Dinner at the Boathouse

[MrcAec]

We are heading to Disney Springs for dinner one night only, looking for honest opinions of The Boathouse. No children or grandkids this time, just the two seniors......

 

[katallo]

We are in the same position. We had dinner and lunch there a few weeks ago. By far, two of our best meals. Much better than the resort hotel restaurants. Try the filet mignon sliders and the mahi tacos. Key lime pie was excellent. Enjoy

Summer Lake House was also very good.

 

[NYCgrrl]

One of our favorite DS eateries.
On longer trips have eaten there twice with and without younger people. Love the oysters w/ the cuke mignonette, the firecracker shrimps and the wedge salad in particular.
I’m not a big eater of steaks but the traveling kids liked their’s just fine. We tend to skip the dessert for the gelato at Vivoli, across the street; not as heavy.

 

[LoveDaisy]

I’m going to be the one to say it was one and done for me. I found it to be red lobster quality and as someone who worked at red lobster back in the day

If you live in an area with great seafood (I’m in New England) I would pass. If you live somewhere where you don’t get local seafood I would go. That’s my general rule for most restaurants at Disney.

I would recommend Flying fish over boathouse.

 

[CynBeth]

We enjoyed it when we had dinner there a few years ago.

 

[georgina]

We are heading to Disney Springs for dinner one night only, looking for honest opinions of The Boathouse. No children or grandkids this time, just the two seniors......

We have enjoyed dining there a few times. As a senior with a smaller appetite, I like a salad and sandwich. Check out the menu; its generally a solid choice and a fun place to dine. A cocktail at Jock Lindsey's next door before dinner is good too!

 

[Boopuff]

We love the Boathouse, especially the bar over the water.

 

[focusondisney]

The steaks there are excellent, very flavorful. As are the sides. It can be a bit loud tho, it’s not a quiet atmosphere.

 

[japanese maple]

Oh no!

I'm not a steak eater so I was going to try the lobster roll - I've never had lobster before. My back up was the crab cakes with a side of fries.
Maybe I need a second back up?

Ooops! I meant to quote person who said it was worse than Red Lobster, sorry!

 

[NYCgrrl]

Oh no!

I'm not a steak eater so I was going to try the lobster roll - I've never had lobster before. My back up was the crab cakes with a side of fries.
Maybe I need a second back up?

Ooops! I meant to quote person who said it was worse than Red Lobster, sorry!

It’s okay, I’m sure she’ll answer but just wanted to put my 2 cents in .
I’m a big fan of their raw bar as you’ll note from my menu choices so can’t say much about their cooked food.
I do know that much like @LoveDaisy, I’m picky about my fish and have never had a lobster roll there (uh the roll is not shaped properly, lol).

The menu says the crab cake is made with lump meat so I’d be willing to try it.
If you don’t like it- have another drink!

 

[hsmamato2]

I like it a lot- esp for adults. I don't think it's like a red lobster (I don't like cheap chain restaurants)

 

[disneyseniors]

We are heading to Disney Springs for dinner one night only, looking for honest opinions of The Boathouse. No children or grandkids this time, just the two seniors......

We are two seniors too!
We always ate at Boathouse when we went to Disney. It was always a very good meal with great service. We love the atmosphere too. We have never had a bad meal or a sub-par meal there. It's a great place to dine. It was our one go to place to eat. We haven't been for a while due to my husbands nerve issues, but if we went back to disney, we would definitely eat there again

 

[nursejackie]

We've eaten there on our last 3 or 4 trips and always had lovely food. When visiting in December we prefer to sit outside overlooking the water, but our last visit was in August so in much need of some aircon so sat inside. As others have said, it can be a bit noisy inside, so not sure if we'll bother next August.

 

[Melissa Perez]

If you live in an area with great seafood (I’m in New England) I would pass. If you live somewhere where you don’t get local seafood I would go.

Agree with this! Also from New England and didn't think it was terrible, but not impressed compared to food at home at a higher (disney) pricetag.

 

[The Mayor]

We love The Boathouse and try to eat there every trip. Now being from MA, which has the best seafood, I never get seafood when we travel but I have had the best steaks there and get one every time.

 

[katallo]

I was tempted to try the crab cakes. When I told them I was from Maryland they suggested the Mahi. LOL

 

[japanese maple]

Well, I love crabcakes and I don't live in the Northeast so I'll just take my chances.

 

[gmi3804]

It's not Red Lobster quality, and that's not an opinion. The steaks are prime and the seafood is sourced from he best industry suppliers, not by mass market chain restaurant suppliers. You may not care for it, but the quality is among the highest available to restaurants.

 

[Ralph&Pam]

The Boathouse is a member of the Chicago-based Gibsons Restaurant Group. Gibsons operates a number of steakhouses, fish restaurants, an Italian steakhouse, and other concepts in the city and its suburbs as well as a location in Texas and the Boathouse in Disney Springs. They’re a highly respected Chicago steakhouse operation, in a city that has a number of such. We eat at a couple of their suburban-Chicago restaurants, and have found the Boathouse to measure up in terms of both food quality and service. It works well for us since DW eats little seafood, and never when dining out at this price point, while I take every opportunity to eat seafood options I never get at home. So one steak and one seafood selection for us. We like to start the evening with a stop at the nearby Jock Lindsey’s Hanger Bar for a pre-dinner drink and appetizer course, so we haven’t tried any of the appetizers at the Boathouse.

 

[LoveDaisy]

Oh no!

I'm not a steak eater so I was going to try the lobster roll - I've never had lobster before. My back up was the crab cakes with a side of fries.
Maybe I need a second back up?

Ooops! I meant to quote person who said it was worse than Red Lobster, sorry!

That was me who compared it to Red Lobster. All the seafood we had was previously frozen and not fresh and I would say the coconut shrimp we had as an appetizer was pre breaded and not prepared at the restaurant. It tasted like what I would get at the freezer section on the grocery store. Nothing seemed freshly prepared to us.

The waitress also didn’t recommend multiple items when I asked about them and while I appreciate the honesty it didn’t make you want to eat there. She definitely recommended the steak and sliders (which was odd because I was only asking about seafood and she was like don’t get any of it lol) but I don’t eat red meat so I still ordered seafood. For the price I expected more.

Edit: I eat mostly seafood and I tend to eat at what we call seafood shacks. These places dot the shoreline in CT they get seafood fresh every day, prices are low, and views are spectacular. I tried scallops and lobster bisque at 12 this year kind of a taste test. Last summer I tried hot lobster rolls at all the ones I went to, my expectations may be very different than others. It’s why I recommend eating what you don’t get locally when going to Disney.