Starters Riverport

5-​star, had many good times at this place, great staff, good food…
my only complaint is that they are never open~!!

This is a place with a huge bar and space overall. They have a good beer selection with good food. The bartenders are friendly and work hard. The con is it seems they don’t know if they want to be a sports bar or music joint. I was there for football and they were playing dance and other music. Made no sense and most people wanted to watch the games without the music distraction.

I used to love this place because it was clean, had good food, and was less than a mile from my former apartment. Since then, I haven’t been too impressed with the quality.
Additionally, it’s become more a nuisance bar than anything else — not to mention, we’ve been there one or two times where we’ve been seated then had to move so they could set up a DJ. Forget watching sports or chatting with friends when that happens.
I concur with other people who say it turns into a zoo, but then again — it’s a bar. However, the zoo draws a random mix of people: sports fans vs people who want to party in short shorts and sparkly shirts. I don’t get it anymore.

The best thing about my meal was the pickle. I usually enjoy salty stuff, but the crab cake sandwich was so salty, I couldn’t finish it. The fries were chewy, and the bartender seemed inconvenienced, having to take my order AND go get the food. Lots of TV’s, and cool building, good beer on tap.

What a HUGE place! I think they bought all the TV’s at BestBuy. LOL.
Great place to watch any games you’d like. It looked like they had all the major games on. Great beer selections. Food is just about what you would expect from a Sports Bar. Wings were great. Interior is very nice. BTW, did I mention this place is big? It doesn’t look crowed because the place is so big, but if you really look at it, there are enough people to pack a normal sports bars to its legal capacity. I wasn’t that interested in the food other than something to pick on, so I really couldn’t comment on it other than wings, nachos, and quesadillas. But what my fiends and I sampled were good. Definately better than Hooter’s
If you want a place to go to watch any major sports games, want a good selection of beers, and don’t mind fund-​loving college kids (which I don’t), this is a perfect place.
As far as sports bar goes, highly recommended.

Big-​ass sports bar. I could end the review there. Been to a sports bar and looked at the menu? That’s the Starters menu. See a big beer list? That is this beer list.
Service here is friendly. Waitress didn’t buck when we were only drinking at her booth. She came back frequently. We didn’t wait too long for drinks. They have just shy of 40,000 TV screens. Granted it was a slow night, but highschool football was on one of the big screens. Now that is variety. Oh, and they have a video arcade, so when your team is blowing it, you can go shoot bad guys.
I will admit that the crowd got… well…interesting later in the evening, but it was still fun. Good place, overall.

I would suggest coming here for sports, but that’s about it.
First the good stuff: Starter’s Riverport is going to have your sports covered. Major games will be up on one of three wall projectors in this two-​story converted steel era venue. Additional TVs line the exposed steel supports, so no matter where you sit you will be able to catch the game. Better yet, if you sit at the bar, you can request whatever game you want to be shown on the flat panel above the bar right in front of you — if they don’t have it up already, they will order it from their satellite package!
And the bad: The food is slightly above average but uninspired and really overpriced. It doesn’t feel like any of the meals are made from scratch, I get the sense there is a lot of pre-​processed components. Worse yet, you will be paying the same as a nice restaurant for what is essentially a sports bar.
The gamble: This place is big enough to pull in large crowds on the weekends after hours. For holidays like Halloween they will host themed parties which require a cover. In my experience these can be very hit or miss, meaning the clientele leave something to be desired. Unfortunately you don’t have many options for that type of thing in the Valley.

When Starters first opened, I was in love. Wanted to go all the time, always was the first choice when asked where to go for the night. Somewhere along the line, we parted ways. Starters wanted to morph from an amazing sports bar to a «club» with obnoxious DJs on the weekends. Meanwhile, we started having kids and income and free time dried up. Made it back a few weekends ago for my birthday to watch my Buffalo Bills STOMP the Eagles. Atmosphere was as remembered. Sensory overload (in a good way). No better way to spend a Sunday afternoon than watching every game at the same time, and the daytime crowd is still pretty much a sports-​bar crowd.
Meter parking in the garage, so don’t forget your change. We planned to stay for an entire NFL game and enjoy a rare break from the kiddies. Service was acceptable, if not a tad more overbearing than we recalled. Plates were cleared nearly instantly by bus staff, quickly turning into a running joke between my wife and I.
But Starters is not aging well. The Menus appear to still be nearly original. And by that I mean the plastic is tearing, pages are stained, colors are faded and scratched off, and it generally looks like they need to be replaced ASAP. What was once thought of as a nicer sports bar/​restaurant has lost it’s shine. Perhaps the focus is more on the club/​DJ crowd instead?
Food was edible, but far below the quality we remembered. Wings seem to have less sauce, Fries were limp and soggy, and cheesesteak was just a hair short of being overcooked. Peanut Butter Pie for dessert was like eating a spoonful of peanut butter that was refrigerated.
Owners should open up a separate bar/​club and restore this sports bar to its former glory. Sad to see it like that :(

Blackened Chicken Ceasar Chicken Salad !!! — That’s all I get when i go there. I love it enough to keep going back. I’ve tried other things on the menu that I wasn’t too fond off. Like the mozzarella stickes, wings, chicken fingers — mediocre and i’ve had better. I’m just glad i kept giving this place a try and i’m satisfied w/​that salad. Yum!
If you’re going for the nightlife — I guess it’s the place to be but i’ve been there a handful of times and I feel that it’s gets way too crowded (it’s a big place) but if i wanted to bump and grind and get felt up, I’d stay home!

