Great service! We had drinks and dinner. The grapefruit Mule was good but the glass of wine we had was old. Food was so-so. Appetizers were great! The lamb burger as an entree was unfortunately over cooked and the rice that came with the salmon was to be less than desired . The salmon itself was good! Overall, a better place for drinks and apps with a view of the water. read more

Atmosphere can't be beat - right on the water in The Lakes and you'll feel like you are by Lake Washington. Really good burgers and such; the basic foods are the best bet. Nice place to have a beer. Service is usually slow tho. read more

Loved eating at Pier 54!!! Wonderful service, food was delicious and beer was cold and awesome! Really enjoyed sitting and watching the water. We will eat here again soon! read more

Very nice environment with bad food, and awful service!!! Worst place I have ever been. Very careless people. Took them 45 minutes to bring a food and they weren't even busy. Not worthing your time and your money. read more

I have never been here but frequent next door at the Watershed. The Watershed is going to be closed for my need, which is this Saturday, November 18. I am hosting a very casual 40th birthday for my husband with drinks and food if people want it. I called Pier 54 on Wednesday to get the reservation going. They said I couldn't talk to anyone and needed to go through the website. I emailed them my request. Called the next day and asked to get a response from my email. The manager Cristina called me back and was initially working with me to get this to work. She said she would hold the area with the projector for me and said she had emailed me the list of food options. I asked her to tell me what was in the email so we could just do everything over the phone. She said no, check your junk box. So I looked at the email and emailed her back promptly my choice of food and how to make the deposit. I got no response. Called her on Friday and she said I'm sorry one of our regulars called just now and reserved that area so we aren't going to be able to accommodate you. I let her know my frustrations as I have been trying to get this done since Wednesday and everyone refused to talk over the phone. She said there was too much back and forth with you and these people called and placed the deposit immediately. Wait...I was told I couldn't do that and had to do everything over email??? She said this happened because this was a regular. WHAT!!! I said this is horrific and I have never been treated this way. I said I have never been to your restaurant and was bringing 20 people whom haven't either. She said it's probably best on your end and my end that we don't meet!!! So, now I have to figure out where to do this in 24 hours! WORST OWNER/MANGER EVER!!!! read more

We went there for Friday Happy Hour with a few friends. Not sure if there were any actual happy hour specials but the place was pretty packed when we arrived around 6:45. It's definitely nice to sit on the lake and listen to the music. But don't go there for the food and don't expect good service. Our waiter was clearly inexperienced and seemed to be surprised at how busy the place was. We waited about 10 minutes just to order our first drinks. After about an hour it looked like it was emptying out so we decided to order some food. My husband made the mistake of ordering his entree and then asking for some crabcakes to split with his friend as an appetizer. I told him the waiter did not understand that was supposed to be an appetizer and sure enough 35 minutes later we asked about our food and the waiter said that some of it was up (so obviously some of us would be eating cold food that had been sitting around in the kitchen). Hubby asked about the appetizer and the waiter responded with "uh yeah the crabcakes and the weinerschnitzel?" (the weinerschnitzel being my husband's entree). And when we asked for another round the waiter asked "of drinks?" So about 10 minutes after that the food started to arrive a bit at a time. It actually took about 10 minutes for everything to show up. I would like to say that it was worth the wait but then I would be lying. Three little crabcakes, obviously frozen and smaller than a hockey puck - very unimpressive. My husband's weinerschnitzel was a small, deepfried, flavorless piece of mystery meat with no sauce, accompanied by french fries. I had the goat cheese and olive flatbread. Yikes! Canned black olives and few canned jalapenos with some goat cheese and overwhelming flavor of garlic on chewy tasteless crust. Our friends were marginally satisfied with the burger and 4 cheese flatbread (which was the better flatbread choice) but I think we all agree that we would never attempt to eat there again. So if you are looking for a nice outdoor venue to have drinks that does not remind you of Arizona, check this place out - but eat somewhere else. read more

I LOVE THIS PLACE!! Food is very good. Service is very good. Love the Location on the Water. They have Great Live Entertainment. This is my favorite place to just relax and take in the beautiful view. read more

Pier54 best kept secret in East Valley. Amazing food and u can bring your dogs to enjoy as well. read more

