Housed in a stand-alone colonial style building right next to Fullerton Hotel, Boathouse (used to be Bacchus Boathouse) has undergone a change of new management recently. I didn’t even know of this Modern European restaurant until Harris invited Angeline, Glenn and I for dinner.
Coincidentally, Boathouse invited some famous food bloggers (sadly, yours truly is not one of them, haha) for a food tasting session recently and their reviews were more than favourable. While I take those raving reviews with more than a pinch of salt (it’s only natural that 90% 80% of the contents says good stuff since their dinner was free they were invited guests), I’m still surprised by our vastly different (not in a good way) our experience was, compared to Camemberu, Lady Iron Chef and The Little Teochew.
So, even though I always write with honesty, do read this with a pinch of salt too since your experience may be totally different from mine, but I hope this gives another perspective into dining at Boathouse.
The homemade tomato bread wasn’t served warm, a mistake that many restaurants make and overlook. I don’t think any of us finished it since it wasn’t that fresh or tasty anyway.
Fish Chowder ($15++) is one of Boathouse’s signature dishes so it seemed like a safe enough item to try. A rose petal of sea bass carpaccio was first placed in front of us, and then after all of us had taken all the shots we wanted, the waitress proceeded to pour the steaming hot chowder around the carpaccio.
Immersed in the hot creamy liquid, the thin slices of carpaccio cooked really fast. It tasted good enough to me, nothing spectacular though. Certainly no “wow” moment. Actually, the gimmicky interesting presentation appealed more to me than the chowder itself.
Harris charmed the waitress to let him order the Wagyu Burger ($25++) from Prelude, the rooftop bar just one level up. Bad choice though, the patty was really small (buried under the sunny side up) and both the bun and patty had ugly burnt marks on them.
Our food took a real long time to come even though the restaurant was less than half full. We waited, and waited, and waited… Until Harris finished his burger and we were still waiting. Until the fireworks started (I’m not joking!) and we were still waiting. Note that hungry food bloggers are not happy people, hah.
The food finally came out of the kitchen after an hour or so. While the rest was not impressed with their mains (more on that later), I was happy with the way my Black Cod ($31++) turned out. Instead of a savoury sauce, the chef uses a sweet Japanese plum jus to complement the oily fish. Very unique and different, and this is going on my list of favourite fish dishes (which is saying a lot since I eat lots of fish)!
The waitress recommended Angeline to go for the French Smoked Duck ($26++) braised with mint in orange-infused Frangelico. Her comment? Not tender and Cafe Oliv’s rendition is much nicer so please infer from that.
Another signature item is the Tagliatelle Wild Mushroom ($19++) in a truffle cream rose sauce. Sounds nice on the menu but when I tasted this, I was like “hmm, where’s the aroma of truffle?”. Personally for me, this was on the salty side and pasta was overcooked (way past al dente). I don’t dare to quote Glenn’s comment on his pasta since I don’t want another lawsuit coming my way, hah.
It may be due to our hunger, or portions are not substantial enough, but we were still hungry after the mains. So we headed upstairs to Prelude for desserts and the million dollar view of the Esplanade and Marina Bay area.
There seemed to be a shortage of staff that day. We were not shown to our seats and no menu/water was served even after we were seated for a reasonably long time. Someone noticed our existence at last and we ordered all 4 desserts in the menu. A BIG mistake, I’m telling you.
My favourite (relatively) out of the 4 is the Signature Tiramisu ($12++) made with lots of whiskey. I like tiramisu with a strong liquor kick so this delivered! But the balance of mascarpone cheese (too much) and soaked ladyfingers was disproportionate.
I’m never into Panna Cotta ($11++) because it’s usually too creamy after a few bites so I don’t have high expectation for it. This is not bad if you are into the softer-than-tofu variety.
The shocker came when the Baked Apple Tart ($12++) was served. It’s incredibly tiny, I kid you not. Put your forefinger and thumb together to make a circle now. You got it, that’s the approximate size of the tart mini tartlet. To pay $12++ is daylight robbery so not worth it! And it didn’t even taste good to justify the hefty price tag in the first place.
