The atmosphere was great, our server was great, but the food was disappointing. Everything was stale. The pita chips used for the stuffed pepper dip were stale and hard to chew. The "crispy" shrimp I ordered was also chewy, stale, and cold. It seemed as though it was a mistake order that was saved to be served to the next person who ordered crispy shrimp. Despite my experience with the food, I would most likely return for the atmosphere, drinks, and activities that surround. read more

I've been here twice now. Meals were up to par and atmosphere was great. Menu seemed like they were trying to do some different things, but ends up typical of downtown buffalo bar food. Service was great. The beef on wick dip is delicious! I'll be returning! read more

Made a profile on yelp specifially because this service was so terrible they lost my jacket lied to me about it made me wait until every one left lied about getting the manager and even tried giving me jackets i told them were not mine. So i was sent into the buffalo winter with a sweet souvenir hoodie like it was all good..... avoid at all cost read more

Only reason I'm not giving it 0 stars is because the venue and the view is awesome. Definitely only come here for drinks on the patio. Service is absolutely awful. Took forever for our food and bill. Server never came over to check in or give me a refill. Food was beyond awful. Worst place I have ever been. For how popular this place is, I was NOT expecting the food to be so gross. The "chicken" I got was about as thick as my eyelids and burnt to a crisp. Grilled chicken shouldn't be a crunchy as potato chips. Oh and the fish Reuben? So overcooked it cut my boyfriends mouth. Literally. Awful awful awful. Stick to drinks my friends! read more

Really cool place. Ice hockey, pickle ball, multiple bars, and many big tvs. There is also room to dock your boat on the Buffalo River.

I'll give it a four for good food and a great space, but the service has to improve. We went on a Friday night and there wasn't many people. Our waitress was so slow and would forget to bring us things we asked for. Improve the service here and you'll have an amazing restaurant with great food and an awesome location. read more

Terrible. The food was terrible. The service was terrible. The restaurant was dead and our waitress barely checked on us. She never filled up our waters. I had to ask for a second beer. I will never go back to this place again read more

Went for music. Atmosphere was great. People were great. Venue set up is great. Everything is easily accessible and Location was easy to get to. Definitely going again, no complaints. read more

Should have taken a picture. We ordered the Barbecue Chicken but our waitress came back saying they were all out (What??!). We decided to share the meatloaf. We waited a long time, my husband's beer ran dry but no one came. He went to the bar and came back faster than if he had waited. The meatloaf was way too dry. Good try, guys! read more

This was the worst experience I've ever had at a restaurant. We were with a bachelorette party and made reservations a month ahead of time. We were sat at 6 and had to go up to ask for a server TWICE. By 6:30, we finally got a server (Jenna) and she was so extremely rude to us instead of trying to make things right. It felt like we were inconveniencing her when it was her job to serve us. We didn't even get our drinks until around 7 o'clock (an hour after arriving). I ordered a gin and tonic that tasted like straight tonic. It was another half an hour before we got our food. 13 out of 14 people got their food so one person had to wait another 15 minutes for her food and most of us were done eating by then. One of the managers gave us some bologna excuse and did take our drinks off of our bills at least. I'm so disappointed that it turned a fun bachelorette party into a negative mood. Shame on this restaurant for all of the poor customer service and poor quality all around. Steer clear of this place people. read more

Love the place itself and would recommend coming for an event. If I was rating the place itself it would be 4 stars. I should make it known I've only eaten there once but the pizza we had was terrible. Ordered a normal cheese and pep large pizza and it came with zero sauce and was so greasy it was almost inedible. If I go back and order something else I will update my post but I would recommend avoiding the pizza. read more

Today my friends and I tested out a night at river works we waited 1 hour and 45 minutes to be seated an hour longer than expected and waited on our food another 45 minutes also.. had to pay 5 dollars to park,nice!!! read more

Coming from the young adult's perspective (69 yo male) there are not enough single thot's. Don't get me wrong, great canal side atmosphere, fairly decent food (ordered the shrimp salad), and fabulous bartender service but at the end of the day i'm looking to get my groove on with the shorty's. Not to mention, they did not service our "large party" of 9 balfs , even though they claimed to be the "large party place-to-be". We ended up finding a table on the second floor scrunched in between a young kids party and a banquet party. Not trying to be a Debby-downer but the music selection was of "parliment-esque", sounding like it came straight from Game Of Thrones. read more