Pier 54 - Dinner with brutus & Ashley - New American Near Me - Tempe, Arizona

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THIS IS LONG BUT WORTH IT. I've worked in the restaurant industry (Full Time) for the past 8 years now. Most bad reviews are hard for me to take seriously because usually the review is written by someone who hasn't worked in a restaurant. So I had to point that out before I begin so everyone reading this has a better sense of validating the truth to this review as it comes from the perspective of someone with an extensive back round in restaurants. So here is my family's experience we went through yesterday at Pier 54 on Easter Sunday. Let me also point out that my family has been regular customers there literally for 20 years! My Mom called in advance and made a 12:30pm reservation for 10 people at Pier 54 on Easter Sunday. Everyone places there order at 12:45 with the waitress. At around 1:50pm give or take a couple minutes, my dad asks waitress if our food is coming and she says,"yeah I know it's taking a while but one of the ovens is broken." It's been an hour still with no food, and she now tells us this about the oven? Is that real? At this point I look around the restaurant and I see some lady customer get up from her table, walks over to a waitress and screams at her saying she's walking out because her family too was still waiting for their food after over an hour. Within 15 minutes like a trickle effect I watch 3 more tables walk out haven't even gotten their food yet either. I now look over to see what the owner is doing. (Like I said my family is regulars so we know exactly who the owners are.) I am not even making this up I watched the owner get in her car and drive away as she can see plainly her restaurant and staff in disaster mode, and even worse an entire restaurant of upset customers walking out whose Easter was now ruined, and not even a sense of decency on her own to come over to every table and try to remedy the situation. I too work in a restaurant so waiting for food is understandable especially on a busy holiday, so we weren't even upset about the wait, but just the fact that not even a manager after all this time had even yet come over to apologize let alone the owner herself who left when her restaurant needed her most. Just before 2:15pm (an hour and a half after placing the order) 5 orders come out, but 5 of us still have no food. 20 minutes later the other 5 orders come out. So it's close to 2:45pm, (2 hours after the order was placed) and finally everyone has their food. Now the fact that most of the food was cold was one thing, but if any Chef that I've worked with would've seen the lack of quality of the food they served us on those plates, they would've shut down that kitchen themselves. Most of our table now leaves to find another place to eat. Im fed up and finally get up and ask the bartender who the manager was and he said he was. I explained to him what was going on, he apologized profusely and said our entire bill would be taken care of. Our waitress even comes back right after that apologizing, saying how terrible she feels that our Easter is ruined and and tells us we don't even have to wait for a bill because of what happened. So even though we had a bad experience at least the manager and server did something to try and fix it. The owner finally comes back in her car, which now the restaurant is cleared out. I walk up to her and have a great talk with her for 15 minutes about our experience, and about what went wrong, etc. She follows me back to the table where the rest of us were and she even apologizes in TEARS, saying how terrible she feels, and how sorry she is. My dad assures her everything is fine and that hed still always come back and bring others like he has been doing for 20 years. We finally are leaving and I kid you not, the owner comes back with a bill for an $80 drink tab, saying shed take care of our food but we had to pay the drinks because its against the law to take care of our drinks. Giving away free alcohol vs having to COMP drinks are 2 different things she just didnt want to pay for the bill even after her fault for ruining our Easter. That showed us right there the person she was. I brought over the bar manager who earlier told me our bill was taken care of and I ask him right in front of the owner's face, "did you tell us our entire bill would be taken care of," and he replied, "yes I did say that." The owner then says, "oh he doesn't know the rules, he was mistaken." She then tells us to pay the bill and that also we werent ever welcome back. At this point yes my dad did lose it and started cursing, which how can you blame after going through the worst restaurant experience ever in his life and then still being asked to pay $80 and being kicked out? THE BEST PART..As we were walking away I stepped to grab my keys on the table, the owner picks them up and throws them over the fence. Pier 54 in all my life I have never seen so many upset tables at once and for that you are by far the worst restaurant ive ever been to. read more

Please for the love of all that is awesome in the world owners read these posts and make changes. First of all I love pier 54 because it is a gorgeous scenery and chill spot to have a drink. You guys have a PRIME location but your losing local customers like me and at least 10 of my friends because the food is god awful and your bar is starting to look trashy. I've been in the restaurant business my entire life and alllll you need to do is seriously update your menu , use good fresh food , and spend a couple 1000$ to spruce up the place. Everything is torn and ragged and so sad to see it start to look so bad. I've returned my food there not once , not twice but 3 times and I don't ever return my food. My burger was burnt and dry , fries were so over seasoned I chocked , my spinach dip had a giant piece of plastic in it, and the salmon salad tasted like it was caught in the dirty lake. Lastly the water just the water tastes like I'm drinking directly from the lake . Please please please just make some changes I want to love this place so badly!!! I'll come help you if I need to !!! The owners deserve a steady stream of business but you gotta realize you need to make some changes ! read more

