Really wish I could have eaten here one more time before heading back home. They have great beers on tap and the menu is very dynamic! Sitting by the river is great and relaxing even with the screaming kids floating down the river.
The place is set up a little odd so if you walk in the door and it looks like a pool hall, just walk all the way towards the back to find the hostess.
Best seats by the river! Â Get Mimosa or Bloody Mary with breakfast enchilada or chilaquiles. Â No shoes, no shirt, no problem with a drink in your hand! Â I would say this is a good place for drinks and bar food just hanging out by the river. Â We went on a Friday and they had a nice band too.
Review Source:Downtown Salida is a hip place. Â Maybe a little too hip for me. Â You see, I'm kind of a person that doesn't like anything that feels too cool (I wish I could have italicized the 'too cool' part). Â This place was like a cool kid place. Â This is the local happy hour kind of place. Â The, "hey bro what's up, you hear about Mickey? Â Yeah he crashed his moped. Â Dumba$$. Â Yo, you gonna come over tonight?" Â I don't mean that in urban lingo, but that's my idea of how "cool people" talk. Â I know, I'm an idiot.
So, besides it being kind of too hip for a square like me, it was a great foodstuff place. Â The patio, which kind of flows naturally from the bar and the indoor seating (at least in the summer when I was there), is directly above the river and so you get to watch people going downstream in their kayaks and what not. Â That was pretty cool and entertaining.
The food was Mexican, so yeah, I was right at home. Â I can't remember what I had, but the guacamole dip was great. Â This is the kind of place you want to have like 4 beers, get ripped, have a preposterous and ungodly amount of chips and salsa and cheesy Mexican delights, and then stumble out and go "yeah i'll come back here." Â
Don't drink and drive.
Come to the boathouse for a quick bite To eat before heading out of town. Was very impressed with the friendliness of the staff and the relaxed atmosphere. My server Heather went above and beyond to accommodate me. She threaded me like I was in her house. Amazing beer selection too!! I love this place and would recommend it to anyone. I will be returning. Thanks Heather!
Review Source:So great building, huge and historic with great views. Alas the food was bar-average the service slow, disinterested and frankly, dumb.
I was cuious as to the history of a one hundred year old building and i asked the gum chomping waitress for its history. She said, "um I think it used to sell rafts".
Once my meal was served I asked for another beer. It was served as dessert.
I won't come back.
Ate dinner here on our winter trip to Monarch/Salida. I had read the reviews and thought the setting and menu sounded like our type of place...not really that impressed. We started with the jalapeño poppers for an appetizer.  Being from Texas there is a high standard to live up to but these didn't even come close.  The jalapeños were not cooked at all, they had way too much cream cheese, and the bacon wrap was WAY over done. Not to mention the not even paired appropriately lime dipping sauce. YUCK!!!  My husband had the tacos...the fish was good but the carne asada was lacking meat.  These also were oddly paired with potato chips. My son had the Philly Cheesesteak. It was also was lacking meat and the bread was a little over powering. I had the "Best Chicken Strips Ever". They were good but definitely did not live up to their claim.
Quite frankly the beer was cold and the view was awesome. That was the best part. Â May just come again just for drinks.
Riverside location is the best feature. Â Noisy when half empty during a Broncos game. Â We requested seating on the patio and were shown to one of the 3 empty umbrella tables on the patio. Â While perusing the menu I noticed a lot of food litter on the floor under our see through mesh patio table and salsa smeared on the umbrella pole at diner's eye level. Â Probably a kid mess...can't imagine any adults being that messy. Â An unsightly view at best. Â Waitress delivering our beverage was so quick to scurry away, we couldn't get her attention to wipe up the salsa mess till she delivered our food. Â If they are this casual about cleanliness in the dining area....I'd hate to see the kitchen. Â Food not particularly memorable. Â Won't come here again.
Review Source:The Boat House sits right next to Arkansas River. The place can get pretty filled up but do whatever you have to to get a seat near the edge. There is terrific people watching -- swimming, kayak course practicing. And the river is just a beautiful view anyway.
