The Boathouse in Maidstone

My experience at the Boat House was very disappointing. As a party of three we were there when the doors were opened. Shown to a table and given menus and asked to order at the bar. No problem so far, we ordered three meals. One was a starter for someone eating later and a sandwich and ham egg and chips. Seemed a little expensive but family meal in difficult situation. Our server arrived with two starters. We only ordered one but as a meal for one of us. Half an hour later our other meals arrived. One Sandwich and ham egg and chips. In the mean time the server had returned to the table and refunded money for the other starter that I had not ordered. The food was fine if not a little expensive. One of the small eggs I had was hard and for the price there was not a lot on the plate. I had approached the server about the delay and was told it was my fault. Strange, it wasn’t me that got the order wrong. When she took the spare plate of starter back, how long does it take for someone to cook to eggs and make a cheese sandwich, half an hour seemed a bit much. I did mention to her that there were three of us and we ordered three dishes, where was the problem, but it still seemed to be my fault. I would not recommend this.

Decent food a bit pricey tho but very nice atmosphere and nice experience will consider a next visit some time soon

Not a lot of choice for food. Panniers or sausage rolls. Coffee is OK but, I've had better

Extremely slow. People who had come in after our group were served their food before us, and had even left, and we were still waiting and then some for our food. Dessert took just as long even though the place was quiet. An impolite waitress just chucked the Bill on our table and walked off without saying anything. No reply to a goodbye even though I left a tip. So rude

10/10. Good 👍 food good 👍 service friendly 😋 staff and great 👍 selection of beers 🍻 and lovely location.

Fantastic place. On a warm day, you can choose a table right by the river and watch the swans and people swimming on the boards.

Great vibe, wi be back for sure!

We visited today to celebrate our wedding anniversary. We sat outside next to the river and was lucky that the weather was good . There was a nice selection of food and a very large selection of drinks . Mrs C’s Calamari could have been cooked a little more but I had the mackerel pate which was very good . We both had a pork chop which was excellent. The staff were a credit to the Boathouse being polite and attentive. I am happy to recommend it and will visit again .

Food was okay nothing special, very run of the mill

Lovely staff, awful food! Sandwiches were dire - undercooked bacon and tough bread!

Came here to watch Phat Gandalph. I didn't eat so I can't comment on the food . Toilets very clean

Came down for some food and it did not disappoint the service along with the food was spectacular

Omg what a beautiful little pub. The food is absolutely amazing and the staff are so friendly especially Rachel 👍 i came back to show my youngest the place i gre up playing at and now it was her turn amazing afternoon will definitely be back ❤️

Best food ever!!!!! I recommend this for anyone who want a good destination to chill with friends by the river and to eat amazing food!!

Beautiful place,very relaxed,great views,

Food was plentiful and very tasty. There was entertainment - a good singer. Look forward to visiting again.

Staff were very friendly and accommodating - would definitely return!

Wow!! What a fantastic location for a pub. Right on the riverside, this pub is in a perfect location for relaxing with a nice cold pint. It is a bit more expensive, probably due to the beautiful setting, but it is worth it. There is a nice walk nearby that is perfect for a stroll along the river, or you could just sit in the pub, chill and enjoy the ambience.

Live music was a pleasant surprise on Saturday night. Unfortunately only one real ale on tap so we went for a Guinness which was sadly mediocre.

Having booked a table online for 8.45pm we turned up an hour or so earlier to have drinks before dinner. At 8.45pm we made ourselves known to the staff and told them we had a table booked for 8.45pm, to which the woman replied well our kitchen closes at 9! She repeated this a number of times and so we told her that’s not our issue we booked the table a week ago. We took our seats and starters were served however, within roughly 10 minutes the mains turned up even though we hadn’t finished our starters!! Basically we sat down at 8.45pm and were finished at 9.30pm brilliant!!! We then went out and sat outside with a drink where there was live music playing only to notice staff members sitting outside enjoying the live music. Having been there previously and enjoyed our experience things have seriously taken a turn for the worst and not only will we never return we will also make sure that we share our experience with all of our friends and family to make sure they avoid The Boathouse in the future.

