The Boathouse Restaurant

Used to be a good spot, but… the last time I went to Boathouse the server was extremely rude and careless and treated us like garbage. I didn’t respond because I didn’t want to ruin my day. In my whole entire life and all the restaurants I’ve been to I haven’t seen such a disrespectful service.

The long and short is: the food is terrible. The only reason you would want to go is to enjoy the view and the location. Make it easy on yourself and order a drink and stop right there, Eat somewhere else before or after.

Mother’s Day Brunch Buffet was fresh and delicious ~ lots of options, my faves being made-​to-​order omelettes and fruit crepes. Plenty of fresh fruit, cheese and seafood to choose from, as well as all of the breakfast fixings. Dessert options seemed like they came from Costco.

I ordered the halibut (which was 38.99) because it’s halibut season and I asked the server if it’s fresh she said yes then when my fish came it tasted very fishy so the manager came over to take my new order I asked if the fish was fresh she said no it’s frozen. Who charges near $ 40 for frozen fish!!! Also they asked if it was a special occasion when I sat down I said it was my mothers 60^th birthday so near the end they brought a ½ size cake with candles I thought oh how nice no one ordered it. Then when the bill came we were charged for it!!! We didn’t order it!!! I will never visit a boat house again!!!

The location & view from the restaurant are outstanding.
Unfortunately, the food and service were not so good, actually bad.
Food:
We ordered the Crab Cobb salad, which is $ 19 and it was lettuce with about a teaspoon of crab. Virtually no sign of the other items that are listed and typically in a cobb salad. It was so disappointing that we were compelled to mention it to our server and he was nice enough to have it re-​made and what came out in round #2 was a decent salad thankfully. We also had a their Crispy Fish Tacos and they were essentially greasy battered fish with a lot of cabbage.
Service:
Our server was pleasant, but it too, multiple requests before we actually got items we politely ordered/​requested. Eg. 3 times of requesting milk for our 4 year old before he actually brought her drink. Limes for my fish tacos… we was MIA for so long I almost went up to the bar and grabbed a couple from the bar service! Really pleasant fellow, just super sluggish and slow with every detail of his serving.
Sadly, no matter how good the view is… I don’t think I can go back.

Beautiful view from boathouse Café looking over English Bay. The moment of time here in Vancouver. The staff here are very friendly and awesome service. I had the Benny’s breakfast with fruit ¹⁰⁄₁₀. The best Café on the beach here and woo love the view looking out the windows.

4 stars are for the happy hour. 3 or 4 – 6. Cheap wine, oysters and other goodies. The boathouse has reliable and tasty seafood and the service is general good. This is not my favorite location. I don’t like the inside set up. The lounge is nice! When I go for happy hour I always go for the lounge, although that may be a requirement!

The chopped seafood salad. Hmm. The seared scallops were cold, but otherwise generous portions of seafood. Grilled salmon was dry and unforgivingly tough, I needed a knife… I don’t recall the last time I need to saw through salmon. Lastly, under seasoned everything. There wasn’t even enough dressing I thought I was munching on a garden.
I have a love hate, more hate, relationship with this place. It’s always free usually work related we come here and I can’t complain, but I always get disappointed. Sigh.

Great views, horrible service and mediocre food.
I came here on a weekday afternoon for a quick lunch. However the service was SLOW, we had to chase down our waiter multiple times. After waiting 30 min for our order. We ordered two salads and the chicken breasts were undercooked. We sent them back and we were offered replacements. At this point we were already there for over an hour and half. We got our salads Togo and got out of there

We came here for breakfast over the weekend. We were the only two people in the joint. The service was very slow despite the lack of guests. We had to wait a long while — twice — for our coffee to be refilled, and 20 minutes from the time our meals were finished to the time I was forced to get up and ask for the cheque.
Two (one in particular) of the female servers gave me dirty looks as they passed. I wasn’t sure what to make of that, but this is no place to be catty with guests — it’s a restaurant where you’re here to service me and make me feel welcome. It felt like high school.
We had the salmon hash, and the pieces of salmon were so salty I couldn’t finish more than a third of my meal, which I wound up throwing out. The entire experience was spot on with the fact the restaurant was so dead.
Gorgeous location!

Just passed by on a walk at Kits Beach. The concession appears to be keeping them away in droves. Could it be the poor food and high prices, or is it the prospect of eating on your lap on the scattering of chairs (no tables) at the entrance while the patrons upstairs stare down on you?
It seems as well that during the summer the stench of the garbage cans is present at the restaurant entrance.
One wonders where the management is in this place. Oh yeah, at the chain’s HQ in the USA.

The View!
Defiantly the best part of the meal is the view.
The food was good as well, I had Miso Crusted Wild Halibut, it was delicious.
The wait staff did a great job.

Suprised to see this place so empty on a sunday canada’s day. Came here for lunch and had the lobster grill cheese benedict it was pretty tasty. The view is nice its right by the beach. Renovation is done nicely, the service was good. Air conditioned. Definitely a nice place to grab lunch and a couple drinks.

My sister and I went to the Boathouse last night for a pre-​Bard on the Beach meal. As we hadn’t eaten much that day, we went in for an early dinner (we eat when we are hungry, not when society dictates we eat), and since it happened to be Happy Hour (3−6pm), we were able to get happy hour prices on our drinks. (I definitely want to go back during happy hour, as they had some good appetizer specials.) I ordered the grilled salmon, and my sister ordered the Coconut Pacific Cod. I enjoyed my meal, but she found her dish a bit salty.
We were seated on the patio, and as we were waiting for our dessert, I felt a big wet splotch land on my arm. Yup… a bird had shit on me.

