The BOATHOUSE at Disney Springs

By Lisa and Nick

Recently Nick and Lisa and a group of friends enjoyed lunch at one of the newest restaurants in Disney Springs, The Boathouse.  Dave and his wife, Anne, were supposed to be part of the party, but Dave came down with a horrible flu-like disease (from which he eventually, thankfully recovered), so Nick and Lisa were forced to reluctantly carry on without him…our Disney Exchange Podcast fans were counting on them!

Nick and Lisa on The Boathouse

Nick’s thoughts:

It was a pleasure to eat with Lisa and her husband Raymond at The Boathouse, and not just because they shared their clam strips with me, though they were delicious. Let’s back up to the beginning though.

As Lisa mentioned, Dave and his wife couldn’t join us, and my wife was also not with me as she was home with our seemingly endlessly ailing beloved dog, Shnelly. However, my family Jill and Zach, and our friends Amber and Ryan were in Disney Springs at the time. Lisa had made an ADR for 6, so suggested we invite the rest of the gang along. I’ll let Lisa tell you the part where she tells The Boathouse staff that I was a homeless person.

We all started off by having drinks at Jock Lindsey’s next door, so when we arrived we were already feeling pretty good.



While Raymond and Lisa checked us in, I walked around taking photos while the rest of our party perused the shop. The atmosphere is open and airy. It didn’t hurt that it was an absolutely gorgeous day!



 

 



When we met at the check in area, I asked Lisa if we could be seated inside the boat that is converted into a table that sits prominently in the front of the restaurant, and she said that she had been told it was first come first serve.

 

 

Well, guess where we were seated?! I Thought Lisa had planned this! Maybe told someone that they were playing host to 2/3 of The Disney Exchange Podcast which literally has 10s of listeners, but nope!

 


Nick, Zach, Jill, Lisa, Raymond, Amber and Ryan

Our server Jon took our drink orders almost immediately, and I immediately questioned him on a Scotch I could see from the table, as I had a very clear view of the bar, Laphroaig 10. Jon explained he thought it one of the smokiest of Scotchs, very heavy on the peat. He then offered to get me a sample, and came back a moment later with one. So, this started off extremely well for me. I actually wound up just getting a beer, however, a Big Storm Brewing Wavemaker Amber, which was okay, nothing to write a blog post about.

 



For my meal I ordered the Broiled Atlantic Swordfish Steak, Sweet Corn, Fennel, Andouille and Potato Hash, Creole Butter Sauce, which was a very dense piece of fish, so very filling. The taste combination was delicious.



I also had a bite of Zach’s Grilled Mahi Mahi Tacos, and highly recommend these as well.



But, maybe my favorite thing was the Clam Strips, which, as I mentioned, were part of Lisa and Raymond’s meal.

Overall, my experience at The Boathouse was fantastic, and I plan on making this a regular stop on future trips, even if it’s just to sit at the bar, have a cocktail, and enjoy the atmosphere.


Lisa’s Thoughts:

How fortuitous that Raymond and I had made our lunch reservation for six!  We loved hanging out with Nick’s friends and family, but felt it would be rude if I uninvited Nick simply because he would have been a seventh person at our lunch for six.  (I am joking!)  I did mention that we’d tell the hostess at check-in that Nick was a homeless guy we’d found and wanted him to have a nice lunch.  All of the above happened just as Nick described and I absolutely had nothing to do with scoring the awesome boat table.

I walked up to the podium, provided the information for our reservation and asked if we could please add one more person to our party.  The hostess said that was no problem and asked if our entire party was present – I answered that we were all there, but some were presently spending money in the gift shop.  She said it would be just a minute for our table.  THEN the next lady in line asked for the boat table.

 

 



The hostess politely told her that the boat table was not available (even though it was empty) and that it could not be reserved, available only on a first come, first served basis….well guess who got there first?!?!  Yep, US and that’s how we came to find ourselves being escorted to the much coveted and absolutely adorable boat table.  I don’t know about everyone else, but I felt like a rock star.



You should know that if you sit at the boat table, people will stare at you (or maybe they were just staring at Nick?), people will take pictures of you eating at the boat table, and people will come up to the boat and touch it while you are eating.  If you’re looking for privacy, avoid the boat table.



So what did we eat?  First we ordered a bottle of wine.  We chose white because we thought it would be cool and refreshing and would go with the fish we were determined to order – it’s The Boathouse and we were sitting in a boat – we felt like consuming seafood was pretty much mandatory.  We’d just split a flatbread over at Jock Lindsey’s, so we weren’t too hungry.  We opted to order a couple of items from the appetizer menu to share.



First the clam strips aka the Dock Side Bucket – Wild Caught Surf Clam Strips with Fresh Cut Fries.  Nick was right, these were very tasty.  Normally we don’t eat much fried food, but made an exception and were happy with this dish.  We also ordered BOATHOUSE Lobster Cocktail “Half Chilled 1 1/4 lb. Lobster, Creamy, Brandied Cocktail Sauce” which was pricy for the size, but had a nice flavor and was certainly not going to leave us overly full.  I loved the presentation.



This restaurant is fun and the food is great.  The server, Jon, was professional and knowledgeable about the menu and beverage selections and had our meal paced just right.  Will we visit the Boathouse again?  Absolutely!  What a great addition to the restaurant selection at Disney Springs!

Have you dined at the Boathouse?  How was your experience compared to ours?

This article was originally posted on the Disney Exchange Blog.