Island Bay Pier House

"I, my wife, and 2 children visited this diner on Sunday, 08/11/24. We arrived at 11:15 am and the first thing I noticed was a sign on the hostess stand saying that they were short staffed, so be patient, or leave. It was literally that blunt. I pointed it out to my wife and laughed - not realizing how understated this sign really was. We were sat at our table. 15 minutes later, at 11:35 am, the waitress finally greeted us. Realizing how this was going to go, we ordered our drinks and our food immediately. 10 minutes later, she finally brought us our drinks. While sitting there, waiting, I noticed that there was a table of 8, a table of 4, and another table of 4 in our area. I say this for 2 reasons: First, it was so loud in there that me and my wife/kids could not hear each other speak at normal volumes. Aside from the table of 8 being very loud there was also a gentleman playing the guitar and singing in the bar - kind of odd for a Sunday morning, but whatever. 50 minutes later, YES, 50 minutes later, I saw the first sign of food being delivered in our area - to the table of 8. What was weird is that it was all being delivered piece meal, not all at once; i.e., 1 plate to 1 person, then 4 minutes later a plate to another person, and so on. During our 50 minute wait multiple tables were sat after us and 2 tables, with less patience than us, left due to the wait/poor service. So, fast forward 1 hour and 10 minutes later. At no point did our waitress ask if we wanted more beverages (even though I purposely left my empty glass at the edge of the table) or inform us of what was going on with our food order. She finally appeared and I flagged her down. I said, "I know you guys are short handed but I have 2 hangry kids, how much longer are we talking here"? She replied, "It's coming". I said, "Seriously? Do you mean in 5 minutes or 30 minutes"? She replied, "Well, there is still a ticket in front of you". At that point my wife intervened and told her to cancel our order. We paid for our drinks, left hungry and irritated, and drove down the street and saw a restaurant called Tricia's Rondette. There were a lot of vehicles in the lot but we were starving. We walked in, sat at the front counter, ordered, and 30 minutes later we left. Yup, that simple. However, while sitting there I started to look at the reviews of The Pier House. Going back as far as 3 years prior and you keep seeing the same reoccurring theme - "It took forever" to get served. So, it is obvious that The Pier House has absolutely no intentions of fixing its staff issue, rather, just place an aggressive sign on the hostess station stating, be patient or leave. Tricia's restaurant was busier than The Pier House, only had 2 cooks, albeit more wait staff, and we were in and out in 30 minutes - and the food was delicious. I wish that I could comment on the food at the Pier House because it sounded excellent. So, unless you have 2 hours to kill, avoid this place and just go to Tricia's Rondette. I live 4 hours away, I have absolutely no affiliation with Tricia's, so I have nothing to gain by recommending Tricia's. Bonus: the waitress there was awesome by the way."

"Excellent food. Went for brunch; had the endless mamosas and bacon Eggs Benedict; my daughter had the Baileys French Toast and husband had the Monte Cristo. Son in-law had the chicken sandwich (hand breaded). They all said their food was great. Homemade English Muffins and breads. Definitely recommend!!"

"PROS: Excellent thick cut beer battered onion rings. Fresh and hot when they came. Calamari seemed fresh and wasn’t just the usual rubber rings that you get elsewhere. Flavorful prime rib that was actually rare when requested. Beer batter on the fish was light and crisp. Flavorful tartar sauce as well. Hostess and waitress were friendly and seemed genuinely concerned with our issues, and comped or discounted unsatisfactory items. CONS: Sign on the hostess station telling you that they are short staffed in the kitchen and if you don’t have patience, go elsewhere. Seemed aggressive to have sign telling you to go elsewhere first thing when you walk in. Very long wait times for everything including simple things like drinks etc. We ended up going up to the bar to get our own drink refills, which the waitress comped us for because she felt bad. Two and a half hours for a simple dinner for two when they didn’t seem overly busy was a bit much. Spring vegetables which were ordered as an extra side consisted of a pile of onions with some peppers and a couple carrot slices. Yuck. Vegetables on the side of my entree were wilted, charred, and gross. They were out of a couple of the items that we wanted to order, but that happens. Overall impression is that they just didn’t have their act together at all, which was unfortunate because they were friendly and we really wanted to like the place. Prefer to support local places so we will probably try again one more time. Hope they tighten up the ship."

"An excellent Friday night fish fry! The haddock was pristine, white and incredibly flaky, fried to perfection in a house beer batter. And the house made tartar sauce was delectable! We shared an order of fried cheese curd and those were simply yummy, and came with both marinara and a sweet chili sauce. Who know how yummy sweet chilly sauce was on fried cheese? Not this girl! Well I do now, and I'm hooked! Nice friendly staff, and a great value!"

"Holy Good Food Batman. How have I passed this place for years and never stopped?!?!? All this time lost eating sub-par food when I could have eaten here!!! I love the options. I love that there are off menu specials. Gluten free is also offered which is a big deal to my family. The fish fry is so amazing! In fact it was so good we went back the next night and got take out! Do yourself a favor, eat here! You won’t regret it. Best food in the area hands down! My kids even loved it too!"