I've been here three times to catch up with former high school classmates, so not only are they able to handle large groups, but they are also a place that everyone enjoys. The latest time we sat outside on the patio overlooking the Susquehanna River which is a wonderful spot to enjoy a pleasant summer evening. The wait staff was able to handle our large group with ease and good humor, including separate checks for everyone. Nothing fancy about the food - good solid hamburgers, sandwiches, salads, and pizza. A comfortable spot to kick back and reminesce about old times with good friends. read more

This is a great location to sit outside on the deck next to the river! They do not take reservations so good luck getting outside without waiting. The parking is a crazy mess! The lack in the parking department. The food was good. The bucket of old bay fries as an app. Was all the yummy goodness u hoped it to be. I got a long island ice-tea which was a little under $6 dollars. I was shocked. I expected it to be more. I ordered the chicken jerk sandwich with peppers and onions. It was good and had flavor but it was an odd flavor. All in all it wasn't a bad experience but a mediocre one. I would go back to experience the deck and to try a different dish. Their hospitality is on point! Go earlier than 6 on a friday because the deck is completely full at that time. Fyi they had good entertainment on the deck. read more

3 stars. Why? The riverside view from their patio can't be beat. Dowside: Their food and service is hit or miss. Some of the servers are trashy in mannerisims and the conversations they think patrons can't hear. The river rocks have SO MUCH potential. Of the six we got, only two were baked to perfection. The others where half soft, half crostini. I had the southern chicken sandwhich. The breading slid right off and so I had a greasy bland cutlet for a sandwich. If cooked properly, it would have been yummy. Hubby had their giant loaded baked potato. That was so goooood! Their fresh cut fries were fantastic! We ate every last one. Overall, great place to go when the weather is nice and enjoy their beautiful patio on the susquehanna, some drinks and just eat for the sake of eating with friends or a date. read more

I go here to sit on the deck, its one of two places to go to sit and enjoy the river. Food is okay, they need to do a really good happy hour, and not have it end at 545! Front staff can be rude and not accommodating, like making you wait for entire party if it's over 4 to seat you. But we like to pull the boats up to the dock and go up and get a drink, and the deck is great. read more

I'm surprised I haven't ventured out to this place sooner! The open 3-tiered deck reminded me of Florida! The place was getting very busy early on a Friday night around 6pm, though the two of us only waited for about 15 minutes. The restaurant staff monitors the parking lots across the street to assist you with parking for the all the neighboring restaurants for free. We sat outside on the sprawling deck, and thoroughly enjoyed the river scenery, beautiful breeze, and the live music. We ordered some drinks, which were pretty inexpensive, after reading the extensive drink list included in the menu. The menu is quite extensive, and I'd be surprised if someone couldn't find something they'd like. The drinks came out pretty fast, but we placed our food order quickly since we anticipated a longer wait. We ordered the large order of Mozzerella Sticks for an appetizer, and a brick-oven pizza with Sausage and carmelized onions. The sticks were great, almost like cheese stuffed bread, but had the same flavor as regular cheese sticks. The pizza however, wasn't as good. There was barely any sauce and the cheese was rubbery. The onions must have been sauteed in a cooking wine, because that is all the pizza tasted like. The waitress seemed to be inconvenienced whenever we asked for something, though my boyfriends glass was always filled without prompting...I had to ask for a refill. The dessert was yummmm-o! We shared the Reese's Thundercake(??). Mmmmmm, very very peanut buttery. I'd definitely try this place out again thought the pizza was lackluster and the service was eh. I'm taking into account that they were understaffed and were so busy...and will not order the carmelized onions again. The environment and ambiance was perfect for a Friday night after a long work week. I recommend to get there early and order your food fast! read more

I wanted to take a friend from New York here who had never been here before. But when we arrived they were extremely busy and said that they didn't give wait times. We left because of that. I was disappointed because I have been here in the past and loved their food, drinks and beautiful view of the river. I also wanted to see their beautiful new building. I was upset that we had to leave because of this. They really need to be more organized and respectful when they are busy, like giving wait times and saying that they are taking reservations only. read more

I am upset because they used my card and charged me twice at this restaurant. Called the manager, as soon as I got home and was told they will cancel one of the transactions, no apologies! I would not trust Dockside willies with my credit card! read more

We visited Monday night and were a party of 11. It was about 9:30pm when we got there. Our waitress, I think her name was Allie, was so nice and attentive. She checked on us frequently to make sure drinks were filled and taking numerous orders. The food was amazing! And huge portions! The wings were unbelievable. Have of our party returned the following day for lunch lol. Definitely recommend and can't wait to return read more