I originally left a fairly negative review due to the poor judgement and rude treatment we received by 2 of the employees. However.... After placing a phone call to the manager we feel much better that the situation will be addressed with those employees. The manager was highly apologetic and agreed with us that the problems/experiences we had were unacceptable. We really appreciated that and based on the manager's professional and quick response we may give Riverworks a second try. read more

The location, atmosphere and concept itself is very cool. Ive been there 3 times since it opened a few months back and have to say though that they need to get there act together when it comes to timliness and service. All I here are excuses to why it takes 2 hours to get your pizza or an hourand a half to sit outside on a weekday when there are tables open everywhere. 1) Hire more waiters 2) Get more help in the kitchen . Food usually takes way to long to come out and is sometimes cold. 3) How long does it really take to set up taps at a bar. Some Draft beer selection would be nice. I guess a lot of my gripe can be associated with growing pains of a new/succesful business. Only time will tell. read more

The view is gorgeous from any point at the restaurant. I got a draft of the raspberry 1911. Very crisp and delicious. Highly recommend if you are a cider fan! read more

I'll start by saying that this place has a lot going on all the time, and I have had a blast here many times. My favorite time there was the ETID Christmas concert which I already bought tickets for next year for. I liked it so much I wanted to celebrate my birthday curling at their facilities. I called over a week ago and the guy (I think Sean) gave me the times they had availability. I told him I would call right back to confirm because I wanted to check with my group to see if that would work. I called that day and throughout the following week with no responses at all, and no call back! I can understand not being staffed one day, but the entire week? So Friday around 5 I changed plans with friends who were all frustrated. I get a call at 5:30 from someone there finally trying to reserve me the sheet. When I explained I changed plans because I never could get ahold of anyone all he said was that they were under staffed that week because it was dead (paraphrase). Just a joke. If you're running a business where reservations of facilities is key, then makes sure there is someone staffed to take those reservations! read more

Fun bar with a unique atmosphere and decent bar food. The roller derby rink in the middle is weird and cool. I love big buck hd so that's why I found this place. They have other arcade games too and it seems like a good place to hang with friends or bring a date. read more

Very cool, original space with ample parking and lots of room to host large events. The catering food is average and what you would expect at any venue in the area, but the pricing is cheaper. The staff is friendly, but service is slow for a large event. I would recommend hosting events at this location, but make sure you've rented out the facility as to not be interrupted by another activity/event/dinner time. read more

arts and crafts was a hit but unpaved parking lot was full of ridges and broken brick and stones. hard to walk

The place is beautiful but our service was horrible tonight. Our waiter was clearly overwhelmed when it wasn't even busy yet at 430pm.

Went for lunch opted for veggies as a healthy side option, unfortunately came covered with butter at least 4 oz of butter sitting in the bottom of the cup, brought this up to the staff, they told me that sucks, apologized, few minutes later took my plate, very on brand experience for the Pearl street brand read more

Absolutely horrible service. Came in with a group of people. First, our server refused to do separate checks and required one check per table. Second, we asked her to take our food order first - she refused and would only take our drink order (majority of which were water orders). It took 40 minutes for our half of the group to get our food while the other half...with a different server...received their food within 15 minutes. We didnt even get ketchup or any other condiments ro go with our food. Some food had obviously been sitting because some was food was cold and some sandwiches were soggy. Never once did our server apologize for the delay or even attempt to understand that we were on a tight schedule. We were prepared to leave a 20%+ tip on a $116 bill if we had received at least one apology, however, her attitude and poor service got her $2. read more

So first off, this was my first time coming here. And ive always heard great reviews. I wanted to bring friends here to show them how wonderful it was. I have to say I was highly disappointed. The lighting was very bad, the music was way too loud I could barely hear myself or my friends talk. Their own Trainwreck beer is considered an amber ale, it was dark enough to be a stout and it tasted disgusting. The chicken wing dip was served with 3 baby carrots and 2 small celery sticks and maybe a handful of chips. For 4 people we were expecting more.  The flavor was not bad, but it could have been hotter, temp wise and spice wise.. the meat lovers pizza was pretty good, Very oily though. When we asked for a side of ranch the waiter came out with a little to go cup that held maybe 2 tbsp worth. The waiter was not very friendly and seemed too preoccupied with other servers and tables, we had to wave him over multiple times and wait very long. All 4 of us will not come back unfortunately. read more

