The Boathouse, Instow in North Devon

We are local and came here for my ‘big birthday’ meal. Extremely slow to get drinks to the table. Menu was ok but had run out of steak. Waitresses did try their best though. Therefore ordered the special ‘sharing platter’ to include a t-bone and whole lobster. Very disappointing for the £160 price tag. Very small lobster which had been taken out of its shell even though we were supplied with the implements to do so, creating a hope of a decent sized lobster, especially considering the price and a t-bone which had already been cut into pieces, presumably by an inexperienced chef who wasn’t confident in the cooking, surrounded by sides seemingly to make up the ‘value’. Shame, was looking forward to it but won’t be returning and will not be recommending.

Amazing food and service! We had the crab and whitebait followed by the special red mullet and hake. All cooked to perfection! Our dog was welcomed in the bar area also.

Lovely food, great service, super location .

Good service but mediocre food at exorbitant prices.

Superb lunch with delicious fresh fish. Christina our server was excellent.

Evening meal in the bar. Great service, view and delicious food!!!

Great service from Cristina. Loved the location, great food. Would come back.

A perfect place for morning coffee. Lovely staff and lovely service.

Pregnant woman made to feel like a nuisance for wanting steak cooked a bit more. Grumpy and unhelpful staff throughout.

Came for a dinner for 18 people, which they handled so well with fantastic service. Would definitely come again!

Very nice and friendly service, food very good, especially the White Brill with melted butter..Had a lovely meal. We will be back

Charming place with great service! Enjoyed our meal in the restaurant! Thank you so much to Cristina who was our host!

Wonderful food, great sevice and Heather was the perfect hostess! Highly recommend and we'll definitely be coming back for more. Thanks for a great evening.

Great location, had breakfast baps here and enjoyed the view for a while at the end of our holidays!

We stopped for a drink on a very cold and wet day. We had food that was excellent. When we pointed out a problem with the food it was dealt with immediately. If in the area again would definitely revisit. Dog friendly in the bar area and they were very accommodating with our dog. Very friendly and helpful serving and bar staff.

Our party of 4 dined at the Boathouse recently and I have to say how impressed we were. There was plenty of choice on the menu and the specials board and all 4 of us really enjoyed our meals. The ambiance in the restaurant is great, along with the view out over the estuary and Heather, our waitress, did a fantastic job explaining all the food and wine options, making us feel very welcome. The prices were reasonable too. It was a Sunday evening and we were so comfortable there that we ended up being the last cover to leave! A big thanks to the whole Boathouse crew for a very pleasant experience!!

Really, really good food. Great service... did I mention the food?

Fantastic service and beautiful food with a stunning view.

Relaxed service ...which is nice especially on a Sunday....but.. Popped in for a coffee and bacon roll which is on the menu board as available without any timing restrictions. Slow wait for service once seated ...about 15mins ...ordered our coffee and bacon rolls at 1145. Order taken to the kitchen and refused to be fulfilled by the Chef .. apparently the Chef needed to prep for Lunch. Please either amend the board to read rolls available till 1130, or speed up the table service or kick the Chef a little...it takes only a couple of mins to serve up a bacon roll. Guess we need to find another place that serves bacon rolls.

Martin our server was amazing he very kindly charged my phone in the office for me whilst we had lunch so that I had a charged phone for my train journey home. Fantastic service thank you Martin!!

Lovely Sunday roast at the Boathouse! First time visiting Devon and highly recommend this restaurant. The food was delicious! They accommodated a big group of us upstairs and the staff were super attentive. Martin was great!🌟

Had a wonderful meal , the crab was amazing, great service, great food, great wine Really enjoyed a rare “ladies that lunch date “

Fabulous. Came out on date night with my wife. Have been before but the food, drink and service never disappoint. Server was Derek, who did a great job. Wasn’t intrusive, left us be. Food lovely as usual, two courses, steak and sole, STP and crème brûlée, plus coffee and a couple of drinks. We’ll always be back!!!!

Amazing location is the only thing saving this place and potentially the locals keeping it afloat. Before booking and reading the menu that made me and partner both want to go here we were very excited to visit. Unfortunately the menu hadn’t been updated online, we found that what we wanted before hand wasn’t available, a majority of the dishes had sold out, bare in mind we had booked at 6:30pm (prime time dinner service). Starter was crab meat on toast £11 I was hoping for a good chunk of meat, what we received was toast with virtually no meat and three chunks of tomatoes with sauce. We thought we would see what the main had to offer. For £28 the beef was mediocre but with really good chips, the accompanying hollandaise sauce was congealed and cold. My partner had ordered the prawns, we expected them to at least have been deveined, but they were gritty and oily. If you plan to come here for dinner don’t bother go next door for proper bang up food, with good atmosphere and friendly staff.

