut veggies and herbs with some small pita slices. Again, difficult to eat and missing the mark on what’s supposed to be shareable food eaten with your hands.

Boatman has a lot to figure out, but I’m rooting for them and would like to see unique concepts like theirs succeed in Raleigh! I’ll go back in a few months, and revisit...

They are still working on getting the distillery operation ready so this review will focus on the dining/cocktail experience. I guess I went into this with the wrong expectations. Given the distillery and press coverage focused on food and cocktails I expected an atmosphere with more dark woods and leather vibe. The restaurant is very Mediterranean in aesthetics. Nice but caught me off guard. Also, the liquor selection behind the bar is limited, typical of any nice restaurant, not a cocktail forward establishment. When I asked the manager about that he said they plan on rotating stock over time.

The cocktail selection is good and creative. Our waitress also knew the menu well and wasn't too shy to admit when she needed to check with the bartender on some specifics. I started with the Simon Senior which turned out to be our favorite cocktail of the night. It was presented beautifully and tasted as good as it looked. My wife tried the Dripping with Emeralds which was also good and quite strong but she preferred the Simon Senior. So much so that the waitress noticed and when the bar accidentally prepared an extra they presented it to her free of charge. Very nice. I then tried the Cleopatra Julep which was good but my favorite Julep is still the one I had at The Merchant.

For food we shared the hummus which was excellent, smooth, creamy and very good pita. Also the tallow fries, swordfish and za'atar wings. These are small plates and the serving size was as expected. All the food was prepared and presented well. I have to call out the za'atar wings as my favorite though. These are the most tender chicken wings I have ever had.

We will have to go back when the distillery is in action. They have exciting...

We booked a reservation for a group of four to try out this new restaurant in Seaboard Station. While they have only been open a week or so, I can say that they are doing a great job in bringing something new to the Raleigh restaurant scene. We started with three appetizers- the hummus, fried halloumi bites and the za’atar chicken wings. The hummus was so smooth and delicious we immediately ordered more pita to go with it. The fried halloumi bites had a dipping sauce with a kick that everyone enjoyed and the wings were seasoned perfectly and were paired with the most delicious tzatziki dipping sauce. Next we ordered the lamb kafta burger, herb fries and the flank steak. The stand out here was the steak- it has the most delicious bordelais sauce and potatoes. We also tried some of their cocktails- the presentation was on point and each cocktail had such a unique flavor. The overall atmosphere of the restaurant is breathtaking the moment you step into the restaurant- from the tile to the ceilings it was truly beautiful. The only reason why I gave it four stars was due to the noise level, it is quite echoey and can be hard to heard but it wouldn’t deter me from going back. Our total bill for four was around $200 and we split all the food below and had 7 cocktails and 1 beer. The alcohol alone was over $100 so always remember drinks will run up your bill! In the upcoming weeks they plan on adding more to their food and drink menu so a second trip will be...