A gorgeous setting for a special night out! Nestled between rows of boats and yachts is the Bronte Boathouse. The exterior is nothing special, a large building with a lighthouse, a large patio with comfy cushions with an ice cream parlor, Dickies, attached to the restaurant. The interior is modern, made of white walls, large windows and nautical-themed decor. Compared to Snug Harbour in Port Credit, I like this place a lot more. I made a reservation for 4:00 for 6:15pm about 5 days in advance and even noted that it was for my husband's birthday - and yet we were seated at the first table by the door, definitely not ideal. I pointed to other empty tables and the hostess insisted that they were reserved. During our almost 2 hour dinner, those empty tables were never seated (even though if you check online, the next available reso would be after 8pm).
We were seated and left with the menus for longer than anticipated before our waiter finally showed up. He seemed new and didn't even know it the beer on tap was hoppy (made with hops). We had looked at the menu before showing up, so we quickly ordered the food. Drinks were ordered and sat at the bar, melting and condensating, as we can see it from where we were sitting. We asked 2 different servers if we can just grab it ourselves before our waiter finally showed up to walk the drinks 2 steps to our table. Like I said, it's either he was new or maybe assigned too many tables, I don't know.
For apps, we ordered the frito misto and crab cakes. The former was served in a long skinny plate with large shrimps, calamari and deep fried beans - batter was light and the lemon aioli complimented the deep fried seafood nicely. The crab cake was surprising light and flavourful, despite it's dark colour (maybe they needed to change the oil?). I knew it was going to be good as soon as I stabbed my fork into it's fluffy interior. I found a tiny piece of crab in the crab cake, so it must be the real thing!
For drinks, I had the non alcoholic frozen raspberry lemonade and my husband had the watermelon mule (lime slush, vodka, fresh watermelon juice and ginger beer). At the bar, they have several slushy machines going and they make for the most refreshing drinks, especially during the summer months.
For entrees, we got the fish and chips for both kids (came with 2 pieces of haddock each), linguini pescatore (heaps of seafood which included clams, shrimps, mussels, calamari, heirloom tomatoes) and seared salmon (this was cooked perfectly and was juicy and fresh).
After dinner, the kids went next door to Dickies to redeem their voucher for a kiddie cone (as part of the kids meal). The guy that was working even asked if my kids want 2 half scoops so they can try 2 flavours. He served the biggest kids scoop I'd ever seen!
All in all, it was a nice night out with the fam. The setting was perfect, the food was surprisingly good and the ice cream parlour plus playground outside definitely makes the night that much more enjoyable. read more