Boaters Bistro

We have enjoyed going to Boaters bistro for years. The burgers are great and we love the sweet jalapeño rolls they are served on. The owner is usually there to greet and take care of people. It’s so nice to have a place good to eat on the water.

Wow… where do I start? First, you pull up an get taken to the cleaners on gas prices. Next, we went to the restaurant and we were the only table… service was slow just to get our drink order taken. As another review mentioned, the water is a bottle for $ 2. The chips were a bit stale and the salsa was pace out of the jar for $ 5.50. After we ordered our food, the owner cooked the food with bare hands while stepping to the side of the grill to smoke, drink his beer and straight back to the grill to turn the buns with bare hands. Where is the health department? To make things even worse… they take the food off the grill and flies are sitting there waiting.
To sum it up… it was not worth our first visit to a place that we have thought about going to for years!

This is the first time that I’ve ever gone back and lowered a star rating but I feel obligated to my fellow Unilocalers to issue a warning. If you’re out on Lake LBJ and you want to have a burger and a beer this place is your ONLY choice. If you decide to give it a try DO NOT HAVE ANY EXPECTATIONS! Sometimes the service is good, sometimes not. Sometimes the food is good, sometimes not although a burger is a fairly safe bet. The selection of beers is pretty good. Cocktails are overpriced for where you are and what this place is. Per other reviewers I have personally witnessed the owners dog attack other dogs.
Perhaps the biggest warning I can give is to watch your wallet. Per other Unilocalers warnings about the chips and salsa charges they do the same thing with WATER. We ordered dinner and drinks and generally were enjoying ourselves and asked the waitress for a couple of waters. She brought out two cold plastic bottles of water with their own label. I figured they were promoting the place and wanted you to take it with you. I figured wrong. They were $ 2 each on our final bill. When I told the waitress that she needed to inform us there was a charge for water she replied that they don’t have drinkable water that isn’t bottled. WT??? They don’t have drinkable water? What are they cooking with? She wasn’t all that pleased to take the water off the bill…
CONSIDER YOURSELF WARNED…

The owners have a very large male German shepherds dog that has not been fixed. He’s aggressive and should not be allowed to roam in the restaurant where there are small children and other dogs. They will tell you they are dog friendly, but do not bring your dogs. We took our dog and their German Shepherd dog attacked our dog. The owner did nothing to pull his dog off of our dog and then told us to leave and not come back again with our dogs. I guarantee you we will never come back.

We love this place !!
From burgers to very high end food
Awesome beer and wine selection
Great place to stop for
Lunch by land or sea

My husband and I were there last weekend. What we witnessed was very HORRIFYING to say the least. The waiter had apparently gotten quite a few things wrong on a family next to us orders. The family was very understanding and patient with him. After a few moments it became obvious that one persons order had been forgotten. Again, she was very patient with the waiter. Her order came after the other family members were almost done with their meals. While she was fixing her hamburger, the owner approached her. Out of now where he threw an adult sized tantrum ranting, slamming things, and talking about the family to other customers. It was very disturbing that a business owner would conduct himself in a that manner. So instead he deleted that ticket. Crazy that he was willing to forgo what had to be a $ 120 bill vs. $ 5 for ice-​cream, which would have been a kind gesture. The woman apparently asked that in lieu of what happened if he would comp 3 ice-​cream bars for the children while they waited for her to finish her meal.
I was able to witness all this because I had to wait 20 minutes before anyone came to our table to take our order. Mind you, only 4 tables were occupied.
I debated writing this but noticed this is not the first time to blow up at customers. Dine there at your own risk. And don’t complain or ask for anything. We will not be returning.

With only one option for food on Lake LBJ, we didn’t have much for am option.
Beer was cool but not cold. My husband a the supposedly very spicy chicken sandwich which turned out to be a preformed chicken breast doused with hot sauce and placed on the outdoor gas grill. It was no longer crispy once it set on the grill for a few minutes. My burger was ok but again pretty flavorless. Both were served with Ruffles chips which appeared to be the ones from the bottom of the bag chips.
Oh…I almost forgot the chips and salsa that were $ 2.50 per person were stale tortilla chips and Pace picante sauce.
For such a nice lake I would expect so much more and definitely more than 1 subpar restaurant with 2 large dogs watching my every bite.
Yikes!!!

What a great discovery!!! My wife and I found this little treasure while enjoying lake LBJ. We could smell some delicious beef being grilled and decided to give it a try. The burgers were huge and we both devoured them quickly while enjoying some cold beverages. The sunset was beautiful and the staff made sure we didn’t go thirsty. It is very common to see deer walking down the road in this area. We had such a great time that we came back Saturday for lunch and had the pulled pork. My wife was stuffed but I made sure to save room for ice cream. We spoke with several of the regulars who come every day to hang out and they mentioned that many customers come back every year during vacation. I want to go back and stay in one of the rooms at the resort and rent some jet skis.

Great place to grab a delicious burger while out on the boat. Burgers are grilled on a huge outside grill and served on the most delicious homemade jalepeno cheese rolls. Definitely worth the calories! After 5, you can sit on the deck and enjoy perfectly cooked steaks served with homemade beans and creamy potato salad. We eat hear every summer and love the place!

Public health hazard; frozen food that is not good or properly cooked.
About half the shrimp in our order of bacon wrapped shrimp were undercooked and raw, as was much of the bacon on all the shrimp. We sent it back and noted to the waiter that the shrimp were raw. The waiter took the shrimp back and never returned with a corrected order, nor did he remove the item from the bill.
My order of brisket was commended by the waiter as it was «cooked that morning,» suggesting that I was lucky in that they serve food cooked from prior days. My brisket arrived with no barbecue sauce, or sauce of any kind, and a side of ranch style beans from a can (and clearly not a good brand, since they were largely flavorless). My wife’s caesar salad was a cheap pre-​packaged supermarket salad. The others in our party were similarly unimpressed.
The service was extremely slow, with drink requests sometimes taking 15+ minutes to make it to our table despite there being only a handful of other customers.
The bill at the end was enormous and incorrect.
It’s sad this is one of the only options on the lake to get food. It’s unsafe and poor quality.

I come here frequently with my family, it’s a nice drive on the boat from the house, the staff they come right down to help us dock the boat. You can also get fuel and a little store is on the property next to the restaurant and bar area. Great drinks and horderves, the scallops are delicious! Recommend the blue Mexican it’s one of my favorite drinks just don’t under estimate it, it’s strong. I can also catch the game with the new built in outdoor display which is nice. Over all its our evening hangout when we are out on the lake and want to have a drink and a bite to eat.
Hope all is well George, I’m sure we will be seeing you soon.
Cristina–

I desperately want to like this place but can’t. After several visits it is clearly dirty (layers of dust on things, clutter of old décor from various holidays and bulky furnishings.) Could be such a gem and the people are nice and the food actually tasty. But after seeing someone prepare our burgers and use the same rag to wash their hands as wipe the dingy grill surface, I can’t imagine eating there again. I wish bar rescue would save this place, but I think it would be too big a project. It’s the only place in that area of Lake LBJ you can boat into. Such a shame.