Stopped off at the boathouse for some drinks and fancied a bit of cake. There was some nice looking pineapple cake on the bar and I thought I'd have some. That was until I saw the price. £7.50 for a slice of sponge cake. Decided against it. I appreciate that things have go up but I won't be ripped off. Just plain greedy.

Good place, nice looking good. It's a shame that it looks way better than it tastes.

Beautiful setting. Lovely Haddock and chips.

Ordered a crispy chicken burger with salad, pickles, onion etc and the presentation and garnish was very poor. I mean, one slice of pickles and half a leaf of salad. You can see from the picture. I mean, a cook that releases a burger like that must hate his job. Also the kids food was very poorly cooked. Service was great and also great atmosphere . We are neighbors and and it was the second time only we went there. Would be great to go regularly but £16 for a burger like that….no thank you!

Lovely place to sit with a drink on a sunny day looking out to the river. Friendly staff, easy to order and pay on app, plenty of seating.

Nice place with good food and chirpy, on-the-ball staff. The decor isn't my thing; a mix of modern and old-fashioned with bits of old boaty junk probably bought in bulk from a pub outfitter, but it gives you something to look at, it's spacious and the location is great.

Just a lovely place in the summer

We had a very negative experience at The Boathouse this weekend. First they requested a "deposit" for booking the table with them. Upon arrival they inform us that the deposit is non-refundable which is fine if they let us open a tab and then use the spend towards that tab. But instead, they refused to open a tab for us and required each person to order and pay individually - making it hard to rack up a 90GBP deposit on a single spend. This means that as the host i have to tell each person to transfer me money seperately which is unhospitable at all from the resto. In addition, i ordered a medium steak which arrived charred. Burgers were mid. The charcuterie board was cheese from tesco. Would not recommend at all.

The food here - burgers and pizza - was v bad. Really dry. And the service was even worse. Loads of people standing around ignoring us and the lady serving at the bar just rude. Price was £££. Not sure where also nearby is good but would not recommend to go here unless for a drink.

We ate on a rainy Saturday night. The crispy chicken wings starter came after the mains, and were ok but not crispy. The firecracker chicken was over cooked and hard. The burger wasn't great.

Menu is quite small but it makes up for it in quality Very nice place to have dinner Edit: 2 years later, my point still stands

I really enjoyed my late lunch there today. There is good WiFi too.

Went to the Boathouse yesterday for the first time with friends for lunch. Had a very disappointing meal. I had the king prawn & Cherry tomato tagliolini pasta. No way could the prawns be described as King Prawns as they were only slightly larger than shrimps and they were over cooked and chewy and generally the meal was quite tasteless. My wife had the Firecracker chicken which was also dry and overcooked. The waitress handled the matter very well and replaced my meal. Unfortunately we will not be visiting the Boathouse again.

To be fair there was an issue with a water problem but they worked round it and still delivered great food the bar service was abit slow not happy about no cash policy but all in all a good place to eat and drink .

Fantastic food and friendly staff would 100000% recommend if your camping or passing by!! Beautiful views of the river and lovely live music!! 🏕️☀️🤩

Absolutely love this place. Right on the river Medway and just outside the village of Yalding. Plenty of outside tables next to the river and inside in the huge oak beamed and light filled, airy open eating area. The Boathouse is great in all seasons, cosy fire in winter, catering for large groups (we had a fabulous Christmas dinner for about 50 for a group of paddlers) and beautiful in summer. Good menu, tap beers and friendly service. Very busy at weekends.

Lovely views, really nice and peaceful. We didn't have food but would happily return to try. Does appear a little pricey but what isn't at the moment.

Meal out with friends on lovely sunny day thought it would be nice by the river.wrong pub has gone drastically down hill since last visit food awful not one good meal out of four avoid.

