The Pier Restaurant (Solomons Island, MD) — Restaurant in Solomons

Upon walking up, this place seems to be business casual - but when we walked in we were greeted by three young teenage ladies. This theme followed throughout the restaurant as the only adult staff seemed to be behind the bar. Our server was…decent? It took more than three attempts to get water before we finally got it and I think he said maybe fifteen words to us in total.

The energy was also incredibly confusing. Inside was spacious and large seeming to again be business casual while outside felt like my Alabama Uncle’s family reunion. It was a mix of dressed up and Walmart tank tops.

The cocktail menu has ZERO prices on it - which should have been my first warning sign to the $9 college grade Peach Bellini and $18 watered down margarita bucket. Safe to say neither of these colored me impressed.

The food left me feeling a similar sensation of disappointment. Can someone tell me why the crab cake sandwich, which cost $35, only came with one side of very sad and watery coleslaw - but my crab ravioli came with not one but two sides? The sandwich had no seasoning on it, leaving it tasting like absolutely nothing - not even like the crab it was supposedly made of. Isn’t Maryland known for its crab?

Speaking of the sides - the side salad I ordered to share with my friend? I asked for Italian dressing so can someone also tell me why it had ranch already on it? Safe to say we did NOT eat what easily could have been a recycled from another table salad. (Also, why are you using Kraft cheese from the bag?) Least but not last - the crab ravioli was saved only by the Old Bay Alfredo sauce it was served with which was clearly only poured on-top of what I can only imagine is redone ravioli from the local chain grocery store. How do I know this? Because when I move the ravioli to cut into bite size pieces, I found sauce barren ones underneath that tasted about as appetizing as paper mâché.

And all of this for a whopping $122? Safe to say I don’t feel this was worth the cost it came out to, and the next time I find myself in Maryland I will be sure to check out a different restaurant in the hopes of avoiding this level of...

We enjoyed our meal here. The waitress we had was lovely. We were 8 people, and she did great. The view is phenomenal, and the atmosphere would have been great, but there was this incessant beeping with the doors opening that really annoyed me. This, it is a wheel chair accessible location and a decent amount of parking nearby.

The food was overall good.

I'll start with what we didn't like: the wild rice was not appetizing at all. It was flavorless mush. The cucumber salad is good, but it can be tart for some. The vinegar really makes it tart. The coleslaw is not very tasty. It's not creamy or anything really, almost dry. The cream of crab soup is not appetizing and was probably right up next to the mushy rice for how bad they were.

What we really enjoyed:

The pineapple teriyaki salmon was phenomenal. Perfectly cooked, great flavors and a good size salmon. The swordfish was very good with the sauce on top. Mild but hearty fish. The sauce on top really pulled the dish together. The crab balls were so so good! Great taste and seasoning. Lots of lump crabmeat.

In the sides we enjoyed were the kale crunch salad, green beans, and any of the side salads. And fries weren't too bad either.

This location shines with the appitizers we had to get multiples of the following: potstickers, haddock bites, and hush puppies. My favorites were the haddock bites. They were soooo well made. Light fluffy and just the right amount of crispy.

All in all good experience and would...

Four months ago I contacted the restaurant to coordinate a private dinner for a family of 20. Janel reserved a space. I received the restaurant’s accommodations list from Janel a day after the event. (Hindsight)

We arrived to a room set up with menus and serve ware wrapped in napkins. The event staff member took drink orders as guests arrived.The dinning room is on the second floor and was a warmer than the downstairs.

This was my first time visiting Maryland and dinning at The Pier was not a pleasant experience. I do not recommend this restaurant for dinner celebrations.

I ordered the below items from the menu to sample.

Crab cake - I expected the crab cake to be crispy on the outside, tender on the inside, and full of fresh crab flavor. Although described as jumbo lumped crab cake it is shaped like a ball with about 30% jumbo lump crab added to a dry and tasteless crab mixture.

Raw Oysters - I expected clean and fresh raw oysters that melts in your mouth. They tasted good but had to spit out gritty debris after and that ruined it for me.

Haddock bites - I expected a bite size piece of haddock with a hot and crispy coating instead they served a piece of fried haddock cut up into bites size pieces that appear to reheated.

Snow crab - I expected juicy fresh snow crabs. These crabs appeared to come from the bottom of a frozen bag. They did taste fresh at all.

Potatoes skins - these reminded me of the potatoes skin found in the frozen foods section of a...