We recently celebrated a birthday at Pier 54 and we had a wonderful time! Food was delicious, the music was great and the location is absolutely lovely... you can't beat sunset over the lake....We are going back for sure! read more

I'm very torn on the stars for this review ... The view, atmosphere, upgraded comfortable patio furniture, music, ect are fantastic and definitely 5 stars. The food is around 3 stars and any drink other then beer is 2 stars at best.. Really hoping the food and drinks get a little better, we really want to support this local gem. read more

Awful. Walk in confused. We seat ourselves. Sit awkwardly. Wait twenty minutes. Get up. Get the waitress to take our drink order. Wait. The owner asked if we needed anything and we said we need someone to take our order and she said she doesn't handle money and allowed us to wait. Then we complained and she lied and said she came over multiple times. Couldn't get out soon enough. read more

Been to this place 3 or 4 times and I will absolutely keep coming back! The staff is really welcoming and customers are always friendly. My roommates and I enjoy coming here for happy hour, soaking up the sun, and ordering the 5 dollar pitchers of bud light. Overall, this is a great laid back place to go to with your friends! read more

I hosted my husbands surprise 40th Birthday here, it was wonderful. From the start Christina was very easy to work with and super responsive and flexible with the planning. They had a large selection of food choices for the buffet and are very reasonably priced for group events. Food, drinks, service , venue and overall feel was perfect for us and the party was enjoyed by all!! read more

I've been to this place about ten times over a period of about 5 years and live within walking distance. The food has been consistently very good (3 to 4 stars) and the service has always been very good as well (4 to 5 stars). Waterside seating is unbeatable in the desert (5 stars)! Twice I have had unpleasant experiences due to what I feel are rude or inconsiderate smokers who want to sit upwind of non-smokers. Seriously, if you are sensitive to this do not eat or drink here because this is a 'smokers rights' place as I was told by a long time local the first time it happened. I suggest an upwind non-smoking area be designated to include the tables between the bar and lakeside seating areas since this is the prevailing wind direction. Only about 17% of people smoke these days so it seems poor business practice to cater to this minority of customers at the expense of the 83% majority. Just went back after a long while and now there's a no smoking area so I am raising my rating to 4 stars. read more

Really good food right near the water to enjoy while you eat! Reasonably priced and friendly staff. It's a great location, especially being in Arizona. read more

Great little hidden restaurant in Tempe right on the lake! Food is good and the environment is very unique. They are dog friendly but be aware that there is no indoor seating, only outdoor. The upper patio is covered and has misters but I would be strategic as to when you visit to avoid the sweltering heat during the summer. Overall, I liked it and will be back with my dog! read more

My husband and I came here for the first time this afternoon and we are leaving quite happy! I had the chicken tenders with fries. The chicken was tender and plentiful and the fries were spiced just right. My husband got the chilled smoked salmon wrap and loved it. And the lake view was amazing. We will most certainly be back, sooner than later! read more

Had a great experience at the Pier!! Great place to enjoy great food, drinks, and a relaxing environment. My server was Matt, he went above and beyond to ensure we had a great experience and we had what we needed. This place will definitely be in the rotation... Thx, Matt!! read more

Terrible service and food. Waited to be greeted and server didn't come by table after waiting already. Not friendly never will be back.

the only complaint i have is that they close too early! other than thatt, the food is amazing and the service is great. a warning: be prepared for an amazing but strong drink if you give the bartender free reign:) read more

I wanted to like this place so much! Went there for a dinner with friends on a Friday night, the place was busy but not packed. Our server brought us waters, and then we had to wait a half hour for menus after asking multiple times. We got the hummus as an appetizer and it only came with pita bread so we asked if we could have some veggies on the side since it was being shared by four people. We had to ask for the veggies again because the server forgot, and he still didn't bring them until we were halfway through with our entrees. We had to ask repeatedly for the server to refill our water glasses, and throughout our meal he didn't check on us at all. The food was average and was a little disappointing, certainly nothing to make up for the service. While the location was nice, the side we were on had smokers, and in a small place like that it was just really unpleasant. This place seems like it has potential, but they really need to train the staff better, we won't be back after the experience we had. read more

