First off, the food is amazing. But the service is not. We were sat outside, which was a huge mistake in the first place. The flys and gnats are out of control. When the food arrives, they swarm the table ( that's nature I suppose). But that was not the problem. Brandan, our server, was not attentive and was asked serval times for refills or water, that never came. This would be our second time being served by Brandan, and we are not impressed. The first time the service was just as bad, but thought maybe he was having an off day. If paying over $150 for a meal for two, I would expect the service to be a bit more attentive. The food is great, the service is mediocre and the atmosphere is beautiful sitting next to a creek on a large deck with magnolias. (Just bring a fan or wear bug spray if it's low tide and dusk) read more

Food was delicious! Savannah was a great server fielding our multitude of questions. Chef Benny threw down with the best shrimp ceviche ever, a tomato based ceviche with a little kick and very fresh. Got the grouper and trigger fish grilled. Bother were yummy perfectly cooked and seasoned. Gulf coast oysters had very little brine, not my favorite, but the wifey loved their creaminess. Pimiento cheese grits were killer and i don't even like grits. read more

See all

I had expected a long line at the 10AM opening for Sunday brunch. No such line. Although I'd made reservations for myself (only), I obviously didn't need them, as there were only three other full tables in the outside area when I was seated. I ordered the Fish House Omelette. What happened next is what I've come to expect when a restaurant is sparsely populated: long wait, 25 minutes from ordering to delivery. Why is this? My theory is that when there are few customers, the kitchen is not yet geared up for quick and efficient output. As for the omelette, I found it unremarkable. The one plus: My waiter was friendly and attentive. read more

Food is always delicious, good service, entertainment is always a plus. Get there early, always a crowd.

Cutest outdoor atmosphere, delicious lobster roll, excellent service recovery from the manager when part of our party had a negative experience with the hostess. I'd frequent this spot if I lived here. read more

Not sure how this staff handles the volume and the heat. Walked in and was immediately greeted by a huge smile and a welcome. Stephanie amazing, everything was seamless and easy, and the food was great! Definitely sit at the bar and enjoy the music and the great service!!! H read more

First time at this restaurant. Very impressed! Service was spot on, big portions, fresh fish, and great atmosphere. It has an old time feel and positive vibe. read more

Very disappointed. We were a party of 6 on Saturday night. Even though we had reservations (5:30), still had to wait 45 minutes. It was chilly so we waited on the deck enjoying the fire and some great entertainment by the White Caps. When seated, and places were set, we only received forks as they ran out of silverware. Placed our orders, waited another 40 minutes for food to be served. All dishes were lukewarm. 3 of us ordered the special; crab stuffed flounder, and it was still raw. The fried clam strips were overcooked and dark. The two orders of fresh fish were satisfied other than temperature. After complaining, the raw fish meals ere discounted by $20; the only highlight of the evening. Enjoyed the ambiance and entertainment, not the service and food. read more

Where should I start... first of all the water tasted awful . We ordered appetizers, fried green tomatoes and calamari, the fried green tomatoes were soggy and the fried calamari was mostly banana peppers not to mention they used a ton of spring mix which made it even worse ( you should not put fried food on lettuce, it makes it soggy). Then when our meals came out my sons chicken tenders were clearly burnt, they were tough and he could barely chew them, we sent those back but by this point I was so I aggravated I took the baby and went outside. My husband did speak to the manager her name was Rebecca, she was very nice and took some things off our check. My fried grouper tacos seemed ok but I didn't really get to eat them because I had a baby in my arms and it was a make your own taco type situation. The drinks were good though! read more

Excellent Seafood. We had Oysters on the half shell and Conch Fritters for appetizers. My husband had the Seafood platter, I had the Blackened Grouper tacos. Everything was wonderful! Don't miss a chance to dine here. The outside deck is super nice with a gas fire pit if you have concerns about dining in. read more

The Boathouse - Whole fried Snapper! - Seafood Near Me - St Augustine, Florida

See all

Food and service was great! I would definitely recommend. 4.5. I ordered the crab legs and we had oyster and shrimp appetizers were delicious. read more