The Staff can be sporadic. But this is Salida. It seems to kind of fit the town. Ok. I just lied. It's annoying. But they hire these young kids so I'm blaming it in the work ethic of their generation. :-p...
I discovered the fish tacos a couple of years ago and now I have to get them every time. I want to try something new. But when they ask what I want, I blurt out "fish tacos" and then the deal is set. Granted, I'm always happy when they arrive.
My dad went adventurous and ordered the moose chili. And no, that's not a typo. Truly fabulous. If you see it, get it. You won't be disappointed.
And I have to say, the Boat House has the best darn nacho chips I've found in a while. They could be a whole meal on their own.
Came here per a suggestion from a local friend. Somewhat OK view of the bridge and kayak park. Had the fajita burrito which was literally black beans, rice and unseasoned steak in a tortilla 'smothered' in watery green chile. By 'smothered' I mean barely perceptible. If I were the chef/owner, I'd feel embarrassed to put something out of such poor quality. Husband had the 'best chicken strips ever' and they were far better than my dish, but certainly not deserving of such a claim. Service was decent. Will not be going back.
Review Source:OK Boathouse............You are pretty, and you have a great menu, and you deliver with good food, but:
Your service (in four encounters), feels like "we will get it done in as few steps as possible, without a smile, and you should be appreciative to eat here".
I have never had a good experience at the host stand: I have gone there four times and eaten there twice. Â The staff at the host stand seems confused, hurried, makes no eye contact, there are two lines to get in so that adds to confusion, waves a hand and says "I'll be back in a minute and walks around calling "Jones, party of two"", while there are three groups, in two different lines looking confused.
Waitstaff; Maybe the stations are too big, because it takes a long time to meet with anyone after we were seated, both times. Â My waitress today (Heather), worked my request in in between working three different tasks at two different tables, and that was for a glass of water. Â Things were forgotten, requests "unheard" or ignored, questions about the food forgotten, and the best part is how she worked in her sidework in front of us. Â This was done while talking to a manager.
Food was good. Â Menu is impressive for a mountain town. Â Room is pretty, location rocks. Â I hope it sticks around so let's get proud about serving your guests.
I really wanted to love this place but found it amazingly lacking. Â Easily the best thing about it was it's location right on the river, offering some lovely views.
We started with an order of chips, salsa and queso which was all just meh. Â Not bad but definitely not great. Â The queso was decent but the salsa was boring. Â My friend had a margarita which was also meh and definitely not worth the price.
Probably the worst part, other than the service, was the chili. Â For the life of me, I have no idea how anyone can make a buffalo and chorizo chili turn out bland and absolutely flavorless but they found a way. Â I doubt they used any seasonings, whatsoever. Â It was edible but still so overwhelmingly tasteless that I was ready to go back to the kitchen and give their "cooks" a cooking lesson. Â It was also served barely lukewarm, so I'm guessing it sat in the kitchen a looong time before the server thought to look for it. Â My friend's burger was OK but that was about it. Â
The service was also poor, mostly due to our server spending all his time flirting with a group of teenage Texas girls who I doubt were carded before being served their drinks. Â All of his other tables, including ours, were waiting throughout our entire meals just to get refills on our drinks or be checked on at all. Â I'm sure this is why my chili was barely warm when it finally arrived. Â As someone who once waited tables, I can't seem to make myself under tip. Â He therefore definitely wasn't worth the tip we left.
At some point, we might go back for a simple beer and burger or appetizer on the river but I doubt we'll try anything fancier there. Â The views are the only reason we might even try this.
We waited a loooong time for a table but it was well worth it. Â The waiting area is funky with old sofas, chairs and tables and a ping pong table that is rarely used. Â I guess no one wants to play and have all the rest of the waiting parties laugh at them.
The food is good and cooked to order, the ambiance lively, service attentive and view of the river fantastic. Â What else do you need? Â Oh yeah, beer, wine and cocktails are available but it wasn't anywhere near 5 o'clock yet, or I could elaborate.
