Pier 54 — Restaurant in Tempe

I've eaten at many American restaurants here in the valley, and when I heard about Pier 54, I was excited. Next to a gorgeous lake? Check. Live music? Check. That might sound promising but terrible food, slow service, and management issues result in a disappointing experience on so many levels.

Approaching the restaurant is welcoming. Live music playing over the lake instills the sense of romantic summer nights. That romantic feeling soon vanishes when you see the large "Please Seat Yourself" sign, and no tables available. The awkward standing around led many would-be customers out the door. There were lots of 4 chair tables with a single person who could have easily been led to the bar. The bar area had plenty spaces available. Bad management, poor organization, and a badly utilized sign ruined any positive first impressions. FYI: The "Please Seat Yourself" sign is designed for lots of seating, and no patron.

My friend and I got seated eventually, in the back of the restaurant next to the kitchen. The disappointment was already building up, but I was willing to give them a chance on the food. I told my friend "the food better be great". We laughed, talked, drank beers, ordered some pork green chili and waited...and waited...and waited...

"Did they forget about us?" The pork green chili came to our table 27 minutes after we ordered it. It tasted fine, nothing special. It had a kick to it, which I did like, but the tortilla chips obviously were store bought. If I was really hungry, I could've finished the chili. I wanted to save my stomach for later, so I held back.

We finished the chili, the waiter took our plates, and left. What about our main dish? We didn't even order them yet! 10 minutes later, we ordered our main entree. Most restaurants take down your ENTIRE order not bits and pieces throughout the night. "Medium Cooked, Chefs Burger please". It comes with sauteed mushrooms and avocado. Sounds delicious! How could anyone screw up a burger?

45 minutes after my original appetizer was placed, the "burger" arrived. I cut it in half, and what I saw surprised me. No avocado, some sort of slimey grilled bell pepper smeared onto a heaping pile a sauteed cheesy mushrooms. The meat was grey/brown all the way through, well-done. It was spongy, watery, and greasy. I could feel my stomach turn as I slowly looked up at my friend. She cut her burger in half as well, and it was the same thing. An old grey patty with some mystery sauce.

At this point I've had enough. It was the WRONG order, hardly edible, and looked older than some socks I have. I asked for the manager, and she was just as surprised as me. Sickening...

In conclusion, the lack of basic restaurant fundamentals, slow service and astonishingly bad food guarantees no trips back here and a strong warning to any friends or family who might consider this establishment. In the crazy competitive restaurant industry, this is simply unacceptable.

To be fair, the manager offered me a dessert on the house, but if they can't cook a burger, I wouldn't trust anything with dairy. I respectfully declined.

PS: Citronella, or any scentless bug deterrent would also be appreciated. No one wants mosquitoes buzzing around and landing on their food. A lamp zapper only works if it is the only light source, thus attracting the flying insects. My 10 year old niece knows that.

Also, having someone smoke a pack of Marlboros next to you while you eat isn't food. There's a reason...

I am EXTREMELY disappointed with my experience at Pier 54. I booked a reservation for Valentine’s Day 3 weeks in advance. The online booking and text confirmation were really easy and awesome, so I figured my first time eating at the restaurant would be a great experience. Granted, when my boyfriend and I arrived, we knew it was going to be a crazy night for the staff and that we should be extra patient with them.

When we came up to the hostess and let them know that we had a reservation, they immediately sat us at the table closest to the door. With a three week reservation, we really shouldn’t have been sat there. Plus, our table had a major tilt and our waitress did absolutely nothing to fix our crooked table. Before we arrived, my boyfriend and I planned on going all out for our dinner: appetizer(s), entrees, cocktails, and a dessert to share. Due to the fact that it took an HOUR to receive our entrees, we decided that we had had enough and that we just wanted our check after eating our entrees. It was also unfortunate that we could hear that a table that had arrived before us, that had also waited a long time for their food, talked about simply leaving since they were so upset about waiting so long for their food. One of the guests at that table even made it a point to make a comment that they were frustrated about waiting for their food for so long. When our food arrived, we did not make any snarky comment to our server since we could tell she was having a rough night. It was just strange that everyone’s food took so long even though the restaurant was actually not that busy. It was also extremely unfortunate that the live entertainment left 10 minutes after we arrived. Our reservation was at 8:00PM. Wouldn’t you think that the live entertainment would stay until maybe 9:00PM on Valentines Day? 8:00PM isn’t late at all for a weekday reservation on Valentine’s Day. We also weren’t too happy that our server spilt ranch on one of our chairs and throughout the whole night, barely mentioned an ETA of our entrees. Regardless of our terrible service, we still enjoyed each other’s company and are willing to give Pier 54 one more shot. I worked in the food industry in the past, so we really wanted to give the workers the benefit of the doubt, but the absolutely terrible service was inexcusable. I really hope this was a fluke because the food was good when...

My family and I came to this restaurant last Saturday at 5 pm. There were 4 of us. We called before hand to make a reservation stating that we were there for dinner and wanted to watch the live music, which started at 6. We were sat in the back corner with almost no view of the music, the whole table was tilted to one side. When our server came up she seemed very out of it, but we gave her the benefit of the doubt. We ordered drinks and the spinach artichoke dip. When our server cam with our drinks she was spilling them all over the table, never apologized or brought napkins, even after we asked. We asked for more chips for our spinach dip, and after asking 3 more times, 15 minutes later we finally got them. At this point we are still giving our server the benefit of the doubt that maybe she is really busy and/or new. We ordered a second round of different drinks, again warm and spilled. We then ordered dinner and it was just okay. At this point we were ready to ask for our check, we never complained as my husband and I have been in the restaurant industry for a long time and understand that sometimes there are just off nights. Our bill was $147.56, and we tipped in cash. My husband wrote "cash" in the tip line and then the total "$147.56." The next day when checking our bank account I saw that we were charged $190.19. We called the restaurant manager and she admitted that the server had added an extra tip of $42.63... which is illegal. We drove back to the restaurant to talk with the manager and explain how poorly the night went and she admitted again that the server had added her own tip, and only refunded us the amount of the extra tip. Both my husband and I have been managers of restaurants before and we would have refunded the whole amount, at least of the food, we understand alcohol cannot always be refunded. I feel that pier 54 handled the situation very poorly. Our family was regular customers of this establishment and will now not be returning. We are very understanding people and never like to cause a scene but this night...