The Boathouse Rose Bay

What a beautiful place for a solo traveler like me. Ordered a glass of white wine, fish took out my journal relaxed & started writing. Overlooking the beautiful Bay Area where I could see my son Umeed $ his best friend Colin enjoy his last day in Australia before he returned to Nepal FOR GOOD .. kayaking. Thanking God for me a small town girl from Darjeeling to be sipping wine & having fun , enjoying ME TIME.

Came here for a work Christmas party in a group of 25. Food was very good, but considering we did "share plates" the service was quite slow. Oh well, it's Christmas and they were busy so it is what it is. Service was very friendly and couldn't fault the staff's attitude at all. Lovely outlook overlooking Rose Bay. Definitely a lovely spot to come for lunch.

Crab toasts were a little fishy, my server was a blonde lady (this was june 2023) and she was kind. I just wish I knew we could have had dined in the open area. It was not an informed option and as a tourist yes I would like to eat in the freezing cold to enjoy the view. The entrance is beautiful, the establishment is neat and clean from where I sat, and food and drinks made me quite happy. Just wish it had been the open area. I think we all enjoyed the butterfly prawns.

Looks like there’s two businesses running here. The restaurant upstairs and the Kiosk downstairs. This review is for the kiosk downstairs. We got a Caesar Salad, Tacos, and Calamari. Caesar Salad had inedible bacon. Calamari was fried with an entire unshelled garlic, including completely inedible skin the staff told us was ‘garnish’ (pictured once we’d picked out the calamari). Fish Tacos have given me food poisoning. On top of that took 45 minutes to make. Unsure about the restaurant, but you should avoid the kiosk

What a lovely waterside lunch on a sunny day! Read on for my adventure with potato scallop, seagulls, and fresh seafood! First, a defining characteristic of the outside dining area seems to be the presence of seagulls. Watch out for the seagulls! Hint: they have a seagull spray that you can use! These are the most aggressive seagulls I’ve ever seen in my entire life, and I’ve eaten at a lot of beachside places. But don’t let that dull your experience here! Once you squirt them with the seagull-water-bottle-spray, they will go away. They also have woven-domes to put over your food if you need to go to the bathroom or leave your table with exposed food. It’s a fairly large menu. They only serve breakfast until 11. But the lunch menu has a lot of fresh seafood on it as well as other offerings such as a vegan bowl. Our companions said that the vegan bowl was excellent. I ordered fresh shrimp, and it was very good. The only mistake I made was that I ordered the potato scallop. In the United States, potato scallops are potatoes that are smothered in cream and cheese and cooked. A little bit of the cheese is crunchy on top. Delightful!!! Cheesy goodness. Not so here. These “potato scallop” were literally potatoes that had been fried…Flat. I guess I would call these “potato pancakes” in the United States? That’s my fault for not knowing what they were! They were fairly hard and crunchy, so I tried a few, but they were not to my fancy. Perhaps this is what potato scallop are supposed to look like? Who knows? Well, I suppose the Australians know… but it’s not what I had in mind. This could be the best potato scallop that I’ve ever had; I’ve just never had an Australian potato scallop! They also had burgers and some other non-seafood options. Overall, a nice selection with something for everyone. Our companions said they really enjoyed the Caesar. Rose Bay is easy to get to by ferry. We just took the ferry from Sydney and hopped off and walked a short 10 minutes to the restaurant. We were meeting some people from the office. We have offices in a lot of other countries and we have not met the Australian people, face-to-face, for years. It was wonderful to be visiting from the states and to have them pick out this delightful place. We all had limoncello spritzes. We introduced the Australian office to them, and they were enchanted. The sparkle of the limoncello spritz on the water was rather perfect. The atmosphere of the restaurant reminds me of one of those classic New England seafood restaurants that’s been around 100 years and will continue to be around 100 more. It’s got that great life-vibe, like it was built into the community. It really seems to fit. A very pleasant way to spend the afternoon!

Great spot on the water! Only downside was we had to ask to order our drinks as we waited over 10 mins and then also had to ask to order our food. Nobody checked back on us. Food was tasty but staff could have been more attentive.

I recently visited and unfortunately, my experience was disappointing. Upon entering, I was met by two people at the counter who didn’t even acknowledge me until a few minutes had passed, which felt quite unwelcoming. Additionally, the wait for our food was nearly two hours, which was far longer than expected. When the food finally arrived, I was shocked to find a ladybug on the salad. We raised the issue with the manager, but his response was very casual and dismissive, almost as if it was no big deal. He simply referred to it as "just a bag" and made no attempt to resolve the situation or ensure we were satisfied. It was an unfortunate experience, and I expected much better service and attention to detail.

Loved loved the calamari, but the fish tacos could've been better. Didn't like it much as it was a bit too oily for my taste.