River House Bar and Grill

Came for lunch with bunch of co-​workers (28) so pretty large group. We all had bunch of appetizers, wings mostly, and they were quite tasty. Interesting selection on lunch menu but expect to pay a bit more for the better quality meals. Décor is modern with large dining area & large outdoor areas; guess on weekends they set up dance floor & dj. Service was good considering they only had 2 servers for the floor & maybe 2 cooks.

Restaurant was terrible from the service to the quality of the food. We arrived at the restaurant after traveling a long distance and saw this establishment which actually looked like a very nice place from the outside but upon arrival our hopes were quickly diminished… It all started with the 30 minute wait for 2 waters we got our food before the waters… I was then served the wrong meal and instead of disposing the meal
The waitress proceeded to give it to someone else wow what a fiasco one of the worst restaurant experiences I have had in years

I would give this bar/​restaurant a 0 but you can’t.

Had lunch here food was good had a Oster po boy. The service of the bartender Keilah was top notch. Nice looking bar area. Outside patio look great but the restaurant area looked like a stripper bar used to be there. The chairs stacked up in the corner out in the open burned out light bulbs dance floor with lights on the ceiling, speakers hanging from the wall and to top it off a built in D. J booth in the wall area so you can see the D.J. this is why I gave 3 stars

Gave it another try and even though food is good, service from the bartender was rude and unprofessional. When asked for help she actually had the audacity to «shh» me and tell me «don’t ever call out my name». The worse thing is that I found out later it was one of the owners. Traveled all over the world and this place ranks as one of the worse customer service Ive been to. If food was free I still would not go back.

I absolutely love this restaurant. The staff is so friendly. They’re truly on their game! The atmosphere is young & fun. They play great music, especially on the weekend. Close to Penn State Harrisburg, so it really draws in a young crowd. I’ve been served by Austin, Pete, Lindsey, & Easton, all fantastic!

Great atmosphere. If only had subs and sandwiches so far but the food has been satisfying. Some servers forget things so we inadvertently have to run them. Keep drinks filled, napkins out, silverware and straws, as well as ketchup when burgers and fries come out and we are good. Those things should be automatic. They also have an extensive craft beer menu. This place turns into a club on the weekends so be prepared for that if you’re dining late on a Friday or Saturday night.

Came here last night with a group of eight people. It was 8:30 in the evening and there were four tables of people in the place. Not a good sign. Our server promptly comes and takes our drink orders, she’s very personable and made sure our drinks were filled. So my husband and I order pub fries with bacon, scallions, and cheese. They arrive in a reasonable amount of time but they’re ICE COLD. If there’s one thing I can’t stand, it’s cold fries. We didn’t want to complain, and we just picked at them. Although that was difficult because they had some funky taste to them. It was dark so I couldn’t see, but I suspect they had some sweet potato fries sitting around already cooked and they just threw the toppings on and served it to us. I love fries, but these were just gross. We paid our $ 20 bill for one beer, one well vodka drink, and one plate of inedible ice cold fries.
The server caused me to give two stars instead of one. It seems like we had much the same experience as many other reviewers. Avoid.

What a joke! My husband and I made a reservation for the all you can eat crab legs to come here and we arrived on time for our reservation and they said «oh 15 – 30 minute wait and then wrote our name down» excuse me but what is the reason you are just now writing our name. We waited 30 minutes and saw several people complain about bad service and waiting 30 minutes for crabs in between. We went and checked if we would be sat soon and we weren’t going to be any time soon so we left. Our advice: learn the difference between a reservation and a call ahead seating. Also don’t advertise if you can’t deliver. Lastly, don’t greatly under-​estimate the time we are waiting just to try and keep people here. It pisses them off!

The first time I was here I had the lobster bisque. It was fantastic. This was a Friday afternoon before a holiday. I brought my family from out of town based on the lobster bisque and atmosphere of the first sitting. Tonight it was an absolute train wreck. Drinks were wrong the lobster bisque had mistery scraps of something in it. The meatloaf was a breadcrumb loaf. We were served our calimari with no utensils and had to eat it with our fingers before we had to gnaw our arms off because our server N S was off on a walkabout somewhere. Our experience staight up sucked, they are overwhelmed and if they don’t get their shit together soon the for sale sign will be out front before you know it. My bill was around $ 90 and I begrudgingly left a $ 14 tip out of pity for our clueless inept server. So pissed ruined my day.