Can't fault it, lovely upstairs and i can only say what a cracking sunday lunch. well played guy's.

Fantastic Evening with friends - exceeded our expectations - Thanks to All 👍🏻👍🏼👍🏻👍🏼👍🏻

A warm welcome from Marcin and great service from Sarah and lovely coffee from Dan. My bacon bap was delicious along with the cake.

Fabulous atmosphere, food and service. With the most beautiful view! Totally recommend!

Lovely food and atmosphere in the restaurant. Service was great.

Booked for lunch for my birthday. We were greeted warmly and shown to an excellent window table. However from then onwards, the service was very slow with a long wait for our initial drinks order to the extent that we were ready to make our food order by the time the server came. Food was delivered in good time, but the servers seemed to vanish between courses making it hard to order additional drinks. The two starters were rather disappointing - prawn cocktail comprising a lot of lettuce and about 5 prawns and no bread & butter which I think is expected with a prawn cocktail. The trout starter was nicely presented, but regrettably was virtually tasteless. The main course was ample and very tasty. Again the servers disappeared after the bill came and it was easiest to go to the bar and pay there. Overall, a bit underwhelming when the restaurant wasn't busy and there seemed to be quite few different servers working, but they were mostly hidden away.

I go here regularly & love it but I had a friend visiting and do we went for a supper. She’s vegan and Heather was so great at explaining the menu - incredibly helpful. You can’t beat the location and we had a great evening.

It was a really great meal for the whole family! From 2 years old to 93 years old, everyone had a great time. The staff really made us feel welcome. It's great value, and I'm sure we will visit plenty of times in the near future.

Been here many times and our visit this time was as good as it always has been. Great staff, great food and a welcoming atmosphere.

Lovely food, great service all with a wonderful view!

We have a lovely meal for our anniversary. The food was very good and staff very welcoming. Would definitely recommend.

We had a wonderful meal that was interrupted by a medical emergency which might’ve ended very differently if it wasn’t for the attentive service of Heather who deserves a special mention. Thank you for remaining calm and showing a caring nature. Thoroughly recommend the boathouse!

Always pop in at least a couple of times when staying locally. Excellent pub/ food; friendly, lovely staff. Never had a bad meal here - great quality and service.Very dog friendly - one of my dogs pulls me in here as he loves it too

We had a lovely family meal at the boathouse - the food and drinks were great and we were particularly impressed with our server, Sam, who was very attentive and remembered who ordered what for starters and mains even on a table of 12. A great personal touch!

Had a really great meal. Chilled and I inviting atmosphere with great views from the upstairs decking. Very friendly staff, our waitress was Sam was great! Food was very tasty and had lots of vegan options for us to choose from- highly recommend the Cherry Blossom 'fish' and chips.

Me and my fiancée are spending a few days in Devon and managed to book a table at this lovely restaurant. From the moment we walked in every single member of staff was so welcoming and friendly. We were served 2 of the best espresso martinis we've ever had and the food was absolutely DELICOUS. For mains we had the seafood linguine and flat iron steak which were cooked to perfection. If you're ever in the area we would highly recommend The Boathouse ! Thank you to the whole team

Another lovely lunch! I'm not usually a dessert person, but I always save room when we have lunch at The Boathouse.

Lovely food and a great service.

A fantastic place, we hired the upstairs room for a private event for 20 people, the food was amazing, buffet style with combination of cold and hot options including salmon, salads, sausage roll, scotch eggs and more. We had a designated person in the room to take drinks orders etc. The organization was brilliant from the start, the GM Marcin was so helpful and great at communicating. We also had dinner the night before in the main restaurant at the pub, the food was great, service amazing so I highly recommend the place.