No more the well managed and fully staffed eatery it once was. Arrived on a cold late Sunday a.m. for brunch. Spotted only two wait staff on near capacity patio. (No sign of management personnel.) Wait staff were tasked with waiting AND bussing. Drinks arrived quickly. Appetizer arrived within 15 minutes from time of order. Tepid main dishes arrived almost an hour after placing order. Asked for one of many outdoor patio space heaters but we're told they had no propane although a dozen or so full propane replacement bottles were staged in one corner of patio at the ready. Very disappointed in our dining experience. read more

First time coming here and it was amazing! The seafood was so fresh and delicious. Everything we tried we loved. We also got the key lime pie and chocolate cake and would recommend those as well. We will definitely be back! read more

See all

What a great place to enjoy the evening for trivia night! Food was great and the ambiance was very sublime. Staff was polite and welcoming; our barkeep Stephanie was OUTSTANDING, she was very tentative, well spoken, and had great recommendations for our first time dining at the oyster house. Definitely recommend anyone to sit at her bar, rather than wait to be seated. read more

Absolutely love this place. Atmosphere, food, they have it all. Will make this a regular stop for us when we are in town.

Excellent service and outstanding food. The outside patio is a great little place to get brunch or lunch on a typical Florida weekend. Our server deserve special mention for such a positive experience. Great job Tom sky rice!!!! read more

The Boathouse - Shark bite with "blood" in the water !!! - Seafood Near Me - St Augustine, Florida

Food is marginal at best... they advertise grouper and trigger fish but it's some other kind of fish... wait staff us ok but wine lust is very expensive especially by the glass... I would go somewhere else... read more

Not one to leave bad reviews but this one must be told. My girlfriend has been wanting us to go here. . Walked in Atmosphere is great , old Florida seafood lots of glass showing the water. Service was fast to order drinks and then returned to order apps and entrees. Wine came and then they tried to deliver the entrees BEFORE the apps , this is very poor kitchen management not for an upscale place. Then apps came- oysters were good but the fried green tomatoes were very mediocre, undercooked tomatoes and not crispy breading. Disappointed The the entrees returned which obviously had been sitting under heat lamps as the fish and lobster were dried out. We finished , waiter brought the bill , I sent him back with my card. When he returned for tip and signature , no credit card was returned. Upon questioning he went to look and said it was misplaced. So after 5-10 minutes of waiting , I went up to the front desk and my card was at the register there for some reason , I immediately checked with my bank to see what was charged, all cool Overall a very disappointing experience from what I was told was one of the better St Augustine restaurants Poor management in my opinion , will not be recommending or returning Disappointing. read more

Recently renovated and updated. Great outdoor atmosphere with outdoor seating and fire pit. Food and drinks were great! read more

See all

The fact that they take reservations is a +++ for us. The atmosphere, food and service was great!! The only reason they get 4 stars is the bugs and flies outside were way more than a normal patio. I may be wrong but spraying might help. They did light the fire pit when we asked them to and that cut down on them a lot. Will return again for sure!! read more

Service. Excellent food I was there for shrimp night delicious and you can't beat the ambience overlooking the water.

One of the two meals was overly greasy and had additional ingredients such as sausage. It was a shrimp dish. No one, nor was it on the menu, said anything. Hush puppies were not cooked in hot enough oil so they were burnt and soggy. Had to ask another server to send our server to us to order after waiting 20 minutes. We sat in the white room. Acoustics loud because of the vaulted ceiling. read more

Seafood is fresh & locally caught & well cooked. Yummy seasoning on the blackened fish & not too spicy. Slaw is different but good.

Very good food and service, large portions of very fresh seafood. The view from the deck is fantastic! This is the best Seafood I have had in St Augustine and I have been to them all, I live one block from Caps and I prefer here. read more

Let me start by saying Julie is an incredible bartender and provides superb service. I've been here a few times and after tonight, I will never go here again. During my meal, the owners rude, loud and hyper children were running around the bar screaming. This is unacceptable in a dining establishment. As the rude children were running around, the owners were sitting in an empty dining room on their cell phones, not paying attention to their children disturbing the customers and running around creating total chaos. Upon informing the owners of this disturbance they told my family and I to "get out now," it was shocking. The female owner stood up enraged, as though she wanted to fight as she said "get out now." The owners couldn't care less about their customers. I have never in my life seen such disrespect from a restaurant owner. Stay far away from this "establishment," it's really unfortunate given the lovely bartenders. read more

