Dockside Bar & Grill — Restaurant in City of North Tonawanda

With this beautiful weather, I wanting to go somewhere for dinner and drinks, with a view. I immediately thought of Dockside, but after a bad experience last year, I was hesitent. So, I went to the reviews to see if that was an isolated incident and if we should give them another chance. Well, not only did I only see that it was not in fact an isolated incident, but made me want to also share my experience and it seems to be a reoccurring theme of piss-poor service and managers that dont care. Not to even mention the Restaurant's responses to peoples reviews are bordering mockery.

Last June, my family and I (my husband, 8 yo, 5 yo and infant baby) came in for a late lunch/early dinner. I had my infant in a car seat stoller (just a stroller frame that has no seat, the car seat just snaps into it). When we were greeted by the hostess, we requested to sit outside. She said no, we don't allow strollers on the deck. My husband then spoke up and said, thats funny, because there is literally a family out there with a stroller (and points over to them). The hostess then said that they were okay at that table becaue it was at the end of the deck. My husband then said, well then we will take that (empty) table over there (and points to the table at the opposite end of the of the deck. She then said, oh well those rules dont apply to that table. So at this point, I speak up and say that I will remove the wheel base and then it will just be a car seat. Then she decided to inform us that only parties of 4 or less could sit outside. At this point we're very aggravated, but also, very hungry. So we concede and sit inside. So we are literally the only people sitting inside, every single table was empty. The hostess sat us at the only table that was directly in front of the small wall segment, so we couldnt even see outside. Annoyed, but we order our drinks. When the waitress came back with our drinks, we asked to move tables. She rolled her eyes, huffed audibly, aggressively slammed the menus on the table and said "ugh, I guess". At this point I just stood up and said Nope, nevermind, we're not staying here, we will spend our money elsewhere. My family gets up to go and the waitress and flagging us down to pay for our drinks. Absolutely not! And all the staff members were giggling at us as we walked out. It was the most unprofessional restaurant experience I have ever had. I was apalled to say the least.

This is extremely disappointing for this beautiful local restaurant to have such terrible staff and crappy managers...

5 Stars x 2 = 10 Stars

Happy 5th Anniversary To Jay and his awesome Staff who helped make this celebration one of the best I have seen at a restaurant celebrating an Anniversary! Having been in the business 30 years, I have never worked for or seen any Restauranteur offer so much food of so much variety and so fresh with everything being homemade, for 4 hours straight, on the upstairs and downstairs level! Unbelievable complimentary Buffet!! That just blew me away! I'm still recovering from a food coma! I hadn't even taken pictures of the first round of food and when I went to go back to take pictures, practically everything that was being served previously  was now something different all over again! Such a great way to try out various Foods on their menu and although we ordered an order of fish and chips between three of us (because they advertise a fish fry everyday) my parents had to take that home. We were so full and we are not even big eaters but we just couldn't help ourselves because everything was of such great quality! Upon arrival shortly before 5 we were lucky to get a parking spot and we were greeted by Maddy at the front door. Such a beautiful young lady to greet you and she was of great assistance to the servers as well. ALL the serving staff were busting their buns from the get-go and still smiling as they were serving a full house! Ashley was our waitress and Janice had helped serve and look after us in between as well even though we were not in her Section! Great teamwork amongst all the serving staff.... oh, I wish I had all their names. Saw the chef Joe Jack and had to compliment him and his kitchen team on a fabulous tasty Buffet! The menu has a great variety on it and not just for food choices but for drink choices as well! The restaurant is very well designed with tasteful decor both upstairs and downstairs with a great View over the water. Absolutely very clean & that includes the bathrooms also! Well, this place does not disappoint whatsoever! It was worth the drive from Niagara Falls Ontario and we will become regulars for sure! Thank you again for a great experience and for everybody's hard work. It was very nice to meet Jay and his lovely Fianceé Kimmy and you could clearly see what a great place this was both for staff and guests! 🙂👍 Wishing you many, many years of success and memories at your fine...

I’m so sad! The lone single but big patty burger that they carried on their previous menu was literally my favorite burger ANYWHERE. Bun, burger…simple and delicious. I tried one of their new burgers tonight and they’re two thin, uninspiring and outright cheap-tasting patties. I made the mistake of putting a little bit of salt and pepper on it, too, as it already was so sodium-laden. Yuck.

We debated going to our other favorite place across the street for steaks on our anniversary, but we typically enjoy the drinks and atmosphere here better. Sadly, it was a poor choice. It’s “DJ trivia night” so we’re hurrying to get out before that non-sense commences. But…another sad issue; huge strand of someone’s hair seared onto my wife’s steak. The manager addressed it immediately, however it did delay our meal.

I’m still so sad about the seemingly lower quality burger. This one isn’t even on my list of “good” burgers. I’d recommend the restaurant drop all the chain-style, tacky named burgers (like hangover burger, rodeo burger, etc,) and go back to the better, bigger patty. I would not recommend the burgers as they currently are to anyone. It’s too burger king-like. We likely will not be back as often.

Response to response: If the burger has a different "cut" but is the same "size" (which btw is NOT "the same size") hate to break this to you, it'll taste different. I did not come here often, just a few times a year and usually on special occasions, even though it's not that fancy, it's a nice atmosphere. Things like anniversaries and birthdays dont always land on the same day, calendars work funny like that. So yeah, maybe it was our first time there on a Wednesday in the winter, but it sucked. It was too loud. Another neighborhood chain (as a comparison, I know you guys are not a chain) restaurant can do karaoke or have a DJ on a weekday too, that doesn't mean I want to go there for a nice dinner. That fault is on me, for thinking I could have a nice intimate dinner on a WEDNESDAY.

So, I took to heart your response and after being introspective for a minute and then browsing some other reviews, you've convinced me, via your mostly sensible but somewhat passive aggressive reply, that I will indeed not "give it another try". I see a pattern in your responses and we'll call it a...