Asked friend to meet us on 4 pm on Saturday. The place is all but empty. Bartender tells us they can't serve us as we did not make a reservation. So we split up. 3 go to the bar, 4 take one table , 4 take another table. Service is terrible, takes forever to get a drink as bartender was obviously mad that we stayed. Food was cold and service was slow but still charged all of us a group tax of 20% . Talked to the manager and she just came up with more excuse. LAST TIME WE WILL VISIT THIS BAR read more

This is a great place to be. We used to live right down the street and came here at night and always had a good time. Best place to sit and look out at the lake. The food is pretty decent and great drink prices. Never had a bad experience. Get the smore fondue dessert if they have it. read more

We had lunch there today. If you are looking for an easy going place w/a gorgeous view, you just found it! I was a little disappointed the menu wasn't as extensive as online, but maybe that's because we were having lunch early on a Sat. Either way, there was plenty to choose from. Hubs had a sandwich that was generous in portion and accompanied by tons of fries. I had the feta/spinach omelet, which was really good. It came w/hash browns. Our waiter was attentive. Super-reasonable prices since we both had alcoholic beverages and before tip, were barely at $30!!! read more

I live within walking distance of this bar and I want to love it so much, but unfortunately it's the opposite. We have been there two times. The first time we left because no one ever came to take our order. The second time, after asking two different servers, we did finally get to order a drink. It will be our last drink there, however. The place is dirty, the service is very slow, and the staff is not responsive to the needs of their customers. This could be a really great place but unfortunately, it's not. Such a bummer because we walk past there almost every night and would love to make it our regular bar. read more

I'm giving the two stars just for the restaurant vibes and views. We came on Friday night at 10:15 pm we were greeted and a guy told us that it's self seated and he brought us the food menu as well the drinks menu and he was nice and welcoming. A 20 - 25 minutes later after failure tries to call any one to take our orders a guy named Miles came to us with such an ignorant attitude and said hey guys the kitchen is closed! No food just drinks!! We waited this long with the food menus and he saw us but didn't approach to us until around 10:40 pm. We told him that we came for dinner not drinks and that we were here at for 25 minutes and they gave us the food menus and he rudely said kitchen closed just drinks and took the food menus away!! That's really rude and ignorant and a horrible service from him! With no apologies and no attempt to solve the issue he just gave us the "unwelcome" treatment and we left because we were really disappointed and he said ok then bye! OMG if I was the owner I would be ashamed of him.. even the guy who greeted us was upset watching us being treated like that, he waisted out time for half an hour or so, he definitely ruined our night, and still he didn't apologized about his mistake! Why would they greet us and give us the menus unless they were welling to serve us diner, but obviously this Miles didn't like us and didn't want to serve us. He didn't even try to see if they can make us those burgers and didn't offer a snack or bar food. We talked to the bartender and he gave us the owners number and he apologized as he was nice and polite but omg this Miles was really the worst server I ever met! I would never ever go back again just because of him and I really wanted to give this place a try as I live 3 minutes away. Good job making customers run away Miles (y) read more

I celebrated my birthday with several friends here, we all enjoyed the food & atmosphere, the service was great, the manager made sure we had enough chairs & tables & a server for our group. This is a great place to meet with friends & enjoy the outdoors & happy hour, read more

Greatly impressed by how improved this restaurant is! We went a few years ago before the new management or owner and the food was never more than ok. Gave it a try again since the location is so good and really enjoyed it. Service was nice and the food was good, a bit above what I'd normally expect for bar food. We went when it was around 88 degrees and it was cool under the shade and they had fans running. Would definitely recommend this place! read more

Sweet location on a small lake in a nice subdivision. Cool atmosphere and the food is good and reasonably priced. Good date spot.

, I've been wanting to check this place out for awhile and thought today was the perfect time... or so I thought. We got there and they were busy but with several tables opened and maybe two people at he bar. When we walked in, there was not one server on the floor and the bartender was missing as well. After waiting a few minutes someone came out of the "kitchen" and I asked about seating. I was told it was open seating with the exception of the downstairs area.. well I didn't even know they had a downstairs so I was fine. We sat down, just two of us, and proceeded to look at the menu. We waited for about 15 min and not one person acknowledged us during this time. No one offered water ... mind you this was Saturday afternoon (12:30) and it was quite warm/hot. Water would have been nice. After another 5 min or so we decided to get up and leave.. on our way out, a waiter did notice us but made no attempt to talk/stop us. During our 10-15 min there we had noticed three people walk in and sit at the bar, bartender came out and promptly served them their drinks... I wished we had sat at the bar. We ended up leaving because even though we were not in a hurry, the fact that no one even acknowledged us or offered water made it not worth waiting to see how bad the rest of the service was going to be... not sure if I would ever want to come back, to bad because they seemed kind of a fun casual place to hang out. read more