The food was great! However our server was shady. First he tried to add a few extra drinks to the bill we did not order. Then once the bill was split he tried to add extra 20 bucks to one of the bills. Understandable he may be in need however we will likely not be going back, sorry. read more

We went in for carry out after our tattoos! The outdoor seating looks great, it was a rainy evening so we waited at the bar. The lobster rolls are huge and delicious! read more

Terrible service. I can't speak for all of the food because our entrees never came.. but the oysters tasted like sewer water. We sat at the bar which typically provides faster service, but we sat there waiting over an hour for our blackened grouper, which should be quick to make if it's fresh. Also, my drink looked different every time it came out. My husband stated his old fashioned was undrinkable and it was left there, with no comment from staff. The bar is small and we had 3 bartenders, who all seemed busy joking and laughing with each other by the register. I asked at least 3 times about the status of our orders and they asked what order?, as they clearly weren't keeping track of it themselves. The guests around us were all commenting on the service. They were all regulars so they felt the need to apologize on the restaurants behalf.. After an hour of waiting and 30 min of asking where the food was to 3 different employees. We got up to pay for what we had in the attempt to find another place that could serve us food, since we were starving at the point. They got our receipt wrong at first (charged us for something extra), but our tab was around $75 for just oysters and drinks.. our friends recommended it so I had high hopes for this place, but definitely not going back. A place with fish and oyster in the name should be able to deliver.. and the service was bad. read more

My family and I dined at the Boathouse this evening, it was our fourth visit. After we arrived, 3 children began running around the bar, screaming and disturbing the guests. All the guests looked appalled, as we eyeballed one another, in horror. It turns out these unruly children belonged to the owner of the establishment. As we were leaving, I asked for the Manager, who rudely told me she would get the owner, who was sitting on her phone in an empty dining room. I approached the owner to explain that children running around any establishment unsupervised is not wise, very disruptive and dangerous to elderly customers and asked her if the Liquor Commission should be notified. The owner stood up in defiance, announced that "children are allowed to sit at a bar in Florida" and promptly told me to leave her restaurant, rather than correct the problem. Despite the great bartenders and their excellent service, we will not return. There are countless owners of fine establishments in St.Augustine that care about their clients. The owner of The Boathouse is not one of them. read more

The food is always good here but today we came for brunch. We started with the calamari and it was a success! The kids got the Belgian waffle and they raved over the delicious flavor. Super dense and filling and they both had leftovers. My husband got the chicken biscuits and gravy. The biscuits were perfectly cooked. The eggs were fluffy and the gravy was flavorful. I got the grouper bites. A little more blackening than normal but still yummy. The big blue salad was ridiculously delicious! The sweet of the balsamic and salty of the blue cheese was just perfect! Tom was probably the best part of the meal though! He was polite, helpful and extremely attentive! I would request him in the future. read more

See all

This is how a restaurant should be. The service from the minute we walked in was fantastic. The hostesses were pleasant and kept us updated on our table set up. Our waitress, Sophie(a), was wonderful. Full of great recommendations, terrific personality, and very attentive to our group. We were there for Sunday brunch, and the food and bottomless drinks were deelish! Originally, we sat inside because it was windy outside. But as the wind died down some of us headed outside to listen to the live music on the patio. I would definitely return to this restaurant and recommend others to visit. And they take reservations! read more

Absolutely our favorite seafood restaurant in the area. Particularly great on Wednesdays (oyster special) and Thursdays (lobster special). Everything up and down the menu is excellent, but if you don't have the deviled eggs with fried oysters you are missing a treat. Outstanding bar service and good beer/wine selection. If you're lucky enough to have Tom R. as your server, you will be well attended. If there is live music and you want to have a chat with dinner, sit inside. Otherwise, enjoy the revelry on the deck. read more

We are staying local being down here from Ct. we have been here a couple of times last year and twice this year and the food has been nothing short of amazing. My wife and enjoy the deviled eggs with the fried oyster app and the blackened grouper bites. I have also gotten the grouper and grits dinner. Soooooo good. Come hungry because they are not shy on portions. The bar is second to none, plus most nights they have entertainment ( bands, Dj or trivia ) They have outside dining with a fire going to sit around if you just want to hang out and have an after dinner drink. Happy hour to boot 4-7 m-f at the bar only. read more

