Boathouse Restaurant

Flawless. We had an amazing night out during restaurant week. Obviously the busiest week of the non-​tourist season. The food was perfect. Everyone was incredibly friendly. This is a great go to for impeccable service and delicious food.

Bleach, blood and really good food. The reason for any stars is the food. The service and front of house are awful. Especially the manager, that when your walking in is trying to get the toilets to unclog. Our server brings appetizer plates, with lipstick… no that’s blood on the plates. His blood. No apologies, no explanation, just weird. To deal with the bathroom situation they flooded the restaurant with bleach. So our entire meal was like eating and breathing bleach. Again awful.
The manager’s only solution was to bring roasted garlic to the table, really? The garlic tasted great in our food, but we could not taste it because all we could smell is bleach. Also, manager with the shirt untucked and the bad rapport, you might want to revisit that the «customer is always right.»
If your looking for great food and dough bag ambince, go here. We love supporting our local food, but this place is so full of bleach, would never go again.

To begin with, our meal was average, with the presentation being equally as mediocre. The staff was extremely condescending and rude to us. Our waiter even went so far as to warn a bus boy to «watch us» as he went to the back. We tipped him over 20% despite his pompous attitude. We will not be returning to the boathouse any time soon.

My husband had just finished ICEMAN COMETH 2015 and I was his sweet sag. After his ride we did a little wine tasting on the peninsula and were lucky enough to land a 5:30 reservation just in time for an amazing sunset.
Nice wine selection… moderate selection of local brews. I had Pacific Oysters for an appetizer that were wonderful. My husband had shrimp cocktail … and it was a nice starter. My entrée was the House Kobe Filet — and it was amazing — served with a potato dauphinoise, parsnip purée and tempura asparagus that was delicious. The filet was charred with a pepper crust and prepared perfectly and my requested Rare side of Medium Rare.
My husband had the Juniper Smoked Elk Rack with Chorizo redskin hash, butternut purée, krispy kale and it perfectly paired with a redwine demi glacé. It was so tender and delicious and certainly satisfied his post ride jones for a meaty dish!!!
It was a wonderful end to a great day in beautiful Michigan!

Fabulous restaurant. Service was fantastic, lobster shrimp bisque a must have. Elk and sturgeon were delicious. Loved the atmosphere and the view was priceless

Great view. We had the shrimp and lobster bisque-​yummy. White fish pâté. And the lobster salad with grapefruit-!

Beware — I took my better half out to celebrate her birthday and we received a most unwelcome surprise. We each ordered a 4oz lobster tail. When they arrived they looked great — but as it’s said «looks can be deceiving». As I raised my first bite something overwhelmed me — it took me a few seconds — and bites — to place it, but the smell and taste of ammonia was stifling. We summoned our server and she, the chef and the manager all confirmed we had bad lobsters. They bought us a glass of wine and replaced our tails but the evening wasn’t the same. For a top shelf restaurant I would think they would check for things like this before serving… And no, the place was pleasantly busy but not packed (most tables occupied but many empty ones too). I’m not sure if we’ll give it another chance sometime, but for now I’d steer clear of the non-​metal seafood.

The Boathouse is beautiful and food is excellent! We requested vegetarian dish not on the menu and their creation was fantastic! They were willing to make anything we desired. Service was excellent. Boathouse martini also great! Highly recommend. Nice restaurant on wine tour.

Really fantastic meal and view! Delicious entrees, especially the Kobe beef and lobster we tried. The bisque soup was tasty, albeit a bit cold (we tried to eat ours anyway, but saw a number of other guests send theirs back). The wine list was comprehensive and desserts were good, although the pecan tart was a bit too sweet. 4 stars only because the soup was cold and service was rather slow.

In my opinion this is the best restaurant in Traverse City! The view is incredible, the waitstaff were polite and friendly, the morel mushroom soup was tdf, the seafood salad was awesome. Can’t wait to come back to this place.

Wow. Amazing environment and truly delicious food. We were celebrating a big anniversary for my inlaws and the restaurant was so accommodating with the little table decorations we wanted to do, even effectively distracting my inlaws so we could decorate. The menu was amazing and we all wanted to try everything. After dinner we walked outside along the marina to enjoy the sunset. We will return!

Just had dinner here the other night while visiting in Traverse City area. We were amazed by the location of the restaurant. The views are stunning. Service was great. Our waitress spent a lot of time with us helping recommend dishes and also answering our questions. The morel bisque is AMAZING… a must try for mushroom lovers. I had the quinoa sweet potato cakes and they were pretty good. Not amazing but pretty tasty. The rest of the table had an array of seafood dishes which were supposedly some of the best the have had. Overall, this was an enjoyable experience and we plan on going back.

The food here is very good! Plus this place has a one-​million dollar view! You are literally sit by the water and the view is amazing! We ordered the halibut and the fish was cooked perfectly! It has a very rich flavor, and paired really well with the truffle and rissotto! The cocktail here is very good too! Love it!

Great restaurant. Foods are really good. Service is excellent. We will come back again when we are on Traverse city.