What a great place! Emmey and I had never heard of it before and strangely enough we had been to the restaurant next door. But that didn't matter because Dockside Willies is FANTASTIC! What a great venue and excellent food too! We asked to sit next to the window as to enjoy the view and our server was more than happy to reseat us. The staff was friendly, the venue was fun, and the food was outstanding! Instead of my usual Blue Moon I got an "Angry Apple Pie" which I must say was mighty tasty and filling! It complimented my burger greatly and Emmey enjoyed the bite I gave her as well! She said her food was some of the best she's had in a long time (which says a lot because we eat at restaurants quite often). Overall we had a great time and we will definitely be back to try some more of their menu! read more

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Nice ambiance because of the outdoor seating, although the deck isn't nearly as nice as Duke's a few doors down. The food and service here can be good or it can be very average. A nice spot to eat outside by the river. read more

Dockside Willies - Seafood Near Me - Wormleysburg, Pennsylvania

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I was visiting PA and it was 75 in February so this is one of the places right on the water. I got a burger and potato salad both were good. I tried the raspberry cheesecake- it was just ok. I would go back for drinks on the patio. Staff was awesome and the drinks were on point. read more

Mediocre at best. I'm not a beer drinker. My drinks were weak and the food was pretty bad, but edible. read more

Dockside Willies - The riverside deck - Seafood Near Me - Wormleysburg, Pennsylvania

After reading the comments I wasn't sure what to think. So we tried it on a Friday afternoon, while in the area for a dance competition. My wife and I walked in the door and there was nobody at the hostess stand. We waited for a few minutes, were passed by by other employees and still nobody to seat us. We walked up to a waitress and asked if we needed to seat ourselves...she apologized and seated us immediately....that was the only issue I have with this place!! We decided to try 3 different items on the menu so we could review it properly. 1. The Boneless Wings: Think Chick-fil-A nuggets on steroids! Fresh chicken hand cut into big pieces and breaded! I could have made a meal out of these. You get about a pound (10-13) and they are cheaper then the bone-in wings! The sauces we had tasted homemade. We had the The River Sauce, Sesame Garlic and Tropical BBQ, all had great flavor liked the latter 2 the best! 2. The Jamaican Burger: a double patty burger, grease running down the bun. Really good flavor....personally not a fan of Jerk seasoning in beef, but I thought it was good! 3. White Pizza: (Can't remember exact name), it was a pizzeria style thin crust, with a butter garlic sauce and 3 cheeses. This wasn't bad but I would try a different pizza next time, but that's just IMO. Overall the atmosphere is pretty cool, would like to see the place in the summer when the outside decks are hopping, it started to rain while we were there so only the smokers remained outside under cover! Great view overlooking the Susquehanna River towards the Capitol! Will definitely return sometime in the future!! read more

I've been here several times in the past and had bad experiences, but it seems they are changing their ways a bit. The hostess was a bit rude and slow to seat us, even though we were the only customers at the time. That is my only complaint for this particular visit. The waitress was friendly and very nice and the service was quick. I ordered the pulled pork BBQ sandwich, which was probably the best thing I have ordered there. The chips were a bit bland, but the sandwich was amazing. All in all, it was a nice experience. We sat inside due to the heat, but there's a nice deck on the river when the weather allows. read more

the flashing lights on the deck triggered my epilepsy i had a seizure and choked on a meatball river rock

Today has been such a terrible experience we started at Rock Bass and waited over 20 minutes before we were even brought water. It was not because of the wait servers continued to come to other tables around us. We sat patiently and did not make a fuss. We then came down to thw sister Restaurant hoping for a better experience dockside willies. We got our drinks but continued to be overlooked and my spouse had to continue to call waiter for service. I ordered the pizza and he ordered the wings. The salt and vinegar wings did not taste like salt and vinegar and another guest tried one of our wings and it just tasted like plain seasoned wings. The server came to the table and my spouse let him know what the issue was. He the server said I am not responsible for the way they cook them in the kitchen i can bring salt and vinegar out to your table and you can do it how you like. My spouse said since i am doing the kitchens job will i recieve a discount. The server said we do not give discounts out like that. I so wanted a better experience. The manager came and took 5 wings off our table and shot them in the trash and brought back 5 wings that looked like they were soaked in spit or some other type of fluid. I do not plan on ever attending either restaurant ever again.  I heard so great reviews only to recieve terrible service at both places. My spouse has been to your establishment and always had great experiences.  This was my first time he wanted to surprise me and it was far the worst experience I have ever had. We were afraid to eat wings brought back to us because they looked like they were spit on and kitchen manager came out to see if we ate wings. We did not eat the wings because the appearance of the wings resembling spit.  07/08/2018 read more

