Reviews for Billy's Boat House Grill

05/21/2010 - ZB
I just wanted to let everyone know about a recent experience I had with a local restaurant that will prevent me from EVER going back.

We arrived around 10:30 A.M. this past Sunday and the place was not very busy, lots of open tables inside and they were able to seat us immediately. We placed our order and began enjoying our bloody marys and mimosas. 45 minutes later we started to realize that we hadn’t seen our food yet nor had we received an explanation from our waitress. When she returned to our table she informed us that our food was going to take another 30 minutes! Keep in mind, this is eggs and hashbrowns we’re ordering, not a well done filet. (That’s an hour and fifteen minutes for those of you counting at home)

Unfortunately, what started out as an enjoyable Sunday quickly turned into a table of six very hungry people. We decided to wait until our food arrived before informing a manager. Once the food arrived, the manager came to our table and seemed to not really care about our inconvenience at all. She said the hostess should’ve informed us that there is usually a long wait on Sundays, and wasn’t interested in apologizing for making us wait for an hour and fifteen minutes for our food. She was very disrespectful and rude so we felt this combined with our inconvenience deserved a little more than an apology. She said they could bring us a round of drinks (only 4 of us were drinking their $3.00 drinks). Still no apology, so we asked to see the owner.

A few minutes later a man (Bill Cissel) arrived at our table wearing an apron and carrying a BUTCHER’S KNIFE and a knife sharpener! (This was obviously an attempt to intimidate us…who does that, SERIOUSLY??!?!?!?!?!) He walked around our table SHARPENING THE KNIFE while responding sarcastically, “welcome to Sunday brunch” and then tried to retreat back to the kitchen before I addressed him and asked if he was the owner. He replied yes and seemed to care less about us than the manager. We informed him that the manager was rude and didn’t seem to care or apologize about the restaurant’s lack of concern for a paying customer. His response was that the manager was sending over a round of drinks and “he wasn’t going to comp our meal” and then he replied again, “welcome to Sunday brunch”. The sad part is that we would have been fine with some sort of apology (without the attitude) and maybe a discount, but neither of them offered an apology or asked what would make us happy.

Apparently, we insulted Bill Cissel by eating at his place, in addition to expecting to see our food in a reasonable amount of time. If you choose to eat at Billy’s Boathouse, I strongly suggest you avoid the owner since his tactic to intimidate customers is bringing a butcher’s knife to the table…oh and he could care less about you coming to his establishment. Actually, I suggest you avoid the place altogether since I don’t think this sort of owner should be in business. If he treats his customers this way, I can only imagine what goes on behind closed doors with the employees and heaven forbid, our food!!!!!

Of course everyone is free to do as they please, but I hope that you think of this event the next time you consider having Bill Cissel prepare and serve your meal.