The Boathouse Restaurant — Restaurant in Town of Lake George

Whoo boy, what a difference a year makes. Last year, our meal at the Boathouse was our favorite one during our week in Lake George. This year, it was far and away our most disappointing. We went on Wednesday at just after 6 and found the place to be dead, so much so that the three women at the hostess stand all commented on how uncharacteristically empty they were. We asked to be seated on the lower level by the docks and were easily accommodated. Despite the lack of customers, service was extremely slow and inattentive. We ordered drinks, and the water was forgotten. We asked for crayons for the kids while the water was retrieved, and the crayons were forgotten. When our server returned to take our order, the crayons were forgotten again. Eventually I just walked back upstairs and got them myself (each crayon is a different color on each side to cut down on waste and they're triangular so they won't roll, so at least that was cool!). Once the food arrived, the disappointment continued. My chicken schnitzel was covered in a terribly salty red wine bordelaise. While certainly not inedible, it just wasn't very good. I can only assume that all that extra salt in the sauce was to make up for the completely unseasoned vegetables and fingerling potatoes. Again, not inedible, just terribly bland. As much as I was disappointed by the chicken, my wife's lobster roll was far worse. Last year's impressive serving of huge pieces of claw and tail meat was just a distant memory, replaced by a mess of what was either body meat filler or imitation lobster meat with two or three paltry scraps of decent meat that was absolutely drowned in mayonnaise, despite the fact that the menu states it is dressed in a "light lemon dressing." Now, I know a lot of people engage in some pretty hefty hyperbole when writing reviews, but I make this claim in complete and utter seriousness: this lobster roll was inferior to Wawa's former Seafood Salad subs. Charging $25 for that embarrassment should be criminal. We might have said something to our waitress, but despite the lack of customers, she was nowhere to be found until it was time to drop the check, and she didn't bat an eye when she saw the almost entirely uneaten sandwich on my wife's plate. So, that's how the Boathouse managed to go from first to worst in our experience. Based on just how bad things were this meal, I doubt we'll be back again. 2 stars for the view, 0 for the food...

June 2022 Update: Went to Boathouse again last night after 3 years. Once again, a disappointing experience. We had a reservation, but when we showed up, we were told that our table downstairs was occupied, since a group that had a reservation for 9 people showed up with 22 and were accommodated, so our table was taken. The front desk people were then completely lost and did not know what to do. When I saw empty tables behind them and asked about those, I was told those were reserved! So I asked how that was different from my reservation and why it was OK to give away my table, but not those behind them. After what appeared to be mass confusion, we were finally given a table. Amazing lack of professionalism. Service was also terrible - we waited 15 min before our waiter finally showed up and we were given water and had our order taken (apps came out quickly, but main courses took a long time). Food was OK for the most part, but so extremely overpriced. For example, garlic bread is $15 for about 5 pieces! What a complete robbery. The boathouse is conveniently located to the Lodges at Cresthaven, but is otherwise not worth a visit. Review from 2019: Not terrible, but disappointed. Food was mediocre, did not have much taste and was way overpriced, as were drinks. For example, a glass of cheap white wine was $14. So you pay NYC prices for drinks and food and you don’t get the quality at all. My 13 year old son ordered the rainbow trout and it arrived so spicy, even I couldn’t eat it. You’d think a good waitress would have warned us it was going to be spicy and suggested something else. But that did not happen and when I told her it was too spicy and we can’t eat it, she smiled, said “yes” and walked away. No apologies, no taking it off the check, nothing.

The restaurant is right on the water, but you won’t see it unless you have one of the few tables by the windows. It is also insanely loud and impossible to talk. Location is very convenient, especially if you are staying at the Lodges at Cresthaven, but we will not return for...

We had a wedding there a couple weeks ago we had about 130 guests. Definitely not a location for a larger wedding as we had to put 50 guests downstairs in a different area and we’re told they would feel connected. We’ll guess what they didn’t it was like they were put down there and forgotten about. They didn’t get served dinner till almost 9:00 when they received there dinner it was cold and items missing from plates. dinner should of been done around 8. Not one guest heard any announcements or music as a staff member turned off the speakers. We can never get that day back. I wouldn’t recommend this place for a wedding we were litterly on our own especially for ceremony no one helped and not once did we see Dan the manager or anything just very unprofessional. Also that night we spoke to a server about the wedding flowers, when I left they were rolled Nicely in the table runners I said perfect I’ll grab them in morning we would like to save them, she said she’ll put them in a bag we’ll guess what they threw out all the flowers in the garbage litterly. And the next morning bought me a bag with garbage and flowers after I had asked where all the flowers are needless to say we were devastated. But I was informed they don’t hold items for very long and aren’t responsible, well it was only suppose to be held to morning didn’t think that was too long. Also we had 10 guests not show which we no some wedding have last minute cancelations but we’re never offered the food that we paid for to take with us apparently you have to ask in advance for that so make a note if you have guest that don’t show. I wish we read deeper into reviews cause these things have happened before. Our guests describe the ceremony as beautiful but reception worse they’ve been too. Makes us sad as we can’t get that day back. Beautiful location terrible service for weddings would not suggest. After talks with them they did reimburse us a little not nearly what we were looking for, from all that we went...