They can't give a wait time when you arrive if you have a party of 5 or more? How hard is this? Every other restaurant I've been to for the last 40 years can estimate wait times. (It was 5 minutes, by the way. How hard could that have been to estimate?) Then they put us in this awful booth by the front window that had NO shade, so it was about 100 degrees in the direct sunlight. Everyone in the side facing the window was blinded. Just awful. read more

Simply leaving this review due to a few times with really lousy service. This is not the first time we have waited 15 minutes plus for someone to stop by after we were seated to get our order started. This time when we asked a wait staff member who our waiter was, she never returned. I got up and walked to a waitress at a station and let her know we had been sitting for 15 minutes and no one had come by. She simply said "okay, I'll be over then." Once she swung by she said she was dropping food off for other people but would be back. As we were about to stand up and leave, she came back. We do love the food here, but, for a slow Sunday afternoon, no customer should be waiting 15+ minutes for someone to stop by and get their drink and food orders. read more

I ordered the Ultimate Mr.T deep dish pizza and chicken wrap. Both were yummy. The service was average and not too friendly. I recommend this place. Good food and good value. read more

Dockside Willies - Chicken Wrap - Seafood Near Me - Wormleysburg, Pennsylvania

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This place was recommended to us by our rental car agent. On our last night in town, we decided to give it a try. It was great. Food was excellent, portions were huge and there was a great view out back. If you are ever in the Harrisburg PA are, swing on by for a great meal read more

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Glad we found this place everything seems to be closed on a Sunday afternoon in Harrisburg. Took a chance glad we did great spareribs great service good seats with a river view O by the way the Pirogies were great appatizer ... read more

Dockside Willies - Staying inside too hot on the river deck - Seafood Near Me - Wormleysburg, Pennsylvania

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Coolest place ever on the Harrisburg waterfront. In the summer they put sand on the ground in the outside bar area giving it a beach feel. Food portions are huge so go with an appetite. read more

Dockside Willies - Seafood Near Me - Wormleysburg, Pennsylvania

Whenever me and my brother tried to order online they would keep leaving us on hold. But the food however is pretty good.

Always a good choice. They have a great selection on their menu so there should be something you would like. I have enjoyed the fish & chips and there is enough for two! Skip the cheesecake in favor of another dessert like peanut butter pie. Our server was rushing us out and brought the check before we could order dessert. This was the first time I did not have excellent service. I assume he thought we were full as we boxed half our lunch to save room for dessert. read more

After multiple negative experiences here this year it's time to write a review. A group of friends and myself went here last night to get drinks and dinner. We got a section outside with a short blonde waitress, probably in her 40s. Worst server I've had in a solid 3 years. She was incredibly rude from the start. I asked if she had a draft list - she replied that she had one in her pocket but it probably was not up to to date. Uh okay? We asked if she had a pineapple shandy because we thought we saw it written on the wall inside. She replied "no", then another waitress nearby overheard and had to correct her and told her they do have it. So I then order "the pineapple one", and she corrected me "YOU MEAN THE TRAVELER's", all rude like. Uh yeah no **** that's what I mean. She then brings back the incorrect drink to my friend who ordered a summer ale arguing with him telling him she knows what it looks like and smells like and it's definitely a summer ale. Whatever it was, it was an IPA. Flash forward to round two, of course my friend doesn't want the same thing so asks her to make sure it's a summer ale. She comes back with the same exact thing and after she tells him she watched the bartender pour it, goes back to the bar and then comes back and tells him that she was wrong and they actually mixed up the taps and that she could only get him a new beer but couldn't refund him for the first one he drank. She also complained about how cold it was outside every time she came out. It's June. You'll live. Terrible experience, never coming back. read more

The building is absolutely beautiful! The food is amazing! I highly recommend the Hot Rocks! The ClamWin Chowder is delicious! Sitting on the deck, eating hot rocks and drinking a beverage. read more

This is a fun place to hang out and drink and eat along the Susquehanna River. When the weather is nice make sure to grab a table outside and soak up the Pennsylvania sun. read more

Dockside Willies - Making me hungry. - Seafood Near Me - Wormleysburg, Pennsylvania

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Don't fall in the trap of buying the largest glass at the bar for seltzer's as the bar tenders have to fill half the glass with ice. So what r you left with?!! A bull shit rip off. And 8.25 a glass! Also, bartender had no idea what the soup of the was. Said "I have no idea" and walked down the bar to other customers and took their order! read more

A lot of food but everything came out cold. Our dinner and appetizers all came out at the same time. Manager and staff were not very nice.

