The Piper's Restaurant and Tavern — Restaurant in Raleigh

I'm one of those guys who never leaves bad food reviews... ever... but dinner tonight was so hilariously awful and overpriced that I really have no choice. Four of us went for a bday dinner and literally 100% of what we ordered was extremely disappointing. The service was ok, but the waitress refused to let us order a small Caesar side-salad for some reason, and we asked for some things to be "on the side" that she totally missed. ZERO stars on the food. First, the "Stuffed Puppies" - bland, room temp BBQ eggrolls with a shot of vinegar on the side and a blob of soggy, tasteless coleslaw in the middle. "Crab and Corn Chowder" - lukewarm, bland, soupy consistency for $9. I've had way better from a can. "Crab Cake Sandwich" - 5% crab 95% soggy, tasteless breading jammed in the middle of a bun. "Philly Cheesesteak" - the hoagie bottom literally disintegrated into soggy mush that had to be scraped together with your fingers, and who knows what's in that "secret sauce". It smelled like dishwater and tasted like runny, watered down blue cheese with maybe relish? Yuck. "Chicken Francese" - a little overbattered but otherwise moist and acceptable, but served in an oily gravy with ZERO flavor... no lemon, no garlic, no parsley... $20 for that joke. And the angel hair pasta was literally dripping oil off my fork. I ate the small piece of chicken and brought the big piece home for my dog. We all tasted each other's food to make sure we weren't crazy, and all of it sucked. No flavor or seasoning on anything, oily and soggy, and delivered lukewarm to room temp. If I had asked for the manager I would have had to protest the entire meal, which just would have looked ridiculous. We intended to get birthday dessert and nachos to go for someone else, but quickly changed our minds and just got the check, which they then added 3.5% to for using a credit card... without any heads-up. That's just straight up sneaky. Make it known the menu prices are CASH ONLY prices. $28 at the bar for two drinks. $110 at the table for food, tax, tip, and fee. We've been fans for years but that's the last money I ever spend at this place. I don't know what the hell happened with them, but it might be that they're trying to sell everything to everyone... seafood, pizza, Italian, burgers, pub food, southern comfort, varied appetizers... it's hard to do all of that well. And trust me, currently...

Had an early dinner at Piper's tonight and were disappointed in how an issue was handled or not handled by management. Throughout the meal I kept seeing water drops hit the table and thought somehow it was coming from my husband utensils or water glass. Then about 1/2 way through the meal, my husband actually felt a drop hit his shirt. We looked up and saw that the air vent above was dropping water onto our table. Mentioned it to our waiter and right away he told us that they "were aware of it and were working on it". I told him that they should not have sat a customer under the vent then. Nothing was done. When he came to take our check, I again mentioned the issue and I said, "Just to be clear, your management is aware of this?". He responded that they were and again reiterated that were working on the issue. I told him that it was not acceptable and that I am sure he would not want water from a dirty ceiling vent dropping on his table and possibly food. He said he going to tell the manager again. As we left several minutes later, the manager was speaking with the server behind the bar and looked directly at us with no response. Please be aware if you are seated directly under the vents - water may drip on your table and/or food. This is a reflection on poor training of management. They could have easily addressed the situation by moving us to another table, shifting our table and/or offering to remake my husband's meal. We were not expecting to have our check "comped" but offering for my husband's meal to be taken off check would also have helped. Now they have a negative review to deal with which will likely cost them more than the effort to move our table or pay for his meal. The low score on service is not a reflection on server but...

Let me start by saying that I have been a big fan of Piper's for years. Most of the food is delicious and the service typically great. This review is of a recent experience.

A few weeks ago I came in with some friends. It had been a couple of month's since I had last been to Pipers. I was excited to see a Touch Tunes installed. I proceeded to buy $20 in credits and play a handful of songs. One of my selections came on (Pantera, Walk) and it was skipped by the bartender. I brought this to the attention of our waitress and the bartender soon came over to apologize but stated, and I quote, "You should have more common sense than to play that song at dinner time." This was a Saturday evening at 7PM. I did not appreciate her comment but she did play another song to make up for the $1 I spent on the song she skipped over.

Fast forward to last night (Tuesday) at about 11:00PM. I'm there with two friends. There is a total of about 10 customers and I play a few songs. There were 6 songs in front of mine which all played through. My two however were skipped over immediately. When I looked to see what had happened, the same bartender skipped them over. Once again I said something to our waitress who was very apologetic and soon came back with $2 to compensate my cost. The bartender came over to "apologize." I could not believe she once again attempted to blame me stating "I yelled out to ask if anyone played those songs and you did not answer." Needless to say, I was not happy and told her that now I know if I decide to continue coming to Pipers, I know to not spend my money on your Touch...