In town from Colorado. Googled "Best Cobb salad in Tempe" and found this place. Cobb salad was quite good but service was slow. Paid with cash and the waitress kept the coins portion of my change. What's with that! It's MY money no matter how small and I want to be the one to decide what to do with it. This is theft. If you are going to round off the amount of change you return to me, round it off in my favor not in your favor. read more

Had horrible experience at the pier. Their grill broke we waited 2 hours for our food which was cold. Owners were very inflexible I even offered to split the bill they refused. Very bad experience. Supervisor offered to comp. us but owners refused to deal with us. Very poor management. As a person who is a professional in Tempe for 30 years I urge people to not use this restaurant. I have been going to this restaurant for over. 20 years and give them a lot of business which will cease. Very poor. read more

I was very excited to try this place when I first saw it. Great view of the lake and the fact that it's all outdoors is nice. Drinks were good and the food was decent. With that being said I asked to reserve a table for 10 people and was shown that we'd be sitting right by the lake in a quite corner. Got there for my 7:30 reservation and we literally had to use the flashlights on our phones to read the menu. Extremely dark and being so close to the water probably not very safe. We rarely saw our waitress who was either new or just didn't care much to help our table. My boyfriend being a vegetarian asked to order a pizza off the menu but was told because he wasn't a child we couldn't order it. He ended up just ordering fries but our waitress was not helpful at all and offered to bring him a hamburger bun with lettuce and condiments in a laughing tone. I wanted to ask for a to go box for my food but seeing as our waitress was nowhere to be found we just wanted to hurry and leave. To top it off we waited at least 20 minutes for her to bring us our bill after we asked for it and the restaurant automatically had a 20% tip included. I also work in the service industry so I understand the importance of tipping but our waitress did NOT deserve the amount of tip she got from my party of 10. I'm sure if you sit by the bar and don't expect much for service this place would be just fine. Like I said their drinks were good but the service was awful. read more

This was our first visit to Pier 54 and it was perfect. A beautiful November day sitting outside overlooking the lake. It was a special day to celebrate my wife's birthday with lunch out. We decided to drop by since we found information in a mailer with the restaurant's website, hours, etc. The menu on the website presented quite a variety of healthy, mouth-watering foods, which we were excited to try. The restaurant didn't disappoint - the food was very good, well prepared, timely. The server was nice and did a fine job. We're already thinking about our next visit there. read more

Cute little place along the lakes. Drinks are expensive and the food is small portions with even bigger price.

The only good thing about this place is the view. Absolutely beautiful lake views. That's where anything decent ends. I went there with friends for what we thought would be a relatively short lunch. It wasn't even that busy because it was overcast but it took the waitress over 10 minutes just to acknowledge us. We ordered our lunches and my friends ordered some drinks. It took the bartender 15 minutes just to get the drinks. We waited more than an hour for the food during which the waitress didn't even come over to provide updates that it was coming out or being worked on or see if we needed drink refills. We needed to leave so my friend actually had to go in the kitchen area to tell the waitress that we needed the food boxed so we could go. We get the boxed food over 15 minutes later & when I did get a chance to eat it, it wasn't even that great. Maybe this place is okay for drinks at sunset but that's about it. read more

This is for a visit from October 2015. A big group of us were in town for an event and made reservations at Pier 54 for a group dinner. The service was not good at all. We were 20 people separated into multiple tables. It took a while for the waiter to come and take our orders and to bring us our drinks. Then, things got worse when it started to rain! Obviously, the restaurant cannot control that, but what they can control is them helping us and they didn't. We had to move the tables ourselves underneath the limited area that was covered and at one point, the waiter was just standing there watching us scramble and move the tables and didn't even do anything. When the food came, it was cold and dry. And when we asked for our check, the waiter offered separate bills for each table which we gladly accepted since she offered and then later when we expressed concern about how long the bill took, the owner came out and said it took so long because we asked for separate checks. Hmm.. let's rewind there... the waiter offered so we gladly accepted otherwise we all had cash to pay for the bill. My last comment is that I honestly think this restaurant shouldn't have taken our reservation because they were not equipped to serve such a big party. read more

I'm just confused. I sent back a bad overcooked burger and clearly the cook got pissed off at me. No fries on the reorder. And another completely overcooked burger. And he spiced it up the second time just to mess with me? I live in the Lakes. Seems pretty dumb to mess with a customer. Never going here again. read more