After having a conversation with the bartender about Unilocal in which he pointed out that most people who write reviews are complaining — I really did not want to complain… I really wanted to like the place. It is a very pretty spot — nice interior and appears to be very clean. Beautiful inviting deck — too bad rain kept us indoors. We sat at the bar and had a beer. We checked out the menu which looks very promising and pricing seems reasonable. We decided to have another round while deciding if we wanted to order. Bartender suddenly AWOL — he walked past our empty glasses with a Manhattan for a customer seated at a booth. He proceeded to park himself and have a conversation with the patron. We left cash on the bar and split. Will we be back? Probably because great atmosphere and inviting menu… But I get the complaints about customer service. Bad service — or lack thereof — can kill a business. Put the staff in uniforms and make sure they get the parameters of their jobs — focusing on customers in their area first.

Went last night with a friend. I thought the menu looked good when I viewed it online. We arrived and stood by the «please wait to be seated» sign for a little longer than I would have thought considering several employees were standing nearby. We were seated on the deck and someone wiped down the seats for us as it had rained earlier in the day. The menu was just on plain paper like a take-​out menu, not like one I would expect to view while sitting to dine. I ordered the lobster bisque which was delicious but barely warm. The people at the table next to ours later in the evening also had the same complaint. The bisque was delicious and there was plenty of lobster in it, it just was lukewarm temperature-​wise. I ordered Philly cheesesteak egg rolls which were hot, crispy, delicious, and had nice presentation served on a long rectangular plate with garnish and a ramekin of chunky marinara sauce for dipping. I ordered a pound of pub style fries with cheese, bacon, scallions, and ranch dressing. They were hand cut and good, but again… not very warm. We had to ask for silverware and napkins. In the meantime, my dining partner ate all three of her meatball sliders before anyone came to check on us. She didn’t eat any of her french fries at that point because we didn’t have the luxury of ketchup or salt and pepper. Dining partner asked for ranch dressing for her fries and finally got it when they were as cold as the dressing. We watched the same table be served the wrong food TWICE. We watched two other diners send back their food seemingly because it wasn’t delivered as ordered. My dining partner had her heart sent on the «mammoth» baked potato with chicken alfredo but we were told after we ordered that they were out of baked potatoes at 6:30 p.m. on a Saturday. Rather than ask if she needed more time to look at the menu, our server stood and stared at her while she felt under pressure to quickly order something else. Our server had long hair that was in her eyes and she kept pushing it to the side. My dining partner and I both used to be servers and if we were ever caught touching our hair and then touching glasses and plates that were being served to customers, we may have been fired. We always had to have our hair pulled away from our faces. No one likes a hairy entrée! Our server was very nice and friendly as a person, just needs a little more experience. The complaints about the service I read here are consistent with what we saw last night. I may give it a second chance just for the lobster bisque but I will make sure next time to ask them to make sure it’s hot. Last night I was starving and not in the mood to wait! The two tables next to us were seated at the same time. One table got a server. The other sat for probably twenty minutes before anyone noticed them. The server who did notice them asked if they had been waited on, apologized, that they hadn’t, and then said she would get them a server. What I would have done if I were that server would be to take their drink order and make sure to pass it on to their server. Better training is a must if this place is going to make it. I’m wondering now about how their inspections have gone…

