Jolleys Boathouse Restaurant is an award winning restaurant situated on the banks of Torrens River in South Australia, only minutes’ walk from Adelaide CBD. York and I both had Monday off so we thought we will give this place a try with our Entertainment Book. We called the restaurant half an hour in advance to make a booking and got a table next to the window. I liked the atmosphere immediately. The place was spacious enough for catering up to 120 guests. However the tables were quite close to each other. Luckily it was Monday lunch time, the diners were all in business attires, quite professional looking and weren’t too loud. I was able to see the Torrens River and the bridge from my side, reminded me of some small European town.
The restaurant appeared to be a bit short staffed since only 2 waiters serving 8 tables. The first waitress who gave us the menu was friendly and engaging. We waited quite a long time for our orders to be taken. I was quite hungry by then so I wasn’t very pleased. What made it worse was that the second waiter basically threw the breads on to our plate and looked quite unimpressed.
Even though the breads were warm and butters were soft, that waiter totally ruined our mood. I asked the first waitress to take our order and told her we are actually in a hurry to go. She enquired what time do we have to leave by so the food will be delivered before that and she did. I was quite pleased with that since the food came out quite fast after that.
York and I shared an entree, it felt like Asian-inspired duck parfait with citric taste. It was refreshing and creative for restaurant to serve a combination like this, it worked quite well.
The goat tagine was very flavorful from the spices. There was a bowl of couscous as a side dish to balance the flavor out. York rarely eats dishes like this, found it a bit exotic.
My barramundi was crisp as it was described and a good portion. I enjoyed it very much.
We used our Entertainment Book which was buy 1 get 1 free. The prices of A la Carte menu were around AUD$30 per main. They do have an express lunch menu where you get a fixed 2 or 3 dishes for around AUD$55 (can’t remember the exact cost), that way your meal will be served faster and ordering will be easier.
Overall it is a nice contemporary modern Australian restaurant for lunch due to the nice view, relaxing atmospheres. The foods are slightly above average and services should be improved. Next time we may give dinner a try.
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