What Harbour House has going for it is a great location. It sits right on the corner of the harbor of the Victoria and Alfred Waterfront overlooking the boats lined up along the main sidewalk. From inside the restaurant, you feel like you could be sitting on a dock out over the water. The restaurant is nicely decorated and is beautiful at night with the lights of the harbor and Ferris wheel behind it. As beautiful as the restaurant is, I found it to be overpriced for the quality and a bit of a tourist trap.

I stopped in for a Sunday evening meal hoping for some amazing seafood. I tried the Cape rock lobster, also known as crayfish, off the specials menu. I was really looking forward to it because crayfish is one of my absolute favorites. Crayfish is similar to lobster but usually a little sweeter and more tender. The portion Harbour House served up was good—one and a half crayfish. It’s not a lot of food, but it’s enough. Disappointingly, however, I found the crayfish to be pretty tasteless, tough, and stuck in the shell. Though they were advertised as grilled, there was no sign of grill marks or grill flavor and they totally lacked seasoning. They came served with a rather bland mayonnaise, but a garlic or lemon butter dipping sauce would have been much better. Additionally, although I ordered chips for my side, I got rice when the server brought my plate. By the time the actual waiter came to check if everything was okay, I had decided just to go with the rice rather than let everything get cold waiting for the chips. The rice was also pretty bland and tasteless, and I suspect the chips wouldn’t have been much of an improvement.

I decided to give them one more chance and ordered crème brulee for a dessert. The presentation was nice but the texture of the crème brulee was curdled rather than creamy—not what you expect from such an expensive place. The Harbour House is pretty, but there are much better and cheaper options in the Waterfront and beyond.