Dockside

Our family went for dinner one night. We have gone once before and ordered a burger and fish and chips. We enjoyed our meal which prompted us to return. For our return dinning we decided to try different entrées. I ordered the steak med rare. It was cooked well. I sent the steak back and it was returned after my daughter and wife had finished their meals. My daughter had a pasta with chicken and cream sauce. It was very bland and tasteless. The waiter bragged about the brownie a la mode. It came out as SOUP. When the waiter put it down he mentioned there was a problem with the ice cream freezer. So why not tell us about the problem so we could order another dessert? It is a shame all the money put into this new establishment and they still can’t get it right. If I return I will order burgers and fish n chips as we did originally did on our first visit there.

I’ve been here several times and with many different groups and have always enjoyed our time here. They are always very accommodating and we love having our team functions here!
The service is sometimes on the slower side, but everyone is always very nice and the food is always hot!

The salmon is definitely the best dish I’ve had here. The restaurant itself is beautiful and provides a lovely view of the Connecticut River. Service is only okay — I, too, have had trouble getting the attention of the hostess. But overall, I enjoy coming here.

We drove 45 minutes for our 1^st visit, a total of 90 minutes on the road to come to YOUR RESTAURANT. View, appearance and cleanliness were to our liking. We stood at the hostess stand and had to approach the gaggle of 4 waitresses standing half way across the room to obtain seating. Our waitress stated she was 18 years old and thus could not explain to us the beers offered on the menu, described only by brand and not style. She flailed her arms, stroking our tabletop, with seizure like movements that concerned us. Although pleasant, she was obviously inexperienced, and not very good describing the mushroom burger as «mushed together» and not to be confused with a portobello mushroom cap sandwich. It was apparent that the staff was not trained. Restaurant had one other table and two more arrived during our stay. A dozen patrons were at the bar. Talk about dropping the ball. A gorgeous August evening and the place was empty. My fish reuben with side of sweet potato fries and pickle was a hit. I suggest eating the fries with the chipotle dressing. My wife’s mushroom burger was served with regular fries but no pickle. My wife and I both agree that we should have returned the mushroom burger. I am a vegetarian chef, preparing this type of food for over 30 years at home. I know when a carnivore chef makes do with a vegetarian offering. The burger was gross. The sauteed mushrooms and millet burger was way over-​spiced with an overdose of Bays Seasoning but the flavor overall was earthy tasting, like compost and having no balance of flavors. Confusing to say but despite being over-​spiced and off flavored, it tasted bland. Having no binder, it crumbled while eaten and the mushrooms were TOUGH. Millet is a staple in our home. It was under-​cooked. The aeoli was spread thinly and tasteless. The chef should find a new burger recipe and sauté the mushrooms and onions as a topping for the burger. Dump the aeoli and use the chipotle dressing. Only one other vegetarian dinner was offered but there are several salads (not a substitute for vegetarian dinner, if not having a protein source such as beans, tofu or egg) to chose from. The beer selections and price ($ 4.75 for a pint of Traveler’s Grapefruit Ale, a unique and excellent choice for a warm evening is suggested by both of us, although not to everyone’s taste and surprised us for it’s balanced flavors and sweetness). The apple crisp was served hot with a large bowl on ice cream.
At 3:30 in the morning my wife and I were awoken with the experience of stomach discomfort and flatulence and proceeded to visit the bathroom at multiple and various times throughout the morning, At 4:00 p.m. we are still «musical» with the constant urge to be seated on the throne. Because we only had salads from our garden earlier in the day, this «problem» indicated that it was our meal and being that we had differing sandwiches, it suggests that the oil used for the french and sweet potato fries was the culprit. We will be returning for the beers, dessert and the view. I had considered booking a ride on the CT River boat that you have and invite several friends to join us for dinner and cruise, but I am not. We won’t make it a special trip but we’ll think about stopping here if we are in the area. On our drive in, we noticed a pub on the South Hadley common where the outdoor seating area was full to capacity on this Wednesday night and on the return trip, still found that a third of the tables had patrons. We’ll try this as a new destination in the future.

When I read the reviews and description I was under the impression the restaurant would actually be on the water. When I arrived the place was far off the water. There was large amounts of parking lot and grass between the water and the restaurant. The place also looked like a run down diner. Very disappointed.

This was my first time back since the fire. I loved the new layout. It is much brighter inside than it used to be, and they really took advantage of the river view. As for the food? It was pretty good. I was in a party of 6 and everyone enjoyed their entrees. I had the sirloin steak and it was cooked just right with good seasoning. The only negative was that the service was somewhat slow, but it was Father’s Day evening and it was pretty busy. That said, our server was very friendly. I’m glad to see this place is back and look forward to going back again.

Live music now too. This place is getting better and better. Good atmosphere: busy, hoppin. Summer menu is great. I want to try everything.
The atmosphere varies from very laid back to really busy. If you came here before the fire/​rebuild and were unimpressed (as I was), you really owe it to yourself to try The Dockside again.

Slow service, took over an hour to get our food. Food was cold by the time we got it, mushy fries, food lacked flavor. Expected more since the rebuild. Same old dockside.

This time the food was great and the service was excellent. They worked the kinks out. They got it right. I hope they keep it up. So glad I came back.
Been here before and was not impressed. Worst service ever. I came again and the service was excellent — food not great. Now it all works. I will come again.

Weird, 1980s-​esque food. Salmon crusted with nuts and some kind of maple-​flavored sauce with burned potatoes was my dish. Horrible. I’ve been encouraged to go back and try a burger. Maybe, if it doesn’t have some ice cream sundae topping like the stuff on my salmon.
It’s a nice looking place with the river right there. Too bad the food is not edible.

Food good atmosphere good service slow. Sandwiches and pub food should be your choice. Skip the chowda.

