boathouse 19

we started with calamari, lightly breaded with cornmeal, and included fried onions and jalapeño, that was a perfect starter. i had a carolina pork bbq sandwich with beans and my wife ordered salmon chowder and spinach salad with chèvre. all really delicious! we will be back.

we go for the views. the fish and chips is reliable. last night we waited 45 minutes for our food. the waitress screwed up 2 out of 3 orders, as in completely wrong dish. problem included wrong daily special menu. management comped the meal that we did not order. waitress gave excuses and got scarce. we have leftover goodwill that will bring us back, but i will be boycotting for a while.

a real fun place , neat location, nothing fancy just good simple food featuring fish of course, the fish was cooked perfect , the chowder was flavourful, great view , the only thing that was off keel, was a waiter slammed up against the window and scared the hell out of me, in the end it was funny and just added to already good time, great job thanks!

enjoyed shrimp po boy and grilled cheese and tomato soup. nice selection of microbrews. enjoyed the view of the bridge and ambiance

food is good, but call to see if they are open. i stopped in tonight at 9 pm and they had closed. the online hours say they are open until 11 pm.

happy hour......not!!!. well, i believe we have visited this waterside restaurant for the last time. my wife and i stopped by to enjoy happy hour. we were escorted to the deck area where we immediately ordered drinks and appetizers. the server stated that only drinks were reduced during happy hour. food was only reduced if dining in the bar area????? we ordered a few mixed drinks from the menu, but when they arrived to our table, they were "happy hour" size and not the same as stated on the menu. the drinks were terrible. as for the low grade food products we were served, the "crispy calamari" was far from satisfactory. when the plate arrived, it was 11 large, fat strips of deep fried squid flesh positioned on top of thin sliced fried onions. i could not tell if the rubbery masses were in fact calamari?? at 11 dollars for the appetizer plate, we were extremely disappointed. as for the fried pickles, it seemed to be a half order, "happy hour" serving, at the same regular price... the service was not much better as my mixed drink glass remained unattended the entire time. the server did ask towards the end of our dining experience if i want anymore water..... but truly failed to fulfill her hired job position. its hard to understand why a restaurant in todays economical times serves lackluster food dishes and tolerates sub-par customer service. after reading other review post, it is obvious that professional management experiences is lacking within their organization. with a new micro-brewery establishment opened up next door, relying on food service from boathouse 19; owners, stakeholders and investors beware... hope we see a turn-around soon??

tried so hard to like this place. my friends and i gave this place sooo many chances. every time we have been her the service has been awful with long wait times after ordering food. one time we were even turned away on a saturday night at 8pm. the reason: the had run out of food. i have been to boathouse 19 five times, and i think that was three times too many.

the fish tacos were bland, worst i've ever had. i would have been much happier with jack in the box $1 tacos. i hate it when places try to make their food "unique" and ruin a potentially delicious dish. disappointed.

entree???. i just dined at boathouse 19, in tacoma wa, for the third time, which may be my last. i was left feeling hungry and a little ripped off. i ordered a crab cake entree and what i received was certainly not an entree. i paid $16.00 for two 2-inch crab cakes. now let me say i did ask the server prior to ordering if this was an appetizer or entree and was told it was an entree. whereas i am a proponent of portion size this is beyond portion control. $8.00 a crab cake is a rip off. now they were tasty but worth $8.00 each, no! there was nothing more on the plate except undressed arugula. this was my birthday dinner and i can tell you i don't feel like celebrating after my meal. if you decide to order the crab cake entree be prepared to leave hungry. or you could just order two crab cake entrees for $32.00 and get a full size portion!

i forgot to add that the staff new the menus very well, and waiting on our food was the best experience yet! we were starved and the food took no more than 4-6 minutes to get to the table! it was incredible. these people even talked to my 2 year old daughter. they were happy and friendly. i did not want to leave these aspects out!


