Pier 88 Boiling Seafood & Bar Avondale — Restaurant in Avondale

I wanted to complete this in the parking lot but I decided to taste the food first. My experience here was very unprofessional and disheartening, and kind of traumatic. I walk in there's people standing around (customers), I step to the podium where there's a young woman doing a phone order, I wait and figure she will help me once she's done. No, she gets off the phone and walks away, no hello, no greeting smile, just simply turns and walks away! I wait for her to come back but she goes back and forth from other places as if she's working. Another young lady walks up, checks a paper and then turns to walk away 😒 I stop her and ask, where can I pick up a call-in order, she points me to the counter and leaves.

I step over to the area where you pick up there's about 3 staff members there and 2 people in line being helped so I wait. Once those customers were done I'm still waiting, no one asks me to step up to be helped and 2 of them employees leave and come back still with no acknowledgement. I had to actually say something to get assistance. The guy verified my name and gave me the order and started to walk away, I had to stop him to ask what kind of sauce they had since my husband wanted something specific, he lists off a few names and I pick two he says okay and then walks off.. I wait for a few, but think this is a long wait for two sauce cups. I turn to my left and I see him handling orders for other people 🤦🏾‍♀️ we meet eyes and he turns and goes to speak with a co-worker and basically doesn't acknowledge that I'm waiting for him. The guy that's still at the pick-up counter doesn't ask if I need anything and then there's another employee who comes and leaves again. Once he returns I ask him for the sauce and let him know that someone else was supposed to get it but he's walking around acting as if he's doing something. The young man that I asked last finally returns with the sauce, he sits it on the counter and walks away! No do you need anything else, no have a good night, enjoy the food, Nothing!

This was my first visit to this establishment and will be my last! First impressions are lasting ones and mine was not a good one. The food was good but I can't even speak on that because I'm so upset with how I was treated! My advice would be to train your younger staff on the importance of acknowledging customers upon arrival, being attentive and to make sure their satisfied prior to their departure. If I could have given 0 stars for service and atmosphere...

Tried this place because it was closer than our normal spot. Ordered a pound of snow crab and sausage. Food came out before we could finish our fried calamari appetizer. Calamari was good, lacked a little seasoning, but the cocktail sauce and lemon made it all better. The snow crab was great! I got straight garlic butter, added a little salt and pepper. No complaints. My wife got the pier 88 flavor in medium heat and that was really good. Did not need to add anything. The crab was cooked perfectly. Service was great, our waitress was(I think) Joon, she was attentive and never ran out of our drinks. Highly recommend, we will definitely be going back.

6-15-24 Came back and the front door had a note sailying having AC issues, but didn't think it was hot at any point during our meal. Didn't seem extremely busy, plenty of open tables from what I could see, but it took a out 30 min for us to be seated. My wife ordered a strawberry margarita and she loved it. We ordered fried calamari for an appetizer, the calamari was still very bland but crunchy. We will not be ordering these again. The slices were very thick and on the large side which made it hard to take bites out of it. Had to eat the whole piece in one bite due to the thickness/chewiness. My wife ordered the fried shrimp basket with chicken tenders and I ordered the country boil which had 1/2lb snow crab, 1/2lb shrimp, 1/2lb sausage, 1 potato, 1 corn, and 1 yard boiled egg. It took a little over 1 hour to get our food, and that is not an exaggeration. Once we finally received our food, the food was good, nice and hot like it had just been cooked, but the wait was too long for this to be a good 2nd experience. Our waitress was friendly and apologized for the long wait once we got our bill. We will try again to see if this is the new normal. Will update after...

We had no idea of what to expect when we ordered our meals. We knew we were going to share the appetizers and portions of our separate meals with each other, but we have no idea how delicious everything would be. When they brought us our meals and appetizers at the same time it was strange to see these big plastic boil bags being placed in front of us on the table. The calamari rings and the crayfish bites were exceptional. I haven’t had calamari that delicious in many many visits to other seafood restaurants around the country. There were three of us and we each chose different meals with varying seafood items. The fried oyster Poboy with french fries looked very good on the plate. The surprise was, it was even better to eat. The oysters were very succulent and juicy. The snow crab and shrimp boil with a red potato, hard boiled egg, corn on the cob and Angeo sausage would satisfy any Seafood Aficionado. Lastly the meal with Manila clams and New Zealand Green lipped muscles was enough to feed an army. My meal mate decided to get 1 pound of each and with it was a new potato and two corn on the cob’s. We had a huge bucket for our shellfish debris and plenty of oversized plastic gloves to wear on our hands to prevent us from getting too messy. Plenty of lemons were supplied for those who like to squirt it on the seafood as well as in the faces of your party, I prefer to use a slice of lemon to clean my hands off after the meal to remove any of the butter and sauces from my fingers. All in all, for the price and the quality of the meals, I feel no one can go wrong at Pier 88. (For the boil, we both chose the combination of three flavorful sauces.) as Julia Child’s always used to say,...