Couldn’t ask for a more beautiful setting with perfectly cooked food. We sat near the window and looked out to the bay the whole meal. The food was very unique. We got oysters and escargot for appetizers which were perfect. Our main dishes were Alaskan halibut and rack of lamb which were both cooked very well and the sides provided were very good. Lastly our dessert was to die for. It was pretty expensive, but well worth it for a special occasion.

There are several things I love about the Boathouse Restaurant!
First, it is in Traverse City (one of the prettiest places in Michigan), and is located on the shores of the gorgeous Bowers Harbor in Traverse City. The restaurant lends itself to fantastic views of the sparkling, blue bay water, with huge windows and an outdoor deck. The interior of the restaurant is decorated in a very charming, non-​pretentious, and subtly nautical way.
Second, the restaurant is literally farm-​to-​table for some of its offerings. The owner and his wife have a farm where they grow organic vegetables, fruits, and herbs for the restaurant. How cool is that? They are also committed to putting a huge emphasis on recycling and other environmentally-​friendly practices.
Third, the French-​inspired food is very nice and varied. The menu offers cool dishes like foie gras, roasted quail, various cheese and charcuterie boards, kobe beef, lamb, elk, and lots of seafood, too.
We ended up ordering tempura asparagus, roasted quail, the elk rack, and a whitefish. The quail was really good. It came with delicious honey marinade, yam purée, and cherries. The perfect blend of sweet and salty. The elk had a great juniper flavor, and came with kale, squash purée, and a beautiful berry glaze. The fish (I forgot exactly what type it was) was also very well presented.
On the other hand, we were not a fan of the tempura asparagus. In retrospect, I have no idea why we even ordered it (maybe it was out of curiosity as to how a gourmet restaurant would prepare it). It was overwhelming and a little soggy, and oily enough to put BP to shame.
But asparagus tempura misadventure notwithstanding, we had a wonderful time. I would still recommend this restaurant as a stalwart of Michiganian beauty and farm-​to-​table dining.

Visited this restaurant for a Brys Estate Wine Dinner and then again a few months later during restaurant week. Beautiful building, take time to appreciate the woodwork! Great view if you can get there when the suns out. Wonderful, professional and knowledgeable staff, great food with a good variety of options and very accommodating. The lobster was delicious! As is the shrimp and lobster bisque. Great crème brûlée! Server Ryan was wonderful!

Food was good, view was great, being able to sit outside and enjoy the view and the nice summer weather that is so short here is even better. But the service sucks.
There were about four other tables on the patio, and one inside, and two waitresses — - our waitress just took forever to take our order— waited 20 minutes before she came over to take it, our water glasses were empty for a while, and she just wasn’t attentive enough. It started to sprinkle and we were still sitting outside waiting for our check. Well, of course we got up to move under the tent to wait for our check, but it would have been nice if she was thoughtful enough to hurry up or see if we wanted to be moved or something. She seemed like she was rushing but I have no idea what else she was doing, since there was only one or two tables besides us near the end. Maybe she was helping to prep or something, who knows.
Oh, and my friends ordered the oysters and complained it tasted fishy. I was also disappointed that the parmesan couscous that came with my salmon was the bigger kind of couscous instead of the finer variety– but I guess couscous is all couscous.

DON’T EAT HERE. $ 450 wasted! I am not one to write bad reviews unless something is especially terrible. This place takes the cake. My husband took me for our one year wedding anniversary. We thought it would be a nice ⁴⁄₅ star high end meal. We were disappointed.
Atmosphere was obnoxious. Our waiter was rude. A table of 10 DOCTORS FROM CHICAGO (in CAPS because they were yelling that all night) was so loud and overbearing the table next to us left.
The drinks are small and over priced. The escargot appetizer was the only edible item. My surf and turf was laughable. Bad filet, small over cooked lobster pieces. My husband’s lamb was the worst lamb we’ve ever had.
We had an incredibly disappointing evening for $ 250 and then we were more mad at ourselves for not speaking up while we were there. This was a year ago. This afternoon my father in law told us where he spent his 28 yr anniversary dinner this past weekend. Ironically it was THE BOAT HOUSE. He did not know of our experience
He had terrible lamb. His wife had an okay scallop appetizer and side salad. Cost of a crappy dinner $ 200.
I will pay $$$$ for an excellent meal but expect a level of quality. The Boat House has more than $ 450 from my family and I hope this review stops others from going there until they fix their nose in the air Nantucket wanna be restaurant.

My husband and I had dinner here during a mid-​week visit to the Traverse City area. The food was very good (we both had filet). The service was good. The wine list was really nice. The view of the sunset over the bay was tremendous.
The restaurant is really dark — I ordered my filet medium (I know, I know) and I’m pretty sure it came out a lot closer to medium rare, but I couldn’t see well enough to be sure. It was an excellent filet, and I did enjoy it. We had a very nice charcuterie/​cheese selection to start. Had a good salad. Enjoyed some nice Californian wine. And we finished with dessert — a nice slice of cheese cake we split.
We really enjoyed dinner here. If you are looking for an excellent steak or filet in NW Michigan, this is your place. We made reservations for a Tuesday night at 7pm (in September) but I’m not sure we really needed to as the restaurant wasn’t full. I would absolutely recommend it.