We sat at a table overlooking the river. Â That in itself is worth the trip! Â We were tired after a long day in the sun and enjoyed watching activity by the river. Â We ordered the chips and salsa to start and were given a generous portion. Â I ordered the shrimp tacos and they were very good! Â I would definitely recommend this place if you are looking for a laid-back restaurant with good views and good food.
Review Source:Great food, friendly staff, nice atmosphere. Â I read some reviews about the service being slow. Â I think that some folks may confuse laid back with slow or lazy, and believe me, patience is not one of my virtues, but be a tad patient, your food will come. Â Get a table on the river, sit back and enjoy the view. Â We had lunch there and went back for some beverages the next evening. Â My husband had the Green Chili BLT and said it was awesome, I had Spicy Shrimp Tacos - also great. Â Everything is very fresh - the menu says that they take pride in their mountains and rivers... and that they use organic, local and farm to table produce and meats....and so on. Â Very reasonably priced. Â If we are back in the area, we will definitely visit them again!
Review Source:Great location on the river and really good food. I started off with the Eddy & Ginger Line cocktail, which is kind of like a cross between a lemon drop martini and a ginger beer, but not overly sweet. Very nice! We shared a spinach salad with pesto vinaigrette, which was excellent. My wife had the pork green chili, and I had the Black & Blue Cajun burger. Both were delicious.
Review Source:The food is good, but it's mostly bar food. Â The Ahi Tuna Skewers were surprisingly tasty for a restaurant that focuses on burgers and sandwiches. Â It's the ambiance of this pace that made me give it 4 stars. Â Casual, fun, bright, and happening.
A table by the 'garage door' windows, overlooking the river, drinking a beer (or 2!) after an outdoor adventure? Â Boathouse, you've won my heart! Â
Make sure to check whether it's Happy Hour or not because neither the hostess or waitress mentioned it to us and their Happy Hour menu has some great deals!
DELICIOUS food!!! Â The location is amazing, you can take in the great river views while sipping on yummy cocktails that are both strong and inventive!
 We started with some tasty appetizers:  fresh hot jalapeno poppers and some cream cheese stuffed bacon wrapped mushrooms that I have been dreaming of ever since!!  The soups were very flavorful and complex. The chicken tenders were fresh cut and hand battered, dipped in housemade ranch YUM!! Not the frozen junk most places serve. The emphasis is certainly on fresh, homemade and mouth-watering food!
 They have great fish and pork tacos and huge burritos with lean, juicy meat, fresh vegetables and housemade sauces!  Even though we were stuffed, we ordered a few desserts anyway and  WoW!! really decadent and a great way to end a perfect meal. Â
 Chef John is very talented and fed us well!!  Definitely make Boathouse Cantina your destination in Salida, it's the best restaurant around by far!!
If you like Colorado or micro beers, enjoy good atmosphere, and better bar food than most restaurants offer, your in luck. Â Sitting right on the Arkansas River in Downtown Salida, this is the place to check out and enjoy. Â Bartenders remembers names and the beers your most into, which is a must for my beer loving self. Â Oh, and if your into watching sports, the TV's are huge.
Review Source:The Boathouse would have gotten 5 stars for letting us bring our dog on the patio and for the $3 Blue Moon's. But they fell short on the appetizers. My husband got the chicken wings. According to the menu, there were suppose to be 5. He only got 4 and said they were mediocre in taste. I got the stuffed mushrooms. The stuffing was good but they were breaded and fried. Just a bit too much greasiness. I think they would be better topped with breadcrumbs and baked.
Maybe their dinner items are better.
The place is on the Arkansas River, for that I give it 5 stars.
We just completed a 25 mile off-road adventure from Buena Vista, we needed Beer and that was it.
We were able to sit by the river and enjoy an adult beverage, it was nice. I am not giving it five stars because we did not try the food. I refuse to give it four stars because the whole time we were enjoying the round of Beers, I got the feeling from the waitress that she was pissed we were not ordering food.
If you happen to be a tourist, this place is worth checking out for a Beer and a view.