Atmosphere is good. Food is good. Outdoor is section under the pergola is gross. The entire meal carpenter bees flew by our heads. Then wood shavings rained down on our food and on us. (See photo) #Whomp read more

Dockside Willies - Seafood Near Me - Wormleysburg, Pennsylvania

first off, this place doesn't deserve any stars. This was our first time visiting, we were seated immediately & given menus, then the wait began. We were waiting for 30 minutes before our server came over & introduced himself to us, he took our drink order & waited another 15 minutes for those, (this was after complaining about the wait). Meanwhile a family came in & were seated in the booth next to ours. They were greeted promptly, (by the same waiter), drink orders taken & brought out immediately, we still didn't get our drinks at this time. He proceeded to take their food order, we still weren't asked what we wanted to order. The drinks we ordered were watered down & didn't taste like any alcohol was even in them. So we finally ordered our food, & waited again! Our food was brought out, we had no utensil, our server said he would be right back with some.........he lied. The food wasn't that great, definitely not worth the price, (prices on the menu & prices we were charged did not match). I did complain to the hostess & she said we should have told her & she would have given us a different waiter. It shouldn't have to come to that! We won't be back. read more

Good food but they have the worst carryout system ever. You have to get transferred to the bar and hope someone answers. Been on hold many times for 10+ minutes, hang up and call back only to have the same happen again, then just order elswhere. Guess they dont really want to be bothered with carryout orders but you would think they could come up with a better system. read more

This was our first dining experience at Dockside Willies and my boyfriend and I heard it was a nice date night experience. We rarely get a date night so we were excited to try them out and for a good dining experience but we got everything but that. The atmosphere seemed decent although the employees did not help maintain that. We were placed at a dirty table by the greeter at the door, which we brought to the servers attention when she finally made her way back to greet us. She never gave her name but asked if she could get us some drinks. The frozen strawberry margarita was amazing and we also ordered the river rocks - also amazing. She left us with some time to figure out our main courses. When returning with the appetizer and drinks we again brought up the table being sticky and dirty. We placed our meal order and she said she would be back. I asked if we could substitute the steak for the salmon with the steak and crab cake entree and she stated we could not. This was fine. I stated I would do the steak and crab cake meal with broccoli and mashed potatoes. She asked how to prepare the steak and I said medium well. Then she asked for his order. My boyfriend ordered the crab quesadilla. We sat for a while and then as the dinner plates were coming he went to the server directly and asked they not put our meals down on a dirty table we asked to have wiped down. Another waitress finally came over and wiped the table and then our food was placed. I asked immediately about my missing crab cake. She stated oh I didn't know you wanted a crab cake. She offered to put it in but I stated it was okay we'd just eat as is. Just remove the crab cake from the check. The steak was well done and flavorless which may have been on me since medium well is a dangerous steak request if you're not making it yourself. A short time later she came back and asked how everything was and I asked for steak sauce. Again we sat for a moment and she didn't return with the steak sauce. When she did return we asked for boxes and the check. On the way back to the table she dropped the check. She returned to the table with the boxes and placed the check from the floor inside the box. We paid and although the treatment by the staff was subpar, we did still tip. The stigma around black diners not tipping servers is really hard to change when the service provided is mediocre and just downright bad. I try to never tip below 15% even when service is bad. I hope this changed her attitude that not everyone can be judged on tipping based on history of others. If we were to return we would order take out only. read more

I mean this place has a great dock.. Outside of that the food is very oh so average. I have been here a couple times and never leave feeling like I had an amazing meal. With that being said I have also never left thinking I just had a bad experience. In the summer this is a good place to go to but when the weather is not nice it quickly begins a standard restaurant. read more

First visit to Dockside Willies. Waitress was perfect - professional, polite, friendly, fast. Food was so-so. I was hoping for a fish entree - grilled or broiled salmon or haddock. Unfortunately, all I found on the menu was fried fish sandwich, crab cake and fish taco - not what I was looking for. I ordered 6 of the Thai Sweet Chili regular wings. Wings were large, meaty with plenty of sauce and blue cheese dressing, fresh celery sticks - so very good. I also ordered the onion rings, pricey at $9.95 but they give you a huge serving - literally a small bucketful. I was not happy with the onion rings because (1) too much salt in the batter (2) batter was too thick and did not taste good. My friend ordered a brick oven pizza and found it to be just ok, nothing special. Dockside Willie's does have a pretty large menu of typical bar food and some signature dishes so will deserve another visit to evaluate further. read more

