Recent Fan Reviews
We've been here a couple of times, but yesterday we had our staff Christmas lunch for the first time. We made a mistake in our booking—we didn't state that we wanted the festive menu, but the staff altered our booking swiftly right before our visit. The staff prepared a beautifully prepared table with Christmas crackers on them, a table tucked away from the crowd. It felt so perfect for our day. The majority of the crowd went for the Turkey as the main—it was insanely delicious with generous portion. The gravy was so delicious that I would drink it. The dessert was nice—I had the sticky toffee pudding with banana split ice cream. Everyone had a wonderful time and went home with a full stomach. Thank you for such a lovely lunch. Just a note though, we found the coffee to be not so pleasant. We were hoping for a proper espresso machine made coffee (with crema), but our coffees tasted like they were made using capsule coffee machine. They tasted bitter and burnt, sadly. I hope The Boat would consider making this improvement, considering how great everything else is.
We were visiting Solihull and fancied a Sunday roast. After a quick Google search and reading the reviews, we decided to book a table at The Boat. The booking process was very straightforward. Although the car park looked full when we arrived, we were pleasantly surprised to find a space easily. First impressions of the venue were great as we walked in. However, as we were entering the dining area, who appeared to be the manager came rushing out and almost hit me with the door. I only received what felt like a passing apology. The whole interaction shocked both me and my partner, and it came across as quite rude. Despite this, we decided to continue with our afternoon. Within a couple of minutes of entering, we were seated and pleased to be given a booth. That said, there was an unpleasant smell around our seating area, which suggested the venue could benefit from a deep clean, particularly the soft furnishings. The meal itself was excellent — the chicken roast was outstanding, and the service from our server was very good, which is why we were happy to pay the service charge. I would return for the food, as it was genuinely enjoyable. However, I was disappointed and somewhat offended by the initial interaction, where the manager rushed out and almost hit me with the door, as it left a negative first impression.
A truly dreadful meal. I’m sorry to have to sound unkind but this wasn’t good enough. I wanted to complain on the day but it was a somewhat intimate environment and didn’t want to make scene. Look at the 3 pictures. The pork belly is what a lovely Sunday lunch looks like. That was from Browns in Birmingham. Now look what you served me and my wife for the same price £22. One carrot. One parsnip. 3 tiny hard as nails roast potatoes. Putrid jelly-like gravy. A small piece of beef that had the appearance of being processed. A load of tasteless cabbage. The Yorkshire pudding was the best part but even that had a tablespoon of cooking oil in the bottom. Please take your chef to The Bulls Head Meriden or Browns in Birmingham for what a Sunday lunch should look like. I feel robbed. Just take the Yorkshire away and look at the amount of food was left! How bad it was is best demonstrated by the fact we went to my dads local to have a great mac & cheese and desserts straight after. On the plus side, lovely venue and outside pergola type building with log burner. Staff were all great and we turned up without booking so fair play for that. It’s such a shame that the kitchen seems to be letting everyone else down. I’d hoped it was just a bad day but some other reviews seem to confirm that these bad days happen too often. £22 for that plate of rubbish is not on.
This marks my second visit to this establishment. I am consistently impressed with the quality of the roast I ordered. On both occasions, the food has met high standards and been exceptionally palatable. While I initially considered a second serving, I ultimately opted for dessert, which I found to be thoroughly enjoyable.
•Sunday March 8th• (the pics show the empty table we could have been seated at and also the availability showing online) We checked availability online before arriving and there were plenty of time slots showing for Sunday lunch. There were two of us dining. When we arrived, we were greeted by the host and explained that we didn’t have a booking. She looked at us and said she couldn’t accommodate us because they were too busy and the kitchen was at capacity. The restaurant was busy, but what confused us was that there were still many tables available to book online at that exact moment. We asked whether we would have been turned away if we had booked online, but she avoided answering and instead mentioned that it was Crufts weekend and everywhere locally was busy. The main issue here is that there were clearly multiple time slots available online to book, so the explanation didn’t make sense. It defeats the point of having an online booking system if customers are still being turned away despite availability showing. While speaking to her, we were still checking the booking system and could clearly see multiple slots available from the time we arrived for the next few hours. Because we had travelled around 30 minutes and the food looked great, we decided to book one of the available tables online while standing there. When we told her we had just made the booking, she then said that the reservation hadn’t come through on their system, which was very odd. At that point, however, she did seat us. Instead of seating us at a normal dining table like the majority of the restaurant, we were placed on high tables where you have to pay first rather than ordering and settling the bill at the end. We also noticed that the people seated in that area were mostly just drinking and paying as they went, not eating full meals. This raised further questions for us about the host’s judgement of us after only seeing us for two minutes. We did ask to be moved later and this was accommodated. As two Black women, we couldn’t help but feel uncomfortable as we were also one of the only minority groups in the restaurant at the time. The food itself was ok, but we can’t fault the kitchen at all. However, the host’s energy and welcome were completely off from the moment we arrived. Racism is not acceptable, and it is very disappointing that this is the feeling we left with after our visit. We are sure there may be another explanation given, but based on how the situation unfolded, it left us questioning the experience. We didn’t ask for the host’s name, but she will likely remember this interaction, as will the bar staff and waiting staff she was speaking to about us. We are paying customers like everyone else and simply expected to be welcomed in the same way. Unfortunately, because of the experience at the door, it’s not somewhere we would return to.