The restaurant itself is lovely—the ambiance, the host, and the food were all fantastic. We had a beautiful table by the window, which made for a pleasant setting, and we didn’t mind waiting a little. However, the waiting times and lack of attention from the waitress really let the experience down. It took far too long just to place our drink order, and while the food was absolutely delicious when it finally arrived, the service continued to be frustratingly slow. We were so impressed with our meals that we wanted to order dessert, but after half an hour of trying to get a waitress’s attention, we gave up. Several other tables around us seemed to be experiencing the same issue. Eventually, a waitress rushed past us, and we had to almost shout to get her to stop. By that point, we decided to just pay and go elsewhere for dessert. Such a shame, as the food was great, but the lack of service really took away from what could have been a fantastic evening. Would love to come back if service improves, but based on this experience, it was a real let down

Had a lovely evening meal here, service was great albeit a small hipcup which was rectified, the food was delicious definitely visit again 🙂

I have been to the Boathouse many times and have always had a great experience!

Went along for the February 3 course meal offer, unfortunately when we were sat at the table we were told it wasn't available any longer due to running out of the ingredients! Stayed anyway and had a meal, nice service, lovely location. Food was also good and another reason to return. Not much choice for vegetarians.

Great location table with a view of the beach. Lovely service followed by a set menu £22 for 3 corses great quality and value for money and a perfect portion. Staff second to none. You will not be disappointed.we will defo be back ⭐️

Haven't been to The Boathouse for a few years and what a delight. Bright, fresh and clean, great staff, especially Georgia. Excellent drink and food offerings. Very enjoyable, and we certainly won't leave it so long next time before returning 😀

Amazing location looking over the sea and the staff were very friendly!

Great staff and location, Sunday lunch was very good apart from my wife's beef which was extremely tough.

Always love going in the boathouse, friendly staff, dog friendly, food great, one of my favourite places to go

A truly wonderful venue. Amazing views over the estuary and Appledore from your table. Great food and amazing service, catering for our toddler very well.

We visited the Boathouse for an early evening meal. What a good choice we made; the menu is really nice to the point that it was difficult to choose what to have. They have a good kids menu and they were happy to seat us in the Bar area with our dog and even provided dog treats. The service was slick and everyone in our party enjoyed their food. Will definitely revisit in the future.

Given the location of this place, they could sit on their laurels and let you stare out to sea whilst you chew on adequate food. However they don't. This place has superb food and great service. And the view is amazing. And they are very dog friendly!

My wife and mother popped in and were ignored for a while. They approached a member of staff and asked if they could just order a coffee - the staff member simply shook his head, could not even be bothered to vocalise a response. We were there a few weeks ago as well. I was told we were not allowed to order food whilst our drinks order was being taken, no explanation as to why. When I went to pay I was ignored for several minutes by three members of staff chatting at the end of the bar, when one of them eventually bothered to attend to me she was paying so little attention she overcharged me. A few months ago my wife was laughed at by a member of staff for pronouncing the name of a meal incorrectly. Overall, the staff are rude and, most surprisingly, arrogant. I’m not sure who they think they are but when I worked in service - being polite to customers was an entry level requirement for the job. The job is all about people and they don’t seem to employ anyone with interpersonal skills. Real shame because it’s a lovely location but that’s all it has going for it.

Great service as usual . Fish was delicious

food lowkey banged hard ash, our server (chris) was sound and great for the job. service was pretty darn impeccable asw

What an absolute gem. Wonderful food. Location amazing. Staff very attentive. Will visit again when in this neck of the woods. My Husband had the Red Mullet. Amazing.

Great location, all downhill from there. Corporate nightmare and narrow selection of ales

Lovely food Great location. Super staff. One of my fave places to eat in North Devon. The deck is lovely when the weather permits.

Amazing food and service with a view! What more could you ask for !! We decided to stop for a spot on lunch this afternoon completely unplanned! On arrival we were greeted with a smile and found a lovely table with seaside view ! The food was delicious and the service was great from start to end! Made to feel very welcome! Thank you for our lovely lunch and your welcoming hospitality! We look forward to visiting again soon :)

Chose this place randomly on Google maps for somewhere to eat. Fabulous views, modern and clean interior, great bar and food. Highly recommended

Had a lovely meal Saturday being very well looked after by Sam! We have just moved to the area and Sam was a fount of local knowledge.

Great dinner at the boathouse, thanks to the team their for being so friendly and fab!

The boat house is on a regular walk of ours so we would love to just walk in for a drink but every time we go in they turn us away even though the place is virtually empty. I don't think they want to make any money.

Good food, great location, cold beers and good views. Worth a visit if you're in the area.