-----14 apr, 2013-----

this place was awesome! me and my husband have began trying all type of restaurants around washington(like we are on the food network channel) lol and we rate them then put up reviews online. i will say this is by far the best restaurant i have been to. the staff was sooo friendly. they worked as a team. even though someone different than our waiter brought out our food he was very generous and made sure we had everything we needed. we were not checked on every two mins which was great. they had perfect timing when it came to refills, moving plates out of the way, and asking for desserts. the food was beyond tasty. it was fried just right, my steak was cooked exactly like i wanted it cooked, and the happy hour drinks?? good lord! i dont think i fix drinks as strong as the one i had. lol it was great! we will be coming back! maybe even tomorrow! lol i would like to say thank you to the staff, chefs, and managers for making our visit fantastic!!

cascade of service fails. an enviting environment and flavorful food is overshadowed by a lack of ability to provide an appropriate service experience. having read the reviews about good food with service issues, we decided to take a chance and catch the sunset. first the greeting, couples awaiting a table after standing with no attention for several minutes called out to a nearby waitress do we seat ourselves? the waitress cruised by and said "not unless you want the bar" and walked away shouting as she left "we have a hostess". 3 minutes later a hostess did appear. we waited 5 minutes for this appearance and the folks in front of us had waited longer....just to be acknowleged. second the meal. 10 minutes to order and 15 minutes of kitchen waiting. a promise of a drink refill was not done until a runner brought our food to the next table over. realizing that my food had been handed to the wrong table the runner said we will remake this...and set down my dining partners food arranging said drink refill. a good 7 minutes later my food came out..but the meat was cold and seemed as though it had been rinsed with cold water and then repositoned on my replacement salad. they were always polite but incompetent. finally the cash out. 10 minutes after we had both had clearly finished eating our waiter who was shooting the breeze at the next table interrupted his conversation long enough for us to hand him our card to cash out not even waiting for the bill as this was likely to add to the wait. i went to the restroom and said i would meet my party by the front door since the staff already had our card. i was in restroom for 5 and outside for another 8 minutes before i re entered the restaurant to find my dining partner only now signing the bill and giving me an incredulous look. it seems their machine needed paper and only a select few knew how to change it so we had to wait. it is such a pity with investment on infratructure, and attention to good menu, that they could hit this trifecta of service failures with a smile.

a group of my family met for a birthday dinner. after a 50 minute wait, we were finally seated. it's too bad the restaurant isn't equipped for people to wait, especially if they have children. we were told to wait in the bar, but with 3 under 21, not a good idea. but dinner. soups, salads, burgers, fish tacos, and fish and chips. the burgers, soups and salads were good. fish and chips were reported to be a bit "bready". and the fish tacos were horrible. the cooks smothered the fish in a tomatillo sauce and that's all you could taste. would be better served on the side so you could add as you chose. came with a corn and tomato side that was tasteless and soggy.

service is less than stellar. some of the adults decided to go into the bar for a drink while we waited. had it not been for the manager (i think - not wearing server attire), we wouldn't have gotten drinks at all. numerous wait staff rushed right by - none stopping to see if we needed/wanted anything.

bad service, horrible food. save your money and go somewhere else for the view.

good food, service lacking. went here for my birthday celebration during happy hour. we got seated right away, as we went about 4:30-5. still took them a long time to get our drinks. gertie's lemonade was an awesome drink, but the shipwrecked mojito was flat tasting--won't order again. the fish tacos were very good. might go back, in a smaller group or for lunch. they will hopefully get a handle on their service. they would do well to take reservations.

the deck is a very relaxing beautiful waterfront spot on a nice day. heaters in the evening. staff is super. good burgers and shakes. busy so expect some wait time. noticed the preparation of food has improved since opened. we go often mostly for the location.......and the pickles.

great deck. my husband and i went around 8:30 a week ago, had drinks and desert on the deck. we loved it! went this week end for dinner. it was super busy, popular place! unfortunately, took half an hour to get our drinks even though we were waited on quickly. since it was so busy, sat in bar area. lots of room but very loud. should have waited for deck seat. food was fine. service, again, not great. hopefully just because it was busy. will come again. fun, lively place.