Beautiful location, staff seem a bit glum if im honest The umbrellas on the tables need some kind of strap around them when not in use as they become a nuisance when not unfolded ....flapping in the wind and such. Very busy whilst we was there and i got the feeling that was normal . Was very pleasant watching the paddle boarders go by.

First time coming here, very clean nice atmosphere and view. Starters were nice. The main took a little longer to come than expected, and we did have to ask when it was going to come. For the main, I ordered the king prawns withTagliatelle, I asked for chilli to be added, which they did. When my main came I was disappointed the pasta was boarding stodgy and it was just normal prawns. When the waitress came back, before I had really eaten any of it, myself and friend brought her attention to this. Now if she had said, “Let me speak to the kitchen to find out why they are not king prawns or sorry we are out of king prawns or sorry about that, would you like something else”, I wouldn’t have minded, but she said “ We call these king prawns here”( I’m not stupid and know what a king prawn looks like). We later brought this to the attention of another waitress who was taking the plates away, when we had finished, she agreed they are not king prawns and would pass the message onto the kitchen, also with the fact the roast beef was very dry that my husband and friend had. We didn’t make more of a fuss than we would have as we hadn’t seen each other for 10 years. Lastly with the dessert my husband and friends wife ordered the cherry crumble and what came was a dry slice of cake with what looked like tinned cherry on the side. We paid £190 for 4 people, we all had starters, main and dessert. I had one large glass of wine and between everyone else roughly about 6 soft drinks and 2 coffees. The main point is, the price wouldn’t have mattered if the menu matched the food. If anything has changed on the menu because you have run out or have to use a substitution, please inform the customer so they can choose something else, if they want to. This is meant as constructive criticism, regards the above, especially when the location and atmosphere is so nice.

Good food at a reasonable price, set in a nice location with covered outdoor seating

Beautiful afternoon spent here. Food was fantastic and well priced.

Been here before and the service is ok. A good range of cider which is always good. It has a great outdoor area to sit in the sun.

Really such sub par food and super slow and bad service, a total disappointment. We arrived early, they offered us a table earlier, but the food took longer than an hour to arrive (1 hour 15min to be precise), because they said that since we arrived early it missed up their ordering… and then the burgers were undercooked, or rather one plant based was just uncooked, the pizza was stale and the vegan wellingtons were just bad in taste and presentation. Such a bad experience and money wasted.

Just been to The Boathouse & had a great experience. I hadn’t booked but they fitted us in. The service was great, so friendly. The food was fab! Lamb cutlets Highly recommend.

Called in here whilst visiting friends, we now live in Lincoln. Great place and dog friendly. Weather not too bad, for a change, and sat outside on the astro turf overlooking the river. I used to live near here and know the brave hearted swim, jumping from the bridge 😲. Greatly entertaining, I am sure but no one performing today😧. Barry and I both had a delicious ham, tomato, pickle sandwich in great brown bread coupled with a generous portion of chips. Reasonably priced with a glass of wine and pint of beer. Lovely in Winter with a wood burning stove in bar. No problem with parking. Would definitely return.

Excellent place to visit. Food lovely, staff really great. Definitely recommend

Great ambience and a lovely view of the river. Food is always very good here. Lots of outdoor seating.

We had a very disappointing trip to the boathouse today. A birthday treat. 5 adults, 2 x teenagers, 1 x 6 year old and a 1 year old. The restaurant wasn’t busy and still the service was slow. The food was very disappointing for the money charged. The coronation crab salad was awful. Zero salad. Presented in a small rankin . Hardly any taste and a very odd combination of ingredients. Teenagers ordered 2 X margaritas which were awful too. Hardly any topping and not cut properly. Wish I took a photo as laughable. The 6 year olds small pepperoni pizza was worse. Just the centre had topping the outer 3rd had nothing. My green Thai curry was awful too, and of poor quality for a restaurant. My family had different meals and all seem underwhelmed by their meals and experience. We had enough and decided against the sweet menu. £240 for this experience and won’t be returning. As there’s plenty of excellent pub / restaurants in the area providing better quality food at reasonable rates. 🙁 Very sad as it’s positioned in a lovely spot and has nice interesting decor and view of the river.