So during this time of slow business, this recently re opened space has a staff of unengaged, untrained, cellphone entranced employee s. My recent trip on Sunday featured a hallway missing any hostess. A outside bar staffed with 2 barmaids. Intent on informing me I need a hostess and can't sit at the several unbused river table. 15 mins after tracking down a hostess an entree was ordered. Water servered. Drink order taken. 12 minutes later drinks arrived. Listen, do yourself a favor.... Stay home. This theme of unattended untrained servers continued at two other restaurants as well. Either your trained professional staff are too smart to engage in this open now mentality, or the owners are worried about franchise fee payment s instead of service. Look how many places fail.. simply because it's not run on quality, product and service read more

Dockside doesn't take reservations. Understandable, strange considering their location and large amount of setting, but - understandable. We had a group of 25 people, going out to celebrate a young lady's 21st birthday in Harrisburg, ranging in age from 21-60. We called ahead, a week in advance and then an hour in advance to give them time to prepare. The girl on the phone did everything but say "We don't want your business" and "No we don't want to do any extra work" Upon arriving, the the two hostesses said "We don't know how we're going to accommodate such a large group" - I then pointed to the room behind them that had a table, which I've been seated at before and holds 18 people. She said she needed her managers permission to open that room and that he was next door (at Rock Bass). I asked if she could go get him and if we should take our business somewhere else. She said "Maybe." --- Finally, we were seated. They put 5-6 people at 4 person tables, spread all over the place. Plates were hanging off the tables, there was no leg room, and the chairs that they added to the end of the booths, were in the middle of walking paths - tripping people, making it difficult to navigate. --- There was a 10 person table - two feet away, but they said that was in a separate section, so they wouldn't seat anyone at it. Now we're all seated and the restaurant starts to get busy. THEY OPEN THE BACK ROOM AND SEAT A PARTY OF 5 at the LARGE LONG TABLE. This was not only insulting, but made be question the very intelligence of the manager. The waitress who was assigned to my table was very friendly and helpful and we made sure to let her know and to give her a good tip. This wasn't her fault. The food was medicore, but it always is at this place. We return for the atmosphere. It's along the river and the Crab pretzels are actually good. It's not fine dining, but it's not fast food. One of the tables with us had their food before the other even had their drinks! Everyone had finished their meals before that table even got their appetizers. The of the 5 people at my (very cramped) table had problems with their order - but we just kept the food. Why even try at that point? Finally the table who didn't have their food, asked to speak to the manager. He came out and was extremely rude to the woman. Talking down to her. He told her, "Listen this is how we do business." When she addressed the calling a head aspect he said, "Listen, we don't want the same people coming in here week after week, we try to attract new customers. If we allowed reservations, we'd have the same people in here every week." --- The way he spoke to the woman, left her almost shaken. At this point, myself and another gentleman asked to speak to the manager, as we were upset over the way he spoke to the woman. We were told, that he was "too busy to speak to anyone else and had more important issues to attend to" So, lets break this down real quick. They don't want return customers or regulars? Isn't that what drives a successful business? Also, a group of 25 people, on a saturday night, for a 21st birthday? You're looking at an easy $1,500 tab. i suppose money doesn't matter to this manager either. No problem. You've lost a regular customer. Dockside was our go to spot, we'd probably eat there two or three times a month. We'd ALWAYS bring out of town guests there, for the view and the river ambiance. Customer lost. read more

Came Dockside Willies last summer and it was great! BUT this year is was HORRIBLE! Took forever to get our drinks. The food took forever to come out. They over cooked the burger (we were so hungry from waiting we didn't send it back). Our alcoholic drink was water down so much. I heard they changed managers. Over all horrible. Never coming back. read more

WARNING !!!! .PLEASE DO NOT order Cheese Cake at this Restaurant !!! It tasted like it"s been sitting in the refrigerator for weeks to months. Had that refrigerator taste and it was soaking in cherry juice with three marcharino cherries with stems sitting around it. Really ? Also it was not a tradtional cheese cake....AWFUL...I returned it after two bites. Reported it to Management read more

All I can say is YUK!! This place was recommended to us by our hotel. I would not return based on our experience here. "Buffalo wings" were not your typical tasting buffalo wings. Onion straws on the burgers were way over cooked!! Girl said they are cooked in the morning. Cole slaw had a funny taste. Fries were cold. Not a good experience.... read more