When this place first opened, it was AMAZING. I always wanted to go there — a huge arcade and TONS of dining area in a huge, remodeled warehouse with more TVs than you could ever watch. The food was great, as I had come to know from Starters, from years of going to their Pub location on 378, just down the road.
However, lately, after the Sands Casino’s opening it seems, every time I go to Riverport I leave going «well, that place is going downhill.»
The games in the arcade are getting pretty worn out, first of all. The dining room is still as awesome as it always was with tons of TVs, but the food and service is starting to lack A LOT. Food takes FOREVER the past 3 times I’ve been there and it is not as good as I remember it whatsoever. They seem to be skimping on sides, especially. So sad to see it go downhill, though.

A good place to bring a large group with a lot of different preferences for food. The food itself isn’t incredible, nor is it disgusting.
This place has a good bar and is definitely a great place to watch any sporting event you may want to see.

If I could give this place no stars, I would. Terrible staff. $ 10 cover? Get real. There’s a dozen other better bars nearby. Go to MacGrady’s, Molly’s, or Tally Ho.

If you’re looking for a great toned-​down version of Dave & Busters, with more of a focus on sports… then you’ll love Starters Riverport! Their menu is really diverse, and everything we ordered was good. The nachos were piled high and covered in delicious cheese, jalapenos, beef, sour cream, guacamole and more. Also have lots of choices for vegetarians, which is pretty unusual for a sports bar.
At the end of the day, it’s bar food. If you’ve ever been to Cheddars, it’s kinda like that. Bar food well-presented…but bar food nonetheless.
Drinks are reasonably priced, dirty martini for $ 8? Yes please!
HUGE projection TVs throughout the place, along with smaller screens scattered throughout to show some of the lesser-​known sports… like curling. JK.
Lots of video games to please the kiddies, and man-​children alike.
I can imagine that this place will get PACKED during the big games.

Yum! I like this place. I’m not a sports fan in the least bit, but I’ll go here just for the food/​atmosphere. The menu is obscenely large. You will probably spend about 15 minutes just deciding what to get. As a vegetarian, I have been pleased with their variety of veg options as well as their flexibility if you want to make a special order.
Service is very professional. Servers are warm and friendly without being overbearing or anything.
If you like watching sports on TVs the size of baby whales, this is the place to be. If not, check it out anyway!

First visit was during the playoffs and it was a total zoo, so I was willing to forgive a few missteps — including lukewarm food — assuming the servers were just backed up. This time it was a normal Saturday night, relatively late but still fairly crowded.
Found out that the boneless wings at regular price are over $ 12 (last visit they were ½ off on special for Thursdays) and STILL lukewarm to cool. We were starving but that’s really kind of icky. I wanted another drink and to send the food back to be heated up, but we never saw our server again. Or, at least, never saw our server at OUR table again. By the time he showed up we just asked for the check and wouldn’t let him walk away without taking our credit card for fear we’d be stuck there another half hour, twiddling our thumbs. We didn’t see any point finding a manager and making a scene, and in all honesty it seems to be staffed by kids anyway.
It’s loud, bright, every free space is covered with televisions and it’s surprisingly pricey for the lack of atmosphere. Hummus was really terrible, cold and dry. Food not hot. All around a big meh.
This is a big hangout for Lehigh University kids to drink themselves silly. Probably best to leave it to them.

I ate/​drank here all the time during college. It’s a huge place and has tons of TV’s. Try the Super Juice! You’ll only need one :)
They have tons of great appetizers — I love the Texas Chili Skins and Pizza Margarita. I usually ordered the BLT Club for my meal — the fries are delish! I also really like the Chopped Chicken Salad.
I always make it a point to eat here when I’m visiting the area.

I’ve been to Starters 5 or 6 times over the past few years, and it’s a pretty fun place to go and eat. You’re surrounded by a large number of TVs, showing pretty much every game that’s being broadcast. It’s definitely the perfect place to go to watch a big game (I was there to watch Lehigh play Kansas in March Madness and had a blast).
The food isn’t anything special, but it isn’t terrible either – it’s typical sports bar type fare. The arcade is pretty fun while you’re waiting for a table.
It’s kind of annoying that you have to park in metered spots – so make sure you bring quarters!

This bar/​restaurant is nice. I went for during the Superbowl. the wings are amazing, especially the sweet and sweaty wings.
Nitelife, it has a lively crowd on special events, Halloween, New Year’s, etc. but on regular nites it can be a drag at times.

Service is soo slow even when they aren’t busy, which isn’t often. The food is pretty decent I like their hot wings. Place has a great atmosphere. They are a bit pricey. They have a small video game area so it’s a fun place to bring kids. Kind of a mini D&B All in all if they would step up the help this would be a great sports bar in Bethlehem.

I was DD the night I came here (last summer?) so I didn’t get to try out any of the drinks. We sat at some hightops in the bar area and I watched the bartenders pour some very delicious looking drinks. I’m still sad I didn’t get to try any, but my reward for being DD was that my friends would buy my dinner. Sold!
We started off with some wings. You get to choose which sauce but we had no idea which to pick. The server suggested the «sweet and sweaty» sauce. Oh my gosh. I need to send that girl flowers or something because I am obsessed with it. They make all of their sauces in house and if they sold them by the bottle, I’d buy a dozen. For an entrée, I had the coconut shrimp. Again, it was delicious! My mouth was so happy.
This is definitely the place to hit up to watch any sports games going on — they have tons of tvs and projection screens. It’s in a restored Bethlehem Steel building so it has that cool, sportsbar warehouse feel. There’s also a game room and a coffee shop in addition to the huge bar and dining area. You should definitely check this place out.