Omg this place is a 180 from the last time we were here. The salmon. Omg I’ve never had salmon so good ! They had live music, also the best I’ve heard in a very long time. Service 110%! We will be back!!!

Despite the great location and beautiful views don’t go. That’s all they have going.
Their food sometimes rises to the challenge of adequate and the entire menu is over priced. Clearly they’re trying to pay for the upgrades, which won’t happen if they don’t get their kitchen in order cause they won’t be around.
Went to a late dinner with friends, of the four meals, one was good, one ok, one sent back to the kitchen and the other was a sandwich which was also just ok. Seriously, it was a sandwich and it should have been easy to make it good!
The wait and food during their soft opening was a disappointment, so a second and third and now fourth time were all highly irregular. Once the seafood platter was great, the next time it was soggy. Once the chicken was great the next time inedible. Last night the ‘hand cut filet’ was gristly, untrimmed and had no beefy flavor.
I wanted to like them, really I did. Four chances and they couldn’t even do decent bar food let alone fine dinning. Sadly, we won’t be back.

Reopened this year after a fire. It used to be drank now much lighter décor. Service is ok. Food still needs some work. Pizza had cold raw veggies on it. Burgers were good. Scallops were ok. It was early Sunday evening and they were out of mussels and steamers.
Still need some work!

New manager… new cook… beautiful place, great food, and really good drinks. I recommend the «not your kids kool aid drink».

We visited Dockside this Sunday for dinner. We had visited the restaurant right after they re-​opened this year and the service was terribly slow. We thought that could be due to staff adjusting to the new environment and decided to give it another try. We were very glad that we did. The hostess seated us right away, despite the fact that our party of 6 arrived during a busy weekend dinner hour without a reservation. Our server came right over for drinks and delivered them to us within 5 minutes. Our meals (4 adults and 2 children) arrived cooked perfectly and within 20 minutes. It was as good an experience as anyone could ask for. I was glad we decided to give Dockside another try, we love the location, and we will certainly be back again soon!

We stopped in this last Sunday around 1:00. THey recently reopened with a very limited menu. They have such a beautiful location, and I had high hopes for the restaurant. It was very disappointing, There was no hostess or no ‘Seat Yourself’ sign, so we just stood there till someone came over and said «sit wherever you want». They were out of the one appetizer we considered. I ordered a lobster roll (which — my bad — I did not read the description that said it was ‘warm buttered’). I was expecting traditional lobster salad roll. But the ‘warm buttered’ version was a very small helping of mostly tiny pieces of lobster on a hamburg bun (?) with a lettuce leaf. Of course it fell apart, and because of that and the fact that the bottom of the bun was covered in butter, I ate it with a knife & fork. It was overcooked. Awful. The kitchen should have been embarrassed to let this go out the door. Baked potato was ok but I never got the coleslaw that was supposed to come with it. Waitress was really pleasant but pretty uninformed. Could not describe the house dressing, or know what beer they had on draft, etc. They seemed to have a lot of help, but were poorly organized. My boyfirend had the grilled cheese, a trendy version that he said was good, but again — tiny and thin. Would have made a better appetizer to share. He said the salad was good, though. But we won’t be back. Too bad. With that location and the soon-​to-​be roof-​top seating, they could have had a home run.

My wife and I decided to try Dockside after they reopened recently. We will not be going back. The service was terrible and the food just as bad. My wife ordered a salad and the teriyaki skewers for her meal along with rice pilaf. I ordered the clam chowder and the strip special that comes with a lobster tail.
Our drink order took over 15 minutes to arrive which I thought odd since there were only two other tables occupied. Also there seemed to be at least six servers so I couldn’t figure this out.
The salad was average and they only had four dressing choices. My chowder was average and a bit on the watery side. By the way it took over 25 minutes for our appetizers to arrive and we had to ask our server where our food was. Our main course came just 15 minutes after that.
My wife’s skewers were disgusting. The steak looked like beef jerky and the chicken was dry. There was no dipping sauce. The rice pilaf was just plain white rice. My steak was over done and I told the server and she didn’t seem to care. The steak also tasted like leather. The lobster tail if you could call it that was small, dry and didn’t come with melted butter. The cook if you could call them that should have been embarrassed serving food like this.
We will never go back. We told our sever this and again didn’t seem to care. She should have sent the manager over. We paid the check (which by the way took 15 minutes to get) and left very disappointed. My advice is to stay away.

We visited the Dockside on 6÷15÷2014. The kitchen was extremely slow (waited 50 minutes for two salads and two orders of fish and chips), the food overpriced and poor. I had a $ 12 Chicken César Salad that was so bad that they should have been embarrassed to serve. Iceberg lettuce, parmesan out of a can, no anchovies and about 2 ounces of grisly chicken. My husband had the fish and chips, which he said was terrible and soggy. Everyone around us waited just as long if not longer, on group of patrons left without every having a waitress come to the table after 20 minutes. The recently opened after major renovations and although the interior is spacious and modern, the food and ticket times were appalling.

2^nd time going since their reopening. 1^st was last Saturday. It took over an hour to get wings. It was a full restaurant and they were tasty so I didn’t mind that much. Service was way below average. I went again today. Ordered wings and a burger. There were only about 20 – 30 people in the entire restaurant. It took 45 minutes for the wings to cone our. Pretty unacceptable in my view. After being there for 1 ½hrs my burger finally arrived. I ordered a burger with bacon, swiss cheese. That’s it. Specifically asked for no lettuce, mayo, or tomato. Saw the bartender write it down. What I received was a burger, with cheddar cheese, mayo, lettuce, and a half piece of bacon that looked like it was cooked for a few hours. One of the worst dining experiences. Probably will never return. I suggest not going. They don’t seem to care either way.