Every dish was served in the exact same vessel. A while dish plate/​bowl combo. The nacho fries came out in one. There was about 4x the toppings needed for the waffle fries. How much are waffle fries? Put a bunch on a platter… add toppings and you have a nice appetizer. All entrée’s were served in the same plate/​bowls.
I ordered the crab/​shrimp alfredo topped big baked potato for my entrée. It was like $ 12. Picture this. A white bowl/​plate with a split potato (white) topped with alfredo (white). That’s it!!! I guess the chef was absent on «garnish day» at culinary school. Not even a sprig of parsley to add some color! A couple of pieces of steamed broccoli and carrots would have made the dish much more appetizing. Oh yea, there was no crispness to the skin of my potato. I guess the just microwave them.
The service was terrible. My wife got to the table a few minutes late. She ordered «a dozen» wings. I had noticed on the menu that this fine establishment doesn’t serve in that quantity. They serve 5, 10, etc. Does that waitress inform my wife that she can only order ten? No. What comes out? 10 wings.
My son ordered the buffalo chicken wrap. He asked for ranch on the side when he ordered. Buffalo wrap comes, no ranch on the side. He asks the waitress for the ranch on the side. She disappears FOR A LONG TIME. My wife goes to look for her and can’t find her? Nature call? She finally returns with the ranch and my wife’s beer order. She said she was late because «the keg kicked». How many beers in a keg… like 160? Amazing how many times I’ve heard that excuse. Anyway, my wife challenges her and said, «You could have brought the ranch while the keg was being changed. The waitress then snapped, «Yes I could have, but I forgot about the ranch». She asked my son if we wanted his wrap «reheated». I’m not sure how that is done. The oven will dry out the tortilla. Is she talking about microwaving it? A descent server would ask if he wanted it remade.
Granted, we were seated at the far corner of the deck. I think this contributed to our poor service. Our waitress was not the picture of health, and it became obvious that she was going to make as few trips as possible.
Out on the deck they have some canopies. This is a commercial business. One would expect commercial grade equipment. These canopies are the $ 129 specials you get at Sam’s club. The corner or ours had become detached and flapped constantly. The check receipts still had «Portabellos» (name of the previous restaurant) written on them. I guess they couldn’t bring themselves to pitch the old stock. The menus were printed on legal size sheets of paper. No nice «book style» menus. Not even lamented menus. The beer list was also printed on a piece of plain paper. Why hire a printer when you can use the olé’ HP Inkjet???
All of these items add up to an establishment that «cuts corners». It shows in a lot of ways.
Summary:
1. Bad service
2. Bland food
3. Bad food presentation
4. Priced on the high end for the area.
5. Underwhelming atmosphere.

The food is awesome. Love the white pizza! Definitely sized for two. Also had the lobster Mac n cheese. It was very tasty with real lobster, but the portion seemed a bit small for the price. Service started out good, but once our food came the server seemed to forget about us. :-(

Waited well over and hour for a loaded baked potato and beer battered shrimp. Waitress was not pleasant at all. A simple thank you or goodbye to your guests goes a long way, sadly she didn’t do either. Was very excited to try this place, but after a lack luster meal tonight I don’t know if we’ll be back.

This is my first time at the RiverHouse and my last. The Sierra Mist was cold, like the rest of my meal, but I must say the coleslaw and the tartar was hot. Will not return. Will not suggest this place to anybody.

We waited 2 hours to get our food… I ordered the Chesapeake burger, which you really had to search to find a couple flakes of the «pile of jumbo lump crabmeat» and it was greasy amd overcooked. It also was a very expensive meal. We also ordered a pitcher of beer thinking it would be reasonably priced, and we paid $ 19 for it. Food wasn’t good, and we def won’t be returning!

We will never go back here. We were there 1 ½ hours and I never got my food. The first order of beer battered shrimp came out with the shells still on under the deep fried batter. The manager never understood what the problem was. He also NEVER approached us to make our order right. We were very disappointed in the management, and customer service.

Try this, beer battered shrimp, with the shells left on, seriously bite into fried shrimp and you bite into a shell. Then when brought to the manager’s attention he actually tried to convince me that’s what we ordered, it was like he had no clue of his own menu (to make it worse we got two of these as it was my wife and I and another couple, both wives ordered the shrimp). The manager was so incredibly unprofessional he never apologized, just sent out the poor waitress to deal with it. Finally they actually expected us to pay for it. We paid for the rest of the meal and drinks. Unbelievable experience, topped off by a the worst person to be in charge of any business I have ever witnessed.

This is a large venue with a fantastic outdoor patio area. Great menu items and the Shark Bite drink is sweet necar from the gods!