Ordered a medium burger, came well done. Bun was burnt windy, and they sat us in a wind tunnel. Service was slow, and took a long time to get our food. read more

Last night was the 3rd time I had been to River Works and it will be my last. Every time I go the service is terrible. Last night I stood @ the bar with a group of 5 people and we waited at least 5 minutes before anyone asked us if we wanted a drink. There is STILL nothing on tap and the selection of canned beer is poor. The staff has absolutely no awareness of guests and what they need/want. I expected this place to knock my socks off because most places in Buffalo are great. BUT this place has failed 3 times. Strike 3 and you're out Buffalo River Works. read more

River works is a really cool atmosphere with great beers and tons to do... But that's about where it stops. Their food is nothing special and their service was absolutely horrible. We had 4 people at our table and were only visited by the waiter one time to ask for our orders. We all needed drink refills and were missing two appetizers but we couldn't seem to get anyone to help us. Finally the manager came over to say "how is everything" and we told her all of the things we were missing and how we haven't seen our waiter since we placed our orders. She didn't care in the slightest and must not have said anything to the waiter because we still never saw him. She did bring over our drinks we asked for but they still completely forgot about the appetizers. (Mind you, it was 5pm on a Friday and it wasn't even close to busy yet) we did finally get our food and it was very dry- nothing special. Like I said, good place for beers but mediocre food and disappointing service. read more

Wasn't terribly impressed with Riverworks. The location is awesome; they have ice skating rinks, a roller derby rink and two patios on the water! The food was meh, and the service was sad. We were told that because we were a table of 12 it was too large to seat us on the patio. I split a breakfast pizza with my boyfriend which was so-so. We ordered a large thinking we could split it and we now have leftovers for at least two more days, unfortunately the pizza was served luke-warm and I had to ask the manager for a plate because they just dropped the pizza in front of us and left. Our waitress failed to return to ever check on the table or refill water and seemed generally disinterested with life. Several people in our group ended up going to the bar to order drinks because it was just easier than trying to get our waitress to come to the table. I had only one mimosa because I realized that Riverworks charges 7 dollars for a mimosa.... We live in Buffalo... Drinking is what we do. Don't tell me that the up-charge is that much when I can go elsewhere in the city and get bottomless mimosas for 10 dollars. Two appetizers were ordered for our table of 12 which took over an hour to arrive. The food took an hour and fourth five minutes to get there. I watched a party of 22 people get seated after us, eat before us, and leave when we were finally getting our food. Our waitress was quick to bring the bill but had a really difficult time splitting things and one of our party had to join her at the register to pay the bill. This was all super disappointing especially since the night before we took the Buffalo River History Tour which passes by Riverworks which I had yet to see but heard a bunch about and was excited to go to. Maybe it's just the newness but they need to figure it out. read more

recently went there for july 2 techno music they had and felt like i was invisible took me 20 mins to get a drink while i was sitting at the bar when there wasnt even taht many people there. then after getting a drink no one walked over for another hour to even check on us until we flagged someone down to get another round and order a pizza which they said would take 15 mins. it ended up taking 40 mins then sat at the end of the bar for another 15 mins with people walking right by it finally someone brought it over to us and the pizza wasnt even cut we had to cut it with a knife they provided. then i over heard a bartender going back and forth with a customer that wanted to split his bill saying "its relaly annoying to split it can you just pay on the one bill" what kind of customer service is this? very disappointed i probably wont be returning read more

Amazing food. Everything is just so good. Great atmosphere and reasonable prices. Definitely recommend!!!

I have had the opportunity to get here three times, the first being Pond Hockey. This venue gets better with every visit, as it is still a work in progress. In addition to the rinks, the have a full service restaurant with the largest patio I have ever seen. Boat docking is also available and makes me want to get one! They host the Irish Festival as well as many other events and this place is always getting better. The menu by Pearl Street is good, anything larger in a place this size wouldn't work. The staff was very pleasant. They boast they can accommodate more than 3000 guests for events and I believe it could with 2 floors of never ending space, as i have seen large crowds for concerts inside and out. The tables in the dining area are on old grain wagon wheels and I am determined to get one made into a coffee table for my living room. Definitely check this place out, good food and great vibe! Watching the water peddlers is fun too! read more