Sorry, but a very disappointing evening, the music was so loud at on point, we were lip reading, the adult meal of pie and mash was very small, and the puddings were nothing like described, we felt it was very expensive, for food no better than a well known cheaper venue.

Top notch seasonal menu with set menu, daily specials and individually priced dishes for a winter lunch treat Warm welcome on arrival with the service to match, Jamie and Mitch cooked up a creative and flavoursome combination of excellent dishes, looking forward to my next visit already Recommend if you enjoy good food at a reasonable price with a view

Been in the Boathouse Intow very welcoming and excellent care by KAT AND SIMON thanks t what you call a business big up to kat and Simon and team

Such a shame as the Jan set menu could be good value, however the food here is just pretty poor and always inconsistent sadly, we have been here 3 times now and every time it's just not very good, on our most recent visit the minestrone soup was a shocker it just tasted of boiled veg in hot water, the scotch egg was really good but the chef decided to squirt loads of raw English mustard around the plate at least mellow with some mayo, and then the braised beef oh dear as a chef myself I think it was either boiled or sous vide whichever way it was not braised enough the collagen hadn't broken down so it was just weird ... weird texture and looked like something you would serve to a pet , for god's sake it should be glazed in it's jus, it was a lump of grey ugly meat, fries were stone cold yet again but the mussels were pretty good, desserts were average, anyway just a shame as the room is lovely , if they could get a good head chef here it would be amazing

We booked for dinner yesterday evening for 6.30pm, we arrived 2 hours early but the staff were friendly and was very happy to seat us when we arrived. The staff was very friendly. The food was very nice. Very beautiful restaurant. A lot of fish on the menu. With some meat.

Went for dinner late December. Food was very good, though unfortunately a few dishes had sold out which we were interested in, including the oysters. Our party had the pastrami cured trout, Bloody Mary prawn cocktail, beetroot salad & Korean chicken thigh to start, & all dishes were well thought out, bringing the best out of the ingredients. Mains we enjoyed the Devon crab & minced prawn linguine, & the harissa carrots with crispy rice noodles. All very delicious & good portion sizes. A very chocolatey torte finished things off nicely. Service was a tad slow, & no one checked if everything was alright until they were clearing the plates, but in their defence it was very busy that night. Good location, would be beautiful at lunchtime to also see the beach & across to Appledore in daylight. Dog friendly too.

Always great food and staff are brilliant

Called in for coffee and cake. Very nice

I am not sure what to say. Service was what I would call normal but…. Food was OK, but….. Location, and environment are brilliant. I think it’s the type of place that you need to try to form your own opinion.

Lovely food, lovely staff, lovely location.

The Boathouse used to be an upmarket restaurant. It has now been taken over by Youngs Brewery and is more like a pub inside, but still has an interesting food menu that is slightly more restaurant than pub. We visited as a group of 6, including a toddler. The meals are expensive (£18+ per main) but were generally thought to be tasty. One meal (fish) was ordered from the specials board and had no accompaniments, each side costs about £5 so this makes the meal incredibly dear. One person ordered the duck from the main menu and found it tough and tasteless, not what you expect when paying £26 for a dish. The kids menu had more options than most other places, prices were again higher than elsewhere but the food went down well. There is a good baby changing facility in the large disabled toilet in the restaurant side of the pub, and multiple well appointed restrooms at the back of the bar room. Dogs are allowed in the bar area, and whilst we were there we saw lots of groups with dogs coming and going. Despite being so close to the estuary, there was no "wet dog" smell on the day we visited.

We recently celebrated our 40th wedding anniversary at the Boathouse with our family. We have to say the food was excellent with a broad range of delicious options and an excellent wine menu. We were looked after by Simon and he and his colleagues were very attentive. It is a lovely restaurant and would thoroughly recommend it.

Had a superb meal here on the 23 December. The gurnard was a revelation! Top fish cookery. Thoroughly enjoyed the night

Went for sunday lunch was really well cooked ,staff friendly ,lovely view of very windy beach

The setting and your staff were excellent but the main course, turkey dinner. was a bit disappointing. The brussels sprouts were rock hard, the roast potatoes had stood too long before serving and the gravy was far too thin. We did not wish to take any of the above up at the time and risk spoiling other diners evenings.

As ever, lovely atmosphere, friendly waiting staff and delicious food. Always a great experience.