We had a nice meal. Very nice setting and atmosphere. The staff were friendly.

Didn't stop for food this time just a quick drink to check it out with my 2 young boys who loved watching the boats and paddle boards going up and down the river, will be coming back to try the menu at a later date.. Staff seemed very friendly.

Great local pub, good food and great views well worth it

We visited The Boathouse for the first time today. We were impressed with the menu and the variety of seating areas. The staff were friendly, efficient and welcoming. Will definitely revisit and would recommend.

Nice food and friendly helpful staff. Nice.

Nice pub by the wier, food was really tasty, service was good, friendly staff, dog friendly which was a massive bonus, one kind member of staff was making sure all the dogs water bowls were topped up as it was a rather warm day, only complaint is that there was a problem with the taps in the toilets so I couldn't wash my hands but again the staff were very accommodating and a lovely female member of the staff poured a jug of water over my hands whilst I washed them. I'd definitely come back here again

We found this by searching for our evening meal whilst on holiday and only stopping in the area for 1 night. Lovely and clean and spacious table layouts. Staff were friendly and the lady chef came to clear the plates as they had just had a busy few days, she was lovely to chat to. The food was amazing and freshly cooked and a summer garden menu you may not see elsewhere they have clearly made an effort to surprise you. Outside area is just as nice and very large with river view. shame we live so far away we cannot make it our local!!

Lovely spot by the river. Tasty and good value food. Pleasant staff.

Nice place but poor service unless you're a local / pals with staff. 🤷

Just a quick drink by the river medway did not have time for something to eat, but saw the odd plate of good carried out, looked amazing. Next time, I definitely will eat :)

Good place but staff are so rude i doubt we'll go back. Woman in charge is not a good person

Great service and the food was lovely and really good value for money. Definitely going back! :)

Lovely place to visit. Having a drink next to the river, lock and weir. We didn't have the food but looking at other peoples food, well it looked good. It was a nice experience and we will order food next time. So we will definitely come back.

The restaurant is nice but we found the food below par unfortunately, the drinks were nice however and the service was excellent. Will go back to give them another go

The Manager Sophie is a delight. If I ran a pub I'd want her in charge. Good fish n chips. Great setting/location. Have visited in warmer climes and alot busier. But fabulous thankyou x

Lovely place to have a drink when then sun I shining. Staff were all friendly and attentive. Fish and chips was ok.

Reasonably priced nice to sit out next to river staff pleasant parking available

Staff and food were as lovely as the location. Highly recommend the houmous which was the best we've ever had

Lovely meal , staff really friendly enjoyable lunch time

Only popped in for a drink but a beautiful place with great atmosphere. Staff were friendly and welcoming and drink was very welcome. Didn't eat myself but the food wafting past my nose looked and smelt delicious.

We have wonderful experience today , my mother was very impressed whit place we whit like to say thank you to the team and specially Sandra looking after table

What an amazing restaurant, amazing location, beautiful views, great food, very friendly staff, took our mothers there for mothers day, they both had a lovely meal.

A bit disappointed that their nice blush, St Mitre, is now being sold only by the bottle and not the glass 🙄 not so inclined to pop in for one now.

Very nice atmosphere, good food with friendly attentive staff. Dog friendly which is a big bonus. Will definitely be returning

Love this place! Staff are wonderful. Food is great. Location is perfect if you're kayaking or boating.

Ideal place in the Summer for dogs and children!! Great View over the water!!!

Personally I think the Boathouse is ideally situated by the river and would like to visit in the summer. The food was good, also the staff were very attentive and friendly. Thank you for a great afternoon shared by my family aswel.

Stopped off for Sunday roast with the family, Rachel sorted us out extra space as my parents came along with us. Food was quick and tasted great. Will definitely be back

Staff excellent service excellent but food lets this location down sorry but truth hearts

Lovely little pub. Delicious food .

