Restaurant Review: The Boat House, South Queensferry

Unbeatable Views of the Firth of Forth

After a quick detour to North Queensferry (What??! Ed) we finally found the lovely seaside town of South Queensferry. The Boat House is a fine dining restaurant, bistro and cocktail bar which seems to offer everything from oysters and seared tuna to fish and chips and nachos and from what we could gather it does all this very well.

The Boat House has a bit of an unusual layout, but this allows patrons the best views of the river. The venue is on 3 levels, with the restaurants on the lower levels which means you dine right on the sea front below street level.

There is a smart fine dining area and a more casual bistro restaurant, and we chose to eat in the bistro. They also have a fab little outside area right on the beach which, on a warm day would be a perfect place for a relaxed lunch or sun downer cocktail.

After ordering our food, we snacked on some delicious tiger bread and butter, a nice change to the usual bread rolls.  For starter, I opted for the moules in garlic and cream from the Bistro menu. As well as the moules being big and juicy, the sauce was to die for – especially with a big chunk of tiger bread.  Celia went for Grilled Goats cheese with a pickled walnut salad and sweet red pepper chutney from the fine dining menu. Cheese is certainly a favourite of Celia’s and the accompaniments went with the creamy cheese perfectly. A great start.

For main course I chose seafood tagliatelle which I must saying wasn’t the most interesting thing on the menu by any stretch, but I just really fancied it. The cold seafood platter, oysters, scallops with truffle oil and seared Tuna all looked delicious but I settled for the pasta. I was presented with a huge bowl of pasta, and more seafood than you could ‘shake a stick at’. Whilst dining on my mountain of brown shrimps, juicy mussels and extremely tasty pieces of smoked haddock, I was very pleased with myself and definitely satisfied my initial craving.

Celia ordered the smoked haddock with chive mash, poached egg and cheddar sauce, and watching the wind whip up on the Forth she couldn’t have asked for a more comforting meal. The dish incorporated all of her very favourite ingredients, cooked to perfection and she couldn’t have been happier.

Finally not ones to shy away from pudding (we know, we know! Ed) we ordered dessert. I devoured the chocolate brownie which had come highly recommended by our lovely waitress,  and Celia carried on with her theme of ‘favourites’ by ordering sticky toffee pudding. Both warming puds were clearly home made and truly scrumptious.

We enjoyed the evening and the views so much we planned to take friends back to South Queensferry that following Saturday. If you fancy a trip to a wee seaside town then I would definitely head to South Queensferry and The Boat House.

The Boat House, 22 High St, South Queensferry  0131 331 5429

The Edinburgh Reporter food reviewer, Holly Jones, is a partner in The Lifestyle Company Scotland you can follow the company and their lifestyle tips on Twitter