The Boathouse Restaurant

I have given the boathouse one too many tries over the last four years. This last visit was by far the worst. My husband and I are always making excuse for why we need to go back (maybe it was just the service tonight, or the cooks were off their game, the patio is awesome...). No more chances boathouse.
The food is always underwhelming, and the service is consistently poor. Today our food took over 45 minutes. We were one of TWO tables in the entire restaurant, confirmed when I walked inside to use the restroom. The other table ordered a basket of fried food, which should have taken mere minutes. Their order took almost as long as ours.
I think they naturally (because of location) have everything going for them, but proactively seek and find reasons to be terrible.
My grilled chicken sandwich was SMOTHERED in mayo. Gross. I ordered it without cheese and with cole slaw as the side. Our server notified us after 40 minutes that "the cook threw some cheese on your sandwich", so he had to remake it. Once it finally came out, it was plated with chips instead of cole slaw.
Our server even said the cook was having a hard time reading today; he put chips on my husband's plate instead of fries but caught it before it was brought out to us. Too bad my husband was able to read today; he might have left a zero behind the tip.  
As if to put the nail in the coffin, as we walked through the restaurant on our way out, my husband and I both noticed all SEVEN employees "working" (excluding however many cooks in the back) were seated, fixed on the TVs. I can see why the service is so awesome.

We have a lakefront cottage fifteen minutes from Sackets Harbor and I've dined at all the restaurants in the area. Many warrant a good review, this one does not.

I've been to The Boathouse on many occasions and while it is not the creme de la creme of Sackets, it has fit the bill in the past, with moderately priced pub fare for hungry boaters and land lubbers alike.  Something however has recently changed, either in staff management or ownership and our business will be elsewhere from now on.

From the start we were thrown by the demeanor of the Host, harried and not much eye contact as he sat us.  The waiter came by for a drink order and when he returned he had a pint of beer which was not the kind my husband ordered. It was served in the incorrect glass and was the wrong color for a Belgium.  Humorously enough he brought the wrong beverage to a gentleman seated near us and was corrected as well. So we had a incompetent waiter. oh well. I was still hopeful until the time crept towards 45minutes with no appetizer or meal in sight. We watched the tables around us get served, people seated after us were eating. We asked what the delay was after overhearing the host say, "Did you put 72's order in? 74 was served before 72!" ok. trouble in paradise. The waiter said, "They are working really hard in there, its coming right up"  His service was poor, but the lack of sincerity in his apologies was even worse. Obvious lack of care or attention.  Our beverage glasses went unfilled for the entire meal.

When we received our food it was undercooked, obviously rushed and at this point the experience was so poor overall it was a tough call as to what specific complaint to bring to the managers attention.  I was upset and embarrassed as we were entertaining guests, and decided to request a word with the manager, who turned out to be the host.  He was not apologetic, but instead asked me to wait while he "checked the time stamp to see if i was correct on my wait times"  WOW.  He basically said, "Your complaint is not valid, I will prove it to you why it is not valid with this slip of paper with tiny numbers on it that I have penned over."  My first thought was to say, " DID that feel good, because it sure looked like you enjoyed feeling superior showing me your receipts. Jokes on you! See these little slips of paper with dead presidents on them? You'll not see any of mine again."  Instead I looked at it and said, "Listen I'd like to give so some friendly advice..." to which folks ( and this is grand and will be the talk of many dinner parties I host for lake locals to come) he ran away yelling, "NO NO NO ENOUGH I WILL NOT LISTEN! GETOUT GET OUT GET OUT!"

We all burst out laughing because lets face it, who does that?!?! Guilty people I suppose, attack and deny is their main defense.  

My friendly advice was; Don't try to prove how the customer is wrong to have had a bad experience , sincerely apologize and offer a promise to correct it in the future. A humble apology, and sincere interest in retaining customers goes a long way. Well, a lot further than showing time stamps and how good you are at condescension.

So travelers BEWARE! Are your vacation dollars so plentiful you will risk this kind of service? I think not.

I invite any comment or response from The Boathouse as I feel your actions are indefensible and really if I was the owner I would want to know exactly what was going on in my restaurant and fix it.

fantastic view of the marinas and even a few ducks while i sipped a margarita, but then i noticed a seagull, evidently he was the guard who let the other seagulls know there was food and they should all attack. they need to put up "invisible" bird netting. other than that it was fantastic and worth every penny