Creme Brulee ($15++) is your traditional custard caramel infused with lemon verbena so it’s more tangy than sweet. The shot of licorice reduction by the side is meant to clear your palette but it’s superfluous since it’s tasteless. So it serves the same purpose as the glass of ice water? No offence, I may sound harsh but I don’t mince my words.
Even though Boathouse is highly raved about, we feel that there’s still many areas in terms of food and service to improve on. We did give our feedback to Kannan, the manager, and he was really receptive to our comments (basically what you’ve read so far) so that’s a good sign. And I appreciate his kind gesture of waiving off the desserts from the bill. I hope they will brush up their act soon since it does have the potential to be a restaurant with great food (love the cod still!) and a terrific view. Otherwise, diners are going to leave Boathouse dissatisfied and with failed expectations, like us.
Luckily, the company was fabulous! As always.
Was tempted to go now I need to think twice or thrice…I like your fireworks photo 🙂
You are fast! I just posted it and you commented haha.
Do give Boathouse a try, maybe a few months later when they have solved all their teething problems.. The view is awesome and ambience is good.
Ya, surprisingly that photo turns out well. It’s my only shot of the fireworks cuz I put my camera away to enjoy the show =)
good post, was planning to blog about boathouse along the same lines too tonight!
i think we’re doing boathouse a favour by moderating expectations, and yes i still think it deserves a chance soon-ish.
so as long they’re willing to make improvements, they shouldn’t be condemned. good view too.
great to hear it from another perspective. good review!
Very balanced and objective review! It’s good that you provide the other side of the story so that people don’t go with sky-high expectations, and get disappointed.
I shall be doing up mine soon! But it’ll probably be somewhat along that line too!
harris and Glenn: Looking forward to your posts! =)
Ratatouille and Emma: Thanks! I’m guilty of being easily influenced by pretty pics and nice words so I’m hoping another perspective will help readers to moderate their expectations. Boathouse is still worth a go, just not so soon I guess.
Took some of your photos 🙂 Credited to you of course!
Hi Kaelyn
I’m glad someone came up with an objective view. These invited restaurant reviews are really a disservice to readers. First objectivity is compromised because most of the time free food tastes good.
But also because it’s in an artificial setting. The restaurant knows that the reviewer will be coming and will be more on the ball. They might not be able to lavish the same attention to everyone else in their dining room during their normal operations. Hence the different outcomes from your dining experience as a normal customer and that of the invited bloggers.
Got to know your blog from the Obolo incident. Been a fan ever since.
Hey David, thanks for your support =) Agree with your point, it’s totally valid. And I like your “free food tastes good” haha. Ultimately, restaurants who invite food bloggers for tasting are still looking after their own interests, i.e. maximising profits. And it’s really such a cheap way of advertising compared to other mediums. So, I reckon all of us gotta read such reviews with more than a little skepticism.
I’m second-ing dave here! I’m starting to get really turned off by invited reviews =(
Ruth Reichel’s Garlic and Sapphires provides an interesting read about a food critic’s life.
Hey Kaelyn,
think u should go try the food again there..they just change the head chef..The chef worked before in a few places in France b4..the food quite flavour driven..i believe you won’t be disappointed..
Just went to the Boathouse with my bf on Mon to celebrate Valentine’s Day. We ordered their Valentine set dinner. But my bf had diarrhoea after taking their oysters and soup. I had diarrhoea after leaving the restaurant that night. Took MC the following day to see doctor when the diarrhoea continued. Doctor prescribed pills for my condition. Went back to work on Wed but still did not feel well. Went to see another doctor that night and was given antibiotics. Took MC on Thursday, finally felt better after taking the antibiotics. Just wondering is it got to do with the oysters that we ate at the Boathouse? Called the Manager (who claims that he is the boss as well) about this matter. He said that so far none of the other customers who took the same set dinner as us had complained about the oysters or food poisoning. In fact, we are (unfortunately) the first case to happen at the restaurant. Not going back there again. Unless they change their Manager-cum-Boss (whom I feel is not very sincere in looking into the matter when he says that he will handle it personally).