Went there on Bastille day with 15 people the waitress took our order without writing anything down . The waitress disappeared for an hour we went to the waitress station and they told us the order never went in we left for another bar disappointed. Worst restaurant experience in 50 years read more

My family and I went to Riverworks recently for dinner, and were VERY disappointed. This was the first day of really warm weather in Buffalo, and they were clearly unprepared. The server took our order, and it got screwed up twice. My brother and I both ordered wings, but clearly specified no bleu cheese dressing, because he's allergic to egg, among other reasons. When it came, it had bleu cheese dressing on the plate AND in a cup on the side, and the dressing had spilled over onto the wings. That's a no-no. We sent it back. Meanwhile, my 9-year-old son's hamburger came as a cheeseburger, which he also doesn't eat. So we had to send that back. Everyone else got their food, but it took forever to get new meals for us. Then, when that food came, the wings were tasteless. We had ordered medium and BBQ, and they had no flavor at all. We complained to the manager, who tasted one of the wings we had already returned and agreed that they had no flavor, and acknowledged the screwup. He then promised to take the items off the bill AND give us a gift certificate. We never got the gift certificate, even when we walked right by him on our way out after paying. Very disappointing, especially since I've enjoyed the food at their sister restaurant, Pearl Street Brewery. read more

Horrible experience. My best friend is in from out of town and he had never been to this establishment. I would love to say we sat at the bar and had a wonderful meal and laughed over beers, however that is not what happened at all. Not one single person acknowledged us, not even the hostess, whom we walked past twice! so we left and took our business elsewhere. read more

Came here for what we thought would be a good lunch. Only a couple other diners, so we were sat right away. Waited about five minutes for server to take our drink order. Then ordered a salad & a wrap. Waited 40 minutes then server returned to ask if we wanted a refill of our teas. Still no food. 10 minutes later, we were infirmed the order never made it to the kitchen! ! Computer problems, they said. REALLY ? We decided to leave and they comped our iced tea and said "we hope you come again". I don't think so! For a new establishment such as this, one would think The Ward would have excellent customer service. Very disappointing. read more

Seems like people only write reviews when something is wrong so here is mine. I've been to Riverworks about 6 times in 2 yrs in all seasons. I tried 5 different Meals which All were really good but my favorite is the pot-roast Sandwich. Questioned it as I read it on the menu but took a chance , OMG Good! Place is really spacious "Huge" . Warm is the winter but summers is where it's at. We took our boat and tied up at dock (safe docking). I liked that they had a dock hand , I think they charge a 5 or 10$ fee during peak times but that's understandable, not much space for just visiting boaters to take up the slips . Car Parking is free and one time we brought our OWN Kayaks down and launched them off their Kayak Launch for free!!!! I hope the public don't abuse this service without supporting the establishment , which we did afterwards .They do rent Kayaks, I would encourage you to try it before you buy one. They allowed us to leave our Kayaks at the end of the dock while we grabbed some dinner on the outside bar deck. Yes, we were dressed in bathing suits and had some gear (life Jackets ) on our seats . It was really cool experience . They also have 2 outside regulation Ice rinks during the winter months, I plan on getting into the pickup ice hockey next season. I hope more places downtown offer more access for free to waterfront functions in the future, profit always comes when you succeed by making people happy. read more

Have been there multiple times, always terrible service. Asked the bartender to split the bill evenly 4 ways to make it easier on him, he replied with a "really?", then proceeded to rip the debit cards out of my hand because they aren't ready fast enough for me. He was wearing a sweatband around his head... should a known. read more

Never ever again!!!! Apps took 40 minutes, hostess was rude, we never got soups and salads and manager took 4.00 off bill basically for items we never got. Negative 5 stars!!!!! read more

My friends and I stopped there after an event at Canalside. We all ordered the fish fry. They gave you 2 pieces of perch, curly fries and coleslaw. The fish was small and very thin, covered in this God awful, pasty breading. The fries were lukewarm and not crispy. It was the worst fish fry I ever had in my life. A bee flew into my wine. The waitress took the glass away when she brought it back it was the same amount that she took away, 1/2 glass. My guess is that they fished out the bee and gave me the same wine. read more

Great spot for socializing. Fun atmosphere, great views of the river. Not a place to get a good meal. Ordered a salad with chicken added, and suspected that it was canned chicken! Awful. Chicken sandwich was the same. It's texture was that of canned meat. Yuck. read more