The Boatyards ‘Buble Fever’ Review

June 2, 2015 by Foodie Rich

Just the other weekend Lou and I were having dinner with some good friends. Well I say dinner, it more like an on going ‘Come Dine With Me’ thing we’ve got going on. It does get quite competitive, but always a great evening, we just talk about food and wine all night. As always the conversation turned to eating out and where had everyone been recently? Our friends visited the Boatyard a few weeks ago, but not for just a meal, but to one of their cabaret nights. It was the last one they did, the Jersey Boys. The verdict? They loved it! Both the food and entertainment was superb, they couldn’t say a bad word about it, and these guys can be critical. This got me thinking, I love going out for a bit of ‘wining and dining’, I’m also a big fan of live music, so this made perfect sense to me, I need to get down to the Boatyard for the next one.

So I checked out the website, and there it was ‘Buble Fever!’ I’m going to be totally honest, this is not normally the sort of music I would listen to, I’m more of a Foo Fighters or Royal Blood kinda guy. But, in the right setting, such as the splendour of the Boatyard, together with fine food and wine, I thought it would be perfect. Also a lovely opportunity for Louisa and myself to put on our glad rags, have a great meal and be entertained by the number 1 Michael Buble tribute in the country. Lets make it a kind of date night!

We eventually arrived at the Boatyard, I say eventually, as I feared we would never make it; Lou just takes an age to decide what to wear, and do her hair but I guess that’s a ladies prerogative. I must admit though, I too had earlier visited my long serving coiffure for a bit of a spruce up (Martyn at Strangeways hair never fails to work wonders with my barnet!) Upon arrival we decided to enjoy a glass of champagne at the bar before sitting down for dinner. I love this bar; its designed like a boat and you can watch the comings and goings of the kitchen. It gives you a great opportunity to see the food coming out to other tables, which does help when deciding what to eat. The weather that day had been pretty awful, but by the time we were sat at the bar, the evening sun had appeared, creating a beautiful vista across the estuary, perfect whilst we enjoyed our champers.

We sat at our table on the ‘upper deck’ looking down on the main restaurant. If you’ve never visited the Boatyard before it has two levels, which I would describe as a lower deck and upper deck. The reason being, as you gaze out of the windows looking out to sea, it almost gives you the illusion of being on a cruise ship. We were presented with two menus, the main ala carte menu, and the special events menu which has a set price of £14.95 for three courses, pretty good value I thought. I decided to go full ala carte, Lou went for the special events menu. To start, I ordered the San Danielle ham with figs, whilst Lou went for the smoked salmon, cream cheese and dill tartlet. For mains? The fish of the day sounded lovely, fresh cod fillet with a herb crust; that was me sold. From Lou’s special menu you can choose from three mains; chargrilled chicken breast wrapped in Parma ham and asparagus, pan seared fresh salmon with blackened cajun and paprika olive oil dressing, or a vegetable and herb pesto linguine, they all sounded good. Lou is sucker for a bit of salmon, so that was her sorted. Come to think of it, she had salmon for a starter as well, surely a salmon overdose! The wine list is pretty good in Boatyard with good examples from all the usual great wine regions. As we had both ordered fish, we decided on a bottle of Sancerre La Galette. 100% Sauvignon Blanc its citrusy fresh flavour would compliment the fish perfectly I thought. Before our starters arrived some bread and olives came to the table. The bread was fresh and warm, and with a knob of butter it tasted great. The olives too were plump and delicious. At this point of the evening the entertainment began.

Now, please bare with me, I’m a food reviewer, not an entertainment reviewer. I am sure there are far better critiques out there that could review a show in a more professional and detailed manner than I could ever dream of, but hey, lets give it a go! Mark Halliday, who organises these special nights, introduced the evening’s entertainment. An actor and singer in his own right, Mark has appeared in many West End shows, so he know his stuff! The band, Spice Fusion, were superb, I couldn’t remember exactly how many guys were in the band, but I reckon there were a good 8 or 9. When they started to play the roof almost lifted off! But the star of the show of course was Rickie Arthur, AKA Michael Buble! Quite simply this guy can sing, and a great entertainer too! He blasted out all the Frank Sinatra and Dean Martin classics; he even sang the theme tune to Spider Man!

After a couple of songs in our starters arrived. My figs and ham were presented beautifully. A small salad of rocket, with the ham wrapped around, and the figs either side drizzled with maple syrup, it all went together perfectly. Lou’s tart was equally good. The pastry was light and crumbly just as good tartlet pastry should be. The filling was creamy and crammed with smoked salmon; drizzled with a balsamic dressing it was lovely. The starters hardly touched the sides! So we sat back, filled our wine glasses and continued to enjoy this wonderful entertainment.

When the mains arrived they both looked good. My Cod was topped with a crispy golden crust, I dived in and the fish flaked away beautifully, it was cooked to a tee. The crust was crispy and full of herbs, I was very pleased! Lou’s salmon was cooked equally well. In my view, salmon needs to be cooked ‘just under’. Too many restaurants can over cook salmon, drying it out, not nice at all. This salmon however was ‘just under’, as it should be, well done chef! I forgot to mention, we ordered some sides. Chips with aioli, these were crispy and perfect when dipped in the garlicky aioli. We also ordered asparagus wrapped in courgette and Parmesan. The asparagus was cooked just as I like it, it still had some bite! There’s nothing worse than soggy asparagus!

Normally by this point I would say how we are so full up, or pudding would be a course to far and that! But I did promise I would have a pudding in my next review, so I have. But, not just one, we ordered three, yep three!! It wasn’t my fault, I blame Lou. Part of her three course special event menu included a dessert, so we had to have it. But Lou being Lou fancied a dish off the main ala carte menu as well, she can be so awkward, but I wasn’t complaining! So, we ordered Amalfi Lemon semi fredo from the special event menu, and from the main menu, Snickers cheesecake and the Baileys crème brulee (Lou cant resist a crème brulee). We also had a couple of glasses of dessert wine to compliment the anticipated pudding onslaught! All three sweet delights arrived at the table, the semi fredo was fresh and lemony, the crème brulee certainly tasted of baileys with a cracking burnt sugar topping! Finally the Snickers cheesecake was to die for with a salted caramel sauce, what’s not to like there. All three puddings were great; I couldn’t really fault any of them.

We finished the evening down by the bar with most of the other diners, chatting and enjoying another drink whilst others strutted their stuff on the dance floor. What a great night, I can’t think of another local venue putting on such nights; this really is unique to the Boatyard, its straight out of the West End. From the moment we walked through the door to getting our cab home its just pure class. The fine food, superb entertainment and wonderful venue just work together so well. I don’t think we all get enough opportunities to put on your best frock and have a great night out, but now we can. Quite simply, if you want to be entertained with great food and wine, you just need to get yourself booked in to the Boatyards next cabaret evening, take it from me you will not be disappointed!

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