Went for lunch for birthday. Absolutely gorgeous view and lovely food, service is out of this world such lovely people and food. Definitely recommend

We had a our staff Christmas party for 23 people here at The Boathouse. Excellent, friendly and helpful staff. The menu was great and good value. Thank you from all the team at Clearcut Campervan Design

Beautiful spot on the river mouth. Great prices and lovely venue

Been today for an early Christmas family get together and the had the festive menu. It was all really great. Lovely starters and the main meals were accompanied with so may veggies / roasties / Yorkshire pudding. A really proper spread. Great service and all at a very affordable price. Many thanks to the Staff. Sonya & Paul T

Just had wonderful meal for 8 at the boathouse. Lovely service by cheerful staff A perfect end to a few days away with friends

Great food, Great atmosphere and great view! (This review is the summer one!)🌞 We revisited The Boathouse last night, with friends, on a very different winter evening, (cold with pouring rain). It was warm, welcoming, the service was excellent and the meal, (monkfish followed by creme brulee, ) was superb! Definitely one of the best I have enjoyed anywhere! We will be returning soon!🤩

Lovely Sunday roast great service.

Excellent restaurant, fresh and well prepared products! we had a blast! Good and warm atmosphere. The service is very professional and dynamic, thanks to Chris for his welcome!

I overheard that the Boathouse is more interested in attracting tourists than locals. So I won't be back.

We always call at the Boathouse when visiting Instow! A great all round experience!!

A Saturday lunch with my dear friend who is local and wanted me to try your amazing food and enjoy the view.

Beautiful views from the terrace, great pub xx

Simon was a great host today - really enjoyed the experience

Lovely lunch here today- the John Dory with crab and peppercorn sauce was fabulous. Lookong forward to our next visit.

We came here following a day out in Clovelly as it was on the way back to where we staying in Barnstaple. We were greeted warmly, there were a few people in there but it wasn’t overly busy. We asked if we could sit on the terrace with our dog Bruno and couldn’t have been accommodated more. We looked over the menus and I ordered and paid at the bar. At every step of the experience the staff were friendly and accommodating. We asked if could swap chips for a salad on the steak and they were happy to do this - only a small detail but I know plenty of places in the past have said they can’t do this and you end up spending more! When our drinks arrived I’d forgotten to ask for water - I was told they have a water station for dogs a couple of bowls if you don’t have your own and a watering can to fill up! I haven’t seen anything like it the attention to detail Is amazing! Whilst waiting for food we took in the views wow! For a cloudy November lunch time it was stunning! The food didn’t take long to arrive and it was absolutely beautiful. My partner had flat iron steak medium rare with house beetroot salad, I had Devon crab and minced prawn linguine, we shared some tender-stem broccoli. The attention to detail was out of this world, my tastebuds were on fire for hours after! This place is a not so hidden gem (it’s right opposite the beach) however how good it is needs to be shouted from the rooftops (terrace) I even told the manager on shift as we left how pleased I was - the menu isn’t overly pricey it’s what you would expect if you had a view - however the food was so so amazing that I would of paid more than we did! We will be back!

We come here regularly but this visit fell short of our usual visit. The charcuterie board and beetroot salad were both very good. We ordered the whole plaice but then found out the menu had changed and instead of the usual pot of fries and side salad it came on its own and sides had to be ordered extra. We ordered fries and a side salad to be told that they couldn’t do a side salad as they didn’t have the ingredients. Instead I could have a beetroot salad the same as my starter. Fries were not on the menu but could be ordered. My fish was overcooked when served and two huge portions of fries were bought up for us each and two side salads of beetroot and rocket salad. The fries were only warm not hot and one side between two would have been plenty. Very disappointing and they really should go back to the way they used to present their fish of the day.

Booked for Sunday roast, I must say the whole experience was terrible. Took over 35 min to see someone for a drink , no customer service at all. Let’s start on the roast. Well I must say it’s prob the worst we ever had, only I hate giving bad reviews but this was terrible, beef was steamed or boiled, potatoes 100% old or defrosted had a horrific old smell to them. My boy had the pork belly that was even worse, all fat and the skin was zero crispy skins all floppy boiled meat. My daughter had the beef burger, this was a frozen patty that was cooked to death, so so dry. I spoke to the guy at the till and he did not have much to say about it really and just took off two roasts of the bill. Honestly can’t tell you how bad this was. I truly hope we were just the unlucky ones as this just felt like a tourist trap.