Had a lovely lunch here! The food was really delicious! It was so lovely to be looking out on to the lock!! We were served by a new server on her first day and she was absolutely charming!! The other staff were really friendly too!! Will definitely come back here again. It must be lovely in the summer!

It was quiet at lunch so I'm sure the atmosphere would be good other times. Unfortunately the food wasn't as good as we hoped. The Squid was over cooked and bland. The staff offered to re do the order or take off the bill which was good but second attempt wasn't much better. Good service though.

Food was terrible across the board

Beautiful views, beautiful decor, amazing staff and amazing food. One of our favourite places to go! Games and snug corners galore! We would like the fire on more though!

Beautiful pub. Lovely food. Brilliant service. DJ CKW was fantastic! Thank you for a great night.

This place is beautiful. A group of friends and I came for dinner on the 24th Dec. And it was beautifully decorated. We were also super lucky that we came when there was live music planned for the evening. The band was great, amazing songs. I was sad to see that there was no Christmas menu and when it came to dessert, we were told what was available and what was not. We ordered the chocolate cake, which the waitress said there was loads of, and then waited for 30mins, for someone to come and tell us that there was no more. They were very kind to offer us free dessert and coffee after that. I would definitely go again, another time maybe for lunch in the summer so we can enjoy the beautiful sight around.

Poor food, served Luke warm. Very disappointed, never again

We were so pleased of how we we welcome, it was so pleasant to see people behind the Bar and the manageress with a nice personality. The food was lovely along with the band playing on Christmas eve. We would certainly return and recommend the boathouse and staff to everyone. Our group was so impressed well done to everybody

£26 for a 8oz sirloin steak …. Not even a nice steak either , salad came on the plate looking dry and old Customer service was horrific you couldn’t pay me to eat here again

Nice place now revamped..pizzas amazing and large.service good nice meal but not on my list to return not on my top ten

Lovely little Riverside pub nr Yalding, Kent, great food at reasonable prices, very attentive staff.

We went to the Boathouse for my partners mums birthday. We took our dog which meant we had to sit in the bar away from the restaurant and order our food at the bar. We have been to the Boathouse a few times over the years and found the food decent but on this occasion we found the food unbelievably poor. It was shocking. We will not be going back.

Beautifully situated by the Teapot Island Weir on the river Medway.

Very nice food. But drinks are very expensive.

We had to wait, 6 people, 15-20 minutes for the waiter to come to take the order, the restaurant was empty, then our food, pizza everyone, more than 45 minutes. It is a nice place to go but you need to provide better service and the attitude of the staff to change. Sorry about the bad review.

Decent food, nice location. Good place to kayak to

We cycled from Strood to Teapot island. The Boathouse was open where had a well deserved pint (or three) Lovely pub with friendly staff, we didn’t eat but the menu did look good. We would definitely cycle there again for a Pint.

You've got a European accent? No food or drinks for you at this place. We had booked a table for two and were shown to our table, but that was the last we saw of the staff. Despite the fact that there was hardly anybody in the restaurant - there were only two tables with guests - nobody bothered helping us. After 20 minutes, I asked people with food if I had to order at the bar. They said the waitress normally came to the table. But obviously she didn't want to. So I had to walk up to the counter and order myself. Another 15 minutes passed. No starter, no drinks that I had ordered, nothing. The two tables with Brits clearly got all the attention, but staff walked past us all the time and completely ignored us. After 35 minutes of waiting, we finally gave up and left. In conclusion, if you are European, don't even think about going to this place. You can wait to be helped until hell freezes over. If they don't want Europeans, fine, but then they should be brave enough to hang a plate at the door warning us we aren't served. An utter disgrace, this place.

Good tasty pub grub out on the river what more could you ask for..

Great location but car park needs to be signposted. Ordered a plant based burger which was rock hard and inedible probably because it had been pre cooked and reheated for too long in the microwave. Complained but they still charged full price for it! Rest of the food was fine.

Happened to locate after a day out near Maidstone. Fantastic welcome and great service. Well made freshly cooked food. Definitely on the list to make a return visit.