This restaurant could have been outstanding. Should be outstanding. We stood, in line for 40 minutes before -ever- reaching the hostess, who was bussing tables, seating people occasionally, and responding to messages on her phone. Not the computer, where the seating charts were etc, her cell phone. Irked me very much. But ok. So while we were waiting in line, just to see how long the wait would even be, remember we haven't even spoken to anyone at this point, we spent time counting open and clean tables. At any given point in the front room alone there were more than half the tables open. Outside was more busy but not packed. We get seated eventually.... And sit for around 35 more minutes until the waiter comes and takes our drink order, despite us having all of our orders ready. 20 minutes after putting in a drink order he brings the drinks. But walks off without taking our food or appetizer order. We've now been here OVER an hour and a half with most of the room empty and no order even placed. Rather than start a wait elsewhere we opted to stay, which I didn't regret at this point as I'd pretty much replanned my evening via text to avoid issues due to the unexpected delays. It wasn't the end of the world, but it was irksome. I'd have done the same if they had said up front "hey it's gonna be an hour and a half wait" so I'm not overly worried about that, but the event itself shows how much time this really consumed. Food arrives and the clam strips were a ball of un fried dough, which was sent back of course. It came back and the cooked parts where clearly just all tossed in with the raw portion and we're coffee brown as opposed to the normally cooked parts which were golden brown. The seafood platter came out cold, and the grits were cold and congealed. The 2 stars this place earned from me were specifically based on the recipes which had good flavor, the cleanliness of the facilities, and the atmosphere which with the live music was pretty festive and helped keep us from brooding. The recipes are good(despite the cooking issues flavor was great) They have a great building. They even had the volume done right for the band. But the service and execution was awful. There's just too many great places here in town to go for this kind of shenanigans to be acceptable. read more

Once again, St Augustine Fish House out did themselves with amazing food and excellent service!! We were greeted with appetizers of mahi bites, fried shrimp and the best dang Brussel Sprouts ever!! The entrees were just as awesome from Mahi, Crab Cakes, Oysters, Beet Salad with Salmon.... The servers were all amazing and very timely with entrees. Thank you Nathan for another excellent meal! St Augustine Fish House never disappoints!! read more

Was torn on 2 or 3 stars. Nice looking restaurant and outside deck on the river with fire pit. Unfortunately the food and service is just very fair. Understaffed and should put guests on a wait rather then fill the restaurant. read more

Down a star for the, "Shrimp Tacos". If you want to be bummed out while treating a big chunk of the family to lunch... go for it. The cooks know what I'm talking about. Guys, please! Just take it off the menu if you're not going to really construct it. It's still our secret. I didn't complain to anyone. read more

Went with a date for brunch here on a Sunday in May. We ordered the She Crab soup and there was very little crab in my serving and absolutely no crab in my dates serving. Sent my dates soup back, it returned, still with very little crab. I wanted to order the blue crab claws, but they were out of them. I ordered the sea scallops instead, but they were under cooked and so heavily salted that they were largely inedible. My date ordered a large iceberg salad which was fine. Bottom line, the only thing about this "dining experience" that was excellent, was the ambiance on the deck, the two wines we chose to drink and the young man who waited on us. After hearing so much good about this establishment, sad to say that it turned out to be a very disappointing experience. read more

Had such a great meal the first day we were in St Augustine that we came back the next day to try something else. Delicious shrimp and grits, oyster Po Boy, soup.... Looking forward to the next time we're back in town. read more

Last fall we had a meal here that we considered one of the best meals in our lives, but I cannot say that for our meals today. The smoked fish spread appetizer was good except that the melba toast was extremely salty. The shrimp and grits (which I have had before) was extremely salty. I ate the shrimp, but had to leave the sauce and grits for that reason. They were out of the flounder special. We arrived at 2:00 on a Friday; the place was swamped with people. There was no parking which is not unusual. We parked in the neighborhood and waited 30 minutes for a table. It was nice to be able to wait in the car. After being seated, we waited 30 minutes before getting food--15 minutes before getting something to drink. Be sure to make a reservation; we did not because there was no way to specify the outdoor seating and I am immunocompromised so have to sit outdoors. read more