The Boathouse at Bracebridge

We got married at the Boathouse 2 weeks ago and I cannot fault the organisation, service, and food. The setting is beautiful for photographs and the venue creates an ideal ambience for a smaller wedding. Unlike some of the greedier establishments (Ramada Jarvis take note) they do not ram members of the public in alongside weddings you get the venue to yourself.

Several of our guests from further out had never been before and said they would definately come back as the food is superb. the room was decorated beautifully in our wedding colours and the transition from civil ceremony to evening venue went seamlessly.

If you want somewhere romantic and a bit different from the faceless hotel chains then this is the perfect setting and you will have a memorable day.
Comment on this reader review

Mrs Deb Fitzgerald - View all reviews by this user
Overall rating
Food 10 | Service 9 | Atmosphere 10 | Value for money 10
Sunday, September 12, 2010

The Boathouse has two good qualities, the setting and the food. Unfortunately this is ruined by what seems to be a bunch of minimum wage 19 year old waiting staff who wouldn't last five minutes in a city restaurant. Don't get me wrong they were very friendly and polite staff and did their best but if the management do not train them properly then this place will continue to get average to poor ratings on Tripadvisor and as more and more people are using Tripadvisor to seek out good restaurants the Boathouse won't be doing very well.

Our party of four were one of the first people there other than a party of six at the top of the restaurant. We had to share two menus between four of us as "there is not enough menus for everybody". Ok, not a problem. Anyway despite plenty of staff we had to ask someone to take our drinks order. After 20 minutes we again had to ask to place our food order only to be told there was no lamb and no (can't remember the other dish), and this is at 8pm on the busiest night of the week with more customers arriving.

My wife ordered melon to start but without the Feta cheese due to an allergy. The melon came with feta cheese. The young waitress apologised and said she would get it changed. Within seconds she came back with the same melon that had had the cheese picked off the plate with bits of cheese still dotted around the dish, we sent it back again.

I happened to notice some of the staff were handing plates to customers instead of walking in between people and placing the plate directly on the table. If I was in Joes cafe then I wouldn't mind, but not the Boathouse.

The main course dishes were loveley and I thoroughly enjoyed my steak. However our glasses had been empty for a while and again we had to ask for some more drinks.

By the time we had finished our main course I heard the chap sitting on a table next to me complaining they had been sitting there for half an hour and not even had been given a menu yet.

Once the main courses had been finished the empty dishes were sitting around for a while until someone came to clear them up. We didn't bother with dessert as no one came back to offer any dessert menus.

So, compliments to the chef, great food but Mr Boathouse owner you've got to do something about the service. Fot this reason I would NOT reccomend the Boathouse to a friend and would really appreciate a management response.
Comment on this reader review

Matt - View all reviews by this user
Overall rating
Food 7 | Service 0 | Atmosphere 4 | Value for money 2
Monday, June 14, 2010