Beautiful view, good food (albeit slightly overpriced), and subpar service.
This is by far the most beautiful Boathouse location. Large windows along the west side of the restaurant offer gorgeous views of the beach and English Bay.
We came here for my uncle’s birthday. As we were a party of 8, the gratuity was included on the bill. I often worry that the service will be less than stellar as the tip is already in the bag. However, based on my experience and the other reviews here, I guess subpar service is the status quo.
The food was good, but nothing special. I asked that my field green salad be served with the vinaigrette on the side but my salad arrived dressed. I didn’t say anything as it was already difficult to flag down our server. It wasn’t a big deal, but it shows a lack of attention to detail. Because of the inattentive service, we opted to get dessert at Earnest Ice Cream (
) at the end of our meal instead of having it at the restaurant.
If the view is all that matters to you, this Boathouse location is a good choice.

Ok so I might be the only one giving this place a good review. First let me state that I went during happy hour.
We sat outside on the patio which had a fabulous view of the beach, which I believe is the main lure of this restaurant. Simply beautiful.
We ordered the tuna tacos, coconut shrimp and crab cakes and I have to say they were all quite yummy. We also ordered drinks which were pretty good.
Our waitress was pretty good. She was friendly, inviting, efficient and made good reccomendations. The guy bringing out the food didn’t know what he was doing. He took our food to two different tables looking for the right one. He also did the same thing to another couple. Um, don’t they tell you what table to go too? Shouldn’t you know that dude? You look ridiculous lol.
So my experience here today was pretty much good and I would definetly go back for happy hour on a sunny day!

This place is not that busy. So you don’t really have to make a reservation. Food doesn’t come out that quick. I find the table a bit gross because they didn’t clean it properly and you can see the dust bunnies trapped in between the gaps.
Food always good here. But if you do make a reservation you can request to sit beside the window.
Waiter and waitress very friendly.
If you go before 6pm they have an appie special.

3÷21÷15. Dinner
Our first meal in Vancouver was at this restaurant with a beautiful sunset view. The place is hopping on Saturday early evening and I’m glad I made a reservation. Timing was perfect — we were seated at about 20 minutes before the sun set.
*Moscow Mule was good and refreshing; cosmopolitan was not pink so it wasn’t the way I like it usually. The New Zealand Sauvignon Blanc recommended to me to accompany dinner is perfectly dry with a good finish.
*Fish and Chips ($ 16) 3 pieces of good thin battered cod with French fries. Cannot ask for better.
*Pacific cod ($ 24) is cooked medium rare, served on quinoa with a coconut lime sauce. It’s exactly what I want, a light meal but not compromised in flavor.
The place is busy snd the tables packed pretty tight together. It’s really the prefect place to see the sunset at Kits Beach. The restaurant is all window with an outdoorish area enclosed by retractable floor to ceiling windows.

Was here on a friday night with a group of friends for a celebration/​goodbye dinner.
I didn’t make the reservations but was kinda hoping to be seated close to the window (just for the nice view even though it was dark outside). When I got there I knew that wasn’t possible because of the number of people we had at our party. The parking lot that I assume was for customer was a bit far in my perspective because it was kind of a cold night. But I guess it was more of a parking lot that was for the park to begin with.
I like how this location is so close to the beach. Makes a nice romantic place to take your date to. Enjoying a nice dinner and maybe a nice walk allow the shore (unfortunately it was way too cold for my bf and I to do that that night).
The fresh bread they served was sour dough which was not my favourite and the garlic butter was still hard (as though they took it out of the fridge) and of cos I wish it was warm for us to spread on our bread. I ordered a seafood chowder with Cesar salad (perfect size for me). It came with bread that I was kinda meh about. I shared a plate of crab cakes with my bf. The crab cakes tasted a lot better than what I expected to be. That’s a bonus.
Our server was Lisa. She was pretty awesome. Asides from missing a few things that we requested for later, I have to say she did a good job being the only one that served our table of 13 (even though it wasn’t a busy night at the Boathouse). She even brought us a dessert (on the house I believe) for my friends who we were celebrating for.
Overall, I would come back here again in the future (maybe when the weather gets better). The prices for the food is decent when you have a nice view of the beach.
I would totally suggest this to others to try out and recommend this to people who want a nice romantic date night with their significant other.

For their great views and ambiance, the happy hour menu food and drinks, The Boathouse gave us a 4-​star experience. The service however… maybe a 3-​star.
Their happy hour runs from 3−6pm and includes a good selection of menu items. We ordered the yam fries for just $ 4 and the ahi tuna tacos for $ 7. Cannot recommend the tuna taco’s but the yam fries were DELICIOUS. It comes with two dipping sauces. A curry chutney and the other was a slightly spicy aioli.
After placing our orders, the ahi tuna tacos took literally a whole HOUR to arrive. And when it did, the taco’s were soggy wet from the rice and soysauce they used as a «base». The taco was a 1-​bite deal and you get 3 of them, so if you ever do order this item, get it for happy hour. Not the regular menu, which is twice the price and only 1 more taco.
My strawberry watermelon mojito was $ 6 and so darn yummy. Real strawberries and watermelon spiced up the drink. The whole drink was light on the alcohol, probably only half a shot, but that made the drink taste more juicy/​fruity.
Probably would never come for the full price menu, but happy hour was well worth it!