We have a cabin in Howard and come here pretty much every trip we get down here. Â It's SO Salida -- laid back, friendly, beers flowing, windows wide open to the Arkansas River below. Â
As often as we come here, I've never once had an issue with service so I find those comments a little strange. Â I mean, the place is relatively small so when you ask for something, it has generally arrives stat -- even when the place is full.
One Sunday, we brought the dog to sit on the patio with us while we enjoyed Hawaiian French Toast in the sunshine. Â Along the line of food recommendations: Â try the Fish Tacos -- mild fish, amazing pico de gallo, and this unusual tortilla they serve -- a flour tortilla with corn bits, served crisp on the outside but with just the right chewiness to be really satisfying. Â My fiance never strays from the Carne Asada -- he swears by it. Â I've had several other offerings from the menu, but I have to tell you, those two are the stand-outs for us.
5 stars for the great location - right on the Arkansas river, with nice big open windows. Â During our dinner, we got to watch a beautiful sunset, a kayaker doing flips in a rapids, and countless dogs swimming after tennis balls in the river.
3 stars for the food - I had a quesadilla that was pretty average, after being told they were out of my first choice, the lettuce wraps. Â My companions enjoyed their meals of hamburgers, so maybe that would have been a safer choice.
I had one of their drink specials - something with raspberry and vodka - that was quite delicious. Â Love the laid-back atmosphere of the place - I'll definitely be back the next time I'm in Salida.
Location is right.
2 visits in 2 days, not because the food is anything beyond the usual, but because it was located in the right place.
#1 visit: Â The waitress was slow, but nice. Â Mind you, we were there during lunch on a Friday. But we were there for drinks.
#2 visit:  We chose it because of location and we had our dog with us and we saw dogs on the patio the previous day.  So in we went with our giant lab.  We tried to tuck him into a corner, but how can  you do that  with 97 pounds of furry friendliness?  Not a word was said, not an eyebrow was raised.  Cool.  Big points for that. +2
The food took an incredible amount of time.  My glucose was dropping, I was getting very CRANKY.  After 30 min or more I finally asked for chips or something, said the food would be right out, but brought a bowl  of salsa/chips and said they were on the house because of the wait.  +1 for the chips, -1 for not offering them earlier.
Now the food. Â When I announced my choice, the waiter rattled off a list of all the food they were out of. Â They were out of Calamari, but the person at the table just before us had it. Â
My husband ordered the steak salad, too bad for him, I ate most of it off his plate! Â It was great even without the ranch (?) dressing served on the side. Â I wish I had ordered it. Â My alternate choice, Shrimp Rangoon, was good. Â I'm a super-taster, so I scraped out most of the cream cheese concoction with the nacho chipz to make the dish last. Â Even the small salad it sat atop of was tasty, Â I cleaned my plate, and his.+2
The service was slow. Â There was an empty table with a "reserved" sign on it in the corner. Â It sat unused for more than an hour. Finally someone took it under protest from the waitstaff. Â They sat and declared they would leave if the "reserved" party arrived. Â Good for them! Â I suspect the staff just did that to alleviate their workload. Damn, I wish I was that assertive. -1 for sneaky methods.
Yeah, we'd probably come again. Â The location is great and my dog is welcome. Â For that I will tolerate slow service.
The location is sick...right next to the river where you can easily dodge flyfishermen's flies from your seat, watch kayakers continuously go upside down, and peer down on all the people walking their dogs.
Food's solid with big ole buffalo burgers, cooked properly. Â Guac was meh, beer selection was pretty good and it was a ruckus time for the USA - Ghana match.
The realtor's mantra: location, location, yeah you get it. Yes, they'd get 5 stars there. You can take in all the sights of Salida from their patio dining. The food? We went with a party of 6. Two ordered soup only and our meals took over an hour to get. Ok, I understand that I need to calm my Denver dwelling self, but really over an hour for a burrito and a couple of hamburgers? The service was pleasant. The cheap chardonnay was drinkable and my out of state guests were so pleased to have a buffalo burger..that I may return, but possibly only to drink.
Review Source:We stopped here on the way from Durango to Denver and had a decent lunch.
The tacos were a bit above average - not for authenticity, but just for tastiness. Â There were also good-sized, as advertised. Â Strangely, we both liked the chipotle chicken better than the pork with bacon, etc, breaking a cardinal rule of food (pork fat makes it better). Â Both were good, however.
The service was a bit spotty. Â It was nice to overlook the river during lunch.
Been a few times, it's a good ultra-casual place to grab a beer or some simple food. Nice location on the river, when they roll up the garage-style windows and the kayakers are running the rapids below it can be great. Typical bar food, nothing particularly great, but nothing bad, their green chile BLT is pretty nice, thick bacon piled on and cooked like I like it with guac and a little green chile. Their servers are cute and always been on the ball.
Review Source:After a great afternoon of mountain biking with two friends who live in Salida we went here for dinner, drinks and to watch the kayakers preparing for the Fibark competition. Â First impression was cool, great deck with a great view! Grabbed a drink while waiting for a table and had friendly service and good drinks.
Then things started to go downhill fast. Â We sit down and our friendly waiter appears and takes our order. Â He comes back 5-10 minutes later and asks how we are doing. Â I reply "great, can you get the chips, salsa and guacamole that we ordered" and Starr asks for a round of waters. He apologizes and quickly returns with chips and salsa but leaves before I can ask about the guacamole. Â He comes back at an appropriate time to ask how we are doing and we order another round of drinks and ask if he could bring us some water (still haven't received the water we ordered last time and by then we were half through the chips and salsa and since he had not brought the guacamole I figured I would just save the $4-$5 up charge and deal without it). Â He then comes back about ten minutes later and asks if we want another round of drinks! To which we reply, yes, we ordered another round from you 10 minutes ago. Â Finally the second round of drinks arrive (but still no water) and food comes a few minutes later (easy 45 minutes from order food until it arrived). Â Mike and I had the triple pork tacos (carnitas, bacon and BBQ?) that sounded great on the menu. Â Unfortunately the meat was burnt and very dry which was to bad because the bbq sauce was pretty good. Â Starr ordered a meal that was advertised as coming with Guacamole yet she received none so after getting our waiters attention he brought her some guacamole.
Then the bill came and we noticed that we were charged for an order of chips, salsa and guacamole instead of just chips and salsa. Â Finally after getting our waiters attention (he had three other tables and a girl he was flirting with at the bar) we explain what happens and he takes the guacamole off the bill. Â Then we wait 30 minutes for him to come take payment.
Before the 30 minute delay we were discussing the horrible service and figuring we would tip maybe 10% (Starr and I have both spent years working in restaurants and I usually tip 20% for good service and 25-30% for great service). Â Well, after the delay we decided he really didn't deserve a tip at all for such crappy service so we decide not to tip (first time in my life). Â On the way out the manager gets in our face and yells at us for stiffing his best server and then asks why we did it. Â Before listening to our complete reply he tells us that that is BS and walks away from us. Â I get the managers attention and explain the entire story and he says, "sorry, we were slammed".
Well every table was full and there were a few groups waiting for tables and having drinks at the bar but having worked in restaurants for the last 20 years (as a bartender) no one would say they were slammed.
I will never return to this restaurant.
First Visit:
Cheap as hell happy hour (3 drinks for $6.50) but kind of, crappy service.
The entire bar seating area is semi-outside and overlooking the river where countless kayakers are practicing/showing off their moves.
We ordered food here, waited 45 minutes and finally realized noone ever placed our order (not by asking our now non-existent waitress, but by asking the bartender if we even had an order that had been placed). Â After we realized it'd be another half hour or so, after our order was REALLY placed this time, we decided f it, and went to Amica's.
Three stars solely for the  cheap happy hour and view.  Can't comment on the food since ours never arrived.
Second Visit:
I went back the next day (the menu looked really good) and received wonderful service and fabulous food!  The chips/salsa are cheap and delish!  Highly recommended.  Apparently they had just barely opened (surprising since this  place was absolutely packed) so my first experience may have been growing pains.  Changed from 3 to 4 stars.
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