The Boathouse Plymouth Reviews Summary

Food Quality

Pros:

• "We were all impressed with the quality, portion size and taste of the food."
• "Absolutely delicious. Portion sizes were very generous."
• "Had the most delicious meal within this fine establishment, some of the freshest fish and flavourful chips you'll ever have."
• "The seafood was incredibly fresh and tasty, the scallops and mussels my wife had were excellent."
• "The food was delicious, we had scallops, prawns, mussels - from the sea and the one steak dish which was cooked to perfection!"
• "The fish accompanying the fish and chips was probably amongst the best fish I have eaten."
• "The quality of our meal was first class, and my partner enjoyed the proper chunky chips."

Cons:

• "Scampi for £15 for 5 small pieces of scampi was a let down. I'd expect twice the amount as it was barely filling, tasty but not enough."
• "Sadly food was disappointing, Eggs Royale; which should have offered warm runny yolked poached eggs, instead, was muffin and a generous helping of smoked salmon but letdown by cold and hard yolked eggs and a rather thin apology for hollandaise sauce."
• "Food was not great, vegan and meat eaters and it wasn't great. Greasy, tasteless and took forever."
• "Calamari was cold, seafood platter was average."
• "The food is usually lovely but we must have had a bad day....ordered seafood linguine...way too much garlic and gritty shell fish rendered it almost inedible."
• "The fish was very greasy, straight out of the pan and on to my chips."
• "The fish and chips were dry and rotten, cooked in a horrendous oil full of remains of other charred foods."

Service

Pros:

• "Helpful, professional and friendly staff."
• "Staff were friendly and helpful and the restaurant also had a love view looking out towards mountbatten."
• "A big thank you to Skye who made us feel welcome on arrival and was exemplary in serving our table."
• "Everything ran smoothly, the food was lovely, staff were friendly and very accommodating with any requests or enquiries I had."
• "The staff were lovely, chatty and helpful."
• "Service is as good as the food. Hospitality starts at the door."
• "The staff were super friendly and attentive, especially Paul who really looked after us while we were here."

Cons:

• "Very poor service, it was 3.15pm when we left and far from busy."
• "Service can be slow but food is very good quality."
• "Service a little slow but staff all very pleasant."
• "Waited 45 mins to be told when asked that our breakfast order had not been given to kitchen by waitress. No reason given."
• "Completely awful service we paid £7.50 for a single rum and lemonade and the syrup had gone."
• "After complaining about all this mess, the manager was able to offer us only a 20% discount. Absurd."
• "Waited ten minutes whilst two of the staff were arguing at the til before serving us."

Value

Pros:

• "What a lovely place this is, food is great, and reasonably priced."
• "All in all a great find, and so cheap for what you normally have to pay in cities on the waterfront."
• "Both dishes with chips and 2 drinks only cost £30 so good value too."
• "Prices were reasonable for the area and food on offer."
• "The food was delicious and reasonably priced."
• "Good food and drink, not over priced."
• "Very good very fresh sea food well but simply cooked so you got the full benefit of it being so fresh."

Cons:

• "Felt food was overpriced."
• "£35 for just a tail is extortionate!"
• "I suppose if you’re into more rare dishes such as mussels etc which you don’t find at just any restaurant, then give them a try but if it’s fish and chips or something fairly standard which you’re going to order, you can get the same size portion at Morrisons cafe or other places a lot cheaper."
• "Very expensive, £20 for fish and chips. Portion size was even smaller than last time we went last year!"
• "Food was OK but 44 quid for 4 burgers is too much!"
• "Food a little overpriced for the quality and portion size served."
• "Very Overpriced but probably due to the view of the harbour which is great."

Atmosphere

Pros:

• "Nice views of the harbour from the cafe. Inside and outside seating is available."
• "Overlooking Plymouth Barbican it has stunning views as you would imagine."
• "With picturesque views, a very romantic stop with your loved one."
• "Nice location, good views and plenty of seating."
• "Lovely views over the water and inside is nicely spaced out."
• "Good position right on the quay in the barbican. Good for people watching."
• "Great location. Seating both inside and out. Great view of the harbour."

Cons:

• "The restaurant ambience and layout could be improved."
• "Perhaps it's that time of the year but it didn't have any atmosphere due to a lack of people."
• "Restaurant was cold and although the infrared heaters on the walls were helpful, they just couldn't heat up the vast space."
• "Sadly this means when sat outside in the typical British weather the food goes cold really quick."
• "The place was empty what should of really give it away to not eat here as the harbour was really busy and other establishments close by had plenty of diners eating."
• "There were unsupervised children running around, scraping chairs and being very noisy."
• "We have stopped going to this cafe because you never get a smile or hello when you sit down."

Cleanliness and Hygiene

Pros:

• "Toilets were unisex but individual and very clean."
• "Great food, (it's mainly a fish restaurant but does great breakfasts), friendly helpful staff, clean, very COVID aware including tables disinfected."
• "The boathouse is well catered with hand sanitizer on arrival, all staff and customers are required to wear their mask until seated and whilst moving around the premises."

Cons:

• "On closer inspection from our view of the kitchen, we saw that the chef was not wearing and basic kitchen scrubs, gloves etc whilst handling food."
• "Found hairs in food and in drink."
• "The cooks wiped their nose on their own hands as they cooked. Disgusting."
• "We did notice that the staff were not particularly clean and hygienic."
• "My daughter had mussels but in her broth was a blue piece of plastic."
• "Every mouthful was full of grit and some with broken shell."
• "I originally gave it four stars but on a revisit